What is Debian?
Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.
Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 25000 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.
Getting Started
The latest stable release of Debian is 5.0. The last update to this release was made on January 30th, 2010. Read more about available versions of Debian.
If you'd like to start using Debian, you can easily obtain a copy, and then follow the installation instructions to install it.
If you're upgrading to the latest stable release from a previous version, please read the release notes before proceeding.
To get help in using or setting up Debian, see our documentation and support pages.
Users that speak languages other than English should check the international section.
People who use systems other than Intel x86 should check the ports section.
News
[30 Jan 2010] Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 updated
[21 Jan 2010] Security Support for Debian 4.0 to be terminated
[08 Oct 2009] Robotic Submarine Running Debian Wins International Competition
[07 Oct 2009] Debian pushes development of kFreeBSD port
[23 Sep 2009] First Debian Mini Conference to be held in Taiwan
[05 Sep 2009] Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 updated
For older news items see the News Page. If you would like to receive mail whenever new Debian news comes out, subscribe to the debian-announce mailing list.
Security Advisories
[04 Feb 2010] DSA-1992 chrony - several vulnerabilities
[04 Feb 2010] DSA-1991 squid/squid3 - denial of service
[03 Feb 2010] DSA-1990 trac-git - shell command injection
[02 Feb 2010] DSA-1989 fuse - denial of service
[02 Feb 2010] DSA-1988 qt4-x11 - several vulnerabilities
[02 Feb 2010] DSA-1987 lighttpd - denial of service
[02 Feb 2010] DSA-1986 moodle - several vulnerabilities
[31 Jan 2010] DSA-1985 sendmail - insufficient input validation
[30 Jan 2010] DSA-1984 libxerces2-java - denial of service
[30 Jan 2010] DSA-1983 wireshark - several vulnerabilities
[29 Jan 2010] DSA-1982 hybserv - denial of service
[28 Jan 2010] DSA-1981 maildrop - privilege escalation
[27 Jan 2010] DSA-1980 ircd-hybrid/ircd-ratbox - integer underflow/denial of service
[27 Jan 2010] DSA-1979 lintian - multiple vulnerabilities
[26 Jan 2010] DSA-1978 phpgroupware - several vulnerabilities
[25 Jan 2010] DSA-1977 python2.4 python2.5 - several vulnerabilities
For older security advisories see the Security Page. If you would like to receive security advisories as soon as they're announced, subscribe to the debian-security-announce mailing list.