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
[16 Mar 2010] New cdbuilder server improves Debian infrastructure
[22 Feb 2010] Debian Project at CeBIT 2010
[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
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
[15 Mar 2010] DSA-2017 pulseaudio - insecure temporary directory
[15 Mar 2010] DSA-2015 drbd8 - privilege escalation
[13 Mar 2010] DSA-2016 drupal6 - several vulnerabilities
[12 Mar 2010] DSA-2014 moin - several vulnerabilities
[11 Mar 2010] DSA-2013 egroupware - several vulnerabilities
[11 Mar 2010] DSA-2012 linux-2.6 - privilege escalation/denial of service
[10 Mar 2010] DSA-2011 dpkg - path traversal
[10 Mar 2010] DSA-2010 kvm - privilege escalation/denial of service
[09 Mar 2010] DSA-2009 tdiary - insufficient input sanitising
[08 Mar 2010] DSA-2008 typo3-src - several vulnerabilities
[03 Mar 2010] DSA-2007 cups - format string vulnerability
[02 Mar 2010] DSA-2006 sudo - 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.