Debian

Updated: 09/12/2023 by Computer Hope

Debian is a free, open-source operating system developed with tools from the GNU (GNU's Not Unix) project. It runs using the Linux or the FreeBSD kernel, and officially supports ten different architectures, including Intel and AMD 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Debian includes many popular free software titles by default, such as LibreOffice, Iceweasel (a variant of Firefox), and Evolution mail. It allows users to choose a desktop environment from several popular choices, including GNOME, KDE (K Desktop Environment), Xfce, and LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment).

Debian Live is a version of Debian designed to boot from removable media such as a CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) or USB (universal serial bus) flash drive allowing Debian to run without modifying the hard disk. Debian offers the option to install it onto the hard disk later, if needed.

Debian uses the apt and dpkg tools for software package and dependency management to install software from Debian's free online repository of over 37,000 pre-compiled software packages.

GNU project, Linux, Open-source, Operating system, Operating system terms