[TABLE]
After 24 months of constant development, the Debian project is
pleased to announce its new stable version 6.0 (code name
`Squeeze’). Debian 6.0 is a free operating system and is presented for
the first time in two flavours, since along with Debian GNU/Linux, in this
version Debian/kFreeBSD has been introduced as a `preview of the
technology’.
Debian 6.0 includes the KDE, GNOME, Xfce and LXDE desktop environments,
as well as all kinds of server applications. It also offers
compatibility with the FHS v2.3 standard and with the software developed for
version 3.2 of LSB.
Debian runs on different types of systems ranging from
handheld computers to supercomputers, going through
practically any other system in between. Debian GNU/Linux supports
a total of nine architectures: 32 bit PCs / Intel IA-32
(i386), 64 bit PCs / Intel EM64T / x86-64 (amd64), PowerPC from
Motorola/IBM (powerpc), SPARC from Sun/Oracle (sparc), MIPS (mips
(big-endian) and mipsel (little-endian)), Itanium from Intel (ia64), S/390
from IBM (s390), and ARM EABI (armel).
Debian 6.0 `Squeeze’ includes a preliminary version of two new
ports to the kernel of the FreeBSD project using the well known
Debian GNU user environment: Debian GNU/kFreeBSD for architectures
of 32 bit PCs (kfreebsd-i386) and 64 bit PCs (kfreebsd-amd64).
These ports are the first ones to be included in a release of
Debian without being based on the Linux kernel. There is very good support
for server applications and it combines the existing features
of Linux based Debian with features unique in the BSD world.
However, in this release these ports are still limited. For
example, some of the advanced desktop features are not yet
supported.
Another novelty is the completely free Linux kernel. In this release
the kernel no longer contains problematic firmware files. These have
been split into separate packages and moved out of the main
Debian archive into the non-free («non-free») area of the archive, which
is not enabled by default. This way, Debian users
have the possibility of using a completely free
operating system, although they can also choose to use non-free
firmware files in case they require them. The firmware files
can be loaded during the installation through the installer if this
were necessary. They will also be available in special CD
images and as compressed files to use for the installation
from USB. More information about this is available on the page of the
Debian Firmware [1] wiki.
1: http://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
Besides, Debian 6.0 introduces a dependency based boot system,
so the start up of the system is now faster and
more robust due to the parallel execution of the boot
programs and the correct tracking of their interdependencies. Some
other changes make the use of Debian on small laptops more comfortable,
such as, for example, the introduction of KDE Plasma for Netbooks.
This release includes a large amount of updated software
packages such as:
• the KDE 4.4.5 desktop environment
• the GNOME 2.30 desktop environment
• the Xfce 4.6 desktop environment
• the LXDE 0.5.0 desktop environment
• X.Org 7.5
• OpenOffice.org 3.2.1
• GIMP 2.6.11
• Iceweasel 3.5.16 (a version of Mozilla Firefox that does not use the
trademark)
• Icedove 3.0.11 (a version of Mozilla Thunderbird that does not use
the trademark)
• PostgreSQL 8.4.6
• MySQL 5.1.49
• the GNU Compiler Collection 4.4.5
• Linux 2.6.32
• Apache 2.2.16
• Samba 3.5.6
• Python 2.6.6, 2.5.5 and 3.1.3
• Perl 5.10.1
• PHP 5.3.3
• Asterisk 1.6.2.9
• Nagios 3.2.3
• the Xen Hypervisor 4.0.1 (with support for both dom0 and
domU)
• OpenJDK 6b18
• Tomcat 6.0.18
• more than 29,000 software packages ready to use built
from 15.000 source packages).
Debian 6.0 includes close to 10,000 new packages such as the
Chromium browser, the Icinga monitoring solution, the user interface
for package management `Software Center’, the network
manager wicd, the Linux container tools lxc and the environment for
clusters Corosync.
With this wide selection of packages, Debian stays true to its
goal of being the universal operating system. It is a system that can
be used for different cases such as: desktop systems and
netbooks; from development servers to clusters;
database servers, web or storage servers. A great
effort has been made to ensure quality by means of automatic
installation and upgrade tests for all the packages in
the Debian archive, thus making sure that Debian 6.0 meets
the high expectations that users have of a stable release
of Debian. It is as solid as a rock and has been tested
rigorously.
Starting with Debian 6.0, the `Custom Debian Distributions’
have changed their name and are
now called `Debian Pure Blends’ [2]. Their coverage has been increased
by adding Debian Accessibility [3], DebiChem [4], Debian EzGo [5],
Debian GIS [6] and Debian Multimedia [7] to the already existing Debian Edu [8],
Debian Med [9] and Debian Science [10] `pure blends’. The complete
list of all the «blends» [11] can be consulted, including the packages
that users nominate to be included for the next release.
2: http://blends.alioth.debian.org/
3: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/
4: http://debichem.alioth.debian.org/
5: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEzGo
6: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianGis
7: http://blends.alioth.debian.org/multimedia/tasks/index
8: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu
9: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med/
10: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianScience
11: http://blends.alioth.debian.org/
Debian can be installed from various media such as Blu-ray discs,
DVDs, CDs, USB drives or from the network. GNOME is the default
desktop and so it is included in the first CD. Other desktop
environments (such as KDE, Xfce, or LXDE) can be installed through two
alternative CD images. The desired desktop
environment can also be chosen from the boot menu of the CDs/DVDs. Again,
Debian 6.0 makes available to users multi-architecture
images for CDs and DVDs which support the installation
on several architectures from a single disc. The creation of a boot
installer from USB has been enormously simplified.
For more information read the Installation Guide [12].
12: http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/installmanual
Besides the conventional installation media, Debian GNU/Linux
can also be used without needing to install it. The special
images used, known as live («live») images, are
available for CDs, USB memory sticks and for booting from the network.
Initially, these are provided only for the
amd64 and i386 architectures. It is also possible to use these images to install
Debian GNU/Linux.
The installation process of Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 has been improved in
several ways, including an easier selection in the configuration
of the language and keyboard, as well as in the partitioning of logical
volumes, RAID and encrypted systems. Support has been added for the
ext4 and Btrfs filesystems, and (on the kFreeBSD architecture) for
the Zettabyte filesystem (ZFS). The Debian GNU/
Linux installer has been translated into 70 languages.
The Debian installer images can already be downloaded by
bittorrent [13] (recommended method), jigdo [14] or HTTP [15]. Consult
Debian on CDs [16] for more information. Very soon the
physical discs in DVD, CD-ROM and Blu-ray format will also be available
from various vendors [17].
13: http://www.debian.org/CD/torrent-cd/
14: http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/#which
15: http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
16: http://www.debian.org/CD/
17: http://www.debian.org/CD//vendors
Upgrading to Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 from the previous release,
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (code name `Lenny’), is managed
automatically through the package management application
apt-get for the great majority of configurations, and to a certain
extent, also by the package management application
aptitude. As always, Debian GNU/Linux systems can
be upgraded without problems and practically without downtime,
although it is widely recommended to read the Release Notes [18] as
well as the Installation Guide [19] to avoid possible
inconveniences, since they include detailed instructions related
to installation and upgrading. The Release Notes will
continue to be improved and translated into more languages in the weeks
following the release of the version.
18: http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/releasenotes
19: http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/installmanual
About Debian
—————-
Debian is a free operating system developed by thousands of
volunteers from all over the world who collaborate through the Internet.
The strong points of the Debian project are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to offering the
best possible operating system. Debian 6.0 is another important step in
that direction.
Contact information
———————–
For more information, visit the Debian pages at http://www.debian.org/
or send an email to <press@debian.org>.