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 June 26th, 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
[29 Jun 2010] More collaboration among Debian-based distributions: the Derivatives Front Desk
[26 Jun 2010] Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 updated
[18 Jun 2010] Debian Project At LSM/RMLL 2010
[22 May 2010] Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 updated
[19 May 2010] A better DebConf10 with your help: donate or become a sponsor
[16 Apr 2010] Debian Project elects Stefano Zacchiroli as next Project Leader
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
[27 Jul 2010] DSA-2076 gnupg2 - use-after-free
[27 Jul 2010] DSA-2075 xulrunner - several vulnerabilities
[21 Jul 2010] DSA-2074 ncompress - integer underflow
[20 Jul 2010] DSA-2073 mlmmj - insufficient input sanitising
[19 Jul 2010] DSA-2072 libpng - several vulnerabilities
[14 Jul 2010] DSA-2071 libmikmod - buffer overflows
[14 Jul 2010] DSA-2070 freetype - several vulnerabilities
[11 Jul 2010] DSA-2069 znc - denial of service
[11 Jul 2010] DSA-2068 python-cjson - buffer overflow
[01 Jul 2010] DSA-2066 wireshark - 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.