Debian is a GNU/Linux distribution. The name comes from the founder of the project, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra. Hence "Deb" and "Ian".

If you use Debian, you tend to love Debian. Why?

Non-commercial

It's not controlled by a corporate entity.

APT

To install anything you just type apt-get install [package? and you're away. Dependencies are all handled for you. No more rabbiting around the internet for an RPM that might do what you want it to do...

Runs on lots of platforms

i386, Motorola 68k, Alpha, Sparc, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, IA64 (Itanium) and S390

Incredibly easy to maintain

apt-get upgrade every night and you'll be running the latest versions of everything.

Very true to Linux

some purists dont like RedHat's directory structures.

There are some reasons not to like Debian, the most obvious of which is that packages have to be uploaded into the repository before you can get them. You can always install things from source, or use other peoples' experimental .deb sources just by changing your AptSourcesList. See NewZealandLinuxMirrors for places in NewZealand to get .debs/isos.

The Debian PackageManagement format is .Deb. See DebianPackaging on how to create these.

debian.org have an online FAQ; we have a local DebianFaq?. See also DebianInstallerNotes?.

Read about the FlavoursOfDebian.

For people who want to install debian, but are scared off by stories about debian's installer, there's The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough.

Part of CategoryDistribution