Debian

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Debian GNU/Linux

Derivative of: Linux
Managed by: Debian Project

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Current Stable Release: 4.0

Debian, first announced on August 16th, 1993 is considered one of the forerunners in stability and reliability among Linux distributions, its is also noted for running well on both older and non-x86 hardware. Its slow development and release schedule, while making it one of the most stable distributions around, means that it's "stable" release often lags behind in features. Debian also has the faster moving "testing" and "unstable" branches, despite the name both are considered highly stable.

Debian GNU/Linux comes in three flavors: stable, testing, and unstable.

The stable distribution has been officially released and is only updated with security updates. The current stable distribution is etch.
The testing distribution will be the next officially released version. Packages from unstable make it into testing after a period of time has passed with no release-critical bugs. The current testing distribution is lenny.
The unstable distribution is where Debian development occurs. The newest versions of packages are in this distribution, although they have usually not been thoroughly tested. The unstable distribution is always sid, named for the Toy Story (movie) character who breaks toys.

The default desktop environment for Debian GNU/Linux is GNOME, although KDE, Xfce and many lightweight window managers are also available. Debian GNU/Linux is also a popular server distribution, with many server applications available.