Shark Bait

Knowledge Centers

Operating Systems

Networking & Internet

Mobile & Wireless

Security

Storage

Business Intelligence

Servers & Data Center

Computerworld Reports

Industry

See your link here

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

Debian 5's Five Best Features

13 comments

TAGS:Debian, desktop linux, Linux
IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Security, Software

Despite delays and internal arguments, Debian 5, Lenny, has finally arrived, and it's a darn nice Linux distribution.

You don't have to take my word for it. Consider what Warren Woodford, the well-regarded Linux developer, who uses Debian for the foundation of his SimplyMEPIS Linux distribution, has to say. Woodford, who switched MEPIS' cornerstone distribution from Ubuntu to Debian in 2007, said, "Behind the scenes, MEPIS is being used more and more in demanding environments, so I was happy the Debian teams decided to use the hardening features in gcc to increase the security of Debian in Lenny."

Woodford added, "I know a lot of our users were happy that Debian decided to continue supporting KDE 3.5. They like what they have and don't want to be forced to learn the KDE 4 look and feel."

Even when Debian doesn't get it quite right, from where Woodford sits, he still praises Debian for making it easy to add features. "I think it would have been good for Debian if they could have bent their "freeze" rules and included Bind 9.6 [Berkeley Internet Name Domain-the program that runs the Internet's master address system: DNS (Domain Name System)]. But thanks to the flexibility of using a the Debian core, it was easy for us to add Bind 9.6 to MEPIS 8.0 for users who need to comply with the US OMB (Office of Management and Budget) mandate for DNSsec (DNS security extensions) support."

That's what Woodford likes about the new Debian. Here are my five favorite features in Lenny.

1) X.org 7.3 integration. It used to be setting up your screen in Linux was a real pain-in-the-rump. With X.org 7.3 the X-server behind Linux's most common GUIs (graphical user interfaces), the program automatically take care of setting up your display resolution.

2) Renewed emphasis on security. In the not-to-distant past, Debian put its foot into it with a major OpenSSL security screw-up. Unlike some groups, say Microsoft, which never seems to learn security lessons, Debian's developers worked hard to improve the distribution's security.

In Lenny, for example, after you install it, the operating system automatically downloads all available security patches before its first boot. Lenny also includes other security hardening features such as reducing the number of default open network ports and including optional security patches like PHP's Suhosin security system.

3) Debian is now Java friendly. The Linux distribution now includes Sun's OpenJDK; the GNU Java compiler and Java bytecode interpreter; and Classpath, an open-source collection of Java libraries. What all this means for users is that you can now use most Java-based programs in Debian. Some of these are already available in Debian's software repositories, so you can quickly use these programs.

4) Debian makes open-source players and viewers available for some proprietary media formats. It's gotten easier to access proprietary videos and the like on Linux with programs like Moonshine and Moonlight. Since these programs require accepting some proprietary bits, some users don't want a thing to do with them. For these users, Debian's integrated support of Flash video with swfdec or Gnash will be very welcome indeed.

5) You can run Debian on anything. And, I mean anything. Sure, if you're a developer you can get Linux to run on any system under the sun. For example you can get Linux to run on an iPhone or a Microsoft xBox 360. But, if you're not a programmer and you want to run Linux on a Sun SPARC server, an HP Alpha server, an IBM s/390 mainframe on the big iron side to a lightweight ARM Cortex-powered netbook or a Marvell Orion-powered HP Media Vault mv2120 storage device, Debian will run on it. This is pretty darn handy whether you're upgrading your servers or just want one common interface across your entire office's computer collection.

Put it all-together, and you've got a heck of a solid and attractive Linux distribution. Give Lenny a try; I think you'll like him.

Email this

Digg this

What People Are Saying

Add new comment

Debian 5 xorg

Submitted by Bob on May 16, 2009 - 6:12 A.M.

With X.org 7.3 the X-server behind Linux's most common GUIs (graphical user interfaces), the program automatically take care of setting up your display resolution.

However, when this automatic config gets it wrong you are left with No Help.

The Debian manuals are all about previous configurations, which do not match the new one.

So the first thing a new user of Debian 5 has to contend with is that if the auto-config doesn't work, you will have to live (as in my case) with a resolution larger than the screen. I have no access to the bottom inch or so.

The config tools of the old system do not match the new system.

Even things like the Control center are missing. Unless they are at the bottom where I can't see them, they are definately not on the menus (I moved those to the top).

I like Debian, nice clean distro but with this screen resolution I can't keep it. Debian has always been naff with help, yes I know it's volunteers, don't have the time to write any help notes or anything mundane like that. But that is also why Debian is not ever going to be at the top of the Linux hit parade.

Reply | Report this comment

Debian hardware recognition has improved a lot

Submitted by ObiWanKenobi on February 18, 2009 - 6:01 P.M.

Last year I tried Etch live CDs and failed at boot.
Now with Lenny Gnome I've got much further - everything seems to work. Lenny KDE had a problem with configuring the printer.

The greatest strength of Debian is the vast number of applications in its repository and its stability.

Example: the functional programming language OCaml is fully supported only by Red Hat and Debian (possibly Mepis?). Other distributions only pretend to support it or do not have it at all.

Long live Debian!

Reply | Report this comment

Debian is the best!

Submitted by Brian Masinick on February 19, 2009 - 12:30 A.M.

I will say that on one hand, I do not install plain Debian all that often, yet say on the other hand that Debian has the best collection of software in the world.

Ubuntu is what it is because of Debian; MEPIS is what it is because of Debian, so is Mint, so is antiX, so is Debris Linux, so is Dream Linux... we could go on and on.

The distributions that I have mentioned are some of the best distributions around. Even one of them that isn't actually based on Debian packages, PCLinuxOS, takes many of its packages from Mandriva, but uses apt-get and synaptic instead of the urpmi used by Mandriva, so PCLinuxOS has some pieces from Debian - and as a result, some people mistakenly think that it is also a Debian based distro - only the package management programs have a Debian component.

Warren Woodford is able to do all of those great things because of what Debian has laid for him in a framework.

But lest I only mention the derivatives, plain Debian has made absolutely astounding progress with their system, and one of the biggest improvements has been their installer.

When I first tried out Debian in the Ham and Potato days (before Version 3), the Debian installation program was really for experts only. It got a little bit better with the Woody release, but not much better. When Sarge came out, there were more improvements, but newbies wouldn't touch it.

Since then, things have really improved. The Etch installer became usable enough that a much wider group of people could grasp and use it. But you ought to try the Lenny version - it is almost easy now - actually, it IS easy. I still do not want to categorize it as a newbie distro, it still has too many choices to make - but isn't that what makes it so nice and powerful?

What we have, then, is that Debian gives us the excellence and the choices, and the Debian derivatives cut that down to specific niches, and handle those niches very well. They couldn't do it, though, if it weren't for the Debian code.

You can even credit many of the advances in Linux itself to Debian because quite a few developers use a Debian based platform to do their work. (I suppose the same argument could be made for Slackware, Red Hat and SUSE as well). The point is that Debian is a major fixture in the Linux ecosystem, and this Lenny release is a major milestone for the project.

Reply | Report this comment

Not impressed...

Submitted by Anonymous on February 18, 2009 - 7:52 A.M.

Now I understand the popularity of distros like Mint, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS and a few others. They are built on rock-solid, old-school distros like Debnian but they don't assume you know a lot about Linux.

As one who has been in the process of fleeing the Windoze Gulag for close to a year, I was not impressed with Debian 5 any more than I was with Fedora 10 or openSUSE 11.1. In Debian my first question was: Where is Firefox? I couldn't even find it in the repos with all of them enabled. I suppose Iceweasel or Epiphany is okay, but I want my Firefox, dammit! And you can keep your gnash and swfdec flash substitutes, give me Adobe! I don't want web pages popping up with big gray boxes where the flash video is supposed to be.

The installation seemed ridiculous to me. I have a fairly fast broadband connection and the netinst took a long, long time. I appreciate the underpinnings of distros like Debian because it helps the distros I like to use; you know, the newbie-friendly ones like those I mentioned above.

With Ubuntu, all I have to do is install the "restricted extras" and I have flash, java, some TT fonts and everything works. VLC gives me libdvdcss. And here we are several months after the release of OO.o 3.0 and Debian has 2.XX ?? WTF?

Reply | Report this comment

Ubuntu

Submitted by Anonymous on August 10, 2009 - 1:01 A.M.

Ubuntu is an ancient African word which means "cant install Debian".

Reply | Report this comment

You either get debian or you don't

Submitted by alan on February 18, 2009 - 12:42 P.M.

It may be hard for people to understand, but not every computer is a laptop whose sole purpose is to view youtube videos in firefox over wifi. For a whole lot of use cases, Debian stable rocks.

Why does every distro have to be Ubuntu for some people?

Reply | Report this comment

FYI: Iceweasel is Firefox,

Submitted by Anonymous on February 18, 2009 - 9:02 A.M.

FYI: Iceweasel is Firefox, just the name is changed. I believe the reason for this is a Firefox logo that a proprietary license and so conflicts with Debian's strict open source policy.

It's true that this policy means that Debian doesn't offer a one step option to enable proprietary software. There should at least be a message following a desktop install referring to a page on the Debian Wiki that explains what to do.

Can't say why the netinstall took a long time. Maybe you installed from the minimal business card release or the mirror you used was slow.

Reply | Report this comment

firefox

Submitted by Anonymous on March 1, 2009 - 11:03 P.M.

I had firefox running on etch. A library change had to be made. With lenny no library change is necessary. I am sending this comment from Firefox 3.0.6. Download the tarball and install it.

Reply | Report this comment

Very impressed

Submitted by lefty.crupps on February 18, 2009 - 8:49 A.M.

Ubuntu doesn't care so much about the Free Software side of things if it means a better-working distro in the short-term; Debian on the other hand has Free Software Guidelines that they self-impose to stay on the clean side of the law, and to allow redistribution without issues.

Firefox can be installed easily; download the compressed .tar.gz or whatever file from www.mozilla.com and extract it; go into that folder and run Firefox. Otherwise, just use Iceweasel, its functionally identical to Firefox, just rebranded due to trademark issues.

Flash, w32codecs, libdvdcss, and many more goodies are available within the (unofficial) multimedia repository:

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ testing main

Add that line to the end of /etc/apt/sources.list and get all the needed 'restricted' content that your licensing allows for.

Reply | Report this comment