Debian 9 Stretches Its Wings
The new release of Debian has a very strong focus on security.
The latest release of Debian, code-named Stretch, has been released after 26 months of development. Debian 9 will be supported for the next five years, making it one of the longest supported community-based distributions. Ubuntu LTS is supported for three years on desktops and five years on severs; CentOS is supported for 10 years.
Debian has done some reshuffling with default software: MariaDB has replaced MySQL as the default database, and since the Mozilla and Debian communities have sorted out their trademark dispute, you can now use vanilla Firefox and Thunderbird instead of rebranded Iceweasel and Icedove.
Debian is primarily a leading server operating system, but it’s well revered among the desktop users who need reliable and stable systems. Debian is a Gnome distribution, and Stretch comes with a generation older Gnome Shell 3.22. That’s the only downside of using Debian on the desktop, you are often stuck with very old packages.
Looking at the continuous disclosure of security bugs in Linux, Debian is maintaining a very tight grip on security.
“Thanks to the Reproducible Builds project, over 90% of the source packages included in Debian 9 will build bit-for-bit identical binary packages. This is an important verification feature which protects users from malicious attempts to tamper with compilers and build networks. Future Debian releases will include tools and metadata so that end-users can validate the provenance of packages within the archive,” said the release announcement.
The X display server no longer needs “root” privileges, which has been a major criticism and security risk.
This is also the first release of Debian that features the modern branch of GnuPG in the gnupg package. “This brings with it elliptic curve cryptography, better defaults, a more modular architecture, and improved smartcard support. We will continue to supply the classic branch of GnuPG as gnupg1 for people who need it, but it is now deprecated,” said the release announcement.
This release has also improved UEFI support, which now also supports installing on 32-bit UEFI firmware with a 64-bit kernel. The Debian Live images now include support for UEFI booting as a new feature, too.
Debian is known for wide support for architecture, this release supports 10 architectures, including 64-bit PC/Intel EM64T/x86-64 (amd64), 32-bit PC/Intel IA-32 (i386), 64-bit little-endian Motorola/IBM PowerPC (ppc64el), 64-bit IBM S/390 (s390x) for ARM, armel and armhf for older and more recent 32-bit hardware plus arm64 for the 64-bit AArch64 architecture, and in addition to the two 32-bit mips (big endian) and mipsel (little endian) for MIPS, a new mips64el architecture for 64-bit little-endian hardware.
Debian 9 is available for free download.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
So Long Neofetch and Thanks for the Info
Today is a day that every Linux user who enjoys bragging about their system(s) will mourn, as Neofetch has come to an end.
-
Ubuntu 24.04 Comes with a “Flaw"
If you're thinking you might want to upgrade from your current Ubuntu release to the latest, there's something you might want to consider before doing so.
-
Canonical Releases Ubuntu 24.04
After a brief pause because of the XZ vulnerability, Ubuntu 24.04 is now available for install.
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.
-
Linux Usage Increases in Two Key Areas
If market share is your thing, you'll be happy to know that Linux is on the rise in two areas that, if they keep climbing, could have serious meaning for Linux's future.
-
Vulnerability Discovered in xz Libraries
An urgent alert for Fedora 40 has been posted and users should pay attention.