Debian 9 with GNOME v3.22 Debian Project OS family Working state Current Source model Initial release September 1993; 24 years ago ( 1993-09) 9.3.0 (Stretch) (December 9, 2017; 8 days ago ( 2017-12-09) ) 75 languages Update method (several front-ends available) Platforms, (ARM little-endian), type:. (in development):. (in development) Default ( on non-Linux ports) -compliant ( licenses) Official website Debian ( ) is a computer that is composed entirely of, most of which is under the and packaged by a group of individuals participating in the Debian Project. The Debian Project was first announced in 1993 by, Debian 0.01 was released on September 15, 1993, and the first stable release was made in 1996. The Debian stable is the most popular Debian edition for and, and has been used as a base for many other distributions. The project's work is carried out over the Internet by a team of volunteers guided by the and three foundational documents: the, the Debian Constitution, and the.
New distributions are updated continually, and the next candidate is released after a time-based. As one of the earliest, it was decided that Debian was to be developed openly and freely distributed in the spirit of the.
This decision drew the attention and support of the, which sponsored the project for one year from November 1994 to November 1995. Upon the ending of the sponsorship, the Debian Project formed the non-profit organisation. While all Debian releases are derived from the and use the GNU userland and the (glibc), other kernels aside from the are also available, such as those based on BSD kernels and the microkernel. Debian console login and welcome message Debian has access to online repositories that contain over 50,000 making it the largest software compilation. Debian officially contains only free software, but non-free software can be downloaded and installed from the Debian repositories. Debian includes popular free programs such as, web browser, mail, disc burner, image editor, and document viewer. Debian is a popular choice for (cf.
Kernels Debian supports officially, offered for version 7 but not 8, and unofficially. GNU/kFreeBSD was released as a technology preview for and, and lacked the amount of software available in Debian's Linux distribution. Official support for kFreeBSD was removed for version 8, which did not provide a kFreeBSD-based distribution. Several flavors of the Linux kernel exist for each port. For example, the i386 port has flavors for IA-32 supporting and, for older PCs, and for x86-64 PCs. The Linux kernel does not officially contain without sources, although such firmware is available in non-free packages and alternative installation media.
Installation and Live images Debian offers DVD and CD for installation that can be downloaded using. Physical disks can also be bought from retailers. The full sets are made up of several discs (the amd64 port consists of 13 DVDs or 84 CDs), but only the first disc is required for installation, as the installer can retrieve software not contained in the first disc image from online repositories. Debian offers different network installation methods. A minimal install of Debian is available via the CD, whereby Debian is installed with just a base and later added software can be downloaded from the Internet. Another option is to boot the installer from the network. Installation images are on some architectures and can be used to create a USB drive.
The default bootstrap loader is version 2, though the package name is simply grub, while version 1 was renamed to grub-legacy. This conflicts with e.g., where grub version 2 is named grub2. The default desktop may be chosen from the DVD boot menu among, and, and from special disc 1 CDs.
History Founding (1993–98) Debian was first announced on August 16, 1993, by, who initially called the system 'the Debian Linux Release'. The word 'Debian' was formed as a of the first name of his then-girlfriend Debra Lynn and his own first name. Before Debian's release, the (SLS) had been a popular Linux distribution and the basis for.
Install Deb Package Puppy Linux On Usb Drive
The perceived poor maintenance and prevalence of in SLS motivated Murdock to launch a new distribution. Debian 0.01, released on September 15, 1993, was the first of several internal releases. Version 0.90 was the first public release, providing support through mailing lists hosted at Pixar. The release included the Debian Linux Manifesto, outlining Murdock's view for the new. In it he called for the creation of a distribution to be maintained openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. The Debian project released the 0.9x versions in 1994 and 1995. During this time it was sponsored by the for one year.
Ian Murdock delegated the base system, the core packages of Debian, to Bruce Perens and Murdock focused on the management of the growing project. The first ports to non- architectures began in 1995, and Debian 1.1 was released in 1996. By that time and thanks to, the dpkg package manager was already an essential part of Debian. In 1996, Bruce Perens assumed the project leadership.
Perens was a controversial leader, regarded as authoritarian and strongly attached to Debian. He drafted a and edited suggestions from a month-long discussion into the Debian Social Contract and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. After the FSF withdrew their sponsorship in the midst of the, Perens initiated the creation of the legal instead of seeking renewed involvement with the FSF. He led the conversion of the project from to. He created the program to make it possible to run a Debian installer on a single floppy, and wrote a new installer. By the time Debian 1.2 was released, the project had grown to nearly two hundred volunteers.
Perens left the project in 1998. Ian Jackson became the leader in 1998. Debian 2.0 introduced the second official port,.
During this time the first port to a non-Linux kernel, was started. On December 2, the first Debian Constitution was ratified. Leader election (1999–2005) From 1999, the project leader was elected yearly. The was deployed with Debian 2.1. The amount of applicants was overwhelming and the project established the new member process. The first Debian derivatives, namely, and 's Storm Linux, were started in 1999.
The 2.2 release in 2000 was dedicated to Joel Klecker, a developer who died of. In late 2000, the project reorganized the archive with new package 'pools' and created the Testing distribution, made up of packages considered stable, to reduce the freeze for the next release. In the same year, developers began holding an annual conference called with talks and workshops for developers and technical users.
In May 2001, announced plans to base its Linux development on Debian. In July 2002, the project released version 3.0, code-named Woody, the first release to include cryptographic software, a free licensed KDE and. During these last release cycles, the Debian project drew considerable criticism from the free software community because of the long time between stable releases. Some events disturbed the project while working on Sarge, as Debian servers were attacked by fire and hackers. One of the most memorable was the Vancouver prospectus. After a meeting held in, release manager Steve Langasek announced a plan to reduce the number of supported ports to four in order to shorten future release cycles. There was a large reaction because the proposal looked more like a decision and because such a drop would damage Debian's aim to be 'the universal operating system'.
Sarge and later releases (2005–15). Debian 4.0 Etch (2007) The 3.1 Sarge release was made in June 2005. This release updated 73% of the software and included over 9,000 new packages. A new installer with a modular design, allowed installations with, and support, improved hardware detection, made installations easier for novice users, and was translated into almost forty languages. An installation manual and release notes were in ten and fifteen languages respectively.
The efforts of, and Debian-Accessibility raised the number of packages that were educational, had a medical affiliation, and ones made for people with disabilities. Logo In 2006, as a result of a much-publicized dispute, with forked as Iceweasel and as Icedove. The Mozilla Corporation stated that software with unapproved modifications could not be distributed under the Firefox trademark. Two reasons that Debian modifies the Firefox software are to change the non-free artwork and to provide security patches. In February 2016, it was announced that Mozilla and Debian had reached agreement and Iceweasel would revert to the name Firefox; similar agreement was anticipated for Icedove/Thunderbird. A fund-raising experiment, Dunc-Tank, was created to solve the release cycle problem and release managers were paid to work full-time; in response, unpaid developers slowed down their work and the release was delayed.
Debian 4.0 (Etch) was released in April 2007, featuring the x86-64 port and a graphical installer. Debian 5.0 (Lenny) was released in February 2009, supporting Marvell's platform and netbooks such as the. The release was dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a developer who died in a car crash. Debian 6.0 Squeeze (2011) In July 2009, the policy of time-based development freezes on a two-year cycle was announced.
Time-based freezes are intended to blend the predictability of time based releases with Debian's policy of feature based releases, and to reduce overall freeze time. The Squeeze cycle was going to be especially short; however, this initial schedule was abandoned. In September 2010, the service became official, providing more recent versions of some software for the stable release. Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) was released in February 2011, introduced Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as a technology preview, featured a dependency-based boot system, and moved problematic firmware to the non-free area. Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) was released in May 2013, featuring multiarch support and Debian 8.0 (Jessie) was released in April 2015, using as the new init system.
Debian 9.0 (Stretch) was released in June 2017. At present, Debian is still in development and new packages are uploaded to unstable every day.
Throughout Debian's lifetime, both the Debian distribution and its website have won various awards from different organizations, including Server Distribution of the Year 2011, The best Linux distro of 2011, and a Best of the Net award for October 1998. On December 2, 2015, announced that they would offer Debian GNU/Linux as an endorsed distribution on the cloud platform. Releases. Main article: Release cycle Stable version of Debian gets released approximately every 2 years. It will receive official support for about 3 years with update for major security or usability fixes. Point releases will be available every several months as determined by Stable Release Managers (SRM). Debian also launched its Long Term Support (LTS) project since Debian 6 (Debian Squeeze).
For each Debian release, it will receive two years of extra security updates provided by LTS Team after its End Of Life (EOL). However, no point releases will be made. Now each Debian release can receive 5 years of security support in total. Desktop environments Debian offers CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default desktop), KDE Software Compilation, Xfce and LXDE. Is officially supported, while support was added with Debian 8.0 Jessie. Less common such as, and others are available. The default desktop environment of version 7.0 Wheezy was temporarily switched to Xfce, because GNOME 3 did not fit on the first CD of the set.
The default for the version 8.0 Jessie was changed again to Xfce in November 2013, and back to GNOME in September 2014. Debian Live Debian releases images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for and architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow users to boot from removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer.
A full install of Debian to the computer's hard drive can be initiated from the live image environment. Personalized images can be built with the live-build tool for discs, USB drives and for purposes. Package management operations can be performed with different tools available on Debian, from the lowest level command dpkg to graphical front-ends like Synaptic. The recommended standard for administering packages on a Debian system is the apt toolset. Provides the low-level infrastructure for package management. The dpkg database contains the list of installed software on the current system.
The dpkg command tool does not know about repositories. The command can work with local package files, and information from the dpkg database. APT tools. Package installed with Aptitude An (APT) tool allows administering an installed Debian system to retrieve and resolve package from.
APT tools share dependency information and cached packages. is a tool that also offers a. The program comes with enhancements such as better search on package. apt-get and apt-cache are command tools of the standard package. Apt-get installs and removes packages, and apt-cache is used for searching packages and displaying package information. GDebi and other front-ends is an APT tool which can be used in command-line and on the GUI. GDebi can install a local.deb file via the command line like the dpkg command, but with access to repositories to resolve dependencies.
Other graphical front-ends for APT include, and. Is a graphical front-end for, which itself can work on top of various software packaging systems. Branches. A Debian 4.0 Etch box cover Three of Debian (also called releases, distributions or suites) are regularly maintained:. Stable is the current release and targets stable and well-tested software needs.
Stable is made by freezing Testing for a few months where bugs are fixed and packages with too many bugs are removed; then the resulting system is released as stable. It is updated only if major security or usability fixes are incorporated.
This branch has an optional service that provides more recent versions of some software. Stable 's CDs and DVDs can be found in the Debian website.
Testing is the preview branch that will eventually become the next major release. The packages included in this branch have had some testing in unstable but they may not be fit for release yet. It contains newer packages than stable but older than unstable.
This branch is updated continually until it is frozen. Testing 's CDs and DVDs can be found on the Debian website.
Unstable, always codenamed sid, is the. Packages are accepted without checking the distribution as a whole. This branch is usually run by software developers who participate in a project and need the latest libraries available, and by those who prefer software. Debian does not provide full Sid installation discs, but rather a minimal ISO that can be used to install over a network connection. Additionally, this branch can be installed through a system upgrade from stable or testing. Other branches in Debian:. Oldstable is the prior stable release.
It is supported by the Debian Security Team until one year after a new stable is released, and since the release of Debian 6, for another 2 years through the Long Term Support project. Eventually, oldstable is moved to a repository for archived releases. Oldoldstable is the prior oldstable release. It is supported by the Long Term Support community. Eventually, oldoldstable is moved to a repository for archived releases. Experimental is a temporary staging area of highly experimental software that is likely to break the system.
It is not a full distribution and missing dependencies are commonly found in unstable, where new software without the damage chance is normally uploaded. The snapshot archive provides older versions of the branches. They may be used to install a specific older version of some software. Numbering scheme Stable and oldstable get minor updates, called point releases; as of June 2017, the stable release is version 9.0, and the oldstable release is version 8.8. The numbering scheme for the point releases up to Debian 4.0 was to include the letter r (for revision) after the main version number and then the number of the point release; for example, the latest point release of version 4.0 is 4.0r9. This scheme was chosen because a new dotted version would make the old one look obsolete and vendors would have trouble selling their CDs. From Debian 5.0, the numbering scheme of point releases was changed, conforming to the GNU version numbering standard; the first point release of Debian 5.0 was 5.0.1 instead of 5.0r1.
The numbering scheme was once again changed for the first Debian 7 update, which was version 7.1. The r scheme is no longer in use, but point release announcements include a note about not throwing away old CDs. Code names The code names of Debian releases are from the films. Debian 9 was named Stretch after the in. Debian 8 was named Jessie, after the in and Toy Story 3. The Testing branch is currently named Buster, which is the real (not the toy) dog seen in Toy Story 2 and 3.
Debian 11 will be called 'Bullseye', Woody's toy horse. The unstable trunk is permanently nicknamed, after the emotionally unstable who regularly destroyed toys. This naming tradition came about because was involved in the early development of Debian while working. Blends are subsets of a Debian release configured out-of-the-box for users with particular skills and interests. For example, Debian Jr.
Is made for children, while is for researchers and scientists. The complete Debian distribution includes all available Debian Pure Blends. 'Debian Blend' (without 'Pure') is a term for a Debian-based distribution that strives to become part of mainstream Debian, and have its extra features included in future releases. Logo The Debian 'swirl' logo was designed by Raul Silva in 1999 as part of a contest to replace the semi-official logo that had been used. The winner of the contest received an @debian.org, and a set of Debian 2.1 install CDs for the architecture of their choice.
There has been no official statement from the Debian project on the logo's meaning, but at the time of the logo's selection, it was suggested that the logo represented the that made computers work. One theory about the origin of the Debian logo is that, the chosen character for the first named Debian release, has a swirl in his chin.
Also suggested that this swirl is the Debian one. Archive areas The (DFSG) define the distinctive meaning of the word 'free' as in '. Packages which comply with these guidelines, usually under the GNU General Public License, or, are included inside the main area; otherwise, they are included inside the non-free and contrib areas. These last two areas are not distributed within the official installation media, but they can be adopted manually. Non-free includes packages which do not comply with the DFSG, such as documentation with invariant sections and, and legally questionable packages. Contrib includes packages which do comply with the DFSG but fail other requirements.
For example, they may depend on packages which are in non-free or requires such for building them. And the have criticized the Debian project for hosting the non-free repository and because the contrib and non-free areas are easily accessible, an opinion echoed by some in Debian including the former project leader Wichert Akkerman. The internal dissent in the Debian project regarding the non-free section has persisted, but the last time it came to a vote in 2004, the majority decided to keep it. Multimedia support Multimedia support has been problematic in Debian regarding threatened by possible patent infringements, without sources or under too restrictive licenses, and regarding technologies such as. Even though packages with problems related to their distribution could go into the non-free area, software such as is not hosted at Debian. A notable third party repository exists, formerly named debian-multimedia.org, providing software not present in Debian such as codecs, libdvdcss and the.
Even though this repository is maintained by Christian Marillat, a Debian developer, it is not part of the project and is not hosted on a Debian server. The repository provides packages already included in Debian, interfering with the official maintenance.
Eventually, project leader Stefano Zacchiroli asked Marillat to either settle an agreement about the packaging or to stop using the 'Debian' name. Marillat chose the latter and renamed the repository to deb-multimedia.org. The repository was so popular that the switchover was announced by the official blog of the Debian project. Hardware support Hardware requirements Hardware requirements are at least those of the kernel and the toolsets. Debian's recommended system requirements depend on the level of installation, which corresponds to increased numbers of installed components: Type Minimum size Recommended RAM size Minimum processor clock speed (IA-32) Hard drive capacity Non desktop 128 512 MB 2 Desktop 256 MB 1 GB 1 GHz 10 GB The real minimum memory requirements depend on the architecture and may be much less than the numbers listed in this table.
It is possible to install Debian with 60 of RAM for x86-64; the installer will run in low memory mode and it is recommended to create a. The installer for requires about 20 MB of RAM, but relies on network hardware.
Similarly, disk space requirements, which depend on the packages to be installed, can be reduced by manually selecting the packages needed. As of August 2014, no Pure Blend exists that would lower the hardware requirements easily. It is possible to run on older or low-end systems, but the installation of instead of is recommended, as desktop environments are more resource-intensive. Requirements for individual software vary widely and must be considered, with those of the base operating environment.
Architecture ports. Simplified organizational structure The Debian project is a volunteer organization with three foundational documents:. The defines a set of basic principles by which the project and its developers conduct affairs.
The define the criteria for 'free software' and thus what software is permissible in the distribution. These guidelines have been adopted as the basis of the.
Although this document can be considered separate, it formally is part of the Social Contract. The Debian Constitution describes the organizational structure for formal decision-making within the project, and enumerates the powers and responsibilities of the Project Leader, the Secretary and other roles. Historical population Year DD ±% 347 — 347 +0.0%? — 939 — 831 −11.5% 911 +9.6% 965 +5.9% 972 +0.7% 1,036 +6.6% 1,075 +3.8% 1,013 −5.8% 886 −12.5% 911 +2.8% 948 +4.1% 988 +4.2% 1,003 +1.5% 1,033 +3.0% 1,023 −1.0% Source: Debian developers are organized in a. There are at present about one thousand active Debian developers, but it is possible to contribute to the project without being an official developer. The project maintains official and conferences for communication and coordination between developers. For issues with single packages and other tasks, a public tracking system is used by developers and end users.
Channels (primarily on the (OFTC) and networks) are also used for communication among developers and to provide real time help. Debian is supported by donations made to organizations authorized by the leader. The largest supporter is, the owner of the Debian trademark, manager of the monetary donations and for various other community free software projects. A Project Leader is elected once per year by the developers. The leader has special powers, but they are not absolute, and appoints delegates to perform specialized tasks.
Delegates make decisions as they think is best, taking into account technical criteria and consensus. By way of a General Resolution, the developers may recall the leader, reverse a decision made by the leader or a delegate, amend foundational documents and make other binding decisions. The voting method is based on the (Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential Dropping). Project leadership is distributed occasionally. Branden Robinson was helped by the Project, a team of developers that assisted the leader, but there were concerns that such leadership would split Debian into two developer classes. Anthony Towns created a supplemental position, Second In Charge (2IC), that shared some powers of the leader.
Steve McIntyre was 2IC and had a 2IC himself. One important role in Debian's leadership is that of a manager. The release team sets goals for the next release, supervises the processes and decides when to release. The team is led by the next release managers and stable release managers. Release assistants were introduced in 2003. Developer recruitment, motivation, and resignation The Debian project has an influx of applicants wishing to become developers. These applicants must undergo a vetting process which establishes their identity, motivation, understanding of the project's principles, and technical competence.
This process has become much harder throughout the years. Debian developers join the project for many reasons.
Some that have been cited include:. Debian is their main operating system and they want to promote Debian. To improve the support for their favorite technology. They are involved with a Debian derivative. A desire to contribute back to the.
To make their Debian maintenance work easier Debian developers may resign their positions at any time or, when deemed necessary, they can be expelled. Those who follow the retiring protocol are granted the 'emeritus' status and they may regain their membership through a shortened new member process. Development procedures. Flowchart of the life cycle of a Debian package Each software package has a maintainer that may be either one person or a team of Debian developers and non-developer maintainers. The maintainer keeps track of releases, and ensures that the package coheres with the rest of the distribution and meets the standards of quality of Debian.
Packages may include modifications introduced by Debian to achieve compliance with Debian Policy, even to fix non-Debian specific bugs, although coordination with upstream developers is advised. The maintainer releases a new version by uploading the package to the 'incoming' system, which verifies the integrity of the packages and their. If the package is found to be valid, it is installed in the package archive into an area called the 'pool' and distributed every day to hundreds of worldwide. The upload must be signed using -compatible software.
All Debian developers have individual. Developers are responsible for any package they upload even if the packaging was prepared by another contributor. Initially, an accepted package is only available in the unstable branch. For a package to become a candidate for the next release, it must migrate to the Testing branch by meeting the following:. It has been in unstable for a certain length of time that depends on the urgency of the changes. It does not have 'release-critical' bugs, except for the ones already present in Testing. Release-critical bugs are those considered serious enough that they make the package unsuitable for release.
There are no outdated versions in unstable for any release ports. The migration does not break any packages in Testing. Its dependencies can be satisfied by packages already in Testing or by packages being migrated at the same time. The migration is not blocked by a freeze. Thus, a release-critical bug in a new version of a shared library on which many packages depend may prevent those packages from entering Testing, because the updated library must meet the requirements too. From the branch viewpoint, the migration process happens twice per day, rendering Testing in.
Periodically, the release team publishes guidelines to the developers in order to ready the release. A new release occurs after a freeze, when all important software is reasonably up-to-date in the Testing branch and any other significant issues are solved. At that time, all packages in the testing branch become the new stable branch. Although freeze dates are time-based, release dates are not, which are announced by the release managers a couple of weeks beforehand. A version of a package can belong to more than one branch, usually testing and unstable.
It is possible for a package to keep the same version between stable releases and be part of oldstable, stable, testing and unstable at the same time. Each branch can be seen as a collection of pointers into the package 'pool' mentioned above. Security The Debian project handles security through rather than through.
Debian security advisories are compatible with the dictionary, are usually coordinated with other free software vendors and are published the same day a vulnerability is made public. There used to be a security audit project that focused on packages in the stable release looking for security bugs; Steve Kemp, who started the project, retired in 2011 but resumed his activities and applied to rejoin in 2014. The stable branch is supported by the Debian security team; oldstable is supported for one year. Although Squeeze is not officially supported, Debian is coordinating an effort to provide (LTS) until February 2016, five years after the initial release, but only for the IA-32 and x86-64 platforms.
Testing is supported by the testing security team, but does not receive updates in as timely a manner as stable. Unstable 's security is left for the package maintainers. The Debian project offers documentation and tools to a Debian installation both manually and automatically. And support is available but disabled by default. Debian provides an optional hardening wrapper, and does not harden all of its software by default using features such as and, unlike operating systems such as, but tries to build as many packages as possible with hardening flags. 2008 OpenSSL vulnerability In May 2008, it was revealed that a Debian developer discovered that the package distributed with Debian and derivatives such as, made a variety of security keys vulnerable to a, since only 32,767 different keys were generated. The security weakness was caused by changes made in 2006 by another Debian developer in response to memory debugger warnings.
The complete resolution procedure was cumbersome because patching the security hole was not enough; it involved regenerating all affected keys and certificates. Cost of development The cost of developing all of the packages included in Debian 5.0 Lenny (323 million lines of code) has been estimated to be about 8 billion, using one method based on the model. As of 2016, Black Duck estimates that the current (74 million lines of code) would cost about US$1.4 billion to develop, using a different method based on the same model.
Derivatives.
The distro offers a lot of functionality and customization that frees users from many of the restrictions of a Linux community tied up in its own developmental red tape. DebianDog is fast and focused on getting work done without a lot of distractions. However, it also is a disorganized desktop environment that can leave new users floundering. DebianDog gives new meaning to eclectic in terms of its look and feel, and documentation is sparse. For example, the main menu is a mashup of standard system tools, DebianDog-specific utilities, Debian software, and tools to import some Puppy Linux software that's not designed to run on a Debian-based distro. Software titles are not always placed in the most accurate categories.
The DebianDog Linux series offers a Debian-based familiar computing experience. It has a variety of desktop configurations with a Puppy Linux-like appearance. This gives it the same lightweight yet powerful structure as Puppy Linux, all contained on a CD or USB drive to boot into RAM. But DebianDog is not in the Puppy Linux kennel.
A lot can be said about having the Puppy Linux concept powered by Debian Linux. It's a nice combination for anyone familiar with Puppy Linux and the Debian infrastructure. The Dogged Linux Approach Like Puppy Linux itself, DebianDog runs fast, even on underpowered legacy boxes. Like Puppy Linux, DebianDog is a 'frugal install' OS that does not have to be fully installed on a hard drive. You can bypass your computer's regular boot path by loading DebianDog the same way you would load a Linux distro in live session. This approach offers a huge advantage over traditional live sessions. You can try out DebianDog, save changes, resume where you left off in future work sessions, and never have to alter the contents of your existing hard drive and resident operating systems.
I have never used a dual boot configuration on any of my computers that did not at some point need the boot loader fixed. Of course, this is usually caused by unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) and secure boot controls hard wired into the hardware. Booting into DebianDog from a CD or USB and having access to your saved storage space is a very reliable alternative to a full OS installation. Yet you also have the option to do a complete installation to the hard drive and even set up a dual boot system. With the frugal installation method, or booting from CD or USB storage, there is no lag time.
You can run a fresh unmodified session each time you boot, or create a Save Space on the hard drive or USB boot drive to store all configuration changes, software additions and system settings as persistent memory. Running DebianDog from a live session boot does not involve waiting for disk reads. DebianDog loads everything it needs into a RAM drive. DebianDog relies on Openbox or Xfce-JWN to handle the desktop functions. This is an ideal choice of lightweight environments. DebianDog's Openbox desktop environment in this latest release closely resembles the alternate JWN desktop. Openbox has some of the Xfce functionality integrated.
Runt of the Litter I have used various Puppy Linux variants for years. I can pop a bootable USB into any computer and have a fully functional Linux desktop with access to all of my working files. Add an Internet connection, and I have complete access to my cloud storage and my distant main office desktop computer. Despite my personal history with Puppy Linux, I was not aware of DebianDog Linux until a Linux Picks and Pans reader told me about how he used it before trying one of the Linux distros I had reviewed. DebianDog is not well publicized.
I found only passing reference to it on the Puppy Linux discussion forums. The developer's website, hosted on Github.io, provides the barest of details. It offers little or no community interaction or help forums.
Unlike Puppy Linux, the Debian-based software requires little learning to use. However, if you are not used to frugal install environments used by Puppy Linux, Porteus and other so-called portable Linux distros, you will not find much help beyond trial and error. Don't get me wrong. DebianDog works fine out of the box, and it is easy to customize. Just make sure that you correctly set up the Save Storage mechanism before you waste hours of fiddling only to discover that it didn't save. Under DebianDog's Collar DebianDog is not a variant of the Puppy Linux family, although the name suggests otherwise. It is not Puppy Linux based on the Debian structure.
The developer emphasizes that DebianDog has nothing to do with Puppy Linux. Puppy Linux is built on the Arch Linux underbelly. DebianDog is a small Debian Live CD designed to look and function like Puppy Linux, but its Debian structure and behavior are not modified. It has access to all Debian (.Deb) repositories using apt-get commands in a terminal window or the Synaptic Package Manager from the menu. The latest version, DebianDog Jessie-Openbox-Xfce-JWN, was released last fall.
It is upgraded from DebianDog Wheezy, but it has some modifications and fixes to accommodate Jessie's specs. DebianDog's JWN desktop environment provides a traditional configurable panel with workspace switcher applet by default. You can turn the Conky applet on/off with a single click. The quick launch icons at the top of the screen cannot be added or removed. Two earlier versions based on Jessie are still available.
Both were released in 2015. The latest version uses Firefox as the default Web browser. The desktops are configured differently. For example, DebianDog-Jessie-jwmicewm-2015-09-02.iso runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-586, which is ideal for older computers. Or you can get DebianDog-Jessie-jwmicewm-2015-09-02-PAE.iso, which runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-686-pae - a better option for modern computers. Both older versions give you the JWM as the default window manager with the option to switch to IceWM.
The default file manager is XFE with an option to use Rox. The default Internet Browser is Dillo.
Working With Options The latest version runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-686-pae. Both default to the OpenBox window manager with Xfce as the desktop. The default file manager is Thunar with an option to use Rox. The default Internet browser is Firefox-ESR.
You can switch easily to JWN from Menu System Start JWM. In most cases, this will take you to a black screen with a flashing prompt. Enter the command: startx and press the enter key to complete the desktop switch. You can switch back again from Menu System Start Openbox. You most likely will need to repeat the startx command at the prompt. What has not changed in the latest release are the boot method options. When DebianDog starts its boot process, it pauses at the text prompt for any boot options, called 'Cheats,' you may want to enter.
You can just hit the enter key to resume with the default boot command. The choices are systemd or sysvinit at boot. To make a change, you must edit the boot code. Adding init=/bin/systemd will boot with systemd. Removing init=/bin/systemd will boot with sysvinit. The latest version of DebianDog uses autologin as root.
To use it as a multiuser system, you should start XDM login manager, which is available only with Jwm running. Type in the terminal the command: xdm-start. Xdm-stop will reverse back to autologin as root. In the OpenBox version, you can install this slim deb package and use menu System - Start/Stop Slim display-manager. If you like to change the default autologin as root to autologin as user, check the instructions on the download page.
Puppy Crossover DebianDog's system tools are similar to Puppy Linux, but basic users probably will not need this level of flexibility and customization. For example, you can create easy separate squashfs modules and remaster the system with personal changes. Also, you can use or convert pet packages and sfs files from Puppy Linux.
Be careful, though. DebianDog does not play well with mix-and-match repositories. You easily can corrupt the file system if you introduce.pet formats and squashfs file modules with files maintained by Debian's Synaptic Package Manager. Bottom Line The earlier versions of DebianDog work flawlessly, but the latest release seems to suffer from some work-in-progress flaws. I had very little trouble running the default software as-is. When I changed system settings or configured applications a certain way, those changes either did not work or were accompanied by a variety of glitches. I also had some trouble getting the persistent memory options to work.
A related problem was setting up the personal save storage file. These issues cropped up or did not appear at all, depending on the hardware I was using.
I used the same boot CD and bootable DVD drive on all of my test computers. DebianDog Linux is a good alternative for Linux users looking for something different. It is a very good OS choice if you work on multiple computers or travel around to various work locations and want all your work files on the same OS configuration that you carry in your pocket.
DebianDog can be a very workable alternative to lugging a laptop around. Want to Suggest a Review? Is there a Linux software application or distro you'd like to suggest for review?
Something you love or would like to get to know? Please, and I'll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column. And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!
Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software. Hi, nice and true review. My compliments for your observation how well work the earlier Jwm versions of DebianDog.
I've started DebianDog project and worked on it several years. Unfortunately I made huge mistake to allow two people to work with me. The same two people forced me to stop my work (at last in September 2016) and hijacked the DebianDog project. One important thing anyone using DebianDog or trying to get involved in the development should know - it includes many 'hidden bombs' in the form of scripts without license.
I was forced to remove many contributed scripts with bugs fixed from myself because I don't have permissions to modify them. For reference: Read More.