What is Debian?

What it is

No single company owns Debian. It is run as a community project with its own published rules about what goes into it. Many other systems, including Ubuntu, are built on top of it.

Software spends a long time in testing before it reaches a stable release. After that, the release gets security and bug fixes but keeps the same program versions, which suits servers expected to run for years with few changes. The project also publishes a social contract and free software guidelines that explain its principles.

What businesses use it for

• Infrastructure servers: DNS, mail, file sharing and monitoring that must stay up.
• Appliances and platforms: many products use Debian as their base system.
• Container images: small Debian-based images are common building blocks.
• Virtualization hosts: some hypervisors, including Proxmox VE, are built on it.

How KawaConnect uses Debian

Debian is part of the Linux server work we do. We use it where slow, predictable change is the priority, and we manage it the way we manage every server: patched on a schedule, monitored, and documented. If a client already runs Debian, we keep it and do not push a change of distribution.

Learn more

• Debian on WikipediaThe history of the project, how releases are organized, and what sets Debian apart.
• Debian project websiteDownloads, release information, security notices, and news from the project.
• Debian documentationInstallation guides and the administrator manuals for each release.