Debian 13 has recently been released, and even if you are not a hardcore linux fan it does make a difference to a lot of areas of computing.
Debian in its own right has many fans because:
- Debian is known for its stability, making it popular for servers and "cloud" services.
- All core components are guaranteed to be free and open source.
- A new stable release only comes approximately every two years, and only after extensive testing.
After 2 years, 1 month, and 30 days of development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 13 (code name trixie). trixie will be supported for the next 5 years
But what a lot of people do not realise, sadly including some who hate on it, is that Debian serves as the foundation for many other popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS, Linux Mint, and more.
This makes Debian not just another Linux distro but a key part of the ecosystem.
What's New in Debian 13?
This release contains over 14,100 new packages for a total count of 69,830 packages, while over 8,840 packages have been removed as obsolete. 44,326 packages were updated in this release. The overall disk usage for trixie is 403,854,660 kB (403 GB), and is made up of 1,463,291,186 lines of code.
The core of Debian 13 runs on Linux Kernel 6.12, which introduces several important features:
- Real-Time Preemption: Enables low-latency, deterministic behavior crucial for robotics, audio processing, and industrial automation.
- Support for Multiple Architectures: Includes AMD64 (x86_64), ARMv7, ARM64, PowerPC 64-bit, RISC-V 64-bit, and IBM System Z.
- Enhanced Filesystems and Features: Adds support for new filesystems (like BcacheFS) and improvements in process scheduling.
They are also dropping support for 32-bit and the ARMv6 used in older Raspberry Pi versions.
GUI
Debian 13 includes significant updates to popular desktop environments:
- GNOME 48: Offers features like HDR support, improved performance via dynamic triple buffering, and enhanced digital well-being tools.
- KDE Plasma 6.3: Built on QT6 and Frameworks 6, offering a more modern and responsive desktop.
- XFCE 4.20, LXQt 2.1, LXDE 13: Receive improvements for better hardware support and user interface enhancements.
Advanced Package Management: apt 3.0
Debian 13 introduces apt 3.0, which offers:
- Improved Dependency Handling: New resolver called "Resolver 3" manages complex package interactions more effectively.
- Enhanced Command Line Output: Clearer, colored, and more user-friendly display, making it easier to follow installation or upgrade processes.
- Progress Indicators: Visual progress bars improve the experience when installing or updating software.
This update to apt enhances overall system management, especially for users managing many packages or complex dependencies.
Why Should You Care?
Upgrading to Debian 13 (and distros built on it) offers access to newer hardware support, desktop improvements, and better package management.
Raspberry Pi and clones get some improved performance and capabilities for small single-board computers.
Upgrading Debian
Upgrades to Debian 13 trixie from the previous release, Debian 12 bookworm, are automatically handled by the APT package management tool for most configurations. Before upgrading your system, it is strongly recommended that you make a full backup
I've used Ubuntu for years, so I do benefit eventually. We tend not to see too many radical changes these days, but then stability is good. I need to get back into audio stuff and real-time is important for that.
I mostly use Xubuntu and occasionally Mint which of course are both based on Debian. I use Debian itself for really old machines occasionally as there is still a supported 32-bit version.
My daily driver is the latest MX Linux KDE version, while my work OS is Ubuntu Studio for my 3D modeling/animation work.
On MX I mainly use the 6.14 Liquorix kernel, while on Ubuntu it is also on 6.14.
Debian Trixie will debut on MX Linux 25, which is currently in beta, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.