Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 released

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 released

April 8th, 2007

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed etch, after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB.

Using a now fully integrated installation process, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 comes with out-of-the-box support for encrypted partitions. This release introduces a newly developed graphical frontend to the installation system supporting scripts using composed characters and complex languages; the installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been translated to 58 languages.

Also beginning with Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, the package management system has been improved regarding security and efficiency. Secure APT allows the verification of the integrity of packages downloaded from a mirror. Updated package indices won't be downloaded in their entirety, but instead patched with smaller files containing only differences from earlier versions.

Debian GNU/Linux runs on computers ranging from palmtops and handheld systems to supercomputers, and on nearly everything in between. A total of eleven architectures are supported including: Sun SPARC (sparc), HP Alpha (alpha), Motorola/IBM PowerPC (powerpc), Intel IA-32 (i386) and IA-64 (ia64), HP PA-RISC (hppa), MIPS (mips, mipsel), ARM (arm), IBM S/390 (s390) and – newly introduced with Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 – AMD64 and Intel EM64T (amd64).

Debian GNU/Linux can be installed from various installation media such as DVDs, CDs, USB sticks and floppies, or from the network. GNOME is the default desktop environment and is contained on the first CD. The K Desktop Environment (KDE) and the Xfce desktop can be installed through two new alternative CD images. Also newly available with Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 are multi-arch CDs and DVDs supporting installation of multiple architectures from a single disc.

Debian GNU/Linux can be downloaded right now via bittorrent (the recommended way), jigdo or HTTP; It will soon be available on DVD and CD-ROM from numerous vendors, too.

Source

Getting Debian

My prefered method:
Download the installation system from the Internet, and get the rest by downloading as you install.

Thx For Info

Debian is pretty handy for use on servers but if you really want newer packages try ubuntu which is aimed more at the desktop.

for example debian will be released with the following versions

K Desktop Environment 3.5.5a
GNOME desktop environment 2.14
OpenOffice.org 2.0.4a
GIMP 2.2.13
PostgreSQL 8.1.8

while the current stables are

K desktop enviroment 3.5.6
Gnome desktop enviroment 2.16
OpenOffice.org 2.2
Gimp 2.2.13
PostgreSQL 8.2.3

note: firefox's spell checker thinks debian is wrong and should be changed to lesbians. I was sorely tempted.

Ubuntu is a user interface/enviroment built on Debian...

your not quite right there its just a distribution that took debian and sort of forked off from it at a certain point. they do share alot of the same tools/code that made debian great like apt but ubuntu is defiantly more up to date than debian stable.

which is better debian or ubuntu for a begginer user of linux please?

Either Ubuntu or Kubuntu are easier to install than Debian,I
prefer Debian because I know how to install a Linux distro and so don't need or want someone else deciding what gets installed.They are both built on Debian