Debian Wheezy Released

[Karl L.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/

Debian 7.0 "Wheezy" released [email protected]

May 4th, 2013 http://www.debian.or...s/2013/20130504

------------------------------------------------------------------------

After many months of constant development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 7.0 (code name "Wheezy"). This new version of Debian includes various interesting features such as multiarch support [1], several specific tools to deploy private clouds [2], an improved installer, and a complete set of multimedia codecs and front-ends which remove the need for third-party repositories.

1: http://www.debian.or.../2011/20110726b

2: http://www.debian.or...s/2012/20120425

Multiarch support, one of the main release goals for "Wheezy", will allow Debian users to install packages from multiple architectures on the same machine. This means that you can now, for the first time, install both 32- and 64-bit software on the same machine and have all the relevant dependencies correctly resolved, automatically.

The installation process has been greatly improved: Debian can now be installed using software speech, above all by visually impaired people who do not use a Braille device. Thanks to the combined efforts of a huge number of translators, the installation system is available in 73 languages, and more than a dozen of them are available for speech synthesis too. In addition, for the first time, Debian supports installation and booting using UEFI for new 64-bit PCs (amd64), although there is no support for "Secure Boot" yet.

This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as:

* Apache 2.2.22

* Asterisk 1.8.13.1

* GIMP 2.8.2

* an updated version of the GNOME desktop environment 3.4

* GNU Compiler Collection 4.7.2

* Icedove 10 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird)

* Iceweasel 10 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Firefox)

* KDE Plasma Workspaces and KDE Applications 4.8.4

* kFreeBSD kernel 8.3 and 9.0

* LibreOffice 3.5.4

* Linux 3.2

* MySQL 5.5.30

* Nagios 3.4.1

* OpenJDK 6b27 and 7u3

* Perl 5.14.2

* PHP 5.4.4

* PostgreSQL 9.1

* Python 2.7.3 and 3.2.3

* Samba 3.6.6

* Tomcat 6.0.35 and 7.0.28

* Xen Hypervisor 4.1.4

* the Xfce 4.8 desktop environment

* X.Org 7.7

* more than 36,000 other ready-to-use software packages, built from nearly 17,500 source packages.

With this broad selection of packages, Debian once again stays true to its goal of being the universal operating system. It is suitable for many different use cases: from desktop systems to netbooks; from development servers to cluster systems; and for database, web, or storage servers. At the same time, additional quality assurance efforts like automatic installation and upgrade tests for all packages in Debian's archive ensure that "Wheezy" fulfills the high expectations that users have of a stable Debian release. It is rock solid and rigorously tested.

You can install Debian on computers ranging from handheld systems to supercomputers, and on nearly everything in between. A total of nine architectures are supported: 32-bit PC / Intel IA-32 (i386), 64-bit PC / Intel EM64T / x86-64 (amd64), Motorola/IBM PowerPC (powerpc), Sun/Oracle SPARC (sparc), MIPS (mips (big-endian) and mipsel (little-endian)), Intel Itanium (ia64), IBM S/390 (31-bit s390 and 64-bit s390x), and ARM EABI (armel for older hardware and armhf for newer hardware using hardware floating-point).

Want to give it a try?

If you want to simply try it without having to install it, you can use a special image, known as a live image, available for CDs, USB sticks, and netboot setups. Initially, these images are provided for the amd64 and i386 architectures only. It is also possible to use these live images to install Debian. More information is available from the Debian Live homepage [3].

3: http://live.debian.net/

If, instead, you want to directly install it, you can choose among various installation media, such as Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, CDs, and USB sticks, or from the network. Several desktop environments ? GNOME, KDE Plasma Desktop and Applications, Xfce, and LXDE ? may be installed through CD images; the desired one may be chosen from the boot menus of the CDs/DVDs. In addition, multi-architecture CDs and DVDs are available which support installation of multiple architectures from a single disc. Or you can always create bootable USB installation media (see the Installation Guide [4] for more details).

4: http://www.debian.or...y/installmanual

The installation images may be downloaded right now via bittorrent [5] (the recommended method), jigdo [6], or HTTP [7]; see Debian on CDs [8] for further information. Wheezy will soon be available on physical DVD, CD-ROM, and Blu-ray Discs from numerous vendors [9], too.

5: http://www.debian.org/CD/torrent-cd/

6: http://www.debian.or...jigdo-cd/#which

7: http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/

8: http://www.debian.org/CD/

9: http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors

Already a happy Debian user and you only want to upgrade? Upgrades to Debian 7.0 from the previous release, Debian 6.0 (codenamed "Squeeze"), are automatically handled by the apt-get package management tool for most configurations. As always, Debian systems may be upgraded painlessly, in place, without any forced downtime, but it is strongly recommended to read the release notes [10] as well as the installation guide [11] for possible issues, and for detailed instructions on installing and upgrading. The release notes will be further improved and translated to additional languages in the weeks after the release.

10: http://www.debian.or...zy/releasenotes

11: http://www.debian.or...y/installmanual

About Debian

------------

Debian is a free operating system, developed by thousands of volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the Internet. The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its dedication to the Debian Social Contract and Free Software, and its commitment to provide the best operating system possible. Debian 7.0 is another important step in that direction.

Contact Information

-------------------

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at http://www.debian.org/ or send mail to <[email protected]>.

Source: http://lists.debian....3/msg00002.html

I'm very excited! I am downloading the final release images now.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Oooooh! Thank you, Xorange! :D

[Yorak]

Thanks for the heads up. (Y)

Does anyone still use the stable version of Debian? I mean yikes, it is so very far behind. Most distros built on Debian use unstable now.

[Azies]

Installing in VMWare as we speak..

[Karl L.]

Does anyone still use the stable version of Debian? I mean yikes, it is so very far behind. Most distros built on Debian use unstable now.

It is true that many derivatives are built on Unstable, but I use Debian Stable (and sometimes Debian Testing when it's deep in release freeze) because it is the most stable distribution I have ever used. Debian has a very large collection of software in its repository, and it is all tested for security, stability, and integration. I have no problem sacrificing newer versions of software for extreme stability. New versions are only important if I need (or want) the new features. Debian just works, and I value that.

[Gerowen]

It is true that many derivatives are built on Unstable, but I use Debian Stable (and sometimes Debian Testing when it's deep in release freeze) because it is the most stable distribution I have ever used. Debian has a very large collection of software in its repository, and it is all tested for security, stability, and integration. I have no problem sacrificing newer versions of software for extreme stability. New versions are only important if I need (or want) the new features. Debian just works, and I value that.

Heard 7 introduces multi-arch, is that true? It'd be nice to be able to install 32 bit debs without having to manually hunt down and install the 32 bit packages it depends on.

[Karl L.]

Heard 7 introduces multi-arch, is that true? It'd be nice to be able to install 32 bit debs without having to manually hunt down and install the 32 bit packages it depends on.

That is true. However only one architecture is installed by default (unlike Ubuntu which has multiarched i386 on all AMD64 installations by default since Canonical pulled multiarch support from Unstable). You can add i386 to your AMD64 Debian Wheezy installation as follows:

sudo dpkg --foreign-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
[/CODE]

[ViperAFK]

meh, looks like they still haven't fixed the random freezes with ivybridge graphics. I tried wheezy vanilla with gnome shell and the latest crunchbang and I get constant graphical lockups, sometimes can't even get to a tty. Haven't seen that problem with any other distros (and I'm addicted distro-hopper so I've tried way too many :p). Doesn't seem so 'stable' to me :( I think its graphics stack is just too outdated already to properly support sandybridge and ivybridge.

[Gerowen]

Installed it on my desktop and I'm liking it so far. Much more responsive than Ubuntu. One sad point though. I'm being told that "fglrx-legacy-driver" will be provided in wheezy-backports, but it isn't there yet, so I'm stuck with the open source drivers like I was in Ubuntu, :-(

[Jub]

Yay, time to upgrade the servers... :)

[Karl L.]

meh, looks like they still haven't fixed the random freezes with ivybridge graphics. I tried wheezy vanilla with gnome shell and the latest crunchbang and I get constant graphical lockups, sometimes can't even get to a tty. Haven't seen that problem with any other distros. Doesn't seem so 'stable' to me :( I think its graphics stack is just too outdated already to properly support sandybridge and ivybridge.

Try using the kernel in wheezy-backports. The first Jesse kernel will be 3.8.10, which will be uploaded to Wheezy's backports repository within a couple days. New hardware support has nothing to do with stability. By that measure OS X 10.8 is very unstable on the Macbook Pro 2.1! Also, I am running Wheezy on a sandybridge machine with no problems, so the issue might be limited to machines with ivybridge - or possibly just specific configurations (such as those using Intel graphics, which I am not).

[Karl L.]

Installed it on my desktop and I'm liking it so far. Much more responsive than Ubuntu. One sad point though. I'm being told that "fglrx-legacy-driver" will be provided in wheezy-backports, but it isn't there yet, so I'm stuck with the open source drivers like I was in Ubuntu, :-(

I have found the open-source graphics drivers to be far superior to their proprietary counterparts in terms of stability and occasionally (although not often) performance. This is doubly true for older cards, such as those only supported by legacy drivers. However, if you wish to install the latest version of fglrx, you can download the debs from Experimental. Be warned: there is a reason fglrx-legacy was not released with Wheezy - it was considered too unstable. Ubuntu imports from Debian - and therefore has the same version of fglrx-legacy - but has much lower standards for package inclusion in their stable releases.

[CaptainBeno]

It seems very old already it's so far behind Ubuntu 13.04 why even bother to use it? The live cd does not even detect and use laptop wireless . Fedora 19 alpha is way better then this and it's in alpha stage

[Gerowen]

It seems very old already it's so far behind Ubuntu 13.04 why even bother to use it? The live cd does not even detect and use laptop wireless . Fedora 19 alpha is way better then this and it's in alpha stage

Then if you want to use something with newer versions, use Debian Unstable, or Testing, or Fedora 19 Alpha, or Ubuntu. Debian "Stable" is just that. It tends to be a little behind in terms of the "latest and greatest", but historically is very stable.

[Ph1b3r0pt1c]

Installed it on my desktop and I'm liking it so far. Much more responsive than Ubuntu. One sad point though. I'm being told that "fglrx-legacy-driver" will be provided in wheezy-backports, but it isn't there yet, so I'm stuck with the open source drivers like I was in Ubuntu, :-(

Does the vanilla driver from ATI work for you?

[Gerowen]

Does the vanilla driver from ATI work for you?

Haven't heard of the "vanilla" driver, so I'll do some digging and try it out.

I'm not totally disappointed however. In Squeeze, if I didn't have the proprietary drivers installed, running the game "World of Goo" in full screen would render my desktop un-usable and I'd have to CTRL+ALT+F1 to kill the process. Using the open source drivers in Wheezy however, the game runs just fine in fullscreen, so apparently the open source drivers are improving.

On a side-note, what are you guys using, Gnome or Gnome "Classic"? Personally I've been using "Classic", because I just can't get past not having a menu to click on. It still "looks" a little sharper, like Gnome 3, but I still have my good old menus up top that I can click on.

[ViperAFK]

Try using the kernel in wheezy-backports. The first Jesse kernel will be 3.8.10, which will be uploaded to Wheezy's backports repository within a couple days. New hardware support has nothing to do with stability. By that measure OS X 10.8 is very unstable on the Macbook Pro 2.1! Also, I am running Wheezy on a sandybridge machine with no problems, so the issue might be limited to machines with ivybridge - or possibly just specific configurations (such as those using Intel graphics, which I am not).

Its those that use intel graphics, happens to ivy and sandy theres a thread on the debian forums many seem to be affected.

[Ph1b3r0pt1c]

Haven't heard of the "vanilla" driver, so I'll do some digging and try it out.

I'm not totally disappointed however. In Squeeze, if I didn't have the proprietary drivers installed, running the game "World of Goo" in full screen would render my desktop un-usable and I'd have to CTRL+ALT+F1 to kill the process. Using the open source drivers in Wheezy however, the game runs just fine in fullscreen, so apparently the open source drivers are improving.

On a side-note, what are you guys using, Gnome or Gnome "Classic"? Personally I've been using "Classic", because I just can't get past not having a menu to click on. It still "looks" a little sharper, like Gnome 3, but I still have my good old menus up top that I can click on.

Well, if you get it running, let me know. I had 0 luck with it on a wide range of hardware configs.

This is the driver btw:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx

[Growled Member]

Time to upgrade my server. :)

[Yorak]

It is true that many derivatives are built on Unstable, but I use Debian Stable (and sometimes Debian Testing when it's deep in release freeze) because it is the most stable distribution I have ever used. Debian has a very large collection of software in its repository, and it is all tested for security, stability, and integration. I have no problem sacrificing newer versions of software for extreme stability. New versions are only important if I need (or want) the new features. Debian just works, and I value that.

I understand. The stability of Debian is indeed superb to other distributions. It comes with Gnome 3.4.2, correct? That is one example of an older version that works better than new, because 3.6 and 3.8 are not quite as stable for me. I have been planning on building my own distribution based on Debian Unstable. Despite the name, I have never had an issue with stability, thankfully. To each their own. That is the beauty of Linux. To somebody looking in from the outside, they might think having thousands of distributions is a bad thing. However, to us geeks... we can appreciate the diversity.

[Karl L.]

Haven't heard of the "vanilla" driver, so I'll do some digging and try it out.

I'm not totally disappointed however. In Squeeze, if I didn't have the proprietary drivers installed, running the game "World of Goo" in full screen would render my desktop un-usable and I'd have to CTRL+ALT+F1 to kill the process. Using the open source drivers in Wheezy however, the game runs just fine in fullscreen, so apparently the open source drivers are improving.

On a side-note, what are you guys using, Gnome or Gnome "Classic"? Personally I've been using "Classic", because I just can't get past not having a menu to click on. It still "looks" a little sharper, like Gnome 3, but I still have my good old menus up top that I can click on.

The "vanilla" driver he mentioned is the upstream driver directly from AMD. You will still need to use AMD's legacy driver, however, because your card is no longer supported by the newest versions of the driver. I strongly recommend against installing the driver directly from the binary blob provided by AMD. The Debian packaging does more than just wrap the binaries, it makes the driver install, uninstall, and integrate with the system better.

[+ir0nw0lf Subscriber²]

Blu-ray install media? What in the world needs that size disc? Can't say I have seen any other Linux flavors with Blu-ray sized install media.

[n_K]

Blu-ray install media? What in the world needs that size disc? Can't say I have seen any other Linux flavors with Blu-ray sized install media.

Yeah but who burns discs? It's that size so you can get all the packages without needing an internet connection, most people will not use it but those that do will probably DD it to a USB or mount it directly from the ISO using virtualisation software.

[+ir0nw0lf Subscriber²]

People (like me) still burn discs, oh the horror. :s I was merely making an observation about it, not having seen such an option before on other distros. Just took me as a bit odd.

[Scroogled]

Wheezy? Is this named after Louise Jefferson?