A large part of the basic tools that fill out the  operating system come from the GNU project; hence the names: GNU/Linux  and GNU/Hurd. These tools are also free. Of course, the thing that  people want is application software: programs to help them get what they  want to do done, from editing documents to running a business to  playing games to writing more software. Debian comes with over 25113  packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for  easy installation on your machine) — all of it free.

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

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny  adds support for Marvell's Orion platform which is used in many storage  devices. Supported storage devices include the QNAP Turbo Station  series, HP Media Vault mv2120, and Buffalo Kurobox Pro. Additionally,  Lenny now supports several Netbooks, in particular the Eee PC by Asus.  Lenny also contains the build tools for Emdebian which allow Debian  source packages to be cross-built and shrunk to suit embedded ARM  systems.

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny includes the new ARM EABI  port, armel. This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern  and future ARM processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now  been deprecated.

This release includes numerous updated software  packages, such as the K Desktop Environment 3.5.10 (KDE), an updated  version of the GNOME desktop environment 2.22.2, the Xfce 4.4.2 desktop  environment, LXDE 0.3.2.1, the GNUstep desktop 7.3, X.Org 7.3,  OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7, Iceweasel 3.0.6 (an unbranded version  of Mozilla Firefox), Icedove 2.0.0.19 (an unbranded version of Mozilla  Thunderbird), PostgreSQL 8.3.6, MySQL 5.0.51a, GNU Compiler Collection  4.3.2, Linux kernel version 2.6.26, Apache 2.2.9, Samba 3.2.5, Python  2.5.2 and 2.4.6, Perl 5.10.0, PHP 5.2.6, Asterisk 1.4.21.2, Emacs 22,  Inkscape 0.46, Nagios 3.06, Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1 (dom0 as well as domU  support), OpenJDK 6b11, and more than 23,000 other ready-to-use software  packages (built from over 12,000 source packages).

With the  integration of X.Org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself with most  hardware. Newly introduced packages allow the full support of NTFS  filesystems and the use of most multimedia keys out of the box. Support  for Adobe® Flash® format files is available via the swfdec or Gnash  plugins. Overall improvements for notebooks have been introduced, such  as out of the box support of CPU frequency scaling. For leisure time  several new games have been added, including puzzle games as well as  first-person shooters. Also notable is the introduction of goplay, a  graphical games browser offering filters, search, screenshots and  descriptions for games in Debian.

The availability and updates of  OpenJDK, GNU Java compiler, GNU Java bytecode interpreter, Classpath and  other free versions of Sun's Java technology, into Debian GNU/Linux 5.0  allow us to ship Java-based applications in Debian's main repository.

Further  improvements in system security include the installation of available  security updates before the first reboot by the Debian Installer, the  reduction of setuid root binaries and open ports in the standard  installation, and the use of GCC hardening features in the builds of  several security-critical packages. Various applications have specific  improvements, too. PHP for example is now built with the Suhosin  hardening patch.

For non-native English speaking users the package  management systems now support translated package descriptions and will  automatically show the description of a package in the native language  of the user, if available.

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. Other desktop environments — KDE, Xfce, or  LXDE — can be installed through two new alternative CD images. Again  available with Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 are multi-arch CDs and DVDs  supporting installation of multiple architectures from a single disc;  and this release adds Blu-ray Discs, allowing the archive for an entire  architecture to be shipped on a single BD.

In addition to the  regular installation media, Debian GNU/Linux can now also be directly  used without prior installation. The special images used, known as live  images, are available for CDs, USB sticks, and netboot setups.  Initially, these are provided for the amd64 and i386 architectures only.

The  installation process for Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 has been improved in many  ways: among many other improvements, support for installation from more  than one CD or DVD has been restored, firmware required by some devices  can be loaded by using removable media, and installations via Braille  display are supported. The installer boot process has also received much  attention: a graphical menu can be used to choose front-ends and  desktop environments, and to select expert or rescue mode. The  installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been translated to 63  languages.

January 30th, 2010
The  Debian project is pleased to announce the third update of its stable  distribution Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (codename lenny). This update mainly  adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with  a few adjustment to serious problems.
Please note that this update  does not constitute a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 but only  updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away  5.0 CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after  an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated.
Those  who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won't have to  update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are  included in this update.