Hi,

Debian has released new stable version after Debian Etch 4.0

http://www.debian.org/

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 released

February 14th, 2009

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of
Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed "Lenny") after 22 months of
constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system
which supports a total of twelve processor architectures and includes
the KDE, GNOME, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. It also features
compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.2
of the LSB.

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.

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

Upgrades to Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 from the previous release, Debian
GNU/Linux 4.0 (codenamed "Etch") are automatically handled by the
aptitude package management tool for most configurations, and to a
certain degree also by the apt-get package management tool. As always,
Debian GNU/Linux systems can be upgraded painlessly, in place, without
any forced downtime, but it is strongly recommended to read the
release notes 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.

Dedication

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a Debian
Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident.
Thiemo was involved in Debian in many ways. He has maintained several
packages and was the main supporter of the Debian port to the MIPS
architectures. He was also a member of our kernel team, as well as a
member of the Debian Installer team. His contributions reached far
beyond the Debian project. He also worked on the MIPS port of the
Linux kernel, the MIPS emulation of qemu, and far too many smaller
projects to be named here.

Thiemo's work, commitment, broad technical knowledge and ability to
share this with others will be missed. Thiemo's contributions will not
be forgotten. The high standards of his work make it hard to pick up.

About Debian

Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet. Debian's dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.

The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to
provide the best operating system possible. Debian 5.0 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 <press@...>.


Enjoy
- Ravi