5

Chapter 2

Getting and installing Debian

GNU/Linux

2.1 What is the latest version of Debian?

Currently there are three versions of Debian GNU/Linux:

release 3.1, a.k.a. the `stable' distribution This is stable and well tested software, it changes if

major security or usability fixes are incorporated.

the `testing' distribution This is where packages that will be released as the next `stable' are

placed; they've had some testing in unstable but they may not be completely fit for re 

lease yet. This distribution is updated more often than `stable', but not more often than

`unstable'.

the `unstable' distribution This is the version currently under development; it is updated con 

tinuously. You can retrieve packages from the `unstable' archive on any Debian FTP site

and use them to upgrade your system at any time, but you may not expect the system to

be as usable or as stable as before   that's why it's called `unstable'!

Please see `How many Debian distributions are there in the

dists

directory?' on page

19

for

more information.

2.2 Are there package upgrades in `stable'?

No new functionality is added to the stable release. Once a Debian version is released and

tagged `stable' it will only get security updates. That is, only packages for which a security

vulnerability has been found after the release will be upgraded. All the security updates are

served through security.debian.org (

ftp://security.debian.org

).