Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux. Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with more than 3950 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.


Debian is the only software distribution (that I know of!) having names instead of numbers and that too from cartoon characters. Each release has a codename, which represent the characters of the epic Toy Story. If you had seen the movies, you would enjoy the interpolation of the names. Like the name sid representing the unstable version, refers to the evil boy next door who always breaks things. Here are the descriptions of other characters in the movie.

* buzz (Buzz Lightyear) was the spaceman
* rex was the tyrannosaurus
* bo (Bo Peep) was the girl who took care of the sheep
* hamm was the piggy bank
* slink (Slinky Dog) was the toy dog
* potato was, of course, Mr. Potato
* woody was the cowboy
* sid was a boy next door who destroyed toys

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V.Vadivelan

There never a wrong time to do the right thing.