Debian GNU/Linux 0.93 release update
Debian GNU/Linux 0.93 will be released on September 25, 1995, the
Debian Project announced today. This release will be the sixth of
version 0.93, which has been under development for over a year. It
represents the first official release from the Debian Project since
January 1994. Release 5 of version 0.93, an unofficial BETA release,
has been available to the public since March 1995, and has received
rave reviews from its users.
"Many people have criticized us for not releasing something every
few months," says Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian Project, "but
the end result is a system that is far more robust and stable than
the competition. This is due to the fact that we are releasing
a system that has been in extensive production use for almost a
year. Not many people about to release a new system can say that."
Debian GNU/Linux includes hundreds of software packages, including
most GNU software, TeX, and the X Window System. Each package is an
independent and modular unit, in that it is not associated with
any particular release of the complete system or distribution scheme.
Anyone can create their own packages and even upload them to be made
available with the distribution or as a part of the distribution.
Release 6 features an easy-to-use installation program that does
not require knowledge of disk partitioning. A user need only select a
disk with sufficient space available and the system is automatically
installed to it with a minimum of questions. Also new in Release 6
is a 100+ page manual documenting the installation process in detail.
Of course, Debian GNU/Linux is best known for its upgradability.
It is upgradable incrementally and "in place". This means that users
can upgrade individual packages or entire systems when they become
available without having to reformat and reinstall. A user can choose
to upgrade certain new or updated components as they are released, or
she can choose to install an entire new release at once. The package
maintenance system, called dpkg, makes sure that package conflicts and
dependencies are resolved, and it intelligently updates configuration
files to preserve any changes the user made before the upgrade process.
Debian GNU/Linux 0.93 will be the last release that uses the a.out
binary format. Version 1.0 and beyond will use the ELF binary format.
As always, Debian GNU/Linux 0.93 will be upgradable to 1.0, without
the need to reformat or reinstall.
For more information about Debian GNU/Linux, please visit the World
Wide Web page `http://www.debian.org/'.
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