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Current Release for Debian Dedicated Servers: Release 4.0 – code named “etch”.

Website: http://www.debian.org/

Wikipedia Reference: Debian dedicated server

Experts agree that Debian dedicated servers are built on a solid platform. The Debian community is compromised of hundreds of developers that are part of an open source community that is highly organized under the “Debian Social Contract”, the “Debian Free Software Guidelines”, and the “Debian Constitution”. Debian dedicated servers are considered to be stable due to the many years of development behind Debian. It was first released in August 1993. The name Debian is a combination of the founder’s name, Ian Murdock” with his wife’s name, “Debra”.

Debian dedicated servers have the advantage of the vast number of well-tested packages. There are over 1,800 packages on the latest release. Each package for your Debian dedicated server must go through rigorous testing and debugging before the developers can include it in the stable branch or release. Some Debian dedicated server users have criticized Debian for its slow release schedule. It is not unusual for a new Debian release to occur yearly while other distributions of Linux may occur several times throughout the year. In fact, Debian has released only nine stable releases since 1996. However, a slower release schedule may also add stability in the mind of many Debian dedicated server customers.

Debian dedicated servers feature a professional package management system called “Advanced Package Tool” or APT. The package manager provides an interface for downloading packages, configuring them to the Debian dedicated server and installing them. A derivative of the package manager was created to be compatible with the ubiquitous RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) and appropriately called apt-rpm.

APT is really a collection of programs, including apt-get and apt-cache. When a package is installed, dependencies are detected and the user has the option of installing the dependencies automatically. Debian dedicated server customers should use APT to ensure their system is kept up to date and secure. Debian’s package manager is one of its best known features.