Overview
Debian is a free operating system, developed by thousands of volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the Internet. The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its dedication to the Debian Social Contract and Free Software, and its commitment to provide the best operating system possible. This new release is another important step in that direction.
Highlights
- After 1 year, 9 months, and 28 days of development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 12 (code name "bookworm").
- Based on a cloud optimized Linux 6.1 kernel with support for Enhanced Networking and Elastic Network Adaptor (ENA) networking. These AMIs include awscli version 2, cloud-init, and boto.
- "bookworm" will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and the Debian Long Term Support team.
Details
Introducing multi-product solutions
You can now purchase comprehensive solutions tailored to use cases and industries.
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Additional details
Usage instructions
After launching your instance, connect to it using a Secure Shell (SSH) client with the SSH key you specified at launch. The default username is 'admin'.
Resources
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Support
Vendor support
Debian is developed and supported by a diverse global community. It can be reached through a variety of means including email, IRC, and web forums.
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
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Customer reviews
Server pipelines have become smoother and package vulnerabilities are handled efficiently
What is our primary use case?
My main use case is about server handling, creating pipelines, and maintaining Docker images that have been used in the DevOps field.
The work involves going into the server, running APT updates, maintaining the packages that are there, and checking all vulnerabilities that exist. I then fix those vulnerabilities using different packages, upgrade those packages, and install new packages as needed.
What is most valuable?
Debian functions as an umbrella where you will find all those packages that are available for Ubuntu as well as for different operating systems. I feel that Debian is one of the origins from which it all started, so contributing to it makes me feel special.
Debian has impacted my work significantly. All the upstream servers are on Ubuntu or Debian and I have to fix issues on them. That is what I have been working on.
Debian always provides zero downtime because all that is needed is to run pseudo APT upgrade and it fixes NGINX or the other packages that need to be fixed. It is straightforward to be used because APT is available for that purpose. APT produces Python packages as well as Node packages, and I just need to install them from there rather than having multiple sources.
What needs improvement?
I feel Debian contributors could receive a stipend. It is open source, but monetary support is always needed.
Because there is always a chance to improve things, I believe there is room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for the past six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Debian is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Debian is very high because everyone is an open-source contributor and there are many people supporting it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have evaluated Alpine images as well as yum packages and RHEL , Red Hat Enterprise Linux , but I felt Debian was better.
How was the initial setup?
There was nothing difficult about the initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
There was nothing difficult about the implementation team requirements.
What was our ROI?
There were no significant ROI concerns.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing and setup cost were straightforward from Amazon Web Services . I just needed to deploy it and everything worked out.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There were no alternate solutions that I needed to consider.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Lightweight platform has reduced cloud costs and has kept long‑running web apps reliable
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Debian includes numerous applications, ranging from running web applications on AWS EC2 instances using Debian 12 , and Debian 12 being the bedrock of Linux Mint, which I run on a personal Mac that is really old. Because of using Linux Mint, it has brought the laptop back to life and it is quick enough to use in a modern way even though the laptop is over a decade old.
I use Debian 12 for building a web application which runs on EC2 instances, and since Debian 12 is free on AWS , I believe it was made to be optimized for EC2 usage. Debian is one of the biggest and oldest Linux distributions, so it is one that came to mind when I was deciding which machine image to run.
Debian is deployed in my organization through the public cloud. I use Debian through the AWS Marketplace , but it is actually used on EC2 instances in AWS, which you would purchase through the EC2 page of the AWS console.
What is most valuable?
In my opinion, the best features Debian offers include its stability. The stable branch really is stable because once it is configured, I understand you can run it for a very long period of time without needing to reboot or update any of the components. That is really good when you want an application to be extremely stable and not go down, and you are happy using slightly older components. I also value the fact that Debian is open source, so it is free. That is very useful, and it has a big development community that builds it. I understand there are tens of thousands of software libraries which work with Debian from the apt package manager, APT, and also it is very lightweight, which I find to be good as well because that helps with cost savings.
Debian's lightweight design benefits my organization because it does not come with bloatware, minimizing RAM usage. Because of that, we can choose cheaper EC2 instances. You do not have to have as powerful RAM, which makes things cheaper, and also because it does not come with all this bloatware, it also makes it faster. So it is very efficient.
Debian positively impacts my organization by allowing us to utilize a much more lightweight operating system with Amazon EC2 instances, which greatly reduces costs because we can use EC2 instances with lower RAM. Cost savings are good. Debian is very well known across the industry, so different engineers from different teams know how to use it. Using the APT package manager is a common skill for cloud professionals, which makes it good, especially if you are hiring individuals into the company, because at least you would expect they have some type of background using Debian.
I do not know exact measurements, but I would expect we could save at least 10% of costs with EC2 instances just because our memory and CPU requirements would be lower because Debian is lightweight. So it would save cost to some degree.
What needs improvement?
I do not really think there are any improvements that need to be made. Debian is a very well-known distribution contributed to by tens of thousands of individuals, developers, and engineers, which makes it well optimized. The stable kernel because it is going to be older and naturally stable does not always support brand new components such as CPUs or specialized GPUs out of the box, which can make it difficult to use there. However, that is not much of a problem because Debian has different branches, including the testing and unstable branches.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Debian for maybe five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Debian is highly scalable because we can run it on AWS EC2 instances, so we could have zero or we could have tens of thousands of instances running it if we wanted to.
How are customer service and support?
My experience with customer support is that I use Debian on AWS, and Amazon's enterprise support is amazing. They get back to you extremely quickly and they are highly experienced. I have not needed help from the Debian community for assistance, but I would imagine that would be brilliant because the user community is massive for Debian.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Ubuntu . The reason for switching to Debian was that I found it a little more lightweight, and the stable branch is extremely stable, which is something I wanted for this particular web website project that I was working on.
What was our ROI?
It is very difficult to find an exact metric for return on investment because Debian is really a bedrock from which everything else is built upon. However, I would say that using Debian compared to other distributions which have more bloatware would be cheaper because we can run it on less powerful hardware. In terms of cost savings, we might see a cost of at least 10% reduction compared to distributions with more bloatware.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is free to use because Debian is open source, so there is no cost at all.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did evaluate other options before choosing Debian, but there is nothing more to add.
What other advice do I have?
I did not realize before starting to use Debian that there are different branches, which allows you to choose how stable or how up to date you want it to be. The stable branch, which is what I use, has features that are heavily tested. The software is older, but it does not break often at all because you have to manually update different components if you want them to do so. However, if you did want to use state-of-the-art components, you could consider the unstable version, which I have not personally used, but if I ever did want to do active development for the newest features, then I would be able to do that.
Debian is deployed in my organization through the public cloud. Using the APT package manager is a common skill for cloud professionals, which makes it good, especially if you are hiring individuals into the company, because at least you would expect they have some type of background using Debian.
I rate Debian a 10 because it is extremely stable, lightweight, fast, and open source, so it is free. The only real downsides are that there might be a learning curve because installing it requires a bit more technical experience than Ubuntu , and the hardware compatibility does not always work out of the box with the newest hardware. However, those things are to be expected if you are trying to configure something which is world-class and also highly stable. So I do not really see them as drawbacks; they are more considerations to be aware of.
My advice to others looking into using Debian is that I recommend using the stable branch if they want to make sure their application would be extremely stable, as it is a good way to go. Because it is so lightweight, it is very efficient to run Debian. There is a slight learning curve to it, which might make it a little harder to use than Ubuntu, but if experienced engineers are deploying it, I do not think that is a reason not to use it. I would recommend going for it.
Exceptionally Stable and Reliable Experience with Debian
Long-term platform has supported embedded work yet needs fresher packages and simpler sudo setup
What is our primary use case?
For my work and for my customers, I use Debian to cross-build for some other ARM devices that are used for Gilbarco, which are used in many US gas stations to provide fuel to cars. I bought some QEMU to allow developers to run the ARM on computers. I installed Debian on every i.MX8 device, and I think there are thousands in the US market, plus some other thousands worldwide.
Regarding my use case and interesting projects, I recently used Debian for Amazon and then for some other GitHub actions, still as a QEMU.
What is most valuable?
That long-term support has helped me and my customers by being stable and running well. Debian has positively impacted my organization and my customers.
What needs improvement?
Regarding needed improvements, I think sudo and the way sudo is configured, with visudo required, would help many newcomers to Debian because the learning curve on the configuration might have some challenges in the way it is done.
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
About the features of Debian, of course, it is a slow distribution like many others. The setup is fast and efficient, but it is not doing much. I am an embedded developer and a Linux developer, so I am happy with that. I can customize more, but then the hardware support and the packages are old. However, I am looking for stability, so old probably means stable, but it is not for every user.
How was the initial setup?
What other advice do I have?
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Daily work has become smoother and old hardware runs efficiently while community help stays active
What is our primary use case?
I use Debian for programming, maintaining my website, and learning Linux scripting. I also encourage my friends to use open-source operating systems such as Debian , Ubuntu , or any other Linux variant.
I am using Debian on my personal computer and also on my friend's computer. I am not using Debian at work.
I use Debian for all purposes and all of my computer activities, not for any specific feature or particular use case.
What is most valuable?
Debian's best features are that it is very light and very comfortable for even older computers.
Regarding speed, Debian feels light and comfortable to me, and it has significant community support. If anyone encounters a problem in Debian, they can connect to the Debian community and receive help very quickly. This is the main reason I use Debian, and I love using the terminal.
Since using Debian, I have noticed that whatever I need for my work is already available in Debian. The Debian community is very active, and if any new feature or concern comes up, as soon as they update Debian mirrors or the apt repository, I can install and use it.
What needs improvement?
Debian should have a reset feature; if something goes wrong, such as when I have installed or modified any root file, there should be a reset feature to restore my initial default settings. Additionally, I think Debian should allow for the removal of all dependencies when a particular requirement is not useful, as sometimes we install many things without knowing what they are.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Debian for almost twelve years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Debian is stable for my needs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very easy to scale Debian up or down if needed.
How are customer service and support?
When I have needed help with Debian, I received very quick support from the community.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Linux before Debian, and I was using Ubuntu prior to that, with Windows preceding those.
What was our ROI?
There is nothing as such for return on investment, but I do not need a new computer to run Debian or a highly configurable computer. I can run Debian on my old computer as well, which is very useful for saving money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I considered Ubuntu before choosing Debian.
What other advice do I have?
Since I support using open-source applications, my advice to others looking into using Debian is to embrace the freedom to use everything without limitations. I encourage people to use open-source applications and operating systems such as Debian and any Linux variant, so that what they are using remains open-source and useful to all.
Debian is doing a great job, and they should keep it up. Thank you.
I should note that since I mentioned I am using Debian on my personal computer, there were many questions regarding my workplace or my organization, so the questions should be classified based on earlier questions. I would rate this review an eight out of ten.