The Debian project announced the release of Debian 10.7 “Buster”. In this summary post, we take a look at what’s new and Download, Upgrade Steps of Debian 10.7.
Debian is the most stable and truly GNU/Linux distribution out there today. It’s one of the oldest Linux operating systems and popular for its stable nature. Debian project lifecycle is conservative in terms of adopting new features and changes immediately upon release. This is the main reason it is stable and preferred for most critical deployments for enterprises and average users.
The current Debian “Buster” series 10.0 released in July 2019 and since then the Debian project released a total of 7 point releases including the current 10.7 point release.
Being a point release, Debian 10.7 will not adopt new features in Kernel or Desktop Environment packages. It only includes critical security fixes of Linux Kernel and default applications. This is to make sure not to break your production or daily driver system with new packages surprising you on one fine morning!
The security fix list is moderate at this point release, here are some of the important ones from the changelog.
Debian 10.7 Buster – What’s Fixed
- Linux Kernel – 4.19.0-13
- Many CVEs fixed across DOS Attacks, segmentation faults, NULL pointer issues in packages – vips, sqlite3, ruby 2.5, puma, libxml2, etc.
- Distribution information package (distro-info-data) updated to Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo.
- Unix printing system package CUPS fixes an invalid printer alert problem.
- A migration assistance added to enigmail for THunderbird’s built-in GPG support.
The detailed changelog is available here.
Download
Debian provides different types of ISO with free and “non-free” packages. A truly GNU/Linux way. If you are running older hardware, you might want to get the “non-free” .iso to make sure your hardware is supported properly. Here’s a quick list of the download links (amd64). If you are not sure which one to choose, try the non-free DVD package – you should be good to go.
Debian 10.7 – free CD (small package – minimal) – Torrent
Debian 10.7 – free DVD (large package – ~4GB) – Torrent (DVD 1) | DVD 2 | DVD 3
Debian 10.7 – non-free DVD (large package – ~4GB) – Torrent
Debian 10.7 – non-free CD (small package – minimal) – Torrent
Remember, while installing as a fresh system, you get to choose the Desktop Environment such as Xfce, KDE Plasma, etc. But for that, you need an internet connection during the install. By-default Debian comes with “Debian Desktop Environment” which is based on almost vanilla GNOME.
Upgrade
If you are running Debian 10.6 already, the upgrade is easy. Launch your update manager for on-screen instruction; Or, run the below commands from a terminal.
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Debian (Stable) Based Linux Distributions
There are many Debian based Linux distributions for wide purposes. The mainstream and popular ones are planning to upgrade their current releases with Debian 10.7 buster such as MX Linux, Deepin, and Sparky Linux.
Considering the stable nature of Debian, this is a timely release with critical security issues fixed. Debian 11 Bullseye which is planning for code freeze on early 2021 is under development at the moment.
