Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (lenny) Released
The long-awaited Debian 5.0 release, code named "lenny", was released over the weekend. One of the advantages of Debian Linux is the variety of systems and architectures it supports. So far this morning I have installed it, without problem, on the following systems:
- Fujitsu Lifebook S6510: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 965GM display controller. Installed from i386 netinst image
- Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S2110: AMD Turion 64 CPU, ATI display controller. Installed from amd64 netinst image
- HP 2133 Mini-Note: VIA C-7 CPU, Chrome 9 display controller. Installed from i386 netinst image.
- HP AlphaServer DS10: Alpha CPU, no graphics, serial console. Installed from alpha netinst image.
The netinst distribution image is a small CD, less than 200 MB, which I write to a "Pocket CD-R". When you install it, the base system comes from the CD, and then it downloads the rest of the installation from the internet.
The installation on the HP Mini-Note was amazingly easy, and I expected it to be rather difficult. Although it got the screen resolution completely wrong (1920x1440 or some such), it at least came up, and I was able to log in and copy the latest openchrome display driver from another partition.
I suspect that this release will open the gates for a number of other releases, as various Linux distributions have been in "Waiting for Lenny" mode.
jw 16/2/2009