Debian 12 “Bookworm” operating system has been released with an update to Linux 6.1 LTS and a new non-free-firmware repository making it possible to separate non-free firmware from the other non-free packages.
This follows the Debian 11 “Bullseye” release in August 2021, and the version of Debian will serve as the base for other Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu and derivates, Raspberry Pi OS, and so on.
Debian 12 can be downloaded on a choice of desktop environments, namely Gnome 43, KDE Plasma 5.27, LXDE 11, LXQt 1.2.0, MATE 1.26, and Xfce 4.18. Bookworm includes a total of 64,419 packages many of which have been updated the to latest version.
Nine architectures are supported by Debian 12 “Bookworm”:
- 32-bit PC (i386) and 64-bit PC (amd64)
- 64-bit ARM (arm64)
- ARM EABI (armel)
- ARMv7 (EABI hard-float ABI, armhf)
- little-endian MIPS (mipsel)
- 64-bit little-endian MIPS (mips64el)
- 64-bit little-endian PowerPC (ppc64el)
- IBM System z (s390x)
But the developers highlight that 32-bit PC (i386) no longer covers any i586 processor, as the new minimum processor requirement is i686. So if your machine is not compatible with this requirement, you’ll want to stay with Bullseye. Debian 12 does re-introduce support for Secure Boot on ARM64, so users of UEFI-capable ARM64 hardware can boot with Secure Boot mode enabled. Note that RISC-V architecture is not officially supported, but I did test Debian 12 on StarFive Vision 2 SBC a few months ago, so work is being done here.
Debian 12 also benefits from the 5-year support window introduced with Debian 11, meaning it will be supported until at least June 2028. You can find more details about the changes in the release notes, and try one of the live ISOs for AMD64 target with your preferred desktop environment. It’s unclear when Raspberry Pi OS will be updated to Debian 12, but it may take a few more months, as Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye was released about three months after the official release of Debian 11.
Via Liliputing
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I just updated my wives pc to the latest point release of 11 2 days ago, I didn’t believe in the release date 🙃 i went with it’s done when it’s done