We're pleased to announce that as of June 10, 2023, the latest version - Debian 12 "Bookworm" - is available. In this post, we want to give you a detailed look at the exciting changes and new features that define this release.
The development of Debian 12 "Bookworm" took almost two years and is based on the Linux kernel 6.1 LTS. This ensures support for modern hardware through new and updated drivers. In addition, it offers official support until December 2026.
Now let's take a closer look at the most important changes and new features in Debian 12 "Bookworm":
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Linux kernel 6.1 LTS: This updated kernel offers new and improved drivers for current hardware and guarantees support until December 2026.
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non-free-firmware repository: A separate non-free-firmware repository simplifies firmware management by clearly separating it from Debian's non-free repository.
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APFS support: Through the integration of the utilities apfsprogs and apfs-dkms, Debian now offers full read and write support for the Apple File System (APFS).
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NTFS to Btrfs conversion: With the new tool ntfs2btrfs, converting NTFS drives to Btrfs, a modern file system, is now possible.
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Changes in shell script creation: Instead of Bash as /bin/sh and the which tool, Debian now recommends using command -v for writing shell scripts.
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Broad system architecture support: Debian 12 offers support for a wide range of architectures, including 32-bit (i386), 64-bit (x86_64) and AArch64 (arm64).
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Inclusion of non-free firmware on installation media: This change makes installing Debian on current hardware significantly easier.
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Removal of support for parallel installed operating systems: This contributes to update stability and speeds up the installation process.
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GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 12.2: This new default compiler enables optimized system programming.
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New system logging: Debian 12 switches to journalctl for displaying log messages, enabling improved error handling and tracking.
In summary, exciting times lie ahead of us with Debian 12 "Bookworm". With support for this version until June 2028 and the many improvements, we're confident it will excite you too.
We look forward to your feedback and your experiences with Debian 12 "Bookworm" and are here to answer any questions. Until then, we wish you lots of fun trying out and exploring this new version!
