Debian 12: Milestone Linux Distro

Debian 12, known as “Bookworm”, was released on June 10th 2023. Here we take a look at this popular and important Linux distro -- including download and installation, setting up an NVIDIA GPU driver, as well as the GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXDE and Cinnamon desktops.

The news release for the launch of Debian 12 is here:

You may also be interested in my reviews of:

Linux Mint 21:

Ubuntu 22.04:

Zorin OS 16:

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More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:01 Bookworm arrives
03:20 Installation
06:59 What’s New?
10:46 NVIDIA Driver
12:50 Desktops
16:00 A Linux Milestone

#Debian #Debian12 #Bookworm #Linux #explainingcomputers

[JeffGeerling]

I'm happy Debian keeps pumping out solid full distros with tons of excellent software packages. There was a time a few years ago I feared we'd all have to use Docker or strange new packaging systems just to install anything on Linux desktops!

[michaeljijus]

You sold it to me.
I always wanted to try Linux thingie and now I'll.
Thank you for excellent video!!

[jonathanleach]

Very helpful. It’s great to see software that will support older machines with continued functionality, rather than adding to e waste

[GGHF]

The moment Debian 12 came out, I kept visiting this channel often hoping to see your video on it. It didn't disappoint, since I love how you show and explain everything. I even went back to see a bunch of other videos of yours while I waited and really enjoyed them. Your work has done a lot in re-igniting my interest in computers and technology in general. Thank you and take care!

[perrymcclusky]

I’ll have to try and reproduce what you did for an old PC I have. Happy Debian 12 supports 32-bit machines still. Looking forward to your next video!

[johncundiff]

Still love Mint, but l, as always, I learned something! You are such a practical genius Mr. Barnatt!

[kriskelvin]

Thanks Chris for keeping us up to date on all these important issues

[sbc_tinkerer]

Long time fan of Debian I started with Squeeze. Exremely stable releases. Love it.

[encyclpedia-]

Another great video, Chris! I'm running Debian 11 (Bullseye) right now. I liked how the installer enabled you to install it without a GUI which is nice for me because I prefer to compile DWM for X. I don't recommend this for everyone because a preinstalled DE usually takes care of a lot of stuff like volume control, Bluetooth control, media buttons, etc.

[klwtherd]

I've never tried Debian directly as an OS i'm a huge Zorin OS user. But I have to admit that the desktop looks clean and it seems they are make good progress with software integration going forward. Great video.

[benarcher]

Thanks for pointing out that there exists a 32-bit version of Debian 12.

[burgermeister]

Once again, Chris, great video. I had no idea Debian 12 was due fir release. i just installed Debian 11 on my HTPC a few months back. I like it so much I may go ahead and install Debian 12 on my main driver. Have a great weekend... Joe

[Uniblab]

...and now my Sunday morning is complete.

[billbrown]

I just installed Debian 12 on an old Toshiba I-3 laptop in place of Mint Plasma. The Gnome desktop will take a few days to sink in, but the laptop is noticeably more responsive. I’m happy.

[sbc_tinkerer]

Happy Father's Day to all of the dad's out there whether you celebrate or not.

[mikefinn]

Peter great to see you again and see your progress and very educational and interesting videos. Really enjoyed something new and learning from you. Again many thanks for you over the top kindness and very well presented videos you to a top notch job. Love it and sure made my evening so enjoyable. Super thanks Mike

[davidwayne]

YES-- I installed it yesterday- after testing it a while-- and LOVE IT.. I use the Vanilla Debian 12- and added KDE on it myself to keep it as sparse and lean as i could... and it's GREAT-- ROCK SOLID- VERY FAST- easy to work with- and just PERFECT!!!! I use Sparky Linux as backup (it's debian wtih kde too- and is also VERY VERY FAST and simple- and full of tools.)

[kyoudaiken]

Debian is EXTREMELY conservative. It's good to see that the kernel isn't that old anymore. 6.1 seems reasonable, although still on the older side. Firefox ESR, I don't understand this choice to this day. The NVidia driver should be selectble in the installation or where you can enable non-free stuff as well in the GPU. I'll stay with Manjaro, even though I have to compile Mesa because the package Manjaro offers does not include hardware accelerated decoding for MPEG codecs via GPU... The next distro I might try is actually NIX OS, with reproducible setups based on a single configuration file.

[HermannKerr]

The first time I installed Debian, I installed it with four floppy disks and an internet install. I initially couldn't get the GUI working so I did everything running off the green screen (Lynx is cool) and set up a file and print sharing on a network using token ring and Ethernet. Even recompiled the kernel to use OS/2 drives after the OS/2 Landserver's motherboard failed, someone told me that it was a real bad thing to do but it really booted fast. I booted Knoppix to get a configuration for the GUI. I love Debian. I got a bad habit of using Ubuntu because it was easy sort of like driving a car with an automatic transmission. I think it is time to get back to the stick shift.

[clark-r]

What a modern and smart move to include the hardware repositories. Maybe so many won't tag Debian as a "more difficult" OS now. I imagine a lot of new users will be saying: "Wow, this just works."