[9][10] On June 16, 1997, the Debian Project founded the nonprofit organization Software in the Public Interest to continue financing its development.

[49] There was a large reaction because the proposal looked more like a decision and because such a drop would damage Debian's aim to be "the universal operating system".

[53] Because it was distributed as a free download, it became one of the most popular and successful operating systems with more than "40 million users" according to Canonical Ltd.[54][55] However, Murdock was critical of the differences between Ubuntu packages and Debian, stating that it led to incompatibilities.

[22] Debian 5.0 (Lenny) was released in February 2009, supporting Marvell's Orion platform and netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC.

[74] Debian 12 (Bookworm) was released on June 10, 2023, including various improvements and features, increasing the supported Linux Kernel to version 6.1, and leveraging new "Emerald" artwork.

[86] Debian includes popular free programs such as LibreOffice,[87] Firefox web browser, Evolution mail, K3b disc burner, VLC media player, GIMP image editor, and Evince document viewer.

[91][92] Debian offers CD and DVD images specifically built for Xfce, GNOME, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, and LXQt.

[95] The default desktop environment of version 7 Wheezy was temporarily switched to Xfce, because GNOME 3 did not fit on the first CD of the set.

[98] Several parts of Debian are translated into languages other than American English, including package descriptions, configuration messages, documentation and the website.

[99] The level of software localization depends on the language, ranging from the highly supported German and French to the barely translated Creek and Samoan.

[101] Multimedia support has been problematic in Debian regarding codecs threatened by possible patent infringements, lacking source code, or under too restrictive licenses.

[103] A notable third party repository exists, formerly named Debian-multimedia.org,[104][105][106] providing software not present in Debian such as Windows codecs, libdvdcss and the Adobe Flash Player.

Eventually, project leader Stefano Zacchiroli asked Marillat to either settle an agreement about the packaging or to stop using the "Debian" name.

The default desktop may be chosen from the DVD boot menu among GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, and LXQt and from special disc 1 CDs.

[114][115] Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for IA-32 and x86-64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments.

[118] Package management operations can be performed with different tools available on Debian, from the lowest level command dpkg to graphical front-ends like Synaptic.

[134] The internal dissent in the Debian project regarding the non-free section has persisted,[135] but the last time it came to a vote in 2004, the majority decided to keep it.

Initially, the swirl was magic smoke arising from an also included bottle of an Arabian-style genie presented in black profile, but shortly after was reduced to the red smoke swirl for situations where space or multiple colours were not an option, and before long the bottle version effectively was superseded[disputed – discuss].

The former Debian project leader Bruce Perens used to work for Pixar and is credited as a studio tools engineer on Toy Story 2 (1999).

[175] Other supported NAS devices are the Buffalo Kurobox Pro,[176] GLAN Tank, Thecus N2100[177] and QNAP Turbo Stations.

[176] Devices based on the Kirkwood system on a chip (SoC) are supported too, such as the SheevaPlug plug computer and OpenRD products.

[185] BeagleBoard, a low-power open-source hardware single-board computer (made by Texas Instruments) has switched to Debian Linux preloaded on its Beaglebone Black board's flash.

[203] These applicants must undergo a vetting process which establishes their identity, motivation, understanding of the project's principles, and technical competence.

[212][213] The maintainer keeps track of upstream releases, and ensures that the package coheres with the rest of the distribution and meets the standards of quality of Debian.

A new release occurs after a freeze, when all important software is reasonably up-to-date in the Testing branch and any other significant issues are solved.

For each Debian release, it will receive two years of extra security updates provided by LTS Team after its End Of Life (EOL).

[236][237] The complete resolution procedure was cumbersome because patching the security hole was not enough; it involved regenerating all affected keys and certificates.

[238] The cost of developing all of the packages included in Debian 5.0 Lenny (323 million lines of code) has been estimated to be about US$8 billion, using one method based on the COCOMO model.

[239] As of May 2024[update], Black Duck Open Hub estimated that the current codebase (74 million lines of code) would cost about US$1.6 billion to develop, using a different method based on the same model.

Debian developers cited OSS, pf, jails, NDIS, and ZFS as reasons for being interested in the FreeBSD kernel.