Like most Linux distributions, Debian GNU/Linux provides:
More than 3750 packages, ranging from news servers and readers to sound support, FAX programs, database and spreadsheet programs, image processing programs, communications, net, and mail utilities, Web servers, and even ham-radio programs are included in the distribution. Another 450 software suites are available as Debian packages, but are not formally part of Debian due to license restrictions.
For each package the authors of the program(s) are credited in the file /usr/doc/PACKAGE/copyright, where PACKAGE is to be substituted with the package's name.
Maintainers who package this software for the Debian GNU/Linux system are listed in the Debian control file (see What is a Debian control file?, Section 6.4) that comes with each package.
A complete list is available from any of the Debian mirrors
.
The file indices/Packages-Master-i386.gz provides a list, including short descriptions, of all packages that are available for computers with ix86 (and compatible) chips. There are similar files, at indices/Packages-Master-ARCH.gz, where ARCH is to be substituted by the appropriate architecture, that provide a similar list of packages that are available for such computers/architectures.
The WWW interface
to the Debian packages
conveniently summarizes the packages in each
of about twenty "sections" of the Debian archive.
Debian Policy requires that such symbolic links (to libfoo.so.x.y.z or similar) are placed in separate, development packages. Those packages are usually named libfoo-dev or libfooX-dev (presuming the library package is named libfooX, and X is a whole number).
A list of packages which are still needed to be packaged for Debian exists, the "Work-Needing and Prospective Packages" list. For more details, see How can I become a Debian software developer?, Section 12.1.
The Java Development Kit from Sun is currently available as a Debian package (jdkVVV_VVV-RRR.deb). The JDK will allow you to run Java programs and applets, and write your own. If your kernel is properly configured (see below), the JDK will allow you to run Java programs just like other executables. The JDK package also includes a number of demo programs.
Debian's default kernel is configured with Java support built in as a module (i.e., CONFIG_BINFMT_JAVA=m). Users who wish to build their own custom kernel (see What tools does Debian provide to build custom kernels?, Section 9.2) can omit this if they choose, of course. Once module support is available in the kernel, you need to make sure the module is loaded. You can do it at boot time by inserting the line binfmt_java in the file /etc/modules.
Alternatively, you can install the module from the command line by executing the command insmod DIRNAME/binfmt_java.o where DIRNAME is the name of the directory where the modules that have been built for the version of the kernel now running are stored. On a system with the 2.2.17 version of the kernel, DIRNAME is likely to be /lib/modules/2.2.17/fs/. You can check that a module is loaded using the command lsmod.
Running a Java applet requires a browser with the capability to recognize and execute them. The Netscape browser that can be installed as a Debian package will run Java applets. (The Netscape source code is not publicly available. The Debian netscape package provides a wrapper which aids the installation and management of Netscape on a Debian system. This is actually a good example of the integration of commercial packages with the Debian system.)
A final note of mixed blessings: Sun's licensing policies on the JDK are becoming more restricted with time, so this package may not be available as part of Debian soon. It is possible that it may be available in the same way that Netscape is available for Debian GNU/Linux. Better news is that a number of programs are currently being developed with may provide attractive publicly-available alternatives.
In order to make sure that your system has been installed from the real Debian base disks check for the existence of /etc/debian_version file, which contains a single one-line entry giving the version number of the release, as defined by the package base-files.
The existence of the program dpkg shows that you should be able to install Debian packages on your system, but as the program has been ported to many other operating systems and architectures, this is no longer a reliable method of determining is a system Debian GNU/Linux.
Users should be aware, however, that the Debian system consists of many parts, each of which can be updated (almost) independently. Each Debian "release" contains well defined and unchanging contents. Updates are separately available. For a one-line description of the installation status of package foo, use the command dpkg --list foo. To view versions of all installed packages, run:
dpkg -l
For a more verbose description, use:
dpkg --status foo
The installation prompts the user to specify the keyboard he will use.
For example, in the case of the Italian-language manual pages, LC_MESSAGES must
be set to 'it_IT'. The man
program will then search for Italian
manual pages under /usr/share/man/it_IT/.
US laws place restrictions on the export of defense articles, which includes some types of cryptographic software. PGP and ssh, among others, fall into this category.
To prevent anyone from taking unnecessary legal risks, certain Debian GNU/Linux
packages are only available from a non-US site ftp://non-US.debian.org/debian-non-US/
.
There are numerous mirror sites all of which are also outside of the US, see
ftp://non-US.debian.org/debian-non-US/README.non-US
for a full list.
Due to its restrictive license, it's in the non-free area. Moreover, since
license does not even allow modified binaries to be distributed, you have to
compile it yourself from the source and the Debian patches. For the
convenience of people using dselect, the source code for the Debian version of
pine is available in the packages pine396-src
and
pine396-diffs
, or pine4-src
and
pine4-diffs
for version 4.*.
Note that there are many replacements for both pine and pico, such as
mutt
and nano
, that are located in the main section.