Debian 12.0 Released - Powered By Linux 6.1 LTS, Easier Non-Free Firmware Handling

Following more than one and a half years in development, Debian 12 is officially shipping today as the latest major release for this long-maintained Linux distribution.

Over the Debian 11 stable series there is a plethora of package updates to enjoy with Debian 12. Debian 12 is powered by the Linux 6.1 LTS kernel, packages are built using the GCC 12.2 compiler, the LLVM/Clang 14 compiler is also available along with an LLVM/Clang 15 option, PHP 8.2 the default version, Rust 1.63 is available, Glibc 2.36 is in use, and a wealth of other package updates. On the desktop side, GNOME 43, KDE Plasma 5.27, Xfce 4.18, LXDE 11, and MATE 1.26 are among the desktop options.

Some of the other work in Debian 12 includes easier handling of non-free firmware thanks to its new repository and installer integration, UEFI on ARM64 support, and many other changes in keeping up with other modern Linux environments.

Downloads and more information on the Debian 12.0 release can be found via this morning's official announcement on Debian.org. There are 11,089 new packages in Debian 12 for a total package count of 64,419.

Debian 12 benchmarks will be coming up on Phoronix beginning next week.