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<chapt id="getting">Getting and installing &debian;

<p>The official document giving installation instructions is the <url
id="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual" name="Debian GNU/Linux
Installation Guide">.  We'll give some additional notes about getting and
installing &debian; here.

<sect id="version">What is the latest version of Debian?

<p>Currently there are three versions of &debian;:
<taglist>
  <tag><em/release &release;, a.k.a. the `stable' distribution or &releasename;/
    <item>This is stable and well tested software, it changes if major
    security or usability fixes are incorporated.
  <tag><em/the `testing' distribution, currently called &testingreleasename;/
    <item>This is where packages that will be released as the next `stable'
    are placed; they've had some testing in unstable but they may not be
    completely fit for release yet. This distribution is updated more often
    than `stable', but not more often than `unstable'.
  <tag><em/the `unstable' distribution/
    <item>This is the version currently under development; it is updated
    continuously.  You can retrieve packages from the `unstable' archive
    on any Debian FTP site and use them to upgrade your system at any
    time, but you may not expect the system to be as usable or as stable
    as before - that's why it's called `<strong/unstable/'!
</taglist>

<p>Please see <ref id="dists"> for more information.

<sect id="updatestable">Are there package upgrades in `stable'?

<p>No new functionality is added to the stable release. Once a Debian
version is released and tagged `stable' it will only get security
updates. That is, only packages for which a security vulnerability has
been found after the release will be upgraded. All the security
updates are served through <url name="security.debian.org"
id="ftp://security.debian.org">.</p>

<p>Security updates serve one purpose: to supply a fix for a security
vulnerability.  They are not a method for sneaking additional changes
into the stable release without going through normal point release
procedure. Consequently, fixes for packages with security issues will
not upgrade the software. The Debian Security Team will backport the
necessary fixes to the version of the software distributed in `stable'
instead.</p>

<p>For more information related to security support please read the
<url name="Security FAQ" id="http://www.debian.org/security/faq"> or
the <url name="Debian Security Manual"
id="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/">.

<sect id="boot-floppies">Where/how can I get the Debian installation disks?

<p>You can get the installation disks by downloading the appropriate files
from one of the
<url name="Debian mirrors" id="http://www.debian.org/mirror/list">.

<p>Please refer to <url name="Debian GNU/Linux on CDs"
id="http://www.debian.org/CD"> for more information about CD (and DVD) images.

<sect id="cdrom">How do I install the Debian from CD-ROMs?

<p>Installing Debian from CD is straightforward: configure your system for booting
off a CD, insert your CD, and reboot.  Your system will now be running the
Debian Installer.  See the <url
id="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual" name="Debian GNU/Linux
Installation Guide"> for more information.

<sect id="cdimage-symlinks">Why does the official stable released CD-ROM
contain symlinks for `frozen' and `unstable'?  I thought this CD contains just
`stable'!

<p>Official Debian CD images indeed contain symlinks like:

<example>
 /dists/frozen -> &releasename;/
 /dists/stable -> &releasename;/
 /dists/testing -> &releasename;/
 /dists/unstable -> &releasename;/
</example>

<p>so that they work when your sources.list has an entry like

<example>
 deb cdrom:[&lt;name as on cd label&gt;]/ unstable main [...]
</example>
.

<p>The fact these symlinks are present does <em>not</em> mean the image is
`unstable' or `testing' or anything.  Read the CD label in
<file>/.disk/info</file> to find out which Debian version it contains.  This
information is also present in <file>/README.txt</file> on the CD.

<p>Read <url id="http://www.debian.org/releases/"> to find out what the current
`stable' and `testing' releases are.

<sect id="remoteinstall">Can I get and install Debian directly from a
  remote Internet site?

<p>Yes. You can boot the Debian installation system from a set of files
you can download from our FTP site and its mirrors.

<p>You can download a small CD image file, create a bootable CD from it,
install the basic system from it and the rest over the network. For more
information please see <url id="http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/">.

<p>You can also download even smaller floppy disk image files, create
bootable diskettes from them, start the installation procedure and get the
rest of Debian over the network.

<sect id="alternativebootinstaller">Are there any alternative strategies for booting
the system installer?

<p>Yes.  Apart from CD or DVD, you can install Debian GNU/Linux by booting from
floppy disks, USB memory stick, directly from hard disk, or using TFTP net
booting.  For installing on multiple computers it's possible to do fully
automatic installations.  NB: not all methods are supported by all computer
architectures.  Once the installer has booted, the rest of the system can be
downloaded over the network, or installed from local media.  See the <url
id="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual" name="Debian GNU/Linux
Installation Guide"> for more information.
