Debian GNU/Linux

The default Debian distro also only allows free software by a definition that is stricter than most. For instance, the licenses Firefox and Mame do not meet the requirements to be in the main repository. A custom compiled Firefox called IceWeasel is provided instead. Many apps available in the main repo are modified to meet Debian's definition or for other reasons. The Debian project has been criticized both for providing a non-free repository as well as not including non-free apps in the main repository. Stable Debian versions are slow in coming, but there are unstable versions available every 6 months. Ubuntu is generally based on the unstable versions of Debian.

Names for Debian Releases are taken from the Toy Story movies (buzz, rex, bo, hamm, slink, potato, woddy, sarge, etch, lenny, squeeze). No announcements have been made for how or if Wheezy, Hockey Puck, Shark, Mike, Mr. Spell, Mrs. Potato, RC, Rocky, Farmer Says, Roly Poly, Carl, Hand-in-the-box, Babyface, Ducky, Legs, The Frog, RollerBob, Joe, Rockmobile, Car, Janie, Pterodactyl, Zurg, Zurg's Robots, Jessie, Bullseye, Stinky Pete/Prospector, Barbie, Andy, Sid, Hannah, Marie Antoinette, Sally, Snake, Robot, Troikas, Troll, Fire Truck, Barrel of Monkeys, 8-ball, Dolly, Teddy, Molly, Mickey, Pickup, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Mrs. Davis, Mr. Phillips, Mrs. Phillips, Geri, Buster, Crazy Critters, Scud, Cards, Death Card, Speck, Chuckles, Tinny, Ken, Whiskers, Nightmare Arms, or Al will be used.

Supported CPU archs:

• Alpha (since 2.1)
  
• arm (since 2.2)
  
• armeb (planned)
  
• armel (planned)
  
• StrongArm
  
• hppa (since 3.0)
  
• i386 (x86)
  
• ia64 (since 3.0)
  
• amd64 (since 3.1)
  
• 68k (2.0-3.1, official support has been dropped in 4.0)
  
• loongson (since 3.0)
  
• m32r (planned)
  
• mips (since 3.0)
  
• mipsel (PlayStation 3, since 3.0)
  
• ppc (since 2.2)
  
• ppc64 (planned)
  
• s390 (since 3.0)
  
• s390x (since 3.0)
  
• sh (planned)
  
• shx (planned)
  
• sparc (2.1-4.0, official SPARK32 support will been dropped in 5.0)
  
• sparc64 (kernel only, still runs 32-bit apps)
  
• SuperH (planned)

Kernels and apps for the dropped architectures, as well as some of the planned architectures, are to be available with unstable versions.