Debian 8 General Guide

Debian is a free, non-proprietary Linux-based operating system founded by Ian Murdock in 1993. Bundled with a secure, lightweight, but fully featured software suite, Debian is an ideal platform for general purpose computing.

An active development community, along with the general purpose software ecosystem and free license, make Debian a highly popular choice for running a web server.

Easy Package Management

Debian uses dpkg and APT for easy package management. The dpkg program provides easy-to-use command-line arguments for decompressing and installing Debian (.deb) executables. APT augments the package system with the apt-get program, which lets you install and uninstall programs from various repositories on the web and also provides some extra usability features. Both of these systems come pre-installed with Debian.

Pros and Cons of Debian 8

Pros	Cons
Cost: free Audience: general purpose Community support (forums, mailing lists) Pre-packaged dependencies	Do it yourself architecture (no phone or chat support) Some commercial software not supported Not all hardware supported

Final Thoughts

Debian is a highly popular operating system for web servers. Important software and dependencies come pre-installed. You can request a Debian operating system with your Cloud Server.

Learn more from our Cloud Server Hosting Product Guide.