Er, wait…that’s not the right image for Debian 13.

Debian’s version names are based on the movie Toy Story and Trixie is “just a dinosaur down the street”.  This prehistoric playpal is a…triceratops, I think?  I guess I’m showing my age.  I was born after dinomania really took off, and if you say “Trixie” to me, the first thing I think of is Speed Racer‘s girlfriend.  Wait, Speed Racer is anime so…I’m cool…?

What is inarguably cool is Debian, the world’s greatest Linux distribution and now its latest incarnation is coming out on August 9th.

We are planning to release trixie on August 9th. There will be release parties, see [1] if you want to join or organize one.

I’m going to see if I can get on for the Pacific virtual party.

What’s New in Debian 13?

The main thing is a lot of package updates – new distro-provided versions of popular software.  So at least for a little while, you won’t need to go build the latest version of whatever you’re using if you need a really current version.

Other changes:

• There’s a couple new hardware platforms: riscv64 (64-bit RISC-V), and Apple M1/M2 laptops.
• And we say goodbye to i386 and MIPS, which are no longer supported.
• As we covered earlier, time_t is 64-bit across all of Debian now.
• There are some new security improvements, including Pointer Authentication (PAC) and Branch Target Identification (BTI), which benefit ARM architectures.  PAC is cryptographically signed memory addresses – I mean, really people, what have we come to when we need to cryptographically sign memory addresses.  But it improves security, as does BTI, which allows only certain branch points in code.  I personally don’t get this deep into security so you can google those terms if you want to learn more.
• The version of OpenSSH in Deb 13 finally drops support for DSA keys, and everyone can understand that.
• /tmp is now on tmpfs, a memory-based storage.  That makes /tmp a lot faster, but of course, also makes it easier to run out of memory.  This also makes /tmp truly temporary – nothing persists on a reboot.  If you don’t like this, you can switch back to a regular /tmp.
• If you’re a libvirt user, there are some changes you should review though things should continue to work as expected.
• The new Pure Blends configs are introduced.  What are these strangely named things?  “Debian Pure Blends are a solution for groups of people with specific needs. Not only do they provide handy collections (meta-packages) of specific packages, but they also ease installation and configuration for the intended purpose. They cover the interests of different groups of people, who might be children, scientists, gamers, lawyers, medical staff, visually impaired people, etc. Their common goal is to simplify installation and administration of computers for their target audience, and to connect that audience with the people writing or packaging the software they use.”

One thing that hasn’t changed: Debian still only requires 512MB of RAM.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.