Devuan is a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

of the

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

that uses sysvinit,

runit runit is an init and service management scheme for Unix-like operating systems that initializes, supervises, and ends processes throughout the operating system. Runit is a reimplementation of the daemontools process supervision toolkit that r ...

OpenRC OpenRC is a dependency-based init system for Unix-like computer operating systems. It was created by Roy Marples, a NetBSD developer who was also active in the Gentoo project. It became more broadly adopted as an init system outside of Gentoo f ...

instead of

systemd systemd is a software suite that provides an array of system components for Linux operating systems. Its main aim is to unify service configuration and behavior across Linux distributions; Its primary component is a "system and service manager ...

. Devuan aims to avoid "lock-in" by projects like

and aims to maintain compatibility with other init systems to avoid detaching

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

from other

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

systems.

History

With the release of

Debian 8 Debian releases do not follow a fixed schedule. Recent releases have been made roughly biennially by the Debian Project. The most recent version of Debian is Debian version 11, codename "Bullseye". The next up and coming release of Debian is Deb ...

some developers and users were alienated due to the project's adoption of

and subsequent removal of support for other existing init systems. This decision prompted some Debian community members to start a

of Debian without systemd. Instead of continuing the Debian practice of using

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...

character names as release codenames, Devuan aliases its releases using planet names. The first stable release shared the Debian 8 codename '' Jessie''. However, the Devuan release was named for minor planet 10464. The first stable release of Devuan was published on May 25, 2017. Devuan 2.0.0 ''ASCII'' was released on June 9, 2018, and 2.1 ''ASCII'' was released on November 21, 2019. ASCII provides a choice of five different

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

s at install time ( XFCE,

Cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

LXQt LXQt is a free and open source lightweight desktop environment. It was formed from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects. Like its GTK predecessor LXDE, LXQt does not ship or develop its own window manager, instead LXQt lets the user de ...

MATE Mate may refer to: Science * Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in: ** Mate choice, intersexual selection ** Mating * Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins Person or title * Friendship ...

), while many other window managers are available from the repositories. It also provides installation options for choosing between sysvinit and

for

init In Unix-based computer operating systems, init (short for ''initialization'') is the first process started during booting of the computer system. Init is a daemon process that continues running until the system is shut down. It is the direct ...

, and between

GRUB Grub can refer to Grub (larva), of the beetle superfamily Scarabaeoidea, or as a slang term for food. It can also refer to: Places * Grub, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland * Grub, St. Gallen, Switzerland * Grub (Amerang), a hamlet in Bavaria, ...

and LILO for the

boot loader A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer. When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, a ...

. Devuan maintains a modified version of the Debian expert text installer, which has the ability to install only

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

if the user chooses, while the live desktop image also uses a custom graphical installer from Refracta, a derivative of Devuan. Devuan 3.0 Beowulf was released on June 3, 2020, based on Debian 10.4.

Ppc64 ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the Linux, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and LLVM open-source software communities to refer to the target architecture for applications optimized for 64-bit big-endian PowerPC and Power ISA processor ...

el has been added to the list of supported architectures.

Runit runit is an init and service management scheme for Unix-like operating systems that initializes, supervises, and ends processes throughout the operating system. Runit is a reimplementation of the daemontools process supervision toolkit that r ...

is now available as an alternative init. Eudev and elogind are now used to replace some

Systemd systemd is a software suite that provides an array of system components for Linux operating systems. Its main aim is to unify service configuration and behavior across Linux distributions; Its primary component is a "system and service manager ...

functionality. Devuan 4.0 Chimaera was released October 14, 2021. It is based on Debian Bullseye (11.1) with Linux kernel 5.10.

Packages

Devuan has its own

package repository A software repository, or repo for short, is a storage location for software packages. Often a table of contents is also stored, along with metadata. A software repository is typically managed by source control or repository managers. Package ...

which mirrors

upstream Upstream may refer to: * Upstream (bioprocess) * ''Upstream'' (film), a 1927 film by John Ford * Upstream (networking) * ''Upstream'' (newspaper), a newspaper covering the oil and gas industry * Upstream (petroleum industry) * Upstream (software ...

Debian, with local modifications made only when needed to allow for

systems other than systemd. Devuan does not provide systemd in its repositories but still retains libsystemd0 until it has removed all dependencies. Amprolla is the program used to merge Debian packages with Devuan packages. It downloads packages from Debian and merges changes to packages that Devuan overrides.

Derivatives

In August 2022,

Peppermint OS Peppermint OS is a Linux distribution based on Debian and Devuan Stable, it uses the Xfce desktop environment. It aims to provide a familiar environment for newcomers to Linux, which requires relatively low hardware resources to run. Design ...

announced the release of Devuan-based ISO's, alongside their Debian-based ISO's.

Version history

Source:

Notes

References

External links

*
Devuan home pageSource code repositoryRelease archive
{{Linux-distro Debian-based distributions Linux distributions Linux distributions without systemd