The Debian project announced the release of Debian 12.8, the second-oldest Linux distro and one of the most widely used.

Debian is renowned for its stability, security, and reliability, making it one of the most popular distros for servers. With the latest 12.x series, codenamed “Bookworm,” Debian is better than ever for desktop and laptops, since it now includes non-free firmware and drivers by default, rather than making the user download and install them independently.

The latest version, Debian 12.8, includes a number of security and bug fixes.

This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available.

As the Debian maintainers point out, 12.8 is not a new version of Debian, merely the latest update to the existing release.

Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 12 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old bookworm media. After installation, packages can be upgraded to the current versions using an up-to-date Debian mirror.

Those who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won’t have to update many packages, and most such updates are included in the point release.

For users who want to install the latest 12.8, rather than use an older ISO and update in-place, the project is preparing new ISO images that will include all the security and bug fixes included in 12.8.