Debian is a mature Linux distribution. Marketed as "The Universal Operating System," it targets the general computing market. It's considered stable, with a biannual release scheme, in addition to Long Term Support ('LTS') releases. This is actually the main reason why many distributions decend from Debian, like notable names including Ubuntu. Debian ships the Advanced Package Tool ('apt') as it's package management system. It's been a long time consumer of the GNOME desktop, including the traditional version 2. Debian is a classic example of the Linux distribution model, dating back to the start of the millennium.