<linkhref="ch-software.en.html"rel="chapter"title="5 Software available in the Debian system">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html"rel="chapter"title="6 The Debian FTP archives">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html"rel="chapter"title="7 Basics of the Debian package management system">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html"rel="chapter"title="8 The Debian package management tools">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html"rel="chapter"title="9 Keeping your Debian system up-to-date">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html"rel="chapter"title="10 Debian and the kernel">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html"rel="chapter"title="11 Customizing your installation of Debian GNU/Linux">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html"rel="chapter"title="12 Getting support for Debian GNU/Linux">
<linkhref="ch-contributing.en.html"rel="chapter"title="13 Contributing to the Debian Project">
<linkhref="ch-redistrib.en.html"rel="chapter"title="14 Redistributing Debian GNU/Linux in a commercial product">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html"rel="chapter"title="15 Changes expected in the next major release of Debian">
<linkhref="ch-faqinfo.en.html"rel="chapter"title="16 General information about the FAQ">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-whatisfaq"rel="section"title="1.1 What is this FAQ?">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-whatisdebian"rel="section"title="1.2 What is Debian GNU/Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-linux"rel="section"title="1.3 OK, now I know what Debian is... what is Linux?!">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-non-linux"rel="section"title="1.4 Does Debian just do GNU/Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-difference"rel="section"title="1.5 What is the difference between Debian GNU/Linux and other Linux distributions? Why should I choose Debian over some other distribution?">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-gnu"rel="section"title="1.6 How does the Debian project fit in or compare with the Free Software Foundation's GNU project?">
<linkhref="ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-pronunciation"rel="section"title="1.7 How does one pronounce Debian and what does this word mean?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-version"rel="section"title="2.1 What is the latest version of Debian?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-updatestable"rel="section"title="2.2 Are there package upgrades in `stable'?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-boot-floppies"rel="section"title="2.3 Where/how can I get the Debian installation disks?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-cdrom"rel="section"title="2.4 How do I install the Debian from CD-ROMs?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-cdimage-symlinks"rel="section"title="2.5 Why does the official stable released CD-ROM contain symlinks for `frozen' and `unstable'? I thought this CD contains just `stable'!">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-remoteinstall"rel="section"title="2.6 Can I get and install Debian directly from a remote Internet site?">
<linkhref="ch-getting.en.html#s-alternativebootinstaller"rel="section"title="2.7 Are there any alternative strategies for booting the system installer?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1"rel="section"title="3.1 Which Debian distribution (stable/testing/unstable) is better for me?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.2"rel="section"title="3.2 But what about Knoppix, Linex, Ubuntu, and others?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-arches"rel="section"title="4.1 On what hardware architectures/systems does Debian GNU/Linux run?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-otherdistribs"rel="section"title="4.2 How compatible is Debian with other distributions of Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-otherunices"rel="section"title="4.3 How source code compatible is Debian with other Unix systems?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-otherpackages"rel="section"title="4.4 Can I use Debian packages (".deb" files) on my Red Hat/Slackware/... Linux system? Can I use Red Hat packages (".rpm" files) on my Debian GNU/Linux system?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-non-debian-programs"rel="section"title="4.5 How should I install a non-Debian program?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-termcap"rel="section"title="4.6 Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-accelx"rel="section"title="4.7 Why can't I install AccelX?">
<linkhref="ch-compat.en.html#s-motifnls"rel="section"title="4.8 Why do my old XFree 2.1 Motif applications crash?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-apps"rel="section"title="5.1 What types of applications and development software are available for Debian GNU/Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-softwareauthors"rel="section"title="5.2 Who wrote all that software?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-pkglist"rel="section"title="5.3 How can I get a current list of programs that have been packaged for Debian?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-buildenv"rel="section"title="5.4 How can I install a developer's environment to build packages?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-missing"rel="section"title="5.5 What is missing from Debian GNU/Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-no-devs"rel="section"title="5.6 Why do I get "ld: cannot find -lfoo" messages when compiling programs? Why aren't there any libfoo.so files in Debian library packages?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-java"rel="section"title="5.7 (How) Does Debian support Java?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-isitdebian"rel="section"title="5.8 How can I check that I am using a Debian system, and what version is it?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-nonenglish"rel="section"title="5.9 How does Debian support non-English languages?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-pine"rel="section"title="5.10 Where is pine?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-qmail"rel="section"title="5.11 Where is qmail/ezmlm/djbdns?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-flash"rel="section"title="5.12 Where is a player for Flash (SWF)?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-googleearth"rel="section"title="5.13 Where is Google Earth?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-voip"rel="section"title="5.14 Where is VoIP software?">
<linkhref="ch-software.en.html#s-nonfreewireless"rel="section"title="5.15 I have a wireless network card which doesn't work with Linux. What should I do?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-dists"rel="section"title="6.1 How many Debian distributions are there?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-codenames"rel="section"title="6.2 What are all those names like etch, lenny, etc.?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-sid"rel="section"title="6.3 What about "sid"?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-stable"rel="section"title="6.4 What does the stable directory contain?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-testing"rel="section"title="6.5 What does the testing distribution contain?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-unstable"rel="section"title="6.6 What does the unstable distribution contain?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-dirtree"rel="section"title="6.7 What are all those directories at the Debian FTP archives?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-archsections"rel="section"title="6.8 What are all those directories inside <samp>dists/stable/main</samp>?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-source"rel="section"title="6.9 Where is the source code?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-pools"rel="section"title="6.10 What's in the <samp>pool</samp> directory?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-incoming"rel="section"title="6.11 What is "incoming"?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-ownrepository"rel="section"title="6.12 How do I set up my own apt-able repository?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-package"rel="section"title="7.1 What is a Debian package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-deb-format"rel="section"title="7.2 What is the format of a Debian binary package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-pkgname"rel="section"title="7.3 Why are Debian package file names so long?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-controlfile"rel="section"title="7.4 What is a Debian control file?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-conffile"rel="section"title="7.5 What is a Debian conffile?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-maintscripts"rel="section"title="7.6 What is a Debian preinst, postinst, prerm, and postrm script?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-priority"rel="section"title="7.7 What is an <em>Essential</em>, <em>Required</em>, <em>Important</em>, <em>Standard</em>, <em>Optional</em>, or <em>Extra</em> package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-virtual"rel="section"title="7.8 What is a Virtual Package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-depends"rel="section"title="7.9 What is meant by saying that a package <em>Depends</em>, <em>Recommends</em>, <em>Suggests</em>, <em>Conflicts</em>, <em>Replaces</em> or <em>Provides</em> another package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-pre-depends"rel="section"title="7.10 What is meant by Pre-Depends?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-pkgstatus"rel="section"title="7.11 What is meant by <em>unknown</em>, <em>install</em>, <em>remove</em>, <em>purge</em> and <em>hold</em> in the package status?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-puttingonhold"rel="section"title="7.12 How do I put a package on hold?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-sourcepkgs"rel="section"title="7.13 How do I install a source package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-sourcebuild"rel="section"title="7.14 How do I build binary packages from a source package?">
<linkhref="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-creatingdebs"rel="section"title="7.15 How do I create Debian packages myself?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-pkgprogs"rel="section"title="8.1 What programs does Debian provide for managing its packages?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-updaterunning"rel="section"title="8.2 Debian claims to be able to update a running program; how is this accomplished?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-whatpackages"rel="section"title="8.3 How can I tell what packages are already installed on a Debian system?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-listfiles"rel="section"title="8.4 How to display the files of a package installed?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-filesearch"rel="section"title="8.5 How can I find out what package produced a particular file?">
<linkhref="ch-pkgtools.en.html#s-datapackages"rel="section"title="8.6 Why doesn't get `foo-data' removed when I uninstall `foo'? How do I make sure old unused library-packages get purged?">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-howtocurrent"rel="section"title="9.1 How can I keep my Debian system current?">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-upgradesingle"rel="section"title="9.2 Must I go into single user mode in order to upgrade a package?">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-savedebs"rel="section"title="9.3 Do I have to keep all those .deb archive files on my disk?">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-keepingalog"rel="section"title="9.4 How can I keep a log of the packages I added to the system? I'd like to know when which package upgrades and removals have occured!">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-autoupdate"rel="section"title="9.5 Can I automatically update the system?">
<linkhref="ch-uptodate.en.html#s-aptproxy"rel="section"title="9.6 I have several machines how can I download the updates only one time?">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-non-debian-kernel"rel="section"title="10.1 Can I install and compile a kernel without some Debian-specific tweaking?">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-customkernel"rel="section"title="10.2 What tools does Debian provide to build custom kernels?">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-custombootdisk"rel="section"title="10.3 How can I make a custom boot floppy?">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-modules"rel="section"title="10.4 What special provisions does Debian provide to deal with modules?">
<linkhref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-removeoldkernel"rel="section"title="10.5 Can I safely de-install an old kernel package, and if so, how?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-papersize"rel="section"title="11.1 How can I ensure that all programs use the same paper size?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-hardwareaccess"rel="section"title="11.2 How can I provide access to hardware peripherals, without compromising security?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-consolefont"rel="section"title="11.3 How do I load a console font on startup the Debian way?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-appdefaults"rel="section"title="11.4 How can I configure an X11 program's application defaults?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-booting"rel="section"title="11.5 Every distribution seems to have a different boot-up method. Tell me about Debian's.">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-custombootscripts"rel="section"title="11.6 It looks as if Debian does not use <samp>rc.local</samp> to customize the boot process; what facilities are provided?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-interconffiles"rel="section"title="11.7 How does the package management system deal with packages that contain configuration files for other packages?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-divert"rel="section"title="11.8 How do I override a file installed by a package, so that a different version can be used instead?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-localpackages"rel="section"title="11.9 How can I have my locally-built package included in the list of available packages that the package management system knows about?">
<linkhref="ch-customizing.en.html#s-diverse"rel="section"title="11.10 Some users like mawk, others like gawk; some like vim, others like elvis; some like trn, others like tin; how does Debian support diversity?">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html#s-debiandocs"rel="section"title="12.1 What other documentation exists on and for a Debian system?">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html#s-onlineresources"rel="section"title="12.2 Are there any on-line resources for discussing Debian?">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html#s-searchtools"rel="section"title="12.3 Is there a quick way to search for information on Debian GNU/Linux?">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html#s-buglogs"rel="section"title="12.4 Are there logs of known bugs?">
<linkhref="ch-support.en.html#s-bugreport"rel="section"title="12.5 How do I report a bug in Debian?">
<linkhref="ch-contributing.en.html#s-contrib"rel="section"title="13.1 How can I become a Debian software developer?">
<linkhref="ch-contributing.en.html#s-contribresources"rel="section"title="13.2 How can I contribute resources to the Debian project?">
<linkhref="ch-contributing.en.html#s-supportingorganizations"rel="section"title="13.3 How can I contribute financially to the Debian project?">
<linkhref="ch-redistrib.en.html#s-sellcds"rel="section"title="14.1 Can I make and sell Debian CDs?">
<linkhref="ch-redistrib.en.html#s-packagednonfree"rel="section"title="14.2 Can Debian be packaged with non-free software?">
<linkhref="ch-redistrib.en.html#s-childistro"rel="section"title="14.3 I am making a special Linux distribution for a "vertical market". Can I use Debian GNU/Linux for the guts of a Linux system and add my own applications on top of it?">
<linkhref="ch-redistrib.en.html#s-commercialdebs"rel="section"title="14.4 Can I put my commercial program in a Debian "package" so that it installs effortlessly on any Debian system?">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html#s-i18n"rel="section"title="15.1 Extended support for non-English users">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html#s-dependencybasedboot"rel="section"title="15.2 Faster booting: Dependency based boot sequence">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html#s-di"rel="section"title="15.3 Improvements in the Debian Installer">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html#s-morearches"rel="section"title="15.4 More architectures">
<linkhref="ch-nexttime.en.html#s-morekernels"rel="section"title="15.5 More kernels">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.1"rel="subsection"title="3.1.1 You asked me to install stable, but in stable so and so hardware is not detected/working. What should I do?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.2"rel="subsection"title="3.1.2 Will there be different different versions of packages in different distributions?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.3"rel="subsection"title="3.1.3 The stable distributions really contains outdated packages. Just look at Kde, Gnome, Xorg or even the kernel. They are very old. Why is it so?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.4"rel="subsection"title="3.1.4 If I were to decide to change to another distribution, Can I do that?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.5"rel="subsection"title="3.1.5 Could you tell me whether to install testing or unstable?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.6"rel="subsection"title="3.1.6 You are talking about testing being broken. What do you mean by that?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.7"rel="subsection"title="3.1.7 Why is it that testing could be broken for months? Wont the fixes introduced in unstable flow directly down into testing?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.8"rel="subsection"title="3.1.8 From an administrator's point of view, Which distribution requires more attention?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.9"rel="subsection"title="3.1.9 What happens when a new release is made?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.10"rel="subsection"title="3.1.10 I have a working Desktop/cluster with Debian installed. How do I know which distribution I am running?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.11"rel="subsection"title="3.1.11 I am currently tracking stable. Can I change to testing or unstable? If so, How?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.12"rel="subsection"title="3.1.12 I am currently tracking testing (lenny). What will happen when a release is made? Will I still be tracking testing or will my machine be running the new stable distribution?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1.13"rel="subsection"title="3.1.13 I am still confused. What did you say I should install?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.2.1"rel="subsection"title="3.2.1 I know that Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... is Debian-based. So after installing it on the hard disk, can I use 'apt' package tools on it?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.2.2"rel="subsection"title="3.2.2 I installed Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... on my hard disk. Now I have a problem. What should I do?">
<linkhref="ch-choosing.en.html#s3.2.3"rel="subsection"title="3.2.3 I'm using Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... and now I want to use Debian. How do I migrate?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-oldcodenames"rel="subsection"title="6.2.1 Which other codenames have been used in the past?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-sourceforcodenames"rel="subsection"title="6.2.2 Where do these codenames come from?">
<linkhref="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-frozen"rel="subsection"title="6.5.1 What about "testing"? How is it `frozen'?">
<br>Chapter 5 - Software available in the Debian system
</h1>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-apps"></a>5.1 What types of applications and development software are available for Debian GNU/Linux?</h2>
<p>
Like most Linux distributions, Debian GNU/Linux provides:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
the major GNU applications for software development, file manipulation, and
text processing, including gcc, g++, make, texinfo, Emacs, the Bash shell and
numerous upgraded Unix utilities,
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk and various related programs, modules and libraries for
each of them,
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
TeX (LaTeX) and Lyx, dvips, Ghostscript,
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
the Xorg windowing system, which provides a networked graphical user interface
for Linux, and countless X applications including the GNOME, KDE and Xfce
desktop environments.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
a full suite of networking applications, including servers for Internet
protocols such as HTTP (WWW), FTP, NNTP (news), SMTP and POP (mail) and DNS
(name servers); relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL; also provided are
web browsers including the various Mozilla products [<a
href="footnotes.en.html#f1" name="fr1">1</a>],
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
a complete set of office applications, including the OpenOffice.org
productivity suite, Gnumeric and other spreadsheets, WYSIWYG editors,
calendars.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
More than 18040 packages, ranging from news servers and readers to sound
support, FAX programs, database and spreadsheet programs, image processing
programs, communications, net, and mail utilities, Web servers, and even
ham-radio programs are included in the distribution. Another 560 software
suites are available as Debian packages, but are not formally part of Debian
due to license restrictions.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-softwareauthors"></a>5.2 Who wrote all that software?</h2>
<p>
For each package the <em>authors</em> of the program(s) are credited in the
file <samp>/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/copyright</samp>, where PACKAGE is to be
substituted with the package's name.
</p>
<p>
<em>Maintainers</em> who package this software for the Debian GNU/Linux system
are listed in the Debian control file (see <a
href="ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-controlfile">What is a Debian control file?,
Section 7.4</a>) that comes with each package. The Debian changelog, in
<samp>/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/changelog.Debian.gz</samp>, mentions the people
who've worked on the Debian packaging too.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-pkglist"></a>5.3 How can I get a current list of programs that have been packaged for Debian?</h2>
<p>
A complete list is available from any of the <code><a
href="http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist">Debian mirrors</a></code>, in the
file <samp>indices/Maintainers</samp>. That file includes the package names
and the names and e-mails of their respective maintainers.
</p>
<p>
The <code><ahref="http://packages.debian.org/">WWW interface to the Debian
packages</a></code> conveniently summarizes the packages in each of about
thirty "sections" of the Debian archive.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-buildenv"></a>5.4 How can I install a developer's environment to build packages?</h2>
<p>
If you want to build packages in your Debian system you will need to have a
basic development environment, including a C/C++ compiler and some other
essential packages. In order to install this environment you just need to
install the <code>build-essential</code>. This package is a meta-package or
place-holder package which depends on the standard development tools one needs
to build a Debian package.
</p>
<p>
Some software can, however, need additional software to be rebuilt, including
library headers or additional tools such as <code>autoconf</code> or
<code>gettext</code>. Debian provides many of the tools needed to build other
software as Debian packages.
</p>
<p>
Finding which software is precisely required can be tricky, however, unless you
are planning on rebuilding Debian packages. This last task is rather easy to
do, as official packages have to include a list of the additional software
(besides the packages in <code>build-essential</code>) needed to build the
pacakge, this is known as <samp>Build-Dependencies</samp>. To install all the
packages needed to build a given source package and then build said source
package you can just run:
</p>
<pre>
# apt-get build-dep <var>foo</var>
# apt-get source --build <var>foo</var>
</pre>
<p>
Notice that if you want to build the Linux kernels distributed by Debian you
will want to install also the <code>kernel-package</code> package. For more
information see <ahref="ch-kernel.en.html#s-customkernel">What tools does
Debian provide to build custom kernels?, Section 10.2</a>.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-missing"></a>5.5 What is missing from Debian GNU/Linux?</h2>
<p>
A list of packages which are still needed to be packaged for Debian exists, the
<code><ahref="http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/">Work-Needing and Prospective
Packages list</a></code>.
</p>
<p>
For more details about adding the missing things, see <a
href="ch-contributing.en.html#s-contrib">How can I become a Debian software
developer?, Section 13.1</a>.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-no-devs"></a>5.6 Why do I get "ld: cannot find -lfoo" messages when compiling programs? Why aren't there any libfoo.so files in Debian library packages?</h2>
<p>
Debian Policy requires that such symbolic links (to libfoo.so.x.y.z or similar)
are placed in separate, development packages. Those packages are usually named
libfoo-dev or libfooX-dev (presuming the library package is named libfooX, and
X is a whole number).
</p>
<hr>
<h2><aname="s-java"></a>5.7 (How) Does Debian support Java?</h2>
<p>
Several <em>free</em> implementations of Java technology are available as
Debian packages, providing both Java Development Kits as well as Runtime
Environments. You can write, debug and run Java programs using Debian.
</p>
<p>
Running a Java applet requires a web browser with the capability to recognize
and execute them. Several web browsers available in Debian, such as Mozilla or
Konqueror, support Java plug-ins that enable running Java applets within them.
