Debian 13 Released with RISC-V Support, but Dropped i386

Debian, the upstream Linux Distribution that Ubuntu is based on, released new stable 13 version!

Debian 13, code-name “trixie”, will be supported for the next 5 years. It features Linux Kernel 6.12, updated desktop environments, toolkits, and new CPU architecture type support.

First, Debian 13 added officially support for 64-bit RISC-V hardware. And, it removed the old i386 X86 platform support, though i386 architecture packages still can be used on a 64-bit (amd64) system.

Other supported hardware include: 64-bit PC (amd64), 64-bit ARM (arm64), ARM EABI (armel), ARMv7 (armhf), 64-bit little-endian PowerPC (ppc64el), and IBM System z (s390x).

Besides the platform changes, Debian 13 introduced the most recent Desktop Environments for PC and laptop users.

GNOME 48

The GNOME Desktop has been updated from version 43 to 48.

Changes between the 2 desktop versions include new default apps (Loupe image viewer, Camera app, and Audio player app), new fonts, HDR (High Dynamic Range) support, global search, and battery charging limit.

The top-left “Activities” has been replaced with a pill and dot indicator icon, showing how many active workspaces available and which one you’re working on. You can click on it to trigger overview, and hover and scroll to switch workspaces.

Like Ubuntu, the Appearance page now provides accent colors, allowing to choose the color that apply in check buttons, slider, selection border, etc.

Other changes between the 2 GNOME Desktop releases include:

Global shortcuts.
Screen time monitoring/limiting.
Hardware accelerated screen capturing (Intel/AMD GPUs).
Variable refresh rates (VRR) support (experimental).
OneDrive support in online accounts.
Keyboard backlight support in Quick Settings.
Remote Login with RDP.
Orca screen reader on Wayland.
Show indicator when camera is in use.
Enhanced small screen support.
Notification stacking.

For more, see the Gnome release page.

KDE Plasma 6.3

For KDE users, the desktop has been updated from version 5.27 to 6.3.

The new desktop is built on Qt6 and KDE framework 6, and defaults to Wayland while X11 is still available for choice.

It features floating panel that flow way from screen edge, partial High Dynamic Range (HDR) support, and redesigned Plasma’s Edit Mode.

As well, it combined the Overview and Desktop Grid effects into new Overview, added back Desktop Cube effect, and support remote desktop (RDP) in system settings.

Other changes include:

Remember and restore Wayland session.
Sync keyboard LED color to match accent color on desktop.
Clone panel support.
Pixel level Kwin zoom.
Add drawing tablets configure options.
Change default behavior to single-click select and double-click open files/folders.

For more, see the KDE Plasma 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 release notes.

XFCE 4.20

The XFCE desktop environment has been upgraded from version 4.18 to 4.20.

The new desktop features experimental Wayland support, better icon scaling for HiDPI display, and improved exo icon view with ability to handle 100,000 and more files without freezing.

It as well improved the thunar file manager with mounting IPv6 remote URLs support, Client Side Decoration (CSD) for more compact header, open folder automatically when dragging hover, and see XFCE 4.20 release note for more.

Besides GNOME 48, KDE Plasma 6.3, and XFCE 4.20, Debian 13 also upgraded LXDE 13 (up from 11), LxQt 2.1.0 (up from 1.2.1), and Cinnamon from 6.4.10 (up from 5.6.8). While, MATE Desktop lacks of maintenance and is stuck at v1.26.

And, there are package updates, including Apache 2.4.64, Bash 5.2.37, BIND DNS Server 9.20, Cryptsetup 2.7, curl/libcurl 8.14.1, Emacs 30.1, Exim (default email server) 4.98, GNUcash 5.10, GNU, Compiler Collection 14.2, GIMP 3.0.4, GnuPG 2.4.7, Inkscape 1.4, the GNU C Library 2.41, LibreOffice 25.2, LLVM/Clang toolchain 19 (default), MariaDB 11.8, Nginx 1.26, OpenJDK 21, OpenLDAP 2.6.10, OpenSSH 10.0p1, OpenSSL 3.5, Perl 5.40, PHP 8.4, Postfix 3.10, PostgreSQL 17, Python 3.13, Rustc 1.85, Samba 4.22, Systemd 257, Vim 9.1.