Trixie Released Today!
Debian 13 “Trixie” is here as of today, August 9, 2025. It’s been a little over two years since Debian 12 “Bookworm” came out on June 10, 2023, and this is one of the most significant stable upgrades in recent memory.
Trixie’s release process followed the usual Debian rhythm. Toolchain freeze hit March 15, soft freeze April 15, hard freeze May 15, full freeze July 27, and now we’re finally at the stable release.
Kernel and Core Changes
Trixie ships with the Linux 6.12 LTS kernel. That brings better hardware support, improved performance, and security hardening. There’s official riscv64 support now, but mipsel is gone. Installer images for i386 and armel have also been dropped. Security hardening has improved on amd64 and arm64, with protection against ROP and COP/JOP attacks. HTTP Boot is now supported out of the box.
KDE Plasma 6 Arrives
When Bookworm launched in 2023 it stuck with Plasma 5.27 LTS because Plasma 6 came out in February 2024 — months after Debian’s freeze. Trixie is the first Debian stable to ship Plasma 6, and for desktop users this could be the single biggest reason to upgrade.
Plasma 6 moves to Qt 6, which improves performance and lowers memory usage. Wayland is now the default with better touch, pen, and gesture support. Fractional scaling works per display, multi-monitor setups are smoother, and there’s early HDR groundwork. Breeze has been refreshed, animations are smoother, and many KDE apps like Dolphin have had major improvements.
GNOME 48
GNOME 48 in Trixie brings a cleaner look, better performance, and refinements across the board. Nautilus has improved search and preview handling. The Settings app has been reorganized for easier navigation. Workspace gestures are more fluid, and core apps integrate better with dark and light modes.
Wayland by Default
Wayland is now the default session for both KDE and GNOME on most hardware. It offers fractional scaling per display, smoother rendering, and improved input handling. PipeWire integration boosts screen recording and streaming performance. NVIDIA proprietary driver support has improved to the point where more users can make Wayland their daily driver. X11 remains available if needed.
Toolchain Updates
GCC is now at 14.2, Python is 3.13, and there are countless package updates. Debian continues its push toward reproducible builds, adds HTTP/3 support in curl, and improves Qt WebEngine with spell-check.
Getting Debian 13
At the time of writing, the main Debian.org “Releases” page hasn’t yet been updated to list Trixie front and center, but the release notes and installers are live. You can grab them directly:
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Release notes: https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/
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Download: https://www.debian.org/distrib
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Package repos:
https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/trixie/