trixie times

Debian Trixie is now Stable
Debian 13, or Trixie, moved to the stable branch on August 9th. Debian does not operate on a fixed release schedule, rather moving versions to stable once they are ready, and well tested. Debian is not a bleeding edge distro, instead focusing on reliability and consistency.
The Name
Trixie is named for the Triceratops from Toy Story. This convention dates back to the first full Debian release Buzz back in 1996. Despite the version only being at 13, 18 different character names have been used for full releases, due to partial versions being given names prior to Debian 4, Etch. There is also a 19th name, Sid which encompasses the unstable branch of Debian, which is great for if you like breaking things.
What’s New
I’m not going to rewrite the documentation for Trixie, it is already very well summarised in the release notes here. But to give a quick overview, there are a great many changes you may not notice, but will appreciate; such as security and stability upgrades. The new version is also supported on more hardware than previously, offers greater accessibility options and of course offers newer versions of a wide range of software. Additionally, if using a bundled desktop environment, Trixie will feel a fair bit more modern than the previous version Bookworm.
Where to put it
I use Debian on the servers I maintain as well as on my Laptop and Desktop computers. For me, it’s definitely the best operating system I’ve used, but that is, of course, highly subjective. If you’ve never tried it and are interested, I’d definitely recommend checking it out. If you’ve tried it before and don’t like that it doesn’t have the latest packages, then the new release is unlikely to change your mind.
Switching to Trixie
Clean Install
If you are installing rather than upgrading, you can download an ISO file here (for AMD64 processors). Download mirrors and versions for different architectures such as RISC-V and ARM can be found here. There is then either a graphical or text based installer, with defaults that can generally be chosen for newer users if unsure about what is being asked.
Upgrade from Debian 12: Bookworm
This can be a little bit more of a hassle than a fresh install. However it worked fairly painlessly for me! Although that was only a couple of hours ago, and there may be issues that are yet to rear their heads.
Back Everything Up
Whilst unlikely, it is possible that something could break during the upgrade process, so it is worthwhile backing up important data such as config and personal files (this is generally a good idea anyway).
Update your Existing System
Make sure that your current Bookworm install is up to date:
sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade 
sudo apt full-upgrade
You can then clean up any unnecessary packages:
sudo apt autoremove 
Change Package Sources
The APT repositories listed in /etc/apt/sources.list denote where packages are pulled from, and which packages are available. There are specific repositories for a given version of Debian.
Every instance of Bookworm in these repositories needs to be updated to Trixie. This can be done with your text editor of choice (nano, vi, vim,..). For example, using vim:
sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list 
Then in the opened text file you might see a line such as:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free
  
which must be changed to:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie main contrib non-free
  
The same changes must be made for any other instances of bookworm, for example security or updates repositories.
Update the Package Lists & Begin Minimal Upgrade
Once again you can update and upgrade APT, but it can be best to do this in a minimal way, to make debugging easier should any issues arise.
sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs
Then just sit back and wait (or make a cup of tea).
Full Upgrade
Note: For this step check that you are on a stable internet connection, interuptions can cause issues.
If everything seems like it’s working fine, then the full upgrade can begin:
sudo apt full-upgrade 
There may be the occasional message from APT requiring input, it’s worth reading the prompts carefully as some may change existing configs.
Tidying Up
Once the upgrade is complete, obsolete packages can be removed:
sudo apt --purge autoremove 
Then you can reboot into Trixie!
sudo reboot
Enjoy your shiny updated OS!