What's New
Debian (OS)
A Brief History of Debian
Contents
- 1 Introduction -- What is the Debian Project?
- 1.1 In the Beginning
- 1.2 Pronouncing Debian
- 2 Leadership
- 3 Debian Releases
- 4 A Detailed History
- A The Debian Manifesto
Introduction -- What is the Debian Project?
The
Debian Project is a worldwide group of volunteers who endeavor
to produce an operating system distribution that is composed entirely of
free software. The principle product of the project to date is the Debian
GNU/Linux software distribution, which includes the Linux operating system
kernel, and thousands of prepackaged applications. Various processor types
are supported to one extent or another, including Intel i386 and above,
Alpha, ARM, Motorola 68k, MIPS, PowerPC, Sparc, and UltraSparc, HP
PA-RISC, IBM S/390 and Hitachi SuperH.
Debian
motivated the formation of Software
in the Public Interest, Inc., a New York-based non-profit
organization. SPI was founded to help Debian and other similar
organizations develop and distribute open hardware and software. Among
other things, SPI provides a mechanism by which The Debian Project may
accept contributions that are tax deductable in the United States.
1.1 In the Beginning
The Debian Project was officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993. At that time, the whole concept of a "distribution" of Linux was new. Ian intended Debian to be a distribution which would be made openly, in the sprit of Linux and GNU (read his manifesto provided as an appendix to this document for more details). The creation of Debian was sponsored by the FSF's GNU project for one year (November 1994 to November 1995).
Debian was meant to be carefully and conscientiously put together, and to be maintained and supported with similar care. It started as a small, tightly-knit group of Free Software hackers, and gradually grew to become a large, well-organized community of developers and users.
Debian is the only distribution that is open for every developer and user to contribute their work. It is the only significant distributor of Linux that is not a commercial entity. It is the only large project with a constitution, social contract, and policy documents to organize the project. Debian is also the only distribution which is "micro packaged" using detailed dependency information regarding inter-package relationships to ensure system consistency across upgrades.
To achieve and maintain high standards of quality, Debian has adopted a rich set of policies and procedures for packaging and delivering software. These are backed up by tools, automation, and documentation implementing all of Debian's key elements in an open and visible way.
1.2 Pronouncing Debian
The official pronunciation of Debian is 'deb ee n'. The name comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra.
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