The Debian Administrator's Handbook

Debian is a GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD distribution. We will discuss what a distribution is in further detail in Section 1.4, “The Role of Distributions”, but for now, we will simply state that it is a complete operating system, including software and systems for installation and management, all based on the Linux or FreeBSD kernel and free software (especially those from the GNU project).

When he created Debian, in 1993, under the leadership of the FSF, Ian Murdock had clear objectives, which he expressed in the Debian Manifesto. The free operating system that he sought would have to have two principal features. First, quality: Debian would be developed with the greatest care, to be worthy of the Linux kernel. It would also be a non-commercial distribution, sufficiently credible to compete with major commercial distributions. This double ambition would, in his eyes, only be achieved by opening the Debian development process just like that of Linux and the GNU project. Thus, peer review would continuously improve the product.

CULTURE GNU, the project of the FSF

The GNU project is a range of free software developed, or sponsored, by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), originated by its iconic leader, Dr. Richard M. Stallman. GNU is a recursive acronym, standing for “GNU is Not Unix”.

CULTURE Richard Stallman

FSF's founder and author of the GPL license, Richard M. Stallman (often referred to by his initials, RMS) is a charismatic leader of the Free Software movement. Due to his uncompromising positions, he's not unanimously admired, but his non-technical contributions to Free Software (in particular at the legal and philosophical level) are respected by everybody.

1.1.1. A Multi-Platform Operating System

COMMUNITY Ian Murdock's journey

Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian project, was its first leader, from 1993 to 1996. After passing the baton to Bruce Perens, Ian took a less public role. He returned to working behind the scenes of the free software community, creating the Progeny company, with the intention of marketing a distribution derived from Debian. This venture was a commercial failure, sadly, and development abandoned. The company, after several years of scraping by, simply as a service provider, eventually filed for bankruptcy in April of 2007. Of the various projects initiated by Progeny, only discover still remains. It is an automatic hardware detection tool.

Debian, remaining true to its initial principles, has had so much success that, today, it has reached a tremendous size. The 11 architectures offered cover 9 hardware architectures and 2 kernels (Linux and FreeBSD). Furthermore, with more than 14,500 source packages, the available software can meet almost any need that one could have, whether at home or in the enterprise.

This largess becomes, sometimes, an embarrassment of riches: it is really unreasonable to distribute 50 CD-ROMs to install a complete version on an Intel machine... This is why we think of Debian ever increasingly as a “meta-distribution”, from which one extracts more specific distributions intended for a particular public: Debian-Desktop for traditional office use, Debian-Edu for education and pedagogical use in an academic environment, Debian-Med for medical applications, Debian-Junior for young children, etc. A more complete list can be found in the section dedicated to that purpose, see Section 1.3.3.1, “Existing Debian Sub-Projects”.

These divisions are organized in a well-defined framework, thus guaranteeing hassle-free compatibility between the various “sub-distributions”. All of them follow the general planning for release of new versions. Built on the same foundation, they can be easily extended, completed, and personalized with applications available in the Debian repositories.

All of the Debian tools operate in this direction: debian-cd has for a long time now allowed the creation of a set of CD-ROMs bearing only pre-selected packages; debian-installer is also a modular installer, easily adapted to special needs. APT will install packages from various origins, while guaranteeing the overall cohesion of the system.

TOOL Creating a Debian CD-ROM

debian-cd creates CD-ROM ISO installation images ready for use. Raphaël Hertzog is the author of the latest rewrite, but maintenance is essentially conducted by Steve McIntyre. Any matter regarding this software is discussed (in English) on the mailing list.

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