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Debian Wins $25K Award From LinuxWorld
Phexro writes: "According to this story at newsalert, Debian has been awarded the $25,000 IDG/Linus Torvalds Community Award. It will be presented during the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo on Tuesday, Aug. 15. Go Debian!" Congratulations to the Debian crew for this. Non-Debian users benefit from the pressure that Debian puts on other distros -- just by existing -- to mind their P's and Q's when it comes to Free software, and for proving that elegant upgrade systems don't have to be glitzy or labyrinthine.
At least, if apt-get seems to be having problems, I can go edit /etc/apt/sources.list by hand and point to a different mirror site. I didn't see an option like that with MandrakeUpdate.
Eric
--
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Eric
--
Be who you are...and be it in style!
There are so many things that make Debian the best. I was a Stampede developer a while back, and I made the move to Debian after frustration with the way Stampede was going. but I digress...
There are a couple of issues people have with Debian, first, they claim that it's always late. How is it late? Unlike some other distros that release 'betas' every once in awhile, Debian maintains a very stable stable, and a more risque devel version. I personally use the devel (woody) release, but when I'm building a server, or a workstation for work, I use the stable. Best of both worlds... you can have the most current versions of everything, or stick with the tried and true. Sounds like it's fair to me. The releases are immaterial for the most part, seeing as an apt-get upgrade -u keeps your packages current, or bugfixed.
Next people complain about the way Debian sticks to their Free Software Guidlines. It's important to stick to morals, which is important with all these gigantic Linux companies. Someone has to set the standard and do the Right Thing. I can't believe they don't get more respect considering how they've defined morals, and stuck to them, in spite of backlash over KDE et al, and everything else. It's truly admirable.
Fact is, I can convert an RPM package or install a third-party package if I want, so it's not like running Debian locks me out of proprietary software. I run Codewarrior, and ApplixOffice without any problems. I've even tried some betas of KDE2, all install and work perfectly. Another benefit of the extensive testing I mentioned earlier.
So, don't flame Debian. Even if you don't run it, you can respect their tenants. Doing the right thing, building a stable solid distro and ignoring commercial interests is what matters to them, and I have nothing but respect for them.
(Incidentally, I've bought a bunch of Debian merch, like a very nice T-shirt which has a slogan that I think applies very well to Debian "Code matters more than commercials" Seems like a laudable goal to me)
----------------- "I have a bone to pick, and a few to break." - Refused -------------------
You can use unstable (which hardly ever is unstable) if you would like. just because we don't make a dang press realse and have shiny boxes in stores doesn't mean we are not producing!
I don't think I'm going to touch this post, except to say you're sure to enjoy our next release, after potato.
As for the sig, it's a brainteaser -- figure it out yourself..
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see shy jo
1. Debian's package management system rocks. Just "apt-get update" (updates the list of available packages) and "apt-get distupgrade" (was it apt-get upgrade? w/e, it updates all available packages).
r e-thing-that-he-does-at-his-lectres free.
2. It is stable as heck. Whenever debian releases a "stable" release, they really mean it. If you want more modern libraries, you can just as easily get the "unstable" version, a bleeding-edge repository that is still just as stable as what normally gets released as "stable" by commercial distributions.
3. It very strongly upholds the free software ideals. For those that want certain non-free versions, there is a separate repository for non-free software. The main distribtion installed by defalt is 100% pure-as-in-stallman's-weird-church-of-free-softwa
--
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
Well, the procedures have changed a bit since the days of ~100-200 developers; I never met anyone, nor even had my key signed, for the first few years I was in the project. I only met another developer in the flesh 10 months ago (and then a whole bunch of them), at Atlanta Linux Showcase last October. Since then, I've met a few more (out in the Bay Area in March). I've still not met most of the developers; pairwise, I doubt any of us has met a majority of project members (although maybe Wichert and a few others who get around a lot have).
I guess it would be interesting to see a graph of "who's met who" in Debian. I suspect there are two large clusters (Europe and North America) with links between them, and lots of nodes off on their own or in small groups.
My Blog. Sela Ward can sell me long distanc
Yeah, but it is roughly equal to the market cap of Corel.
Someday a Slashdot ID of 177180 will mean something.
Debian's installer is easy right now. dselect is a pain, but it's not that bad. What makes a graphical installer inherently inherently easier than a text-based one? The text-based one has a greater likelyhood of actually working on a given box, doesn't depend on as much, and can present the same information as a graphical installer. Why do so many people associate pixels with ease of use and characters with arcane command lines?
Don't get me wrong, I've tried most Linux Distributions, and they certainly beet Micro$oft Winblows, but Debian is absolutely the best among them. Sure, the installation doesn't look that smooth, but if you just take the time and read the excellent manual, there should be no problems getting Debian running. And for are your other problems, there's a great community of Debian users and experts out there on the mailing-lists and IRC, who all where Newbies once and want to share their enthousiasm.
I could go on for ever with the advantages of Debian, so I just list some of them.
From the user's perspection: Easy upgrades, no problem looking for packages, clear filesystem-structure, nice extra tools like sendmailconfig,......
Further, the whole Linux community benefits from the efforts of Debian: The Bugtracking system, the promotion of Free (as in speech) Software and all those distributions based on Debian (Corel, Storm).
Let's hope for the benefit of the Linux Community, this will give Debian a big hop in popularity.
In case you're too dense (I've been reading Debian-devel for about 9 months, and just figured it out 30 seconds ago :), 'see shy jo' is an anagram for 'joey hess' :).
*laughs*
What an uninformed opinion. How would you like to define 'stable'? Do you define it as an official release or as a tried-tested-and-true distribution?
If you define it as the first, you should be more then happy running frozen or unstable. After all, look at some of what the rest of the world calls 'release' quality software.. Gnome 1.0.0 *laughs* Redhat 5.0 *laughs again*
Seriously though, Debian has the highest release standards out of any distribution on the market. They don't have shareholders to answer to, they don't worry about making money.. Instead, they focus on meeting their stated goals.
Ever since I started on Debian a year and a bit ago, I've watched the unstable branch of the package repository break about 3 times. And 2 of those times were just dependencies that I waited a week for other packages to catch up on.
Anyway, the moral of the story:
If you need a system that is a fscking ROCK for stability: Get stable. There isn't any other Linux distro on the market that is as tested. Barring that, get FreeBSD.
If you need a system that will last longer for uptime then your power company, and you want to be on the leading edge of software releases, try unstable.
do any debian people here know what would (or could) be done with the $25,000? i noticed a few months back sun donated an ultra60...do they use this sort of money to buy extra hardware to help porting efforts? and if so, who's house does it get installed at? or in the true debian spirit, does it just stay in the box it was shipped in and everyone argues about where it will go on IRC for years and the thing never actually gets 'released'?
Does anyone know... will this affect the developement of Debian's distro of HURD?
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
Compared to how many that work at Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE? (even Hardware companies probably have more people paid to work on Linux, like Abit or VA).
Congradulations Debian, they earned the award. But, I just sort of have to look at that number and wonder how they manage to keep the all volnteer effort competitive with all the commercial Linux distributions. Anyone have any idea what other forms of income they have? Or how many (if any) people actually develop Debian "full time?"
Non-Debian users benefit from the pressure that Debian puts on other distros -- just by existing -- to mind their P's and Q's when it comes to Free software, and for proving that elegant upgrade systems don't have to be glitzy or labyrnthine.
Hah! Debian 2.2 is STILL not out in stable! It's been almost a year and a half, and they don't publish upgrades to their blessed packages unless it's a big security fix, and it can't break anything, and has to be tested first.
That's ok with me, except that they take too long between releases, and unless you want to break (!) your package setup, you can't upgrade your samba, apache, etc.., or dpkg/apt-get has a hissy fit. I switched after too many of these kind of problems, so maybe if Debian FIXED their methods and procedures so that upgrades to stable packages were easy to get without switching distros they could get more users, and therefore developers, in their distro.
Define sqrt(x) as something really evil like (x / rand()), and bury it deep in a shared include somewhere.
There was a small section in the article that said that many of the Debian developers have never met face to face. Whilst this is clearly true, most of them will never have met this way, I thought that before you get accepted as a Debian developer you had to go through a face to face meeting, to exchange public keys and the like. Is this true? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
On a side note, I, and most of friends who use Linux, are big fans of Debian. The one guy loves stability, and gives not a fig for the bleeding edge. Another really goes for the bleeding edge, and always uses the most up-to-date "unstable" releases. A couple of us are such awful sysadmins, that we need something like the Debian package system in order to use Linux without having to reinstall regularly. Lastly, I go for their right and proper focus on free-as-in-freedom.
This is quite a spread of abilities and desires. Debian meets them all. That's a real trick for a Linux distribution. They've earned the award. Time for a big round of applause...
-- "This is the Space Age, and we are Here To Go" - W.S.Burroughs
We?
How about some of us more fanantical ones.
Me, I'll use any tool that works. Your choice of software isn't a political statement.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Some of the stuff in non-free is less free than others. For instance, I believe the Aladdin version of Ghostscript (gs-aladdin) is not legal to put on a CD that you sell. Stuff like this is why non-free doesn't show up on CDs generally (though I imagine there's only a handful of packages that have this problem).
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i've been using debian/gnu for 3 years.
every time i pop that rescue.bin in and get that friendly boot message, i can't help but get 9 inches of pure USDA Homegrown Woodrow.
and just what the hell does see shy joe mean, anyway??!!
It seems that there are a few people still in the dark about how Debian's distribution fits together.
We have 2 archives, and each has 3 sections. There is 1 official section in each archive. The two archives are the "regular/low fat/most of the stuff" archive, and the "non-US/don't mind me/watch out for the helicopters" archive. Software that breaks the US export control laws goes into the non-US archive.
Inside each archive are 3 sections, called "main", "contrib" and "non-free". The only part of the archive that we "officially" support is the "main" section. Every piece of software in the "main" section is compliant with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. This software is all GPL, MPL, BSD, [insert favourite free licence here] stuff. The "contrib" section stuff *would* be in the "main" section, except that it for some reason relies on something from the "non-free" section. "non-free" stuff is stuff that we are allowed to distribute, but does not fall under our Free Software Guidelines.
The official Debian cd images that come out with each distribution contain the regular/main, regular/contrib, non-US/main and non-US/contrib stuff, along with all the source. Of course, often to use much of the contrib stuff, you need to grab non-free stuff (many packages however only partly rely on non-free stuff, such as driver modules, this still gets them into contrib, but you can use them without non-free).
And debian has a particular role: it is a concience of the whole Linux industry. Glad to see them getting this award - keep on with the good work!
It sounds like you are going to get your troll ass sued! And just in case you a stupid enough to think this could work, think about this, you are collecting fees on a "anonymous distributed system" so where does the money go, cause that is where the lawyers will follow (if you really can hide the money I'm sure you'll find a far more worthwhile job in organised crime). I think we all know that RMS believes strongly in the use of copyright to prevent EXACTLY what you want to do and I'm sure he will still have enough friends in the world to pay more lawyers than you can handle.
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
Your reasons for not using debian are quite flimsy. You can have just as much cutting edge stuff with debian that you can in any other distro. (I do realize that there are some applications where the authors do not support debian so it takes a week or two for a package manager to make .deb available) It runs beautifully on my Compaq laptop with the latest eye candy available, and we even have some debian woody boxes that are running the latest 2.4-test kernel. Furthermore, I would rather have quality control than cutting edge on my mission critical servers any day. And the package management system is excellent. Maintenance and upgrades on these boxes is a breeze!
And with strong desktop distro's like corel and storm (which is better by far) your arguments become impotent. Personally, I would rather fight than switch.
OK, here's an idea that struck me as people debate on this story the worth of time, the worth of programmers, the greatness or lameness of various distros ... (esp. b/c someone raised the issue of buying Linus a long-distance beer)
;)
BUY THEM FOOD.
That's right. Imagine a sort of pizza-and-beer account that you could contribute to, the way that people can / could buy Theo of OpenBSD pizza.
if you like a certain distro, you can give them some virtual calories by sending them some money online.
for instance:
welcome to the hungry programmers food page:
I want to give [check one]
o $5
o $10
o $15
o $300,000
to the [check one]
o debian project
o FSF contributors
o both the debian project and FSF contributors
[check one]
o pizza fund
o beer fund
And the music industry would have to jump on board, too, of course;)
Amazon, do you want to redeem yourself?! host the payments, and match them
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
As the French have been quoted as saying anything can be seen as a political statement because politics intercets almost anything.
That being said for example using MS products makes a statement rather implicetly stated that you agree with the procedures that they utilize in development and marketing. Same with patronizing certain stores and the like.
No one is immune. I will support microsoft no longer in my life.
They are moving towards a world where software is no longer my own and I have to upgrade a several thousand dollar computer every week. Thank you but no.
Respond to s
You said:
"Congratulations to the Debian crew for this.
Non-Debian users benefit from the pressure
that Debian puts on other distros -- just by
existing -- to mind their P's and Q's when
it comes to Free software, and for proving
that elegant upgrade systems don't have to
be glitzy or labyrnthine."
I am not here to flame up a distro-based religious war, but I really wonder how being late all the time can be considered as an "elegant" trait ?
I mean, Debian is famous (notorious) for its lateness. Its "official" version almost always lag behind, compare with others.
True, being fast doesn't mean sharp, but Debian's lateness is something else altogether.
I mean, look at the "potato" release - or should I say, has yet to be released - other distros are carrying newer version of the utilities and kernel code already, in their RELEASE, OFFICIAL versions.
True, Debian does put a lot of effort into its Ps and Qs, but Ps and Qs alone is not _everything_. Sometimes a user needs some advance feature offered by a newer version of a certain utilities, and because of Debian's insistence on getting EVERYTHING in line, most of the time the utilities in Debian distros are of older version, and the user who needs the new feature ain't gonna get it.
That is why sometimes I am forced to use distros other than Debian.
But anyway, congratulation to Debian, the Debian folks have worked hard to earn the prize, despite the too often lateness for Debian releases.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !