Custom Debian Distributions

Andreas Tille writes "When the first Custom Debian Distribution - Debian Junior - started in the beginning of 2000 we did not expect that this would perhaps lead to a new way Debian could support its end users in general. The next step forward was done in DebConf3 in Oslo when several developers who care about Custom Debian Distributions met in person and decided to work together more closely. Finally at OSWC conference in Malaga took place a workshop aiming at exactly this issue. The result of the conference was to write a paper about Custom Debian Distributions to explain to the public what we had done and what we want to do. This is an implicit call for participation for all those people inside and outside Debian who work on the same goal: Enhance the role of Debian as the missing link between upstream software developers and end users."

Comments

Re:Debian has surpassed many goals..

[MrRuslan]

Debian has very good tools but I would they are no where near as flexible as BSD's ports or Gentoo's portage...IMHO

Re:It begins at home

[ChimaObialo]

Well, my school considers computer science a branch of engineering, so what you gotta say now, my fellow stupid?

Re:Debian continues to improve!

[bogie]

"Debian has the potential to be the "one true distribution" "

Not as long as many Debian users continue to think like this. The elitist attitude is still there and the price of entry ie horrible newbie unfriendly installer present a high barrier of entry.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1026 83&cid=8747288

In many ways I feel that Debian is the most important Linux distro. It is now and will forever be Open Source. There are a ton of volunteers and it is mostly Free from commerical influence. But ease of install and a sometimes elitist hacker community continue to hold it back. Look at the guy I quoted above. His attitude is that Debian users are "special" and that if you don't like them go away. That's the type of attitude that forces people to distros like Mandrake, Lindows, Xandros etc in droves.

Of course there are many helpful Debian users out there but being that Debian is a little hard to get used to begin with whenever someone makes a post like that it just turns people off to Debian in general.

Debian sat around too long while all the other distros became moron proof to install and easy to maintain with nice gui tools. I can only hope that the new installer combined with the Gnome System Tools finally lets Debian reach parity with some of the other distros out there. I'd hate to see in 2010 most Linux users running proprietary distros like Lindows because mainline Debian is still a pain to install and maintain for the average user.