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July 22, 2008

On Aug. 16, Linux distribution Debian will celebrate its 15th birthday. Since 1993, Debian has also been widely used as the base for numerous other Linux distributions, including the popular Ubuntu distribution created by Mark Shuttleworth.

At that time, when Debian founder Ian Murdock announced the launch of the new 'distro' he said “this is just to announce the imminent completion of a new Linux release, which I’m calling Debian. This is a release that I have put together basically from scratch. In other words, I didn’t simply make some changes to SLS and call it a new release.”

Debian has achieved a lot over the past decade. Perhaps one of its major contributions to the world, apart from software, was its commitment to free software. The Debian distribution has become one of the touchstones for the free software ideal, regularly rejecting packages with proprietary software and setting an example for the Linux community.

Overall, Murdock’s ambitions for Debian included making a Linux system that was slimmer than other Linux versions. An OS with the most up-to-date applications. An easier install routine. An automated configuration on install, etc.

However, and as can be expected, a truly open Linux distribution also has its pitfalls, one of which is the sometimes overly democratic processes that surround the development of Debian. The result has been long release cycles as some technical and political issues are worked through.

Debian also has a long list of well-known team leaders including Bruce Perens who succeeded Murdock in 1996. Debian has become a robust and dependable Linux distribution favoured by serious Linux geeks everywhere and, in particular, among server administrators who favour reliable, long-life operating systems.

Debian has also inspired a new generation of Linux distros, most of which have built on the best of Debian and released as a diverse range of Linux operating systems for every need.

One of these was Knoppix, a Debian-based Live CD which allowed users to run the operating system directly from the CD without needing to install it to their hard disk. Although not the first-ever Live CD, Knoppix was certainly the best known and in time has spun off its own generation of Linux distributions.

But to be fair to the others, all the major distributions of Linux today offer a Live version including Ubuntu, Centos, Free BSD, OpenSuse, Gentoo and Red Hat's Fedora Project.

Source: Debian.

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