Happy Birthday Debian

Today marks the seventeenth birthday for Debian, a free operating system based on Linux and GNU.

Debian has successfully grown and developed into being one of the strongest Open Source Operating Systems available. For a distribution which is produced by volunteers rather than with commercial backing, this is a great achievement, and a testament to Open Source development,

Perhaps the key to Debian’s success is that it is maintained by people who have a vested interest in it working well, rather than just selling well. Volunteers package and maintain the software because they use them and need them to work, not because they are checking off a feature list for release at the next trade show. Debian has always focused on getting things right on a technical level rather than working to a feature list. It has by far the largest number of supported architectures and packages of any distribution.

Debian has also always been fundamentally committed to software freedom. Its “Social Contract” and the Debian Free Software Guidelines formed the basis of the Open Source Definition, which defines the requirements for something to be considered true Open Source software.

Happy Birthday @Debian, May you see many more!