Debian turns 30

[Posted August 16, 2023 by corbet]

On August 16, 1993, Ian Murdock announced a new distribution to the comp.os.linux.development Usenet newsgroup:

This is just to announce the imminent completion of a brand-new Linux release, which I'm calling the Debian Linux Release. 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. I was inspired to put together this release after running SLS and generally being dissatisfied with much of it, and after much altering of SLS I decided that it would be easier to start from scratch. The base system is now virtually complete (though I'm still looking around to make sure that I grabbed the most recent sources for everything), and I'd like to get some feedback before I add the "fancy" stuff.

After 30 years, Debian is still going strong.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 16, 2023 16:44 UTC (Wed) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link] (5 responses)

Congratulations, Debian, a gem of a community effort which again shows that democratic organization, despite its often fractious process, in the long run prevails.

I look forward to using you for the next 30.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 16, 2023 16:54 UTC (Wed) by Herve5 (subscriber, #115399) [Link]

me too ! ;-)

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 18, 2023 20:51 UTC (Fri) by philh (subscriber, #14797) [Link] (3 responses)

I don't think I'd give "democracy" credit for Debian's success.

In fact, democracy is quite often the source (or at least a symptom) of problems in Debian.

Whenever people get the impression that they can make things happen by voting, disappointment follows[1].

If 60% of people are indifferent to a problem, and a majority of those that are left think it should be solved in one way, but the only person that seems to be motivated enough and/or knowledgeable enough to do the work prefers another, voting about it is unlikely to make the world a better place.

[1] I meant that in the context of Debian, but on reflection, it may be generally true ;-)
--
That said, Debian is a wonder of the modern world -- by the assumptions that most people have about how things work, it's obviously impossible for it either to have come about, or for it to flourish, and yet it goes from strength to strength.

Long may it continue :-)

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 25, 2023 7:40 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (2 responses)

That's a reasonable hypothesis, but given the success and longevity of Debian, my default approach would be to assume that Debian's democratic aspects are fine.

There's grumbling and complaints around most votes, but Debian continues to work, so it looks to me like grumbling and complaints are not enough of a marker of something being a problem.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 25, 2023 9:46 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> There's grumbling and complaints around most votes, but Debian continues to work, so it looks to me like grumbling and complaints are not enough of a marker of something being a problem.

In other words, the peanut gallery is working fine :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Debian turns 30

Posted Sep 10, 2023 1:47 UTC (Sun) by yoe (guest, #25743) [Link]

Eh.

philh is Phil Hands, who has been a Debian developer for longer than me, and I joined in 2001.

Rather than a hypothesis, this is someone speaking from experience. And fwiw, I agree with Phil's assessment of the situation.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 16, 2023 18:12 UTC (Wed) by sagi (subscriber, #64671) [Link]

Happy Debian user. Thank you community! And what a lovely celebratory logo!

Coincidentally, I just looked around if any of the European merchandise sellers listed at Debian.org had it something with this logo available, but that is not (yet) the case.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 17, 2023 0:20 UTC (Thu) by AdamW (subscriber, #48457) [Link]

"1) Debian will be sleeker and slimmer. No more multiple binaries and manpages."

Ah, it's good to see they're still sticking faithfully to the founding principles!

Seriously, though, congrats, Debian :)

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 17, 2023 9:42 UTC (Thu) by t-v (guest, #112111) [Link]

Congrats to all the people making Debian!

I have some fond memories from the people I met there, online and in person, and Debian is still what I'm running day-in, day-out.

Thank you so much!

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 18, 2023 19:31 UTC (Fri) by k3ninho (subscriber, #50375) [Link]

I've been using it at least 20 years and my gratitude and respect for those who serve to make The Universal Operating System grow each year. Thank you!

k3n.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 20, 2023 2:02 UTC (Sun) by carlosrodfern (subscriber, #166486) [Link]

It was the distro I settled with after hopping for a year or two. I ran it for many years before switching later on to Ubuntu (but now I run Fedora ;)

I am glad to hear is still running strong and with a healthy community.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 21, 2023 2:47 UTC (Mon) by cerebus (subscriber, #162576) [Link]

I remember getting CDs of 0.93R5 or R6. The big to-do of moving from a.out to ELF binaries! It's nice when something you have a good feeling about pays off. Thanks, Debian.

Debian turns 30

Posted Aug 25, 2023 6:49 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

Debian's an amazing project. It's one of those initiatives that, if you haven't seen it being made, you'd find it difficult to believe it's possible.

Happy Debian user of 23 years.