%% The Debian Project: An Inside View %% Copyright 2003 Bdale Garbee %% %% Presented at Linux Conference Australia, Perth 24 January 2002 %% %% %% Title: %% %% Herding Wild Cats and Other Adventures %% An Inside Look at the Debian Project %% %% Abstract: %% %% As a long-time member of the Debian Project and the project's current %% elected leader, Bdale Garbee has a unique perspective on how Debian %% actually works. This talk will begin with a history of Debian, how the %% project is structured, and how Bdale came to be involved in Debian. It %% will then touch on how Debian manages to deliver more packages for more %% architectures than any other distribution, and other project attributes %% that have made it such a success. If you're thinking of joining the %% Debian project, or are just curious about what it is, how it works, or %% why it inspires such enthusiasm... this is a talk you won't want to miss! %% %% Define the fonts we will use %% %deffont "standard" tfont "Arial.ttf" %deffont "typewriter" tfont "Times_New_Roman.ttf" %deffont "fixed" xfont "terminal" %% %% Default settings for special lines %% %default 1 leftfill, fore "black", back "white", bimage "background.bmp" %default 2 size 7, vgap 10, prefix " ", font "standard" %default 3 size 2, bar "gray70", vgap 10 %default 4 size 5, vgap 30, font "standard" %% %% Default settings for indented lines %% %tab 1 size 5, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon box "green" 50 %tab 2 size 4, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon arc "red" 50 %tab 3 size 3, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon delta3 "blue" 40 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page %nodefault, font "standard", fore "black", back "white", bimage "background.bmp" %center Herding Wild Cats and Other Adventures %size 8 An Inside Look at the Debian Project %size 6 Bdale Garbee %size 5 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page %font "typewriter" from Debian Weekly News... %font "typewriter" Debian older than Humanity? Tomas Pospisek [6]reported that the [7]Debian Swirl can be cleary seen on one of the [8]pictures taken by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. For example, check the lower right hand corner of the [9]image. Perhaps this is proof that grains for Debian were sowed long before the dawn of humanity. %font "standard" %center, image "starswirl.png" 0 400 400 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page My Objectives for Today An overview of the Debian project. My personal involvement with Debian... How Debian works, and how to help! Overall, a sense for the Debian "community" This is NOT an introduction to using Debian. Please see the website, and just give Debian a try! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page What is Debian? %font "typewriter" `The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system.' %font "standard" More specifically, Debian: is one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions runs on the most architectures is a completely open volunteer organization is quite international is the largest GNU/Linux distribution works with companies to develop and maintain software is Focused on Freedom is well represented in the Free Software world %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page A Few Debian Statistics Debian is a project of Software in the Public Interest 11 released architectures alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips/mipsel, powerpc, s390, sparc other ports in progress Hitachi SuperH AMD x86-64 only distribution also working with HURD & BSD kernels 1177 package maintainers 7515 source packages 12433 binary packages %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Number of Developers Over Time %center, newimage "developers.png" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Map of Debian Developer Locations %center, image "developers.map.jpeg" 0 130 130 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Package Count Over Time %center, newimage "packages.png" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Key Points in Early History Aug 1993 Debian 0.01 released Jan 1994 Debian 0.91 released The Debian Linux Manifesto simple package manager about 12 contributors, last "one-man release" Mar 1995 Debian 0.93R5 released concept of explicit package maintainers dpkg introduced Nov 1995 Debian 0.93R6 released dselect introduced about 60 contributors Jun 1997 Debian Social Contract Jul 1998 Debian 2.0 released first non-ia32 architecture (m68k) supported %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page How Bdale Found Debian The Early Days A GPS receiver project for AMSAT AO-40 needed development tools for an embedded AMD 29200 CPU system. Bruce Perens' "Linux for Hams" project. Package maintainer, contributed amateur radio software packages. Early infrastructure for Debian at HP. Helped start Alpha, Sparc, and ARM ports. More Recently PARISC and IA-64 ports of Debian Working for HP on Linux Full-Time since May 2001 Debian Project Leader %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page The AO-40 GPS Receiver CPU Board %center %image "ramtest2.jpg" 800x600 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page What are AMSAT and AO-40? AMSAT is a non-profit organization that builds and launches amateur satellites. AMSAT-NA is the North American organization, other countries have AMSAT-DL, AMSAT-UK, JAMSAT, etc. AO-40 is the 40'th amateur satellite to successfully achieve orbit. a communications system for amateur radio operators, and a platform for scientific experiments. launched 15 Nov 2000 on an Ariane 5 from French Guiana, it was the heaviest amateur satellite ever, the largest total mass ever taken to GTO, and a magnificent orbital insertion by Arianespace... %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page AO-40 Final Assembly and Test %center %image "DSCN0918.JPG" 800x600 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Launch Configuration %center, newimage "L_ASAPcutaway_bg.jpg" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Ariane 5 Launches AO-40 %center, newimage "vol135a.jpg" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page The Evolution of Debian's Mission For a project like Debian, a mission is more about attracting than about sending... but attracting carefully! Ian Murdock's Debian Manifesto Bruce Perens' Notion of Debian as a Base Holders of the Higher Ground The Arrival of apt-get, and Great Gobs of Real Users New Maintainer Processing %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page The Debian Linux Manifesto Debian Linux is a brand-new kind of Linux distribution ... developed openly in the spirit of Linux and GNU. Debian is being carefully and conscientiously put together and will be maintained and supported with similar care. The Debian design process is open to ensure that the system is of the highest quality and that it reflects the needs of the user community. ... that Linux is not a commercial product and that it never should be, but that this does not mean that Linux will never be able to compete commercially. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Debian Social Contract Debian Will Remain 100% Free Software We Will Give Back to the Free Software Community We Won't Hide Problems Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) Free Redistribution Source Code Derived Works Integrity of The Author's Source Code No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor Distribution of License License Must Not Be Specific to Debian License Must Not Contaminate Other Software Example Licenses %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Bug Tracking System and Policy Manual Since 1994 Debian has had a public bug-tracking system on the Internet. This is an open system to which people can submit bug reports, features requests and other comments. It is used primarily email-in, web-out. One important success factor for Debian is the integration of all the different packages. This is coordinated through the policy document, which gives guidelines for building and maintaining packages. Packaging and policy checking tools facilitate correctness. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Constitution Describes the organizational structure for formal decision-making in the Project. It does not describe the goals of the Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies except those directly related to the decision-making process. Division of Powers Developers Technical Committee Project Secretary Project Leader Delegates Voting processes widely respected %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Communication Tools IRC Excellent for international communication #debian channel for user support Direct 24x7 access to Debian community members Very Fast Mailing Lists Over 100 mailing lists, many thousands of subscribers. One small server running Debian Postfix with VERP support Smartlist with local modifications Bug Tracking System Package Tracking System Developer Web Portal %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Auto-building System As packages are uploaded, a database system schedules builds for each architecture. The maintainer of the auto-builder for each architecture reviews the build log, and marks each build: Approve the package for upload Mark the failure in the build database and BTS Flag the package for rebuild once a dependency is met Build status and logs always available at buildd.debian.org. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Package Promotion towards Release All new package uploads go to the "unstable" (sid) tree. Packages which meet certain criteria are promoted to the "testing" (sarge) tree. Package ages 2 weeks. No release critical bugs. All installation dependencies met. Security updates immediately available. Periodic release cycle. Major releases every 12-24 months. 3.0 (woody) currently. Point releases with security fixes every 2 months. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page How You Can Help Debian Use Debian GNU/Linux! Report bugs, and/or offer solutions Help with areas that always need more help, like documentation, testing, web pages, etc If you are capable, committed, and want to maintain packages for Debian, you can become a Debian Developer %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page New Maintainer Process Initial Contact Identification Philosophy and Procedures Tasks and Skills Evaluation and Check-in %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Conclusions The core values associated with Free Software attract strong support (people, hardware, bandwidth). Debian is one of the most successful volunteer projects ever. Over 1000 VOLUNTEERS around the world... All of the infrastructure and communications tools used by Debian are 100% Open Source, and available for others to use for their projects. Debian GNU/Linux -- your Universal Operating System. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page To Learn More %center %size 10 http://www.debian.org/ %size 8 http://www.gag.com/~bdale/talks/