Part three in our "A Brief History" we look at one of the oldest and biggest distros out there and one that forms the basis of many.many more distros,Linux Mint and Ubuntu being two of the most popular derivatives.
Debian GNU/Linux was
first announced in 1993. Its founder, Ian Murdock,
The success of Debian GNU/Linux can be illustrated by
the following numbers. It is developed by over 1,000 volunteer
developers, its software repositories contain close to 50,000 binary
packages (compiled for 8 processor architectures), and it is responsible
for inspiring over 120 Debian-based distributions and live CDs. These
figures are unmatched by any other Linux-based operating system. The
actual development of Debian takes place in three main branches (or four
if one includes the bleeding-edge "experimental" branch) of increasing
levels of stability: "unstable" (also known as "sid"), "testing" and
"stable". This progressive integration and stabilisation of packages and
features, together with the project's well-established quality control
mechanisms, has earned Debian its reputation of being one of the
best-tested and most bug-free distributions available today.
However, this lengthy and complex development style also
has some drawbacks: the stable releases of Debian are not particularly
up-to-date and they age rapidly, especially since new stable releases
are only published once every 1 - 3 years. Those users who prefer the
latest packages and technologies are forced to use the potentially buggy
Debian testing or unstable branches. The highly democratic structures
of Debian have led to controversial decisions and gives rise to
infighting among the developers. This has contributed to stagnation and
reluctance to make radical decisions that would take the project
forward.
envisaged the
creation of a completely non-commercial project developed by hundreds of
volunteer developers in their spare time. With sceptics far
outnumbering optimists at the time, it seemed destined to disintegrate
and collapse, but the reality was very different. Debian not only
survived, it thrived and, in less than a decade, it became the largest
Linux distribution and possibly the largest collaborative software
project ever created!
- Pros: Very stable; remarkable quality control; includes over
30,000 software packages; supports more processor architectures than any
other Linux distribution
- Cons: Conservative - due to its support
for many processor architectures, newer technologies are not always
included; slow release cycle (one stable release every 1 - 3 years);
discussions on developer mailing lists and blogs can be uncultured at
times
- Software package management: Advanced Package Tool (APT) using DEB packages
- Available editions: Installation CD/DVD
and live CD images for 12 processor architectures, including all 32-bit
and 64-bit processors from Intel, AMD, Power and others
- Suggested Debian-based alternatives: Ubuntu, SparkyLinux (Enlightenment, JWM, LXDE, MATE, Openbox, Razor-qt, Xfce), SolydXK (Xfce or KDE), KNOPPIX (LXDE), Tanglu (GNOME, KDE), siduction (LXQt)
 |
| Debian with Gnome Desktop |
0 comments:
Post a Comment