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<sect1 id="what-is-debian">
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<title>What is Debian?</title>
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Debian is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to developing free
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software and promoting the ideals of the Free Software Foundation.
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The Debian Project began in 1993, when Ian Murdock issued an open
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invitation to software developers to contribute to a complete and
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coherent software distribution based on the relatively new Linux
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kernel. That relatively small band of dedicated enthusiasts,
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originally funded by the
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<ulink url="&url-fsf-intro;">Free Software Foundation</ulink>
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<ulink url="&url-gnu-intro;">GNU</ulink>
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philosophy, has grown over the years into an organization of around
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&num-of-debian-developers; <firstterm>Debian Developers</firstterm>.
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Debian Developers are involved in a variety of activities, including
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<ulink url="&url-debian-home;">Web</ulink>
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and <ulink url="&url-debian-ftp;">FTP</ulink>
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site administration, graphic design, legal analysis of
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software licenses, writing documentation, and, of course, maintaining
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In the interest of communicating our philosophy and attracting
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developers who believe in the principles that Debian stands for, the
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Debian Project has published a number of documents that outline our
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values and serve as guides to what it means to be a Debian Developer:
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<ulink url="&url-social-contract;">Debian Social Contract</ulink> is
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a statement of Debian's commitments to the Free Software Community.
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Anyone who agrees to abide to the Social Contract may become a
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<ulink url="&url-new-maintainer;">maintainer</ulink>.
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Any maintainer can introduce new software into Debian — provided
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that the software meets our criteria for being free, and the package
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follows our quality standards.
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<ulink url="&url-dfsg;">Debian Free Software Guidelines</ulink> are a
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clear and concise statement of Debian's criteria for free software.
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The DFSG is a very influential document in the Free Software Movement,
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and was the foundation of the
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<ulink url="&url-osd;">The Open Source Definition</ulink>.
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<ulink url="&url-debian-policy;">Debian Policy Manual</ulink> is an
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extensive specification of the Debian Project's standards of quality.
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Debian developers are also involved in a number of other projects;
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some specific to Debian, others involving some or all of the Linux
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community. Some examples include:
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<ulink url="&url-lsb-org;">Linux Standard Base</ulink>
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(LSB) is a project aimed at standardizing the basic GNU/Linux system,
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which will enable third-party software and hardware developers to
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easily design programs and device drivers for Linux-in-general, rather
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than for a specific GNU/Linux distribution.
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<ulink url="&url-fhs-home;">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</ulink>
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(FHS) is an effort to standardize the layout of the Linux
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file system. The FHS will allow software developers to concentrate
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their efforts on designing programs, without having to worry about how
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the package will be installed in different GNU/Linux distributions.
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<ulink url="&url-debian-jr;">Debian Jr.</ulink>
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is an internal project, aimed at making sure Debian has something to
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offer to our youngest users.
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For more general information about Debian, see the
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<ulink url="&url-debian-faq;">Debian FAQ</ulink>.