On Jul 26, 12:30 am, Frank Lin PIAT <fp...@klabs.be> wrote:
> ## BANNER {http://www.debian.org/banners/3.1/sarge-ban1-6.png}
>
> Universal operating system #...@!
>
> First of all, let's make it clear, Debian is not THE universal operating
> system. I mean it is definitely not the one and only OS.
>
> Is Debian an universal operating system?
When I think about that slogan, I consider all Debian-derived
distributions to be 'Debian'. With that in mind Debian is a pretty
universal operating system. A few years ago I prepared a Debconf slide
about derived distributions and I found that Debian had more derived
distributions that all other distributions combined. I doubt that has
changed much. Most Linux distributions are based on Debian. Thus
Debian is a lot of things to a lot of people. Very universal and very
adaptable.
The key to that in my mind is feeding back changes and bringing
derivations back into the fold - the more Debian derived distributions
would be able to fully exist inside Debian (as fully official Debian
Pure Blends or whatever), the more Debian universality Debian as a
whole will gain.
In this context in my opinion it would be useful to find out what
things Debian-derived distributions want to do that can not be
currently done inside Debian with Debian resources and try to resolve
that. One great thing that we could copy is the PPA system from
Launchpad - a contributor can sign up, upload a source package and
have it compiled and put into a separate repository fully
automatically. Imagine such a system existing in Debian (with support
for all architectures, compile logs, lintian output, 'push this
version to unstable/experimental' button) and a lot more people would
be able to contribute in new ways. Now imagine a build system where
you could log in, define a Debian Pure Blend (metapackage
dependencies, setting overrides, ...) and have metapackages,
installation images and livecd images generated and hosted for you on
Debian hardware - you one stop shop to creating and hosting a
Debian-derived distribution in a way where you can easily contribute
it back to Debian.
If we have a vision of being an universal operating system, lets
strive for it using the best we have - people who use us to satisfy
their needs.
--
Best regards,
Aigars Mahinovs mailto:aigar...@debian.org
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