Hi Dan, * Clarke, Daniel (US - Arlington) <dacla...@deloitte.com> [2016-07-27 19:23]: > My name is Dan and I have been given the following task by my > client: What is the history of Debian, and, specifically, whether > there is a central authority that publishes patches and what is > their credibility?
Debian is a project which consists of many different people who collaborate. Debian is an OS integrator -- we take software developed by other open source projects and integrate them into an operating system by creating Debian packages of the software. Updates are obtained from the original software developers. Debian makes some changes (for integration, bug fixes or other) but works closely with the original developers of the software (such as the Linux kernel, Firefox, and QEMU). Security support for Debian's latest software release is provided through the Debian security team. Again, they work with the original developers of the software on those fixes. Debian backports security fixes to the software in the stable release rather than adding new software versions. Official security support through the security team is provided for a software release as long as it's the current stable release and for 12 more months from the time a new stable release is made. The Debian Long Term Support (LTS) initiative provides further support for a total of 5 years. The Debian LTS initiative is primarily sponsored through an outside company which engages Debian contributors on a paid basis. Here are some links: https://www.debian.org/security/faq https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/ Debian maintains a list of consultants who can be engaged for paid work: https://www.debian.org/consultants/ I hope this information is useful. -- Martin Michlmayr http://www.cyrius.com/
