Debian is a GNU/Linux distribution. We will discuss what a distribution is in further detail in
قسمت 1.5, “نقش توزیع‌ها”
. But for now, we will simply state that it is a complete operating system, including software and systems for installation and management, all based on the Linux kernel and free software (especially those from the GNU project).
When he created Debian, in 1993, under the leadership of the Free Software Foundation (
FSF), Ian Murdock had clear objectives, which he expressed in the
Debian Manifesto.
The free operating system that he sought would have to have two principal features. First, quality: Debian would be developed with the greatest care, to be worthy of the Linux kernel. It would also be a non-commercial distribution, sufficiently credible to compete with major commercial distributions. This double ambition would, in his eyes, only be achieved by opening the Debian development process just like that of Linux and the GNU project. Thus, peer review would continuously improve the product.
1.1.1. یک سیستم عامل چندسکویی
Debian, remaining true to its initial principles, has had so much success that, today, it has reached a tremendous size. Currently, it officially supports a total of nine hardware release architectures, several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”, and also other kernels like FreeBSD, although the FreeBSD-based ports are not part of the set of officially supported architectures either. Furthermore, with more than 34,000 source packages, the available software can meet almost any need, whether at home or in the enterprise.
The sheer size of the distribution can be inconvenient: it is really unreasonable to distribute 21 DVD-ROMs (only containing the packages qualifying as "Free Software" and firmware) to install a complete version on a standard PC… This is why Debian is increasingly considered as a “meta-distribution”, from which one extracts more specific distributions intended for a particular public: Debian Science for scientific use, Debian Edu for education and pedagogical use in an academic environment, Debian Med for medical applications, Debian Jr. for young children, etc. A more complete list of the sub-projects can be found in
قسمت 1.3.3.1, “Existing Debian Sub-Projects and Blends”
, dedicated to that purpose.
این دیدگاه جداگانه از دبیان تحت یک چارچوب از پیش تعریف شده، سازماندهی می‌گردد که امکان سازگاری بین “توزیه‌های فرزند” را ایجاد می‌کند. تمام آن‌ها از برنامه‌ریزی عمومی برای هر نسخه جدید تبعیت می‌کنند. از آنجایی که بر اساس یک بنیاد مشترک ساخته می‌شوند، با استفاده از برنامه‌هایی که در مخازن رسمی دبیان وجود دارند به راحتی می‌توانند توسعه یابند، کامل شوند یا شخصی گردند.
تمام ابزار دبیان تحت این شرایط عمل می‌کنند: debian-cd برای مدتی طولانی است که به عنوان ابزاری جهت ایجاد سی‌دی شامل مجموعه‌ای از بسته‌ها استفاده می‌گردد؛ debian-installer یک نصب‌کننده ماژولار به حساب می‌آید که به راحتی برای نیازهای خاص قابل برنامه‌ریزی است. APT بسته‌ها را از منابع گوناگون نصب کرده در حالتی که پایداری کل سیستم را تضمین می‌کند.
1.1.2. کیفیت نرم‌افزار آزاد
Debian follows all of the principles of Free Software, and its new versions are not released until they are ready. Developers do not work upon a set schedule and don't have to rush to meet an arbitrary deadline. People frequently complain of the long time between Debian's stable releases, but this caution ensures that Debian's legendary reliability is met: long months of testing are indeed necessary for the full distribution to receive the “stable” label.
Debian will not compromise on quality: all known critical bugs on key packages are resolved in any new version, even if this requires the initially forecast release date to be pushed back. Optional packages whose critical bugs are not fixed, and thus do not meet the quality requirements, are simply dropped from the stable release.
1.1.3. چارچوب قانونی: یک سازمان غیرانتفاعی
بر اساس قانون، دبیان پروژه‌ای است که از طرف یک سازمان غیرانتفاعی و داوطلب محور آمریکایی مدیریت می‌شود. پروژه چیزی حدود هزار توسعه‌دهنده دبیان را شامل می‌شود، اما تعداد بسیار بیشتری مشارکت‌کننده را گرد هم آورده است (مترجمان، گزارش‌کنندگان باگ، هنرمندان، توسعهدهندگان مبتدی و ...).
To carry its mission to fruition, Debian has a large infrastructure, with many servers connected across the Internet, offered and hosted by many sponsors.
