Debian Turns 30 Years Old, Happy Birthday!
Believe it or not, it’s been 30 years since the late Ian Murdock announced the Debian Project on August 16th, 1993, and the initial release of Debian GNU/Linux a month later on September 15th, in an attempt to develop the “Universal Operating System.”
Now, 30 years later, Debian is being used by millions of users around the world, either directly by using the Debian GNU/Linux operating system or by using one of its numerous derivatives, such as the very popular Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
Bobby Borisov & Daniel Pocock:
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30 Years of Stability, Security, and Freedom: Celebrating Debian’s Birthday
In the dynamic realm of today’s technology world, where trends change faster than the blink of an eye, staying relevant for three decades is a feat achieved by a rare few.
Debian, the venerable and iconic open-source operating system, stands proudly among this elite group as it celebrates its 30th birthday.
Debian… ok, I know, Debian/GNU Linux is an operating system that emerged from the brilliance of a passionate software developer, Ian Murdock, on August 16th, 1993.
Today, 30 years later, it is no exaggeration to say that it is the most respected Linux distribution, deservedly so. In all that time, Debian has released 17 major and 123 minor releases, establishing itself as a bastion of predictability, security, and reliability.
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Mark Shuttleworth & Debian Day Volunteer Suicide cover-up
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of Debian. The number one thing on our minds should be the Debian Day Volunteer Suicide.
On Friday, 13 August 2010, people on the Ubuntu payroll began a new push for DEP-5. Barely 48 hours later and Frans Pop decided enough was enough. Pop's resignation email to debian-private reads like a suicide note.
I previously looked at how Debian made a release dedication to Ian Murdock after his suicide but there was no equivalent dedication to Frans Pop.
Why did they not experience the same treatment?
Within hours of the bad news, Mark Shuttleworth had sent an email to debian-private suggesting that it remain private.
The arguments made by Shuttleworth may be correct but this still feels wrong.
Shuttleworth admits that his business model poses a danger to Debian volunteers.
His participation in debian-private suggests he has a duty of care to all volunteers, whether they are his employees or not.
Planet Debian:
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Debian Celebrates 30 years!
Over 30 years ago the late Ian Murdock wrote to the comp.os.linux.development newsgroup about the completion of a brand-new Linux release which he named "The Debian Linux Release".
He built the release by hand, from scratch, so to speak. Ian laid out guidelines for how this new release would work, what approach the release would take regarding its size, manner of upgrades, installation procedures; and with great care of consideration for users without Internet connection.
A pair from LWN:
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Debian turns 30
After 30 years, Debian is still going strong.
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Debian adds LoongArch support
The Debian project has added the LoongArch architecture to its ports collection.
Also:
FOSSForce:
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Debian Is 30 and Sgt Pepper Is at Least Ninetysomething
The Linux distribution Debian turned 30 today.
Just as Linux got started with a short message for its creator, that a “little” operating system that probably won’t amount to much was being built, Debian was announced to the world by a similar message from its founder, the late Ian Murdock, that was sent to the comp.os.linux.development Usenet newsgroup...
iTWire:
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Debian marks three decades as 'Universal Operating System'
The Debian GNU/Linux project has completed 30 years of producing a free, community distribution which is arguably the best and one that has served as the base for several other efforts.
Liam Dawe:
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Happy Debian Day - going 30 years strong
Today is Debian Day and it's quite a special one, because the Debian Project has now been going for 30 years which is a very impressive milestone.
Linux Capable:
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Debian Linux Celebrates 30 Years Milestone
Debian, the renowned open-source operating system, has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. This milestone is not just a testament to the longevity of the project but also to its enduring relevance and the community’s unwavering commitment.
TDF:
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Debian Day
The Debian Project was officially founded by Ian Murdock 30 years ago, on August 16, 1993. The Debian Community celebrates its birthday, Debian Day, on this day each year. And we celebrate with them, as they are one of the organizations supporting the LibreOffice project since day one.
Jonathan Carter:
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Debian 30th Birthday: Local Group event and Interview
Inspired by the fine Debian Local Groups all over the world, I’ve long since wanted to start one in Cape Town. Unfortunately, there’s been many obstacles over the years. Shiny distractions, an epidemic, DPL terms… these are just some of the things that got in the way.
Fortunately, things are starting to gain traction, and we’re well on our way to forming a bona fide local group for South Africa.
We got together at Woodstock Grill, they have both a nice meeting room, and good food and beverage, also reasonably central for most of us.
The Register:
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30 years on, Debian is at the heart of the world's most successful Linux distros
It's not the oldest extant distro, although it's only a month behind Slackware, whose 30th birthday we covered last month. Slackware is still maintained by original project founder Patrick Volkderding, while, sadly, the founder of Debian is no longer with us.
Debian, though, has more remixes and respins and derivatives, and via them more users, than any other Linux distro – with the possible exception of ChromeOS, although of course a lot of people don't consider ChromeOS to be a Linux distro. (Android dwarfs both but it's not really in the same playing field.)
Hackaday:
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Looking Back On 30 Years of Debian
The early history of Linux is a rather murky period to most, long before the era of glitzy marketing and proclamations of ‘the Linux desktop’ being the next hot thing. This was also the era when the first Linux distributions were born, as the Linux kernel never came as a whole OS package – unlike the BSDs – which necessitated others to package it with the elements that make up kernel and user space, such as the GNU tools.
One of these original distributions was Debian, which this month celebrates its 30th birthday. Its entire history, starting with the initial 0.01 release is covered in great detail on the Debian website. After the first release of the Linux kernel in 1991, it would take until August of 1993 when [Ian Murdock] embarked on the Debian project, sponsored by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation. This was a pretty rough period, with much of 1994 spent figuring out the basics of the system, the package manager and establishing a release system.
Some commentary:
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Debian Linux founder Ian Murdock would have been amazed at its legacy
Debian Linux is 30 years old. Today, it remains one of the most dominant Linux distributions. Here's how it started and where its impact is still felt today.
Slashdot:
From Brazil:
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Debian Brasil: Debian Day 30 years in Curitiba - Brazil
As we all know, this year is a very special year for the Debian project, the project turns 30!
The Brazilian Community joined in and during the anniversary week, organized some online activities through the Debian Brasil YouTube channel.
Information about talks given can be seen on the commemoration website.
Talks are also have been published individually on the Debian social Peertube and Youtube.
Another one:
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Debian Brasil: Debian Day 30 years in Belo Horizonte - Brazil
For the first time, the city of Belo Horizonte held a Debian Day to celebrate the anniversary of the Debian Project.
More Brazilian:
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Debian Brasil: Debian Day 30 years online in Brazil
In 2023 the traditional Debian Day is being celebrated in a special way, after all on August 16th Debian turned 30 years old!
To celebrate this special milestone in the Debian's life, the Debian Brasil community organized a week with talks online from August 14th to 18th. The event was named Debian 30 years.
Debian meeting:
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Andrew Cater: 20230826 - OMGWTFBBQ - BBQ still in full swing
There's been a very successful barbeque running in the garden: burgers, sausages, beer, vegetarian dishes and then ice cream.
The chance to catch up with people you only meet in IRC. Talking and laughter - and probably a couple of games of Mao.
Thanks also to our sponsors - Collabora, Codethink and RattusRattus for contributions to food and drink.
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Andrew Cater: 20230826 OMGWTFBBQ - Cambridge is waking up
The meat has been fetched: those of us in the house are about to get bacon sandwiches. Pepper the dog is in the garden. Time for the mayhem to start, I think.
Various folk are travelling here so it will soon be crowded: the weather is sunny but cool and it looks good for a three day weekend.
This is a huge effort that falls to Steve and Jo and a huge disruption for them each year - for which many thanks, as ever. [And, as is traditional on this blog, the posts only ever seem to appear from Cambridge].
Late coverage:
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Debian Brasil: Debian Day 30 years in Brasília - Brazil
This year's Debian Day was a pretty special one, we were celebrating 30 years! Given the importance of this event, the Brazilian community planned a very streamed via Debian Brazil's YouTube channel (soon the recordings will be uploaded to Debian's PeerTube instance. Nonetheless the local celebrations happened around the country and we've organized one in Brasília at University of Brasília on the Gama campus.
Very late coverage:
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Bits from Debian: DebianDay Celebrations and comments
Debian Celebrates 30 years!
We celebrated our birthday this year and we had a great time with new friends, new members welcomed to the community, and the world.