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Debian Open Source Operating Systems Linux

Debian Linux Turns 25 (betanews.com) 111

Posted by msmash from the long-long-journey dept.
BrianFagioli writes: Debian is one of the most important open source projects ever. The Debian Linux operating system is extremely popular in its own right, but also, it is used as the base for countless other distributions. Ubuntu, for instance -- one of the most-used distros -- is Debian-based. Even Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, also has a Debian edition. Not to mention, Raspbian -- the official Raspberry Pi OS -- which is based on Debian too.

Today, Debian is celebrating a very important milestone -- a 25th birthday! Yes, it is seriously that old -- its development was announced on August 16, 1993. When the late Ian Murdock announced 25 years ago in comp.os.linux.development, the imminent completion of a brand-new Linux release, [...] the Debian Linux Release', nobody would have expected the 'Debian Linux Release' would become what's nowadays known as the Debian Project, one of the largest and most influential free software projects. "Its primary product is Debian, a free operating system (OS) for your computer, as well as for plenty of other systems which enhance your life. From the inner workings of your nearby airport to your car entertainment system, and from cloud servers hosting your favorite websites to the IoT devices that communicate with them, Debian can power it all," says Ana Guerrero Lopez of Debian. Further reading: Slackware, Oldest Actively Maintained GNU/Linux Distribution, Turns 25.
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Debian Linux Turns 25 More

Debian Linux Turns 25

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  • Thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:28PM (#57138390)

    Debian is an amazing distribution. Thanks to everyone who has worked on it over the years.

    RIP Ian.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      And special thanks to Lennart Poettering for ruining it.

  • Thanks to all... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:32PM (#57138408)

    Thank you Ian, Deb, and the countless volunteers for the years of hard work. You've changed an industry.

  • yeesh (Score:3)

    by guygo ( 894298 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:32PM (#57138410)
    now I really DO feel old. 25? Oy!

  • Debian is a huge time saver. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:33PM (#57138414)

    One of the things I _hate_ about computing is the need to constantly upgrade. Upgrade your OS from this version to that version. I just want the damn thing to work and I don't want to screw around with it. So many years ago when I found out Debian allows you to just upgrade the system in place from one release to another, I was ready to see how well it worked.

    At home I have a couple different servers, a mix of Debian and CentOS. The Debian server is my file/print/Plex server, that I've been running for about 10 years now. It's gone through multiple installs of Debian. apt-get dist-upgrade has worked with only a couple minor flaws for 10 years now, and made it so I don't have to spend my afternoon every 2-3 years recreating a server. It just works!

    So thanks Debian for making my life easier.

  • Hip, hip ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by vrassoc ( 581619 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:35PM (#57138422)

    I am proud to say that Debian has been my distro of choice for 20 of those 25 years.

    Happy, happy birthday, Debian! Here's to 25 more!

    • Re:Hip, hip ... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @01:06PM (#57138628)

      Debian died for me when it went to SystemD. I dropped it like a box of rocks.

      • Re:Hip, hip ... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @01:40PM (#57138852)

        Devuan

        • I have been on Mint XFCE for many years now, and systemd has been poking me with a stick, trying to get me to leave.
          I wanted to try out Devuan, so I fired up a kvm and installed it. I had a list of things that I have setup now that I wanted to make sure worked and I got them up and running in a relatively short amount of time. I would have to do these things if I reinstalled Mint anyway. (with the latest release, I don't get a good feeling that I can do it trouble-free as I have in the past) I hadn't p

    • Only two years less here, after a couple years in RPM hell. My first Debian install was Potato, and that install is still running today, continuously upgraded to buster and having been moved to a bigger disk four or five times, once needing a ddrescue. Some of those version upgrades were a lot less than smooth, needing fiddling with low level dpkg details, even including editing apt db files a couple times. Upgrading is a lot more robust these days.

      Today, that server is still 32 bit, it was migrated to 64 b

    • I am proud to say that Debian has been my distro of choice for 20 of those 25 years.

      Happy, happy birthday, Debian! Here's to 25 more!

      Hear, hear!

      I haven't been using Debian as long as you (only ~20 years), but I'm happy to say it's still my OS of choice... and the one I'm using to type this post.

  • Donation link. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:36PM (#57138424)

    Debian is one of the good guys. In a world where more and more software scrapes your data and monetizes you out the rear, Linux distros like Debian are trying to hold the line of keeping YOU in control of your computing experience, rather than a huge multinational in control.

    I'm sure someone will point out they are not perfect, and that is true, but compared to Windows, Android, iOS, and others, Debian does a damned fine job of keeping your computer, your computer.

    I donate to them once a quarter, to try to tilt the balance away from user-hostile software, hyper-monetization, and corporate spyware everywhere.

    Donatiions. [debian.org]

  • RIP Ian Murdock (Score:5, Insightful)

    by greenwow ( 3635575 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:38PM (#57138438)

    And think you for all of your contributions.

  • I have always found it interesting the hatrid towards other OS's App stores for Apple and Microsoft, While Apt is in essence is the same concept but is warmly loved.

    A location where you can get trusted application, setup to easily install on your environment.

    • Re:Apt and the App store. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:53PM (#57138566)

      I have always found it interesting the hatrid towards other OS's App stores for Apple and Microsoft, While Apt is in essence is the same concept but is warmly loved.

      People love apt-get and hate the app store because apt-get does not attempt to lock you into anything. There is no 30% cut of anything being skimmed off by middlemen. There is no iOS-like "put the user in a jail cell and tell them what's acceptable to run".

      It's the difference between a tool that preserves your freedom while making your life easier, and a tool that tries to lock you into an ecosystem and control your behavior for the benefit of your corporate overlords.

      • Re:Apt and the App store. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:51PM (#57139290) Homepage

        People love apt-get and hate the app store because apt-get does not attempt to lock you into anything. There is no 30% cut of anything being skimmed off by middlemen.

        Well 30% of $0 doesn't work out to much, Debian doesn't want paid apps in their repository. Meanwhile "people" leave $60 billion dollars in Apple and Google's app store. I like open source, but if you want/need some kind of COTS software open source doesn't like you. Not even Steam managed to turn that ship around, Linux is 0.5% of their market and dropping. It's a smashing success for cloud servers where you can just clone up a thousand instances without worrying about licensing but on the desktop it's still 1% hippies and tin foil hats. I'll be joining you once Win7 goes out of support, but sigh... it's not exactly with great love anymore.

        • Well 30% of $0 doesn't work out to much

          Indeed it doesn't when you ignore the initial fee. 30% is just on the profits, it doesn't get you into the app store.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gosand ( 234100 )

          I like open source, but if you want/need some kind of COTS software open source doesn't like you.

          I think you got that backwards... COTS doesn't like you if you use open source, especially if you tie yourself to MS and/or Apple.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skids ( 119237 )

      Try to add an additional alternate to apple store or google play and have it treated on an equal footing with the mainline... in Debian it's as easy as adding some repo tags/keys.

      That's one critical difference.

    • Those that do not understand Free software repositories are condemned to reinvent them, poorly.

    • There's nothing wrong with the concept of the app store. There's is a problem with rent-seeking, and exerting excessive control and censorship on your platform.

      Apt does none of that, most critically because apt is not an app store. It's an open package manager which you can link to any repository you damn well please.

      Likewise you don't see people complaining about F-Droid [f-droid.org] either.

  • Important milestone? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:49PM (#57138542)

    An important milestone is something like definitively switching to systemd [in.waw.pl] and excluding any alternatives but 25 years is merely an arbitrary slice of time.

    • Re:Important milestone? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by neilo_1701D ( 2765337 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @01:20PM (#57138734)

      An important milestone is something like definitively switching to systemd [in.waw.pl] and excluding any alternatives but 25 years is merely an arbitrary slice of time.

      Holy smoke that's a scary graph.

      If our issue open / closed list looked like that for that long, we'd be out on our ear and the client moved on to something / someone else!

      • Until you realise that a large part of the "issues" are feature requests and questions. In GitHub everything is an issue.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

        It would look scary until you actually look at the bug reports, or are they pull requests, or are they silly opinions, or even general bitching. I don't even know anymore since the bug tracker on systemd is a cesspool or irrelevant garbage with a few serious bugs actually mixed in.

        That's before you consider scope. On the front page of the bug tracker there are only two bugs related to systemd rather than optional extra software that has been only recently developed and won't hurt your system if you leave ou

  • Thank you, developers! (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I stand and applaud for those who have contributed to Debian for 25 years. Thank you!

    (from someone who first ran Consensys SVR4 Unix on a 386 before Linux arrived))

  • And then... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:53PM (#57138568)
    And then systemd arrived.

    • Re: And then... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Indeed, long live devuan, rip debian.

    • Re:And then... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @01:12PM (#57138686)

      And then systemd arrived.

      And then Debian was forked to make Devuan [devuan.org].

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Just face it, we're stuck with systemd for the foreseeable future. People who whinge about systemd and saying they're going to stop using Linux or whatever, clearly do not deal with Linux systems on a professional basis. As a professional, you're likely going to get stuck with systemd whether you like it or not. Best to just learn how to deal with it, even if it is a flaming pile of poo.

      • That's the spirit! Just roll over and take it, instead of advocating for a better future.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          It's not about rolling over on it, it is facing reality. If you've got to deal with RHEL/CentOS 7 servers, you're stuck with it. What are you going to do, go and install sysvinit on your production servers? No, you're just going to deal. Same with Ubuntu and Debian systems. I'm a sysadmin, it's my job to understand how to configure and operate these systems. In this case, it means learning and understanding systemd.

          Don't get me wrong, I think systemd is a solution looking for a problem. I run Devuan

      • An untested pile of garbage pushed by a company whose primary business model is selling Linux support. Hmmm.....

      • Re:And then... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2018 @01:51PM (#57138914)

        I do hate this defetist attitude. You use Debian without systemd [debian.org] (I do). You can turn to Devuan [devuan.org] Or Slackware [slackware.com]. In any case, if you characterize yourself as "professional", contribute to one of those options if you want to keep systemd-free Linux distros viable, instead of whining.

        That's how it works around here.

    • Re:And then... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:46PM (#57139274)
      Yeah, what's this "Debian turns 25" crap? Debian died the moment they picked up systemd. At least to me. Devuan all the way (when forced to use Linux). Meanwhile, FreeBSD still feels 100x better to administer and tinker with versus Linux. Linux is strong in proprietary vendor support for things like 3D graphics cards and a few other edge cases like Infiniband cards. However, overall, the secret is getting out that Linux has lost it's cool and gone corporate long ago, completed by it's stunning stupidity in design due to Lennart Pottering style missteps. Going to conventions, talking at trade shows, hanging out at the hacker & maker spaces, yep.... my informal poll suggests Linux is best for corporate bean counting assholes who need to run RHEL to run Oracle or else Chinese crap-hardware makers who can make that shitty Broadcom or Marvell hardware function for 10 minutes without locking up using Linux. The cool kids moved on to BSD just like they always have (I remember the same phenomenon in the 1990s, too). Linux used to at least make good training wheels, and have better package management, but no longer. It's become too polluted with crap that a sane IT pro will just have to unlearn or be forever cursed and burdened with meanwhile BSD has become too excellent to ignore.

      • Debian died the moment they picked up systemd.

        Yeah look how dead it isn't.

      • I've been using Linux user for 20 years now, from RedHat (5.2) / Mandrake / *buntus / Mint. I have been looking at systemd-free options for a while now, and seriously considered FreeBSD. I read lots of blog posts, pros/cons, and I even read the FreeBSD Handbook! I get that it can be very stable and can meet nearly all my needs, but it just can't meet them all. I am not a hardcore gamer, but I've bought quite a few Humble Bundles over the years and have enjoyed many of the games. I have an Nvidia video

        • Well, based on your needs, Devuan and others probably work great. You are right that I'm talking about FreeBSD for the sysadmin crowd, not for desktop users or gaming. FreeBSD is very inferior to Linux at this point for gaming. It's got DRM 3D drivers, but you run into a ton of library and dependency failures if you try to run Steam or whatever. So, I have a drive with Linux and Steam and all that fun stuff too. I don't use FreeBSD for that. Still... no systemd there. For whatever reason, I've noticed that

    • Re: And then... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      And despite all the hate It gets I only had good experiences with SystemD.

  • Debian can power it all (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    > From the inner workings of your nearby airport to your car entertainment system, and from cloud servers hosting your favorite websites to the IoT devices that communicate with them, Debian can power it all

    That is, Debian can capture everything except for the home computer market. And that's sad.

    With more and more people claiming that what OS you're running is irrelevant nowadays, you'd think it would've made some headway.

    • With more and more people claiming that what OS you're running is irrelevant nowadays, you'd think it would've made some headway.

      Knowing that Windows comes pre installed and most people lack the desire and/or ability to fuck with their PC because "It's already working",

      I would not expect Linux to make any headway on the desktop now, or at any point in the future unless it comes pre installed.

      The only consumer platform where Linux is dominant right now is on phones, because it came pre installed with Android.

      Typing this on Linux Mint because I replaced Windows the day I got this laptop.

      If a majority of "average" PC users were to do th

  • Once upon a time my wife hated it when I downloaded five floppies worth of Debian over a 28.8kbps dialup using the only telephone line we had.

    22 years later, Debian is still here but that wife is not. :-)

    • The "Deb" of Debbie and Ian is long gone too.

  • Debian was the first ever distro I installed - on a 486 DX2 66 with VL-bus graphics. I had to use DPKG for the first time and even compiled the X Window System on it! This was my first task as a new hire at an ISP, "You see that box of old motherboards and parts? You have to build your own PC and put Debian on it." (Having only recently learned of this Linux thing.) The new people started on the lowest-end machines built by themselves from scratch out of leftover parts. As you worked there you got to g
  • Now we need to update jokes about Debian containing 24^H^H25 years old packages.

  • I've been using Linux exclusively on all of my own computers since 1994. I've never owned any computer that ran a Microsoft or Apple OS as it's primary OS. Ever. I went from TRS-80/Commodore/Atari to DOS-based IBM PC, to OS/2 Warp in the '92/'93 time-frame, then Linux in '93/'94 and never looked back. The Year of the Linux Desktop came a long time ago.

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