What is Debian GNU/Linux

Debian GNU/Linux is a Free alternative to the world of Microsoft's Windows^® such as Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000,...etc.

Debian is a software distribution. A software distribution is a collection of applications and the operating system. The operating system is made up of the Linux kernel, the GNU system utilities. The distribution maintainers make sure all the packages within are consistent and stable and meet their social contract. At last count, Debian has over 18,000 packages, precompiled and ready for installation.

Given the enterprise proven GNU/Linux operating system, the user friendly GNOME interface and the non-commerical nature of Debian, this combination is ideal for use at home, in government services, schools, libraries, community centres, charity organizations or small businesses.

In addition, many applications in the Debian distribution are listed in the Free Software Foundation/ UNESCO Free Software Directory. Debian is an advocate for Free Software. Free Software was started by Richard Stallman.

The Debian project was originally started by Ian Murdock. Today, it is maintained on a voluntary basis by a large community of supporters all over the world including corporate partners.

Debian has won numerous awards and is a trademark held by Software In the Public Interest. SPI was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1997 and has become an umbrella organization for projects from the community. Its goals is to increase access, bring awareness and raise funds for publicly available software. Readers are encourage to read more on Debian's Social Contract, SPI Goals and The Free Software Foundation.

While there are many other excellent distributions such Red Hat/Fedora, Novell's SUSE Linux, Slackware, FreeBSD, etc. Linuxvillage has chosen to install Debian on our computer for its quality, access and most of all - the potential social benefit it may bring. For those interested, Unbuntu is the commercial version of Debian. It comes with commerical user support and has shorter release life cycles.