Happy 17th Birthday Debian! You rock. Keep up the good works.
– The Digitizor Team
Debian turns 17 today. Yes it has really come a long way from being Murdock’s pet project back in 1993 to being the distribution on which the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is based on now.
I know we do not write a lot about Debian here at Digitizor. But, hey, we do write a lot about Ubuntu and Debian is to thank for Ubuntu.
You can show your appreciation for Debian by thanking a developer or the community – Debian Appreciation Day (Thanks to a Slashdot commentator for this)
Anyway some interesting facts and history about Debian:
- Ian Murdock
- Debian was started in 1993 by Ian Murdock while he was studying in Purdue University.
- It was called The Debian Linux System initially.
- Debian is named after Ian’s girlfriend at the time Debra Lynn and himself. (Debra + Ian)
- All of the Debian releases are codenamed after characters from the movie Toy Story.
- The unstable distribution of Debian is called “sid” after Sid Phillips the main antagonist in the first Toy Story movie.
- One of the most well known Open-Source advocate, Bruce Perens spent two years as the Project Leader of Debian.
- Buzz and Woody
- We have said it before but, Ubuntu, perhaps the most recognizable Linux Distribution today, is based on Debian. This only goes on to show how solid Debian really is.
- The Open Source Definition was first created as Debian Free Software Guidelines.
- A dispute between Mozilla and Debian in 2006 led to the rebranding of Firefox as Iceweasel in Debian.
- Debian has been officially ported to more than 10 architectures and there are around eight unofficial or unstable ports.
Feel free to add more in the comment.