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4.

Debian is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to developing free software and promoting the ideals of the Free Software community. The Debian Project began in 1993, when Ian Murdock issued an open invitation to software developers to contribute to a complete and coherent software distribution based on the relatively new Linux kernel. That relatively small band of dedicated enthusiasts, originally funded by the <ulink url="&url-fsf;">Free Software Foundation</ulink> and influenced by the <ulink url="&url-gnu-intro;">GNU</ulink> philosophy, has grown over the years into an organization of around &num-of-debian-developers; <firstterm>Debian Developers</firstterm>.

5.

Debian Developers are involved in a variety of activities, including <ulink url="&url-debian-home;">Web</ulink> and <ulink url="&url-debian-ftp;">FTP</ulink> site administration, graphic design, legal analysis of software licenses, writing documentation, and, of course, maintaining software packages.

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In the interest of communicating our philosophy and attracting developers who believe in the principles that Debian stands for, the Debian Project has published a number of documents that outline our values and serve as guides to what it means to be a Debian Developer:

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The <ulink url="&url-social-contract;">Debian Social Contract</ulink> is a statement of Debian's commitments to the Free Software Community. Anyone who agrees to abide to the Social Contract may become a <ulink url="&url-new-maintainer;">maintainer</ulink>. Any maintainer can introduce new software into Debian &mdash; provided that the software meets our criteria for being free, and the package follows our quality standards.

8.

The <ulink url="&url-dfsg;">Debian Free Software Guidelines</ulink> are a clear and concise statement of Debian's criteria for free software. The DFSG is a very influential document in the Free Software Movement, and was the foundation of the <ulink url="&url-osd;">The Open Source Definition</ulink>.

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The <ulink url="&url-lsb-org;">Linux Standard Base</ulink> (LSB) is a project aimed at standardizing the basic GNU/Linux system, which will enable third-party software and hardware developers to easily design programs and device drivers for Linux-in-general, rather than for a specific GNU/Linux distribution.

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The <ulink url="&url-fhs-home;">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</ulink> (FHS) is an effort to standardize the layout of the Linux file system. The FHS will allow software developers to concentrate their efforts on designing programs, without having to worry about how the package will be installed in different GNU/Linux distributions.

16.

Linux is an operating system: a series of programs that let you interact with your computer and run other programs.

17.

An operating system consists of various fundamental programs which are needed by your computer so that it can communicate and receive instructions from users; read and write data to hard disks, tapes, and printers; control the use of memory; and run other software. The most important part of an operating system is the kernel. In a GNU/Linux system, Linux is the kernel component. The rest of the system consists of other programs, many of which were written by or for the GNU Project. Because the Linux kernel alone does not form a working operating system, we prefer to use the term <quote>GNU/Linux</quote> to refer to systems that many people casually refer to as <quote>Linux</quote>.

18.

Linux is modelled on the Unix operating system. From the start, Linux was designed to be a multi-tasking, multi-user system. These facts are enough to make Linux different from other well-known operating systems. However, Linux is even more different than you might imagine. In contrast to other operating systems, nobody owns Linux. Much of its development is done by unpaid volunteers.