Bonum Certa Men Certa

The History of Debian, Including the Private History

At the beginning...

History: Roman pillar



Summary: Today we release an early batch of about 8,000 E-mails from debian-private; it has been about 23 years and they're meant to be published within 3 or so years (but that never happened)

"DATA DUMPS" as some call them isn't what we do with debian-private, especially considering the fact that it was imperative to disclose this within 3 or so years. In this case it's 23 years. Yes, 23! So in a sense we just do for Debian what was supposed to be done regardless (by the project itself). To set things off, probably on a positive note, here's Bruce Perens saying: "I am withdrawing from the project leader election. Ian Jackson is the next project leader."



Ian Jackson would later ask (in 2006; now censored by Debian) people not to pass on E-mails to Google (through GMail), now a Debian sponsor. It's worth noting that Ian Murdock is still active and very much visible in those archives. The discussion is polite and the list is hosted at Pixer, the employer of Bruce Perens back then (the address is debian-private@Pixar.com). The stable releases of Debian are still codenamed after characters from Toy Story, a Pixar Animation Studios film series. Walt Disney purchased Pixar a decade later (in 2006), so one might assume that The Walt Disney Company has those archives anyway. They're not exactly difficult to find, which is why some people leak them online.

"Ian Jackson would later ask people not to pass on E-mails to Google (through GMail), now a Debian sponsor."Separately, in this public message, Perens said about master.debian.org that it's a "developers-only system. If you aren't a developer, please don't contact it. It makes sense for there to be a developers-only computer to help us get our jobs done."

About debian-private he said: "That's our little private mailing list where the package developers make fun of you without your being able to see it :-)" (until now)

Well, now we're starting to see it (the dawn of it at least). It can help computer historians study how the Debian project really worked in its early days. We don't intend to publish any recent correspondence (more recent than 3 years ago). The real motivation here is transparency. I, as a Debian "Buster" user (my wife uses it too), want to understand who develops the software and how. We deserve to know what happens in order to better trust the process (and the people).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Drug Addiction is a Real Problem, It Destroys Families
a rather sensitive matter
 
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year
Links 08/06/2025: Security Lapses, CISA Cuts, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: Mime Types and Geminisphere Introduction
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: Slop Companies Retain All Private Data, More Books Banned in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" and "Wireless Earbuds"
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: More Rumours of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Division, New COVID Variant
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IV: Political Scrutiny and Errors/Inconsistencies in Official Documents
When such organisations receive scrutiny they start focusing on cover-up and muzzling of facts (or crushing people who say the truth)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 06, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 06, 2025
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, Planet Ubuntu, Anti-Linux FUD, and Microsoft SPAM
It's not easy to altogether avoid take articles these days
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: "MBA Tear" and Slop ('AI') as Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: "Convicted Felon and MElon Trade Insults" and Europe Snubbed by US Again
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: Microsoft XBox Bracing For More Mass Layoffs, Climate Disaster, Fake 'Money' Tokens From US President
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: Vanishing Cultures and MElon Implosion
Links for the day
Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
reported to British authorities
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025