A rather radical beta-test announcement for you to consider

[bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)]

This is a real rough draft, but should keep you busy.
It's pretty radical. Notice that I've even changed
the name of the distribution!!!! This is done to get
across a point - what do you guys think of it?

                LINUX BASE SYSTEM 1.1 (formerly "Debian")
                         Beta Test Announcement

The LINUX BASE SYSTEM is a free-software Linux system intended to provide
the base upon which all Linux distributions are built. It is entirely free
to use and re-distribute, and there is no consortium membership or payment
required to participate in its distribution and development. The development
organization is non-profit. By providing a base system upon which all Linux
systems can be built, we hope to provide Linux users with increased
compatibility, and to provide Linux distribution creators with a robust system
that allows them to add value to differentiate their own distributions while
reducing the expense caused by duplication of effort.

The BASE is derived from software licensed under the GPL, BSD,
Artistic, and other licenses. It grew out of the Debian system, which
was created by Ian Murdock and was partially sponsored for one year by
FSF's "GNU" project. It should be considered a direct descendent of the
"GNU" system. The goals of the developers correspond to those of FSF
and the Free Software movement, however we currently are a separate
entity from FSF.

The current system is based on ELF executables, and can be compared
with proprietary Unix systems and the very best of commercial Linux
distributions such as Red Hat. There is a port to 68k processors in
progress at present, and ports to Alpha and Sparc are expected after
this. The package system used to install and
remove individual software packages at the user's request is the most
sophisticated one available for Linux today.

The BASE is not intended to obsolete Linux distributions such as
Slackware, Red Hat, CraftWorks, etc., but to provide a common base that the
creators of these distributions can use for the "raw material" of their
systems, and allow them to concentrate on the components that add value
to their distributions instead of the aspects that should be common to
all Linux systems. We think that BASE will be very attractive to
people who wish to place Linux systems in vertical markets. For
example, the developers of "Linux for Astronomers" could base their
system on it, and spend all of their time working on the astronomy
programs instead of the more mundane details of Linux.

The distribution is currently located in
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/unstable (the "unstable" is because it is a
beta test). Lists of mirror sites and other documentation can be found
at http://www.debian.org/ . All of the documentation refers to the system
as "Debian", as the name change to "LINUX BASE" has just been made.

Installation instructions can be found in the files:
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/unstable/disks-i386/install.html

	and

ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/unstable/disks-i386/install.txt

These instructions are for installing the system on a new disk partition.
The HTML version is preferred over the .txt version.

Instructions on how to upgrade an existing Debian 0.93 system to BASE
1.1 without wiping out the system are available in the file
<NAME_HERE>. These instructions are only for upgrading from Debian 0.93.
If you are upgrading from another Linux distribution such as
Slackware, you should use the instructions for installing on a new disk
partition.

Mailing Lists

To subscribe to the mailing lists, send the word "subscribe" to one of these
addresses:

debian-announce-request@lists.debian.org
	This is a very low-traffic list for major system announcements.

debian-changes-request@lists.debian.org
	This is a list for announcements of new package uploads for the Debian
	system. It may carry several announcements in a day.

debian-user-request@lists.debian.org

Questions and Answers

Q: How should BASE be compared to other Linux systems?

A: The system is as good as the most professional Linux distributions. We
consider Red Hat to be the best other than us, we like them and talk to them
reasonably often, and we think we're comparable to their system. We don't
want to replace companies like Red Hat - for example, we hope that we can
come to some sort of merge between our package system and theirs. We think
it might be difficult to convince Red Hat to develop the next generation
of their system on top of BASE, but we'll try.

Q: What about other Linux distributions?

A: Well, of all of the systems out there we think that Slackware has the
most to benefit from building on top of BASE. They have a large user
community and a number problems that we've already addressed, and they
don't have nearly as many people as we have developing the actual
distribution. We would provide a mature package tool and more robust
versions of many programs, which would allow them to concentrate more
on supporting their users and adding value to their system. Unfortunately,
I hear there was some acrimony years ago between the creator of Slackware
and the creator of Debian. I think those issues have passed, and we'd
encourage all Linux distribution creators, including Slackware, to work
with BASE, and of course we don't want any payment from them for the
privilege.

Q: What about the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project

A: FSF is still planning a GNU operating system which is based on HURD.
I think they considered Debian as a first step toward this system. 
We would still encourage them to derive from BASE. We once had a more
formal relationship with FSF some time ago, in that they employed Ian
Murdock for a year while he was project leader, and we then called the
system "Debian GNU/Linux". We still support the goals of FSF and like to
think of BASE as "Son of GNU". However, we've separated our organization
from FSF so that we can have exclusive control over our technical direction.

Q: Can I make and sell BASE CDs?

A: Go ahead. You don't need permission to distribute anything we've released,
so that you can master your CD as soon as the beta-test ends. You don't
have to pay us or anything. We will, however, publish a list of CD
manufacturers who donate to the BASE project, and we'll encourage users
to buy from manufacturers who donate, so it's good advertising to make
donations.

Q: Can BASE be packaged with non-free software?

A: Yes. While all the main components of BASE are free software, we
provide a non-free directory for programs that aren't freely
redistributable, and CD manufacturers may be able to distribute the
programs we've placed in that directory, depending on their license
terms with the authors of those software packages. CD manufacturers
can also distribute the non-free software they get from other sources
on the same CD. This is nothing new: GPL-ed and commercial software are
distributed on the same CD by many manufacturers now.
We still encourage software authors to release the programs they
write as free software.

Q: Is source code included with the system?

A: Source code is included for everything, without exception. Most of the
license terms of programs in the system require that source code be distributed
along with the programs. Thus, it's not OK to make a CD of executable
programs without the source code.


[OK - that's all I've written so far this morning. That should start enough
 argument. - Bruce]
--
"Excusing bad programming is a shooting offense, no matter _what_ the
circumstances". - Linus Torvalds, to the linux-kernel mailing list.
"I will no longer make excuses for Linus". - Bruce Perens