an appreciably toned-down and much less arrogant and grandiose draft

[bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)]

I turned down the arrogance and grandiose-ness.
I'd write more today, but I am a bit short on sleep.
Catch you guys tomorrow.

                    Debian: The Linux Base System
                       Beta Test Announcement

Debian is a free-software Linux system. 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. Debian is an excellent
stand-alone Linux system. It is also a base upon which value-added
Linux distributions should be built. By providing a standard base for
these systems, 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 system is derived from software licensed under the GPL,
BSD, Artistic, and other licenses. The entire core of the
system and almost every software package is freely
redistributable software.  A few non-critical programs that are
not freely redistributable are in the non-free directory of our
FTP archive, but none of these are necessary to install or
operate the system.

Debian was created by Ian Murdock in 1993, 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. 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 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/ .

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 Debian
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, 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
	This is a high volume list of user questions and answers.

Questions and Answers

Q: How should Debian 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. One major difference between us and Red Hat is that Red Hat is
a for-profit business, and Debian is a non-profit organization. Both
distributions share a dedication to free software. We hope to work
together with other Linux developers such as Red Hat rather than compete
with them.

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 still encourage them to derive from Debian. We 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 Debian 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 Debian 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 money, software, and time to the Debian project,
and we'll encourage users to buy from manufacturers who donate,
so it's good advertising to make donations.

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

A: Yes. While all the main components of Debian 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 - a lot less arrogant and grandiose. There is still a lot to write.
 Tomorrow.]
--
"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