Debian Pure Blends - hacking in your parents' house

+Jonas Smedegaard +

PES, Bangalore, November 3rd, 2011

Overview

Me and Asia
Tricky terms
FLOSS Eco System
Debian - distro & community
Customizing Debian

Me and Asia

Asia trip

Tricky terms

FLOSS: Free/Libre Open Source Software.

Hacking: Being creative with small pieces -- like playing with Lego.

Cracking: Breaking digital "locks", typically to steal digital data.

FLOSS Eco System

Software Code Stream

Debian - distro & community

Community
Distribution
Free!

Debian - Community

~1000 "Developers"
~500 "Maintainers"
??? actual contributors...

Debian - Community structure

Democracy

Debian - Community structure

Democracy
We all obey Debian Free Software Guidelines
Almost no hierarchy: Each package maintainer responsible

Debian - Distribution

Generic - choices are exposed to the user
Mother of other distros

Debian packages

They all obey Debian Policy
Mozilla Iceweasel (Firefox): ~3 packages (+ ~70 lang packages)
LibreOffice: ~30 packages (+ ~90 lang packages)
Debian: ~35.000 packages

Debian packaging - Mentors + sponsoring

Peer review - many eyes see more bugs
Education - Debian quality standards
Ideals transfer - get help on packaging
Mailinglist:
IRC channel on OFTC.net: #debian-mentors
Website: http://mentors.debian.net/

Debian packaging - Join teams

Peer review - many eyes see more bugs
Education - Debian quality standards
Ideals transfer - get help on packaging
Wiki page: http://wiki.debian.org/Teams

Debian - derivatives

Knoppix
Ubuntu
BOSS
SWECHA
...

Debian deriving

Try use live-builder...

Debian - blends

Optimizing Debian itself for special purpose use

Merging back derived work into Debian

Debian - existing blends

Debian Jr
Debian Med
Debian Edu
Debian Science
Debian EzGo
BrDesktop
Debian Accessibility
Debian Lex
DebiChem
Debian GIS
Debian Multimedia

Debian - future blends

FreedomBox
Debian LAN
BOSS?
SWECHA?
...?

Debian blending

Join existing teams
Convince Debian Developers to create new teams
Try use boxer

Debian Pure Blends - Benefits

backed by Debian - help, bug tracking, translations, etc.
teamwork - others might help you refine and maintain your setups
common structures - others might take over if you loose interest

Debian Pure Blends - downsides

annoying - Debian package maintainers may not like proposed changes
slow - stable distribution is released infrequently
rigid - all contributions must match Debian Free Software Guidelines
complex - packages must obey Debian Policy

FreedomBox

Your personal Butler
Your personal spy
A Debian Blend
A Debian Pure Blend
First get dirty, then purify

Essentials

Create a(t least one) home
Build trust (remember that trust is two-way!)
Explore (not just consume)!

The End

Me:
Debian: http://www.debian.org
Debian Derivatives Census: http://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census
This talk: http://dr.jones.dk/blends/talk/pes
Illustrations: http://sirireiter.dk/blog/entry/110310/
Asia trip: http://wiki.jones.dk/DebianAsia2011