Overview

• Me and Asia
• Tricky terms
• FLOSS Eco System
• Debian - distro & community
• Customizing Debian - deriving and blending
• FreedomBox - a Debian Pure Blend

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

or

• 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