History of Debian

Debian (pronounced /ˈdɛbiən/) is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free software especially under the GNU General Public License and other open source licenses. The primary form, Debian GNU/Linux, which uses the Linux kernel and GNU OS tools, is a popular and influential Linux distribution. It is distributed with access to repositories containing thousands of software packages ready for installation and use. Debian is known for strict adherence to the Unix and free software philosophies as well as using collaborative software development and testing processes. Debian can be used as a desktop as well as server operating system.

The Debian Project is governed by the Debian Constitution and the Social Contract which set out the governance structure of the project as well as explicitly stating that the goal of the project is the development of a free operating system. Debian is developed by over one thousand volunteers from around the world and supported by donations through several non-profit organizations around the world. Most important of these is Software in the Public Interest , the owner of the Debian trademark and umbrella organization for various other community free software projects.

Thus, the Debian Project is an independent decentralized organization; it is not backed by a company like other Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, and Mandriva. The cost of developing Debian 4.0 etch, assuming paid programmers from a single organization and based on source lines of code, has been estimated to be close to US$13 billion As of April 2, 2009, Ohloh estimates that the Debian GNU/Linux project, assuming a $55,000 average salary, would cost $819,274,547 to redevelop from scratch.

History of Slackware

Slackware is a free operating system. It is one of the earliest Linux distributions and is the oldest currently being maintained.^[1] Slackware was created by Patrick Volkerding of Slackware Linux, Inc. in 1993. The current stable version is 12.2, released on December 10, 2008.

Slackware aims for design stability and simplicity, and to be the most “Unix-like” Linux distribution, using plain text files for configuration and making as few modifications to software packages as possible from upstream.

Name

The name “Slackware” stems from the fact that the distribution started as a private side project with no intended commitment. To prevent it from being taken too seriously at first, Volkerding gave it a humorous name, which stuck even after Slackware became a serious project.^[3]

The “slack” in Slackware is a reference to the term “slack” as used by the Church of the SubGenius.

History

Slackware was originally descended from the Softlanding Linux System, the most popular of the original Linux distributions. SLS dominated the market until the developers made a decision to change the executable format from a.out to ELF. This was not a popular decision among SLS’s user base at the time. Patrick Volkerding released a modified version of SLS, which he named Slackware.^[5] The first Slackware release, 1.00, was on July 16, 1993.^[6] It was supplied as 3½” floppy disk images that were available by anonymous FTP.