-
Open World Forum with Intelli'N TV
-
PN: Welcome to Open World Forum TV show. We have the opportunity to -
-
talk now about the core of the system, the operating system, -
-
and we will talk about Debian Project. We will talk about Debian with -
-
Stefano Zacchiroli - hi, Stefano!
SZ: Hi, nice to meet you.
-
PN: You're working in France but you prefer that we speak in English -
-
because you're Italian - it's a world.
-
SZ: Yeah, actually to make the video more accessible to the worldwide community.
-
PN: No problem, of course. You're leader of the Debian Project. I think that -
-
perhaps, if we have only 5 minutes, it's important to begin to explain what is Debian.
-
SZ: Okay, so Debian is essentially two things:
-
the first thing is a worldwide project made of essentially volunteer people.
-
And the second thing which Debian is, is actually the result of this project -
-
which is a free operating system called Debian, -
-
and which is essentially a free software distribution used worldwide.
-
PN: If I'm not a specialist, what kind of difference can we see -
-
between Linux and Debian? Do we talk about the same thing?
-
SZ: No, not really. So, Linux is just a kernel of an operating system, -
-
and what you have in addition to the kernel is a whole stack of applications, -
-
which start from the GNU Project, which enable you to build applications, -
-
and up to the end-user applications.
-
And Debian is a distribution which ships together the Linux kernel and -
-
a whole range of applications up to the user.
-
Actually, Linux is not the only kernel supported by Debian:
-
starting with the next release called Debian Squeeze we also have a -
-
tentative distribution of another kernel which is the BSD kernel.
-
So Debian is a kind of way to distribute all these things together for the final user.
-
PN: When I have to choose between Debian and another distribution, -
-
what are the main differentiators?
-
SZ: So the main differences are at the technical level from the -
-
point of view of package quality: we have a very thorough process to ensure the -
-
quality of the software package that we distribute, and additionally -
-
it is our values. So we have a social contract with our users, -
-
which ensures a couple of things:
-
the first one is that Debian will remain completely free software according to the -
-
Debian Free Software Guidelines.
-
And that all we develop, is developed in the open, without hiding anything -
-
to the user. So the net advantage for the user is they have the guarantee -
-
that the choices we make are not driven by profit or these kind of interests, -
-
but only by our values.
-
PN: What is your job on the project?
-
SZ: So it's not really a job as I am a volunteer like anyone else, and...
-
PN: But I'm sure that you spend a lot of time on it?
-
SZ: That's true.
-
So the job of the Debian Project Leader is to co-ordinate the life of the project, -
-
and essentially to do communication about the project both within and without -
-
like we are doing now.
-
PN: How many volunteers are working and developing Debian?
-
SZ: So we are about 1,000 developer volunteers worldwide.
-
Most of them are in the U.S. and in Europe and we are going in Australia, -
-
in Asia, in Japan and in the South America.
-
PN: What kind of work is it to co-ordinate all these developers?
-
Perhaps they are trying to develop the same thing but from different ways?
-
SZ: So, that's true. So, luckily it's pretty much a self-organized project -
-
in the sense that we have clear areas of responsibilities, and -
-
people working on each of them is free to make their own decision.
-
And we like to call this a 'do-acracy'. So who does the job gets to decide how to do that.
-
Sometimes you have to take care of decisions where -
-
there are no specific responsibles. So that's where I can jump in.
-
And also, I'm responsible for managing the assets of the project, like -
-
managing all the donations we get from Debian supporters around the world, -
-
and how to use them to make sure the life of the project goes on monthly.
-
PN: How do you organize decisions? Is there sometimes necessity to say:
-
"'We will do that" even if some people do not agree?
-
SZ: So that's another peculiarity of Debian actually.
-
So the default is 'do-ocracy' as I said. So a responsible can take whatever decision -
-
on the work they do. But sometimes you need to take a decision which -
-
spans over the work of many different areas of responsibilities.
-
And we have a fully democratic process to do that.
-
So we have a way to propose what we call General Resolutions, and -
-
we have a way to vote upon them through the community.
-
The democracy in Debian can take whatever decision about the life of the project.
-
PN: Let's talk now about the version.
-
What is the number of the version and what are you working on as new developments?
-
SZ: So we are about to release the next version of Debian.
-
But more important than the version number is actually the code name.
-
So the next release of Debian is what will be called Debian Squeeze.
-
And we are currently in freeze meaning that we have kind of finalized the -
-
specific software versions that will be in, and we are now cleaning up all the -
-
major bugs before being able to release Debian Squeeze.
-
PN: Okay. How many versions do you have in one year, for example?
-
SZ: So, we don't have a time-based release schedule, meaning that -
-
we have no specific guarantee of a number of releases.
-
We like to say that we release when it's ready.
-
So as soon as all the release-critical bugs, which means bugs that make it -
-
difficult for the user to use a specific software, -
-
as soon as all of these bugs are fixed, we release. Not before that.
-
So usually that means a release cycle of 18 months, but there is no -
-
strict guarantee for that. Quality for us is more important than a release schedule.
-
PN: And do you already have an idea about new functionalities -
-
you'll have in the next code version?
-
SZ: The new functionality we will have are not actually up to us but -
-
up to the software we distribute, so what's more important for us is -
-
what will change at the level of whole Debian release in this release cycle.
-
And one of the big things that will happen is that we got rid of all the -
-
non-free firmware bits from our distribution, meaning that users of Debian will -
-
get only free software down to the firmware level. And the introduction of -
-
the new ports like the kFreeBSD port we are going to release with Squeeze.
-
PN: Stefano I think you're perfect: we know everything about Debian in 5 minutes.
-
If you want to know more and download a version, just...
-
SZ: You can just go to www.debian.org and there you'll find -
-
all the information about Debian.
-
PN: Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us for the -
-
Open World Forum TV show and we'll come back with another show. Thank you.
-
SZ: Thank you, bye!
