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Did you know that Debian releases are named after characters from the Toy Story films? I began using it with Debian 4 (Etch) in 2007. It was named after Etch A

by susam 7y ago

Did you know that Debian releases are named after characters from the Toy Story films? I began using it with Debian 4 (Etch) in 2007. It was named after Etch A Sketch[1], one of Andy's toys. The latest release, Debian 10 (Buster), is named after Andy's pet puppy[2]. The name Debian itself is a portmanteau of the names Ian Murdock (the creator of Debian) and Debra Lynn (his then-girlfriend, later ex-wife). As a result, this name has been called a curiously personal name for such a community-oriented project.[3] I was using Fedora and Ubuntu in 2007 when a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG) introduced me to Debian. Its simplicity and elegance, its vast package repository, and its stability and robustness made me an ardent user of this distribution pretty quickly. Thirteen years later, I still use Debian on my laptops, Linode servers, and virtual machines. I run my personal website[4] on Debian too. I have got so used to "apt-get install" and the large number of tools available in the Debian repositories that I keep a Debian VM or a remote shell handy when I am working on a non-Debian system. Over these years, I have gradually moved from GNOME 2 to GNOME 3 and then to Xfce 4. It really helps that Debian provides an installation CD with Xfce as the default[5]. In case anyone is interested, I have documented and shared my Debian setup notes on GitHub[6]. [1]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch [2]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster [3]: https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Android%20Tablet%20Super-Test.pdf https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Andro... [4]: https://susam.in/ https://susam.in/ [5]: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#indexlist https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#i... [6]: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-setup.md https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-se...

1kGarand 7y ago
My first Debian install was 2.0. I ordered the CD's (there were 2, as I remember) from an on-line shop that sold burned CDRs with linux images. I wish I could remember their name...
- aninteger 7y ago
  Probably CheapBytes.com
  - k0stas 7y ago
    I always ordered mine from Walnut Creek!
- debian3 7y ago
  Mine was Debian 3. Still running all my servers in Debian.
  - winrid 7y ago
    I guess your name gives it away. My first was Debian 4. Ran it on a 550mhz PIII.
    - JeanMarcS 7y ago
      Mine was a Debian 5. Installed it on a small baremetal server for a client. The client went away, and so did I. Then some month ago, the client came back. The Debian 5 is still online and still running (but we plan to move on a new infra with a Buster soon).
malkia 7y ago
From Ian Murdock's wikipedia page, the debian's founder: "He named Debian after his then-girlfriend (later wife) Debra Lynn, and himself (Deb and Ian).[3] They later married, had three children, and divorced in January 2008.[4]"
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  He said: > Debian releases Not Debian itself. From "A Brief History of Debian, Chapter 3 - Debian Releases" [0]: > This was the first Debian release with a code name. It was taken, like all others so far, from a character in one of the Toy Story movies... "Bo" was the first version of Debian that I played with. I switched to Debian "full-time" shortly after "Hamm" came about. [0]: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-releases.en.html https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-releas...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dehrmann 7y ago
  Sadly, Ian committed suicide in late 2015. It's great to see that the distro is still going strong. I remember back around 2005, I missed meeting him by a ~week. My college Linux users group was having a birthday party for Debian, and Ian was an alumnus of that school, so he was going to attend. It was right before the semester started, so I was out of town.
tomc1985 7y ago
Yup. I don't have the pleasure of working with Linux at my current job nearly as much as the last one, but Debian was (and still is) my preferred distro for running servers
insulanian 7y ago
> I was using Fedora and Ubuntu in 2007 when a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG) introduced me to Debian. Its simplicity and elegance, its vast package repository, and its stability and robustness made me an ardent user of this distribution pretty quickly. I'm curious why were you so impressed by Debian in comparison to Ubuntu? Ubuntu is based on Debian and shares most of the mentioned features, yet your observation sounds like you experienced them as two very different systems.

by susam 7y ago

1kGarand 7y ago

My first Debian install was 2.0. I ordered the CD's (there were 2, as I remember) from an on-line shop that sold burned CDRs with linux images. I wish I could remember their name...

aninteger 7y ago
Probably CheapBytes.com
- k0stas 7y ago
  I always ordered mine from Walnut Creek!
debian3 7y ago
Mine was Debian 3. Still running all my servers in Debian.
- winrid 7y ago
  I guess your name gives it away. My first was Debian 4. Ran it on a 550mhz PIII.
  - JeanMarcS 7y ago
    Mine was a Debian 5. Installed it on a small baremetal server for a client. The client went away, and so did I. Then some month ago, the client came back. The Debian 5 is still online and still running (but we plan to move on a new infra with a Buster soon).

malkia 7y ago

From Ian Murdock's wikipedia page, the debian's founder: "He named Debian after his then-girlfriend (later wife) Debra Lynn, and himself (Deb and Ian).[3] They later married, had three children, and divorced in January 2008.[4]"

jlgaddis 7y ago
He said: > Debian releases Not Debian itself. From "A Brief History of Debian, Chapter 3 - Debian Releases" [0]: > This was the first Debian release with a code name. It was taken, like all others so far, from a character in one of the Toy Story movies... "Bo" was the first version of Debian that I played with. I switched to Debian "full-time" shortly after "Hamm" came about. [0]: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-releases.en.html https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-releas...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dehrmann 7y ago
Sadly, Ian committed suicide in late 2015. It's great to see that the distro is still going strong. I remember back around 2005, I missed meeting him by a ~week. My college Linux users group was having a birthday party for Debian, and Ian was an alumnus of that school, so he was going to attend. It was right before the semester started, so I was out of town.

tomc1985 7y ago

Yup. I don't have the pleasure of working with Linux at my current job nearly as much as the last one, but Debian was (and still is) my preferred distro for running servers

insulanian 7y ago

> I was using Fedora and Ubuntu in 2007 when a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG) introduced me to Debian. Its simplicity and elegance, its vast package repository, and its stability and robustness made me an ardent user of this distribution pretty quickly. I'm curious why were you so impressed by Debian in comparison to Ubuntu? Ubuntu is based on Debian and shares most of the mentioned features, yet your observation sounds like you experienced them as two very different systems.