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Happy birthday to my first permanent GNU/Linux distribution, from Etch all the way to Jessie. It's --you've, we've-- come a long way. I hope to see the communit

Happy birthday to my first permanent GNU/Linux distribution, from Etch all the way to Jessie. It's --you've, we've-- come a long way. I hope to see the community remain as strong as ever. The Debian forums were always my weapon of last resort when Google didn't have the answer to my problem, and not once was I let down. And best of luck to the new DPL!

dfc 13y ago
Debian has forums? I never knew that. I always use debian-users or #debian. To be honest one of my favorite things about debian is using bts from the commandline or just plain email to submit/query/track bug reports and never having to use forums for bug reporting.
- keithpeter 13y ago
  http://forums.debian.net/ http://forums.debian.net/ is one forum. I'm not sure if it is actually a part of the Debian project or just something that grew alongside. Can be useful sometimes, but if your present channels work for you then I'd suggest you might want to do without the 'noise'[1] [1] http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=106389 http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=106389 PS: never ceases to amaze me that you can download an iso, boot a computer, install an operating system and application software, and do stuff just when you want to without upfront cost (other than time). Debian is a large part of that history isn't it?
  - mhurron 13y ago
    > Debian is a large part of that history isn't it? Debian was an early full Linux distribution, but it wasn't the first. Debians big (early) contribution was apt, which could install packages and resolve dependencies over the internet and made package management easier than rpm based distributions of the time.
    - ics 13y ago
      Slackware's 20th birthday was just last month! It's a little hard to view in landscape mode but Wikipedia has this cool graphic to show the development of Linux distros.
      - drone 13y ago
        I guess not surprisingly, Debian was the distro that switched me off of Slackware. I remember the defining moments for each distribution for me: in 1993, when we set my computer down on a friend's pool table next to a stack of 20+ disks with Slackware on them. (Took the plunge.) And the moment a coworker told me "just install Debian, and use apt-get." (Stopped having to fiddle with configure and make files for things that I "just needed.") Linux has come a long way... =)
      - ics 13y ago
        Apparently dozing and posting doesn't work. Here's the graphic I was talking about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Di...
        snogglethorpe 13y ago
        Very neat indeed, though its sheer size seemed to cause indigestion in every app I tried to display it with (they could display it OK, but try to zoom in/out and prepare to wait...). It would be even cooler if there was some indication of popularity over time as well, e.g. via variation in line thickness or something (...image gets even bigger... ><).
        ics 13y ago
        ...But if the visuals were that accurate I never would have noticed "GNUGuitarINUX"[1]! [1] http://gnuguitarinux.sourceforge.net/ http://gnuguitarinux.sourceforge.net/
      - espeed 13y ago
        RedHat reaches 20 in a year and nine months.
  - werid 13y ago
    debian.net projects are unofficial. sometimes they graduate to official debian.org projects.
toyg 13y ago
My first release was Potato. I still remember downloading so many (3? 6?) CDs... God, I feel old. I don't use Debian much these days, certainly not as a desktop, but it will forever be the "real" Linux distribution in my heart. Without the ongoing work of umpteen Debian package managers, you wouldn't have Ubuntu (and all its humongous downstream), Knoppix, and so on.
- leoedin 13y ago
  I spent about a week downloading perhaps 7 CDs for Woody (I guess it would have been 2002). I'm fairly sure I never actually installed packages from most of the CDs.
  - toyg 13y ago
    IIRC most of the x86 packages were on disc 1 and 3. I don't think I've ever touched the rest.
    - mortehu 13y ago
      People can elect to install a package called "popularity-contest", which reports what packages you've installed to a central server. At release, the most popular packages are put on the first discs. Each set of discs is for one architecture only.
  - prg318 13y ago
    When I first installed Woody, I didn't know that you could "apt-get" from the net. I don't remember ever using any of the CDs but 1, but I still have all seven for nostalgic purposes :3
  - m_myers 13y ago
    I downloaded all 7 CDs for Woody, but didn't actually know how to burn a CD from an ISO, so I ended up with 7 coasters. I figured out my mistake and tried again the next week, but this time I picked a distro that only needed one CD: Ubuntu (Hoary). Never managed to get back to straight Debian since then.
- 13y ago
jcurbo 13y ago
Hamm here - after tinkering with Red Hat (5.x I think?) I switched to Debian and I've used it ever since. I still have slink CDs somewhere plus the bumper sticker I got with them, which I laminated and is now attached to my Debian home server. (which you can see here: https://twitter.com/jcurbo/status/368424063422566401/photo/1 https://twitter.com/jcurbo/status/368424063422566401/photo/1)

dfc 13y ago

Debian has forums? I never knew that. I always use debian-users or #debian. To be honest one of my favorite things about debian is using bts from the commandline or just plain email to submit/query/track bug reports and never having to use forums for bug reporting.

keithpeter 13y ago
http://forums.debian.net/ http://forums.debian.net/ is one forum. I'm not sure if it is actually a part of the Debian project or just something that grew alongside. Can be useful sometimes, but if your present channels work for you then I'd suggest you might want to do without the 'noise'[1] [1] http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=106389 http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=106389 PS: never ceases to amaze me that you can download an iso, boot a computer, install an operating system and application software, and do stuff just when you want to without upfront cost (other than time). Debian is a large part of that history isn't it?
- mhurron 13y ago
  > Debian is a large part of that history isn't it? Debian was an early full Linux distribution, but it wasn't the first. Debians big (early) contribution was apt, which could install packages and resolve dependencies over the internet and made package management easier than rpm based distributions of the time.
  - ics 13y ago
    Slackware's 20th birthday was just last month! It's a little hard to view in landscape mode but Wikipedia has this cool graphic to show the development of Linux distros.
    - drone 13y ago
      I guess not surprisingly, Debian was the distro that switched me off of Slackware. I remember the defining moments for each distribution for me: in 1993, when we set my computer down on a friend's pool table next to a stack of 20+ disks with Slackware on them. (Took the plunge.) And the moment a coworker told me "just install Debian, and use apt-get." (Stopped having to fiddle with configure and make files for things that I "just needed.") Linux has come a long way... =)
    - ics 13y ago
      Apparently dozing and posting doesn't work. Here's the graphic I was talking about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Di...
      - snogglethorpe 13y ago
        Very neat indeed, though its sheer size seemed to cause indigestion in every app I tried to display it with (they could display it OK, but try to zoom in/out and prepare to wait...). It would be even cooler if there was some indication of popularity over time as well, e.g. via variation in line thickness or something (...image gets even bigger... ><).
        ics 13y ago
        ...But if the visuals were that accurate I never would have noticed "GNUGuitarINUX"[1]! [1] http://gnuguitarinux.sourceforge.net/ http://gnuguitarinux.sourceforge.net/
    - espeed 13y ago
      RedHat reaches 20 in a year and nine months.
- werid 13y ago
  debian.net projects are unofficial. sometimes they graduate to official debian.org projects.

toyg 13y ago

My first release was Potato. I still remember downloading so many (3? 6?) CDs... God, I feel old. I don't use Debian much these days, certainly not as a desktop, but it will forever be the "real" Linux distribution in my heart. Without the ongoing work of umpteen Debian package managers, you wouldn't have Ubuntu (and all its humongous downstream), Knoppix, and so on.

leoedin 13y ago
I spent about a week downloading perhaps 7 CDs for Woody (I guess it would have been 2002). I'm fairly sure I never actually installed packages from most of the CDs.
- toyg 13y ago
  IIRC most of the x86 packages were on disc 1 and 3. I don't think I've ever touched the rest.
  - mortehu 13y ago
    People can elect to install a package called "popularity-contest", which reports what packages you've installed to a central server. At release, the most popular packages are put on the first discs. Each set of discs is for one architecture only.
- prg318 13y ago
  When I first installed Woody, I didn't know that you could "apt-get" from the net. I don't remember ever using any of the CDs but 1, but I still have all seven for nostalgic purposes :3
- m_myers 13y ago
  I downloaded all 7 CDs for Woody, but didn't actually know how to burn a CD from an ISO, so I ended up with 7 coasters. I figured out my mistake and tried again the next week, but this time I picked a distro that only needed one CD: Ubuntu (Hoary). Never managed to get back to straight Debian since then.
13y ago

jcurbo 13y ago

Hamm here - after tinkering with Red Hat (5.x I think?) I switched to Debian and I've used it ever since. I still have slink CDs somewhere plus the bumper sticker I got with them, which I laminated and is now attached to my Debian home server. (which you can see here: https://twitter.com/jcurbo/status/368424063422566401/photo/1 https://twitter.com/jcurbo/status/368424063422566401/photo/1)