The Debian Project Celebrates 30 Years
The Debian project is commemorating a significant milestone as it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. The distribution, which is widely regarded as one of the most influential Linux distributions, was initially announced by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993, in the comp.os.linux.development mailing list.
At its inception, Debian’s primary objective was to create a distribution that embraced the principles of openness and technical excellence, which are inherent to the Linux and GNU communities, as well as ensuring reliability.
Over the course of its existence, Debian has witnessed numerous achievements. It has seen the release of 18 major versions, provided support for 26 different hardware architectures, and developed a repository comprising more than 60,000 packages. The vast sum of all initial distribution code measures an astounding 1.3 billion lines, while the complete package collection occupies a staggering 365 GB in size. The project has also attracted over 1000 developers and has spawned approximately 400 derivatives, not to mention the various branches that have emerged, such as the popular Ubuntu distribution.
Debian Project History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August 16, 1993 | Debian project announced by Ian Murdock |
| —– | Development driven by the spirit of openness, Linux, GNU, technical perfection, and reliability |
| —– | 18 releases and 26 hardware architectures supported |
| —– | Repository of over 60,000 packages created |
| —– | Over 1.3 billion lines of code in all initial texts |
| —– | 365 GB total size of all packages |