Happy 17th Birthday Debian

Debian turns 17 today. Yes it has really come a long way from being Murdock’s pet project back in 1993 to being the distribution on which the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is based on now.

I know we do not write a lot about Debian here at Digitizor. But, hey, we do write a lot about Ubuntu and Debian is to thank for Ubuntu.

You can show your appreciation for Debian by thanking a developer or the community – Debian Appreciation Day (Thanks to a Slashdot commentator for this)

Anyway some interesting facts and history about Debian:

* Debian was started in 1993 by Ian Murdock while he was studying in Purdue University.

* It was called The Debian Linux System initially.

* Debian is named after Ian’s girlfriend at the time Debra Lynn and himself. (Debra + Ian)

* All of the Debian releases are codenamed after characters from the movie Toy Story.

* The unstable distribution of Debian is called “sid” after Sid Phillips the main antagonist in the first Toy Story movie.

* One of the most well known Open-Source advocate, Bruce Parens spent two years as the Project Leader of Debian.

* We have said it before but, Ubuntu, perhaps the most recognizable Linux Distribution today, is based on Debian. This only goes on to show how solid is Debian really is.

* The Open Source Definition was first created as Debian Free Software Guidelines.

* A dispute between Mozilla and Debian in 2006 led to the rebranding of Firefox as Iceweasel in Debian.

* Debian has been officially ported to more than 10 architectures and there are around eight unofficial or unstable ports.