Debian

One of the first choices to be made when installing any Linux distribution is whether the system will be single or multiboot. In general, many developers run both Windows and Linux on the same machine. In some cases, due to licensing restrictions or just personal preference, they wish to use the Windows installation that came with their computer and boot into one or the other as needed. This is perfectly fine, and most bootloaders will recognize both operating systems and provide menu items to boot the desired one.

Each architecture has its own characteristic method of partitioning disk drives and placing boot code in the appropriate place. For most, this is very straightforward. However, the Intel architecture is undergoing changes that require some understanding of the boot process and disk layout.

Some of the first decisions that must be made, even before installing Debian, involve deciding the best way to format the storage space for the installation. This includes what type of filesystem to use, how to partition it for the best effect, and whether and what to encrypt for security. The actual work of partitioning and boot code placement is handled by the Debian installer and can be altered later using standard Linux bootloader and partitioning utilities.

Debian is an extremely stable Linux distribution that includes a great variety of software that runs in many different environments and on many different CPU architectures. It is free, in the spirit of the Free Software Foundation's definition, and thus may be run freely on as many systems as an administrator desire, without limit or licensing fees. It may be freely copied, modified, and re-distributed.

Simply put, there is no paid version of Debian with extra features.

The Debian Project has a very large and well-defined support structure that includes a lot of documentation, a Wiki, mailing lists and newsgroups, websites, and forums. live help is available on IRe, and there is a well-developed and effective bug tracking system, usable by anyone. It is also possible to contact Debian developers and package maintainers directly, something not always possible with other distributions. These and other available support resources may be found at http://www.debian.org/support.

Now that we have the background on how Debian is organized and developed, the question to be answered is, "how does this affect the administrator."

There are three primary areas which an administrator needs to be aware of. They are as follows:

• The availability of support
• The availability of proprietary features
• licensing issues

Debian includes a wide variety of software as possible. As of this writing, the Debian stable distribution contains over 48,000 pre-compiled in the latest stable version. According to some counts, this is more than any other Linux distribution. To be fair, many of these are niche applications that do not have a wide user base. But the number of packages is only a part of the story.

Another result of Debian's licensing policies is the existence of three distinct software repositories:

One of the best examples of how careful Debian is about licensing issues involves the Mozilla suite of software, which includes the Thunderbird mail reader and the popular Firefox browser. A whole chapter could be written on the history of the dispute and the issues involved. However, the basic problem is that the Mozilla artwork is not under a free license as defined by the Debian guidelines. For a while, Debian was allowed to use other artwork, but eventualy the Mozilla Corporation withdrew that permission.