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Our Philosophy: Why we do it and how we do it
Our Mission: Creating
Free Operating System
Our Values: How the Debian Community works
our Mission: Creating a Free Operating System
The Debian Project is an association of individuals, sharing
common
goal: We want to create a free operating system, freely available for everyone: Now; when we use the word "free"
we're not talking about money; instead; we are referring to software freedom:
Our Definition of Free Software
Read the_Free_Software Foundation s statement
Maybe you're wondering why so many people choose to spend lots of hours of their own time writing software, carefully packaging and maintaining it; just to give it all away without charging for it? Well; there are plenty of reasons
here are some of them:
Some people simply like to help others, and contributing to a free software project is a great
to accomplish this_
Many developers write programs to learn more about computers, different architectures, and programming languages_
Some developers contribute to say "thank you" for all the great free software they've received from others
Many people in academia create free software to share the results of their research:
Companies also help maintaining free software:
to influence how applications develop or to implement new features quickly:
Of course, most Debian developers participate
because
 they think it's great fun!
Although we believe in free software
we respect that people sometimes have to install non-free software on their machines -
whether they want to or not: We have decided to support these users,
whenever possible. There is a growing number of packages which
install non-free software on a Debian system
Our Values: How the Community works
The Debian project has more than thousand active developers and contributors spread around the_world: A project of this size needs a carefully organized structure: So, if
We are committed t0 Free Software and we have formalized that
you wonder how the Debian project works and whether the Debian community has rules and guidelines,
have a look at the following statements:
commitment in a document: our Social Contract
The_Debian Constitution:
The_Code_of Conduct:
This document describes the organizational structure and explains how the Debian project makes formal decisions
We have adopted a code of conduct for participants of our mailing lists, IRC channels
etc.
The_Social Contract andthe Eree_Software Guidelines:
The_Developer's Reference:
The Debian Social Contract and the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) as a part of this contract describe our
This document provides an overview of the recommended procedures and the available resources for Debian developers
commitment to free software and the free software community.
and maintainers_
The_Diversity_Statement:
The_Debian Policyz
The Debian Project welcomes and encourages everyone to participate, no matter how you identify yourself or how others
Amanual describing the policy requirements for the Debian distribution, e.g: the Debian archive's structure and contents,
perceive you:
technical requirements which every package must satisfy to be included, etc
way