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Debian GNU/Linux

The Debian GNU /Linux Project team is a special one under the distributors since it does not pursue any commercial targets. Since the foundation by Ian Murdock on 16th August 1993 Debian is cared by voluntary developers and supported by the FSF. Ian Murdock conducted the team to 1996. The name Debian gets together from Deb for Ian Murdock's Wife Debra and his first name together. Only software which was published completely under the GPL flows into the Debian distribution. Developed in Germany the main area lies more in Europe. Specified versions exist for Intel x86 and ARM systems. As unusual feature a format of one's own is used for the installation by software packages (Deb), just like the packet format RPM it resolves the dependences automatically, though according after another principle. The GUI Gnomes become preferred as standard. Up till now only a simple text mode for the installation is available. Debian has got synonymous for quality and stability. The code names as of release 1.1 are from figures from the digital cartoon film Toy Story.

Ian Murdock set up a new company with Bruce Perens named Progeny Linux Systems in 2001. It is target to develop a network solution based on Debian GNU/Linux named Linux NOW (Network of Workstations). Linux NOW shall merge the advantages of efficient, flexible and scalable workstation with centralized solutions that are simply to be administered.
The networked systems then form one single, smooth system with the advantages of those two worlds. A software product that uses this technique is the web-based Linux Platform Manager which accelerates the construction, administration and the test of distributions.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 supports altogether 11 processor architectures, the software KDE 3.5.5 a, gnomes 2.14 and Xfce 4.4 were updated. The graphic interface for the installation was replaced and is available in 58 languages. At the installation also cryptographic software can be selected from more than 18,000 programmes. The compatibility with the FHS 2.3 and the LSB 3.1 is granted to.

Ian Murdock changed to the company Sun in March 2007 and ended the business activity of Progeny Linux Systems to the end of 2007-04-30. His new work area is the coordination and strategic orientation of the business for Solaris to keep pace with Linux.

A distribution based on Debian is Knoppix (Knoppers UNIX) from Klaus Knopper. It is a directly bootable live system from CD-ROM or DVD media. Knoppix is installable also on a fixed disk, e.g. it is suitable for a productive desktop system or also as a Rescue system. Knoppix 4.0 bases on Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 and was released on the event "Linux Tag 2005" on 06-22-2005. As a user surface KDE 3.4.1 and gnomes 2.8 can be chosen. By the cloop data compression over 9 gigabytes of software on a single layer DVD and to 2 GByte on a CD-ROM are possible. Knoppix based distributions are Freeduc, Kanotix, Quantian, Paipix, SymphonyOS und DSL (Damn Small Linux). Knoppix 5.1.0 was released on 2006-12-30.

The first release by Ubuntu Linux was introduced on 10-20-2004. Ubuntu 4.10 bases on Debian and contains the gnomes desktop. Ubuntu is an African word that translates stands for humanity. It is free and is shared in the whole world, only the support costs money. There are ported versions for the x86, x86 64 and PowerPC architecture. New releases shall appear twice a year. The next release in April 2005 was Ubuntu 5.04. Beginning of July 2005 the multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth founded the Ubuntu Foundation with an initial budget of 10 million U.S. dollars. This foundation shall guarantee the long-term development of the distribution and the support, the main developers were hired in fulltime. The Ubuntu 6.10 desktop edition and server edition was ready in October 2006, Ubuntu 7.04 for desktop and servers appeared in April 2007. In the new version there is a tool for the migration of Windows settings, the network component and support for multimedia was improved.

BeatriX bases on Ubuntu and also supports Debian and Ubuntu software packages. It was design objective to manage Linux distribution to be used a compact and simple. This distribution is a slim Linux system which can started live from CD-ROM and uses less than 190 MByte storage on this. The version 2005.1 of 01-28-2005 contains the Linux Kernel 2.6.7, the gnomes desktop 2.8, Open Office, the Firefox browser and other popular application programs.

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