The Debian Project is pleased to mark the 17th anniversary of its start. As the official project history states: "The Debian Project was officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993. At that time, the whole concept of a 'distribution' of Linux was new. Ian intended Debian to be a distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU".

Today, eight years ago, Drupal 1.0.0 was released! The following snippet is taken directly from the original announcement...

The Debian Linux distribution celebrates its 16th anniversary this week (official birthday is: August 16, 1993). It sure has been an interesting ride.

The most popular and stable GNU/Linux operating system Debain has turned 15 today. Debian was announced on 16 August 1993. In these last 15 years Debian has established itself as the most stable operating system. Most of the popular GNU/Linux distributions, like Ubuntu and Knoppix, are based on Debian.

It was about 16 years ago that Ian Murdock came upon the idea to design a new Linux distro. He named it Debian after Debra and Ian.

This is not a rant about Debian vs. Ubuntu. I used both, loved both, and I'm currently using Debian Lenny. It's not about Debian versus any other distribution either: in fact, I only tried a few other distros, and most of them were Debian-based. Here are the top 10 reasons for which I enjoy using Debian:

"The 3.0r1 point release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux is a maintenance update. It's including more than 40 bug fixes and security updates that came to our attentention after the 3.0r0 release. It is based on Debian etch 4.0r1. A link to download locations is available at the end of this announcement..."

Ubuntu is a very well known Linux distribution. Those who have an interest in those things also know that Ubuntu is based on Debian. Now I am noticing that whatever direction Ubuntu is going, Debian is starting to follow.

Every now and then, someone suggests that Debian GNU/Linux should be more commercial. To further this goal, some create derivative distros like Linspire, Ubuntu, or Xandros, or organizations like the stillborn DCC Alliance. Others act as pundits, whispering advice from off-stage, like Debian founder Ian Murdock, or, more recently, columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.