Many in academia create free software to help get the results of their research into wider use. A growing crowd contribute as a thank you for all the great free software they've received from others. More and more people are looking for ways to avoid the inflated price of software. Many write programs to learn more about computers. You may be wondering: why would people spend hours of their own time to write software, carefully package it, and then give it all away? The answers are as varied as the people who contribute. At the top of the tower is Debian - carefully organizing and fitting everything so it all works together. Next is all the software that you run on the computer. Debian comes with over 29000 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) - all of it free. Of course, the thing that people want is application software: programs to help them get what they want to do done, from editing documents to running a business to playing games to writing more software. The Hurd is free software produced by the GNU project.Ī large part of the basic tools that fill out the operating system come from the GNU project hence the names: GNU/Linux and GNU/Hurd. The Hurd is a collection of servers that run on top of a microkernel (such as Mach) to implement different features. However, work is in progress to provide Debian for other kernels, primarily for the Hurd. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide.
If you are interested in giving Debian a try on your current computer without running any risk, please check out our Guide: Running Linux From a USB Drive As a Virtual Machine or Bootable Disk.ĭebian systems currently use the Linux kernel. The kernel is the most fundamental program on the computer and does all the basic housekeeping and lets you start other programs. At the core of an operating system is the kernel. This operating system that we have created is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short.Īn operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project hence the name GNU/Linux. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run.
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