Should Be Free; take a look at it for some insight into why we
support Free Software as we do. Recently, some people have started
calling Free Software ``Open Source Software''; the two terms are
interchangable.
You may wonder why would people spend hours of their own time
writing software and carefully packaging it, only to give it all away.
The answers are as varied as the people who contribute.
Many believe in sharing information and having the freedom to
cooperate with one another, and they feel that free software encourages
this. A long tradition that upholds these values, sometimes called the
Hacker1.2 Ethic, started in the 1950s. The Debian GNU/Linux Project
was founded based on these Free Software ethics of freedom, sharing,
and cooperation.
Others want to learn more about computers. More and more people are
looking for ways to avoid the inflated price of proprietary software. A
growing community contributes in appreciation for all the great free
software they've received from others.
Many in academia create free software to help get the results of their
research into wider use. Businesses help maintain free software so they
can have a say in how it develops - there's no quicker way to get a new
feature than to implement it yourself or hire a consultant to do so!
Business is also interested in greater reliability and the ability to choose
between support vendors.
Still others see free software as a social good, democratizing access to
information and preventing excessive centralization of the world's
information infrastructure. Of course, a lot of us just find it great fun.
Debian is so committed to free software that we thought it would be
useful if it was formalized in a document of some sort. Our Social
Contract promises that Debian will always be 100% free software.
When you install a package from the Debian main distribution, you can
be sure it meets our Free Software Guidelines.
Although Debian believes in free software, there are cases where
people want to put proprietary software on their machine. Whenever
possible Debian will support this; though proprietary software is not
included in the main distribution, it is sometimes available on the FTP
site in the non-free directory, and there is a growing number of
packages whose sole job is to install proprietary software we are not
allowed to distribute ourselves.
It is important to distinguish commercial software from proprietary
software. Proprietary software is non-free software; commercial
software is software sold for money. Debian permits commercial
software, but not proprietary software, to be a part of the main
distribution. Remember that the phrase ``free software'' does not refer
to price; it is quite possible to sell free software. For more clarification
of the terminology, see http://www.opensource.org/or
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/categories.html.
About This Book
This book is aimed at readers who are new to Debian GNU/Linux. It
assumes no prior knowledge of GNU/Linux or other Unix-like systems,
but it does assume very basic general knowledge about computers and
hardware; you should know what the basic parts of a computer are, and
what one might use a computer to do.
In general, this tutorial tries to help you understand what happens
inside a Debian system. The idea is to empower you to solve new
problems and get the most out of your computer. Thus there's plenty of
theory and fun facts thrown in with the ``How To'' aspects of the
manual.
We'd love to hear your comments about this book! You can reach the
authors at
[email protected]. We're especially interested in
whether it was helpful to you and how we could make it better.
Whether you have a comment or think this book is the greatest thing
since sliced bread, please send us e-mail.
Please do not send the authors technical questions about Debian,
because there are other forums for that; see Appendix A on page [*] for
more information on the documentation and getting help. Only send
mail regarding the book itself to the above address.
How to Read This Book
The best way to learn about almost any computer program is by using it.
Most people find that reading a book without using the program isn't
beneficial. The best way to learn about Unix and GNU/Linux is by
using them. Use GNU/Linux for everything you can. Feel free to
experiment!
Debian isn't as intuitively obvious as some other operating systems.
You will probably end up reading at least the first few chapters of this
book. GNU/Linux's power and complexity make it difficult to approach
at first, but far more rewarding in the long run.
The suggested way to learn is to read a little, and then play a little.
Keep playing until you're comfortable with the concepts, and then start
skipping around in the book. You'll find a variety of topics are covered,
some
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