improved introduction to Debian
The current `What is Debian?' section on the front page is slightly
confusing, and doesn't convey the actual roles of Debian, GNU, Linux
or the Hurd very well. I've made an attempt to rewrite it; let me
know what you think:
<H2>What is Debian?</H2>
<P>The <A href="http://www.debian.org/";>Debian Project</A> is a
loosely-bound democracy of over 300 volunteer developers who
collaborate to create releases of
<A href="http://www.gnu.org/";>GNU</A>, a <A href="intro/free">free, or
Open Source(tm)</A>, operating system for your computer.
<P>Debian GNU is made up of over 2250 easy-to-install software
packages. Each Debian package contains programs that help you do
useful things with your computer. You can use different Debian
packages to browse the web, edit documents, run a business, play
games, design software, and much more.
<P>The <i>kernel</i> is arguably the single most important software in
an operating system, because it allows other applications to share the
computer hardware safely. We call our system <i>Debian GNU/Linux</i>
because it uses the <A href="http://www.linux.org/";>Linux</A> kernel
rather than GNU's kernel, the
<A href="http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html";>GNU Hurd</A>.
<p>We chose the Linux kernel because the Hurd is still under
development, and Linux is a free and stable implementation of Unix
kernel technology. However, the Hurd has a newer design which promises
greater flexibility, and so we are working to make it available as an
alternative kernel for those who would like to use it.
<p>This story illustrates the greatest strength of the Debian GNU
operating system; Debian guarantees you the freedom to choose, use,
share, learn from, and modify all of the main Debian software
packages.
--
Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
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