Hi all, So, following the discussions at DebConf [0], the "Debian Powered" logo ideas [1], and a couple of other chats I've had the privelege of having with some folks working on Debian derivatives and Debian-based distros and similar things, I'd like us to introduce an official branding programme for derivatives -- which I'll count as any providing Debian software to other people that's not just an official CD. So that includes things like Ubuntu, Knoppix, or Linspire, but potentially also things like Debian-Edu, or Debian CGL [2]. The drawback to just doing that without any further thought, is that providing branding gives a derivative not just the opportunity to benefit from Debian's reputation of supporting free software, being open and community driven, and focussing obsessively on quality, but also to potentially sully that reputation by letting users think this is a "Debian" product, but not living up to Debian's reputation, whether that be by not caring about free software issues, or ignoring their users' complaints, or whatever. And that's not just bad for Debian, but for all the other derivatives who choose to share in Debian's reputation as well as its code. So, what I'm thinking is basically a trade, where Debian offers to help our derivatives get the benefits of Debian's reputation, and where the derivative commits to helping build that reputation, both to its own benefit, but also to Debian and other derivatives. My best guess at what the latter means is something like this: that derivatives should provide a clear, written commitment to their users and the free software community that: (a) they'll listen to their users and do their best to incorporate that input in future releases (b) they'll cooperate with the free software community, both in making every effort to make any free software they write easy to include in other products, and in complying with the licenses of the free software they use and distribute I'm inclined to think that's the essence of the Debian reputation -- listening to their users through things like bug reports, mailing lists or web forums, and working with the free software community more generally, by complying with licenses and passing their changes back upstream. I wonder if there should also be something about doing development in public in some way, but I'm not sure how you'd phrase that without making it hard for single-person derivatives. In return, I think Debian should make it easy and desirable for derivatives to be part of the "derivative community", by providing at least: (a) a nice logo standing for "based on Debian", that derivatives can use (b) linking from the Debian website so people can find out about niche derivatives more easily (c) cooperation on press releases -- eg, quotes from the DPL or others for inclusion in their press releases, and references from Debian press releases when interesting things happen (d) a supportive basis for future cooperation and consultation (a) and (b) are mostly practical ways of saying "derivatives are okay by us" -- and after all that's what free software's about, right? (c) is about giving Debian some benefit from the cool, innovative things derivatives manage to do while also giving smaller derivatives a bigger platform to tell people about those cool things. (d) is about making sure that we don't just stop here, but go on and make a point of working more closely with derivatives in the future. One example of that which has come up recently is the issue of GPL compliance for derivative distributions -- if you're making a live cd based on Debian that includes some neat graphical app you wrote, it would be much more convenient if you could just distribute the source to the app and point people at Debian for the sources of all the stuff they didn't change. That would require us to maintain an essentially permanent archive for source packages, which at the moment we don't. But doing so would be useful for us too, no? So that's most of what I'm thinking at the moment. What I'd really like is to see some comments, criticisms and other ideas before I push any further ahead and actually go ahead with a formal programme for this. The other question is what logo we should use that sums up our ideas about derivatives, and is pretty and that people want to use. I'd *love* to hear ideas for that; I'll also followup with a sketch of an idea I think is possible. Cheers, aj [0] http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/06/msg00278.html [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/06/msg00329.html [2] http://wiki.debian.org/Debian-CGL
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