What is Debian?
Free software (see Stallman's TED video)
Strong commitment to our Social Contract and Debian Free Software Guidelines)
A non-profit organization - see our constitution
- everybody is a volunteer
- 1,000 Debian Developers and many more contributors
- we develop a system that we trust to use ourselves
One of the oldest and most stable GNU/Linux distributions, founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock
- the Debian organization is like a family
the constitution makes it clear there is no boss and each volunteer is free to make decisions about their own part of the system
- trust is important
- long term collaboration throughout our careers
- change jobs, but not your principles
- many of us keep using Debian throughout different stages of our lives and different jobs
you are recognized for your contributions (see https://contributors.debian.org)
- Did you ever have a boss who takes credit for your work? Not in Debian.
- we don't strip-mine our users' private data, as that would imply abuse of our own private data
- to join us:
join any mailing lists relevant to your interests and region, recommended lists to receive important announcements:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-women (opportunities for female developers)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach (opportunities for students/interns)
find Local Groups near you, meetings announced on their lists
- use our IRC channels
- contribution through meetings, the bug tracker or anything else you prefer
contribute packages through mentors.debian.net
feel free to join any of the teams where you can contribute
Bringing Debian to your city/country/event
- There is no need to have a formal group or association in your city or country, but you can if you want to
Some countries have an association, e.g. debian.ch in Switzerland
In other cities, it makes sense for Debian users and contributors to work through another group, examples are Open Labs in Tirana or Manchester Free Software
The Debian wiki has a list of Local Groups
Debian's money can be used:
- to bring speakers to your event
- to bring developers to your location for a Sprint, a hackathon or other collaboration
- all you have to do is ask
please announce your event on the relevant mailing lists, e.g. debian-events-eu
want a MiniDebConf in your city? Just duplicate the wiki page of another MiniDebConf, fill in the details and announce it on the mailing lists
Going to events outside your city/country
Debian's money can be used:
to visit Debian events, such as DebConf and MiniDebConf
to visit any other event where you will give a talk about Debian topics
e.g. the talk about communications privacy at the Digital Born Media Carnival
- if you haven't given a talk before, mentors are always willing to help you prepare, just ask us
see How to start a speech, there are many more great videos like this
- extra funding available for diversity (female and other under-represented groups)
Debian spends over $US 50,000 bringing people to DebConf, with a significant amount of money reserved for diversity
Intern programs
Program |
Google Summer of Code (GSoc) |
Outreachy |
When |
Summer (June - August) |
Summer (June - August) and winter (Dec - Feb) |
You must be |
student |
female or minority (not only students) |
Work |
Software development only |
Software development, hardware, documentation, translation, community |
Tips for prospective interns
- try to identify the topic you enjoy most, not the topic you think the mentors want or the topic where you will make more money
- get in touch with prospective mentors 2 - 3 months before deadlines
- try and go to a local group meeting or conference near you
- make small contributions to projects well before application deadline
- have a public profile (blog, Github or similar page) well before the deadline
submit something in https://mentors.debian.net - mentors can often provide suggestions
do you appear in https://contributors.debian.org?
Completed projects
We had 13 projects funded working on alternatives to Skype in 2016
- Interns receive funding to speak about their work at an event
see one of my previous interns, Juliana Louback at DebConf14 in the USA fast-forward to 11m 45s)