2012-01-04 15:03:56
1.) Why do you think people base distributions on Debian? Looking at how many
there is, since Corel and Libranet set sail in 1999, there must be a reason
why, for one, people fork Debian in the first place, and secondly, why they
choose Debian to do so and not some other distribution.
There are always advantages in creating a so called "derivative" distribution
with respect to creating one from scratch. The main one is the possibility of
reusing the packaging work which is already done in the "upstream" distro,
focusing derivatives' efforts on customization, usually with clear target
public in mind. Debian pushes most of those advantages (for derivatives) at
their extremes.
The Debian archive is huge (about 30'000 packages with Squeeze), meaning that
the amount of packaging work that can be reused is similarly huge.
Debian has a long history and a well established community, which reduces the
risk of "betting" the efforts of derivatives on a distro that might disappear
anytime soon.
Debian is well known for its obsession with package quality, meaning that the
risk of trusting pre-existing packages is greatly reduced, and that package
behavior is on average very dependable as well as documented in standard
documents such as the Debian Policy
Debian is also well known for its obsession with licensing, at the point of
being considered by many one of the authoritative sources for deciding what
constitutes Free Software and what does not. For derivatives that implies that
they do not need to worry---as long as they trust Debian, of course---neither
about legal redistribution risks nor about software freedom claims on their
distro.
But there are also a couple of "political" reasons for basing derivatives on
Debian. One is quite subtle and applies mostly to commercial distributions. If
you are designing one such commercial distro, you have to be based on an
independent distro with no commercial interests, lest risking that petty
(technical or otherwise) choices might be made just to undermine your business.
Among "popular" GNU/Linux distros, Debian is essentially the only one which is
both volunteer-based and not ascribable to any specific company.
The last reason why I think many derivatives are based on Debian is our
vocation to universality. Since we are not targeting any specific public, but
rather trying to provide an operating system suitable for several different use
cases (e.g. the tasks supported by the Debian installer or the choice of Debian
Pure Blends), we offer an ideal starting point for those who are going to have
customization as their main business.
2.) What could be the benefits for Debian and for its Derivates, if the
discussions about a second Debian Release based on the Testing branch really
come to be reality?
We are considering the possibility of adding a new Debian suite which is
"rolling" like Testing, in the sense that new software releases flow in
regularly rather than only at periodic bumps corresponding to major
distribution releases. There seem to be user demand for that and I personally
believe that such a scheme could address the needs of both advanced desktop
users and of developers, which are now strand to mix and match Debian suites
ending up using package combinations which benefit, as a whole, of very little
quality check. The main issues to face to get there is how to make sure that
adding such a suite would not get in the way of preparing high quality Stable
releases, in terms of quality control, developer focus, etc.
Note that such a hypothetical "rolling" suite needs does not necessarily need
to be based on Debian Testing, although that is a good starting point. The
reason why it's not a good endpoint is that Testing has been created (circa
2000), and is still used, as an internal tool to prepare the forthcoming Debian
Stable release. As such, it is not entirely suitable for final user
consumption. For instance, during the Debian "freeze" period the flow of new
software releases that reach Testing is greatly reduced up to stopping
completely just before the release of a new Debian Stable. I've been told that
users of testing-based (derivative) rolling releases regularly complain about
this aspect during Debian freezes, which is not surprising.
The main advantage for derivatives which are already offering a Debian-based
"rolling" release will then be the possibility of basing their work on a suite
less bound to the life cycle of Debian Stable than Testing is at present. On
the converse side, that would also mean that derivatives will need to
differentiate more from Debian than by just saying they are "rolling", which is
a good thing: differences among distros are healthy and drive innovation. With
those derivatives, on the other hand, which will recognize their goals as being
aligned with Debian's goals---Debian Stable today, maybe Debian "rolling"
tomorrow---we will be happy to join efforts.