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Custom Debian Distributions
Chapter 1 - Introduction


A general purpose operating system like Debian can be the perfect solution for many different problems. Whether you want Debian to work for you in the classroom, as a games machine, or in the office, each problem area has its own unique needs and requires a different subset of packages tailored in a different way.

Custom Debian Distributions (formerly merged together with Debian Internal Projects) provides support for special user interests. They implement a new approach to cover interests of specialied users. Special users might be children, lawyers, medical stuff, visually impaired people etc. Of late several Custom Debian Distributions evolved. The common goal of those is to make installation and administration of computers for these target users as easy as possible and to fit our role as missing link between software developers and users well.

An illustrative explanation what Custom Debian Distributions are can be given by some kind of object oriented approach: If Debian as a whole is an object a Custom Debian Distribution is an instance of this object which inherits all features while providing certain properties.

So the Debian project releases the Debian Distribution and other Custom Debian Distributions. In contrast to this there might be some other Debian related Projects external or non-official which may create "derivative distributions" but do not belong to the responsibility of the Debian project.

The effort might fall into the same category as the Componentized Linux of progeny but there are certain differences which will be outlined in this paper.


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Custom Debian Distributions

28 July 2004

Andreas Tille tille@debian.org