History
Distributions
Free Software

GNU/Linux belongs to the unix family of operating systems. After Unix was written by Bell, the US authorities banned this company from moving into the computer field. Not wanting to waste their work, Bell passed the source code onto the American universities who in turn made major improvements. Much of this improved code was placed under "University Copyrights". The unix operating system then fragmented in various proprietary systems, and some of the names associated with these systems are MacOS X, Irix, HP-UX, Solaris, VMS, Net/Open/FreeBSD. These are operating systems of many of the heavy-weight computing systems of the industrial and commercial world.
With the introduction of the 386 processor IBM-PCs became capable of running a unix system which meant that their performance could be greatly improved when compared with the best of the other available operating systems.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) started the GNU (GNU is Not Unix) project with the objective of creating a free unix-like system.

In the early 90s Linus Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel which he released under the FSF copyright. The combination of the FSF software, the university material and the Linux kernel (which is about 1 - 2% of a typical installation) makes up the bulk of a GNU/Linux system. You can visit the FSF.

GNU/Linux has now supports these architectures,
Intel x86 (386 and better) - the common PC. Referred to as i386.
Motorola 68x0 - Atari, Amiga, Macintosh. Referred to as m68k.
DEC Alpha machines - - Referred to as alpha.
StrongARM machines - - Referred to as arm.
Sun SPARC machines - - Referred to as sparc
IBM/Motorola - CHRP, PowerMac, PReP. Referred to as powerpc.
and:- hppa, ia64, mips, mipsel, s390

Copyleft supplies the Debian versions of all these. Non-i386 versions of other distributions can be downloaded.

The way that a computer behaves, looks and feels depends on the operating system being used. The latest PC and the latest Mac will be virtually indistinguishable if they are both running Linux. Every operating system has its own characteristics, MS Windows has poor security and so is susceptible to viruses (worms) these nasties will just die in any other os. A characteristic of GNU/Linux (and unix in general) is the concept of linking a series of independent programs together for a particular task. They can then be reassembled to do something else.

Index

GNU/Linux software needs to be assembled from over 1000 sites world wide and packaged so that it can easily be installed. Mandriva, Slackware, Gentoo, Fedora and Debian being some of these distributions.
Debian is organised on the same lines as the Free Software Foundation. It is non-commercial and Debian packages are prepared by volunteers as a public service. If you detect a bias towards Debian it is because I am one of the Debian Maintainers.
Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is its umbrella organisation.
Slackware is the distribution with the longest history and is "free".
Mandriva, Fedora, Yoper and most other distributions are commercial to a greater or lesser degree.

The Debian distribution is internet based. When a new distribution is released it is mirrored by a number of sites throughout the world, ftp.nz.debian.org being one, and can be downloaded at no cost. Distribution CDs are made from these ftp sites. Most other distributions are CD based, that is, a particular distribution is released as a CD and the files find their way to the ftp sites later.

Debian's world-wide spread of developers and leaders makes it the most international of the distributions. Debian serves the GNU Hurd project by providing the resources and facilities of a major distribution.

You can visit Debian and/or view the debian.faq

You may want to visit the sites of the other distributions supplied by Copyleft.
Mandriva in France.
Yoper in the NZ.
Smeserver in the USA and Canada.
Slackware in the USA.
Gentoo in the USA.
And there are other distributions
These can be downloaded and burnt to a CD if you want them.

Index

"Free" refers to freedom, not price. Freedom to use, distribute (with or without a fee) and modify the software without restriction. These freedoms are also extended to anyone to whom the software is given or sold. To make certain that these freedoms are preserved right down the chain of developers, vendors, and users, key freedom preserving conditions are enforced by the copyright holders.

1. All the software is copyright. GNU/Linux is not in the public domain.

2. People supplying software are required to make the source code available so modifications can be made.

3. Any modifications to the software come under the same copyright terms and conditions as the original.

GNU's version of this copyright is the General Public Licence (GPL) and there are forms of copyright with similar conditions, including the Universities copyright, the general term for this type of copyright is "copyleft".

In the past public domain software (software without copyright protection) has been modified and the altered program was then copyrighted and became proprietary. The FSF releases it software under the GPL and many other software and documentation authors do the same.

No-cost Software

Various software houses provide programs at no cost, Star Office and Aladdin being examples, and the Linux and computing communities are grateful. However, no-cost software is not free software, as there are strict copyright restrictions on use, distribution and modification. For example, a registration fee may be required for commercial use.

Not all no-cost software is free software.

Open Source Software originally meant the source code was available so that it could be modified and debugged while the original owner retained ownership of the product. Open Source Software is now another name for Free Software which is used more in the commercial environment. The Business world understands this term better.
The NZ Open Source Society (NZOSS) is very active in protecting Open Source (Free) software.

Free software and open source software are the same.

Debian.
All the packages in the "main" file system meet the requirements of "free software", those in "contrib", not fully. The packages in "non-US" either have copyright problems in the US, but not outside it, or the US authorities forbid their export because of defense considerations. These restrictions do not apply to New Zealand and the Debian packages are downloaded from the UK where there are no export restrictions. The software in "non-free" varies widely as far as copyright conditions are concerned.

Other distributions supplied by Copyleft are "Copyleft", or close to it.
You will need to look at the copyright conditions on the disc for the full details.