Debian
The Debian Project is a volunteer association that produces the Debian operating system, a free distribution built on the Linux (or FreeBSD) kernel and GNU tools. Its main archive holds only software that meets the Debian Free Software Guidelines, with separate contrib and non-free areas for other works.
Licensing at a Glance
- Open source
The Debian Social Contract commits that the Debian system and all its components will be free according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), and that the system will never require a non-free component.[1]
Works that do not meet the DFSG are placed in the separate contrib and non-free archive areas, which are not part of the Debian system; distributors are asked to read those packages' licences before redistributing them.[2]
Under the DFSG, the licence of a Debian component may not restrict anyone from selling or giving it away as part of an aggregate distribution and may not require a royalty for such sale.[3]
Debian official media may include firmware that is otherwise not part of the Debian system, to enable use with hardware that requires it.[4]
Debian ships over 70,000 packages with the APT package manager, and describes all of it as free.[5]
Products
- Debian GNU/LinuxOperating Systems
- APT package manager
References
- Debian Social Contract · debian.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Debian Social Contract · debian.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Debian Social Contract · debian.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Debian Social Contract · debian.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Debian -- About Debian · debian.org · retrieved 2026-09-27