Linux Magazine: The Importance of Being Debian

“Eight years ago, as Purdue undergraduate Ian Murdock flipped
through a Unix magazine, he came across an intriguing
advertisement. It was for a Linux distribution that promised to let
you run your Windows applications on the free operating system.
Linux had sprung into existence a scant year before and now —
according to the ad — it could support Windows applications. This
seemed too good to be true. It was.

“The distribution in question — Murdock no longer remembers its
name — was released about a month after the WINE (which stands for
WINdows Emulator or WINE Is Not an Emulator, depending on who you
ask) project was launched, and it was clear to Murdock, an avid
Linux enthusiast, that its claim of Windows compatibility was
patently false. “There were companies springing up and selling
Linux and making all kinds of untrue claims,” remembers Murdock. He
was angry, and the time had come to do something about it.

“There needed to be a distribution that this emerging community
of Linux users could trust. And so, fusing his first name with that
of his girlfriend Debra, Murdock founded what would become Linux’s
most popular non-commercial distribution — Debian
GNU/Linux…”

Complete
Story