User:Echinacin35/Debian Pure Blend

A Debian Pure Blend is a subset of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution that is configured to support a particular target group out-of-the-box. All changes and improvements are integrated to the official Debian repositories. A Debian Pure Blend can contain multiple flavors (or profiles) (e.g. Debian Edu has flavors for main-server, workstation, and thin-client-server).

Technically a Debian Pure Blend builds a set of metapackages and provides an overview about the packages which are included and which are on the todo list for further inclusion. Both pages are rendered from the information inside the tasks files in an SVN.

The point is to make better use of already existing packages inside of the debian software repository.

Possible Debian Pure Blends

 * Debian Administration / Debian Government: see LiMux, Wienux, gnuLinEx, Guadalinex, Nova, GendBuntu, and many many more. The english article Linux adoption does not nearly tacle it. See de:Open-Source-Software in öffentlichen Einrichtungen! All this project incorporate software from the worldwide existing pool of free software. Most if not all of the software used, is already packaged inside of Debian. Also, all projects base themselves on an existing Linux disribution. See what parts of the software packages were changed, e.g. Installer, Kernel, KDE Plasma Desktop, etc.

Advantages
The advantages are

Inclusion into an Operating System
This includes packaging, security audit, configuration, translation and localisation, easy availability and accesibility (ready to use) for the end user, etc. Documentation. Free Help and also Professional (=commercial) Help.

Survival inside Debian
Sometimes the original autor of a software stops developing his/her software. In that case, the software survives inside of debian. Here, it is more likely to find a new maintainer. Examples
 * bla : ... it is available on its own homepage and packaged and ready to use inside the debian repositories
 * bla2 : it is available on git and packaged and ready to use inside the debian repositories

Disadvantages of Debian derivatives
Most usually the quick-and-dirty approach offers better results in the short run, e.g. Qimo 4 Kids. But in the long run they regularly fail to
 * offer a stable and secure operating system to the end-user over longer periods of time; this may not be so important to a standalone workstation, but is crucial to a school network
 * contribute upstream and motivate upstream to become aware of the advantages of integration of a piece of software into a linux distribution
 * free support by large user group
 * commercial support

Most of the distributions based on Debian, like for example Knoppix or Sacix, are not Debian Pure Blends; Ubuntu is not even binary compatible with Debian. Linux Mint Debian Edition is binary compatible with Debian, but is also not a Debian Pure Blend.

At the end of the day, many existing Debian derivatives are excelent concepts of proof to show what is possible by implementing only free software. Debian Pure Blens are not. They are an ongoing effort to offer the end user a ready-to-use operating system, better and better suitable for a certain field of interest.

It is fundamentaly true that any Linux distribution can be