The abundant end results produced by the Debian project derive simultaneously from the work on the infrastructure performed by experienced Debian developers, from the individual or collective work of developers on Debian packages, and from user feedback.
1.3.1. The Debian Developers (Pengembang Debian)
Pengembang Debian memiliki banyak tanggung jawab, dan sebagai anggota resmi proyek, mereka memiliki pengaruh besar mengenai arah proyek ini. Seorang pengembang Debian umumnya bertanggung jawab atas paling tidak satu paket, namun sesuai dengan waktu yang tersedia dan keinginan mereka, mereka bebas untuk bergabung ke beberapa tim, sehingga memiliki tanggung jawab lebih dalam proyek.
Package maintenance is a relatively regimented activity, very documented or even regulated. It must, in effect, comply with all the standards established by the
Debian Policy. Fortunately, there are many tools that facilitate the maintainer's work. The developer can, thus, focus on the specifics of their package and on more complex tasks, such as squashing bugs.
The Policy, an essential element of the Debian Project, establishes the norms ensuring both the quality of the packages and perfect interoperability of the distribution. Thanks to this Policy, Debian remains consistent despite its gigantic size. This Policy is not fixed in stone, but continuously evolves thanks to proposals formulated on the
debian-policy@lists.debian.org
mailing list. Amendments that are agreed upon by all interested parties are accepted and applied to the text by a small group of maintainers who have no editorial responsibility (they only include the modifications agreed upon by the Debian developers that are members of the above-mentioned list). You can read current amendment proposals on the bug tracking system:
The Policy provides considerable cover of the technical aspects of packaging. The size of the project also raises organizational problems; these are dealt with by the Debian Constitution, which establishes a structure and means for decision making. In other words, a formal governance system.
Konstitusi ini mendefinisikan beberapa peran dan posisi, berikut dengan tanggung jawab dan kewenangannya. Secara khusus perlu diperhatikan bahwa pengembang Debian selalu memiliki kewenangan dalam membuat keputusan terakhir di sidang umum, di mana diperlukan tiga-per-empat (75%) suara diperlukan untuk membuat perubahan (misalnya yang memiliki efek pada Dokumen Yayasan). Biar bagaimanapun, setiap tahunnya pengembang memilih seorang “pemimpin” untuk merepresentasikan mereka dalam pertemuan, dan memastikan koordinasi internal antara beragam tim. Pemilihan ini selalu penuh dengan diskusi intensif. Peran pemimpin tidak didefinisikan secara formal dalam dokumen mana pun: kandidat untuk posisi ini umumnya mengajukan pemahaman mereka sendiri akan posisi pemimpin. Pada praktiknya, peran pemimpin termasuk sebagai perwakilan ke media, koordinasi antara tim “internal”, dan menyediakan panduan umum ke proyek, di mana pengembang dapat menghubungkan: pandangan DPL secara implisit disetujui oleh mayoritas anggota proyek.
Specifically, the leader has real authority; their vote resolves tie votes; they can make any decision which is not already under the authority of someone else and can delegate part of their responsibilities.
Since its inception, the project has been successively led by Ian Murdock, Bruce Perens, Ian Jackson, Wichert Akkerman, Ben Collins, Bdale Garbee, Martin Michlmayr, Branden Robinson, Anthony Towns, Sam Hocevar, Steve McIntyre, Stefano Zacchiroli and Lucas Nussbaum.
Konstitusi telah mendefinisikan sebuah “komite teknis”. Peran dasar komite ini adalah memutuskan hal-hal teknis saat para pengembang yang terlibat belum mencapai kesepakatan di antara mereka sendiri. Selain itu, komite ini berperan sebagai penasihat bagi pengembang mana pun yang tidak bisa membuat keputusan yang mereka bertanggung jawab atasnya. Penting untuk dicatat bahwa mereka hanya terlibat saat diundang oleh salah satu pihak yang membutuhkan.
Akhirnya, di dalam konstitusi didefinisikan posisi “sekretaris proyek” yang bertanggung jawab atas proses pemungutan suara dari beragam pemilihan dan sidang umum.
Prosedur “sidang umum” didetailkan di dalam konstitusi, dari masa diskusi awal hingga penghitungan suara. Lebih lanjut silakan lihat
Even if this constitution establishes a semblance of democracy, the daily reality is quite different: Debian naturally follows the free software rules of the do-ocracy: the one who does things gets to decide how to do them. A lot of time can be wasted debating the respective merits of various ways to approach a problem; the chosen solution will be the first one that is both functional and satisfying… which will come out of the time that a competent person did put into it.
This is the only way to earn one's stripes: do something useful and show that one has worked well. Many Debian “administrative” teams operate by co-optation, preferring volunteers who have already effectively contributed and proved their competence. The public nature of the work of those teams makes it possible for new contributors to observe and start helping without any special privilege. This is why Debian is often described as a “meritocracy”.
Metode efektif operasi ini menjamin kualitas dari kontributor merupakan “kunci” dalam tim Debian. Metode ini bukan berarti sempurna dan sesekali terdapat mereka yang tidak setuju dengan cara kerja ini. Seleski pengembang yang dipilih dalam tim bisa jadi terlihat arbitrer atau bahkan tak adil. Lebih lanjut, tak semuanya memiliki definisi yang sama dari layanan yang diharapkan dari tim ini. Untuk beberapa orang, merupakan hal yang tidak dapat diterima untuk mengguna selama 8 hari untuk memasukkan paket Debian baru, sementara lainnya tidak masalah akan bersabar menunggu selama 3 minggu. Kondisi seperti ini, terdapat keluhan rutin dari mereka yang tidak suka mengenai “kualitas layanan” dari beberapa tim.
1.3.2. Peran Aktif dari Pengguna
One might wonder if it is relevant to mention the users among those who work within the Debian project, but the answer is a definite yes: they play a critical role in the project. Far from being “passive”, some users run development versions of Debian and regularly file bug reports to indicate problems. Others go even further and submit ideas for improvements, by filing a bug report with a severity level of “wishlist”, or even submit corrections to the source code, called “patches” (see sidebar
BACK TO BASICS Patch, the way to send a fix).
Additionally, numerous satisfied users of the service offered by Debian like to make a contribution of their own to the project. As not everyone has appropriate levels of expertise in programming, they may choose to assist with the translation and review of documentation. There are language-specific mailing lists to coordinate this work.
Not only do users help themselves (and others) on technical issues that directly affect them, but they also discuss the best ways to contribute to the Debian project and help it move forward — discussions that frequently result in suggestions for improvements.
Since Debian does not expend funds on any self-promoting marketing campaigns, its users play an essential role in its diffusion, ensuring its fame via word-of-mouth.
Metode ini berfungsi dengan baik, karena penggemar Debian ada pada setiap tingkatan komunitas pengembang perangkat lunak bebas: dari pesta instalasi (workshop di mana para pengguna yang lebih berpengalaman membantu para pendatang baru untuk menginstall sistem) yang diorganisir oleh LUG “Linux User Groups” lokal, hingga stand asosiasi pada konvensi teknologi besar yang berurusan dengan Linux, dsb.
Volunteers make posters, brochures, stickers, and other useful promotional materials for the project, which they make available to everyone, and which Debian provides freely on its website:
1.3.3. Tim dan Sub-Proyek
Debian has been organized, right from the start, around the concept of source packages, each with its maintainer or group of maintainers. Many work teams have emerged over time, ensuring administration of the infrastructure, management of tasks not specific to any package in particular (quality assurance, Debian Policy, installer, etc.), with the latest series of teams growing up around sub-projects.
1.3.3.1. Sub-Proyek Debian Saat Ini
To each their own Debian! A sub-project is a group of volunteers interested in adapting Debian to specific needs. Beyond the selection of a sub-group of programs intended for a particular domain (education, medicine, multimedia creation, etc.), sub-projects are also involved in improving existing packages, packaging missing software, adapting the installer, creating specific documentation, and more.
Berikut ini adalah beberapa sub-proyek pilihan yang ada saat ini:
Debian-Junior, oleh Ben Armstrong, menawarkan sistem Debian yang menarik dan mudah digunakan bagi anak-anak;
Debian-Edu, oleh Petter Reinholdtsen, fokus pada pembuatan distribusi khusus untuk dunia akademis;
Debian Med, oleh Andreas Tille, didedikasikan untuk bidang medis;
Debian Multimedia which deals with audio and multimedia work;
Debian-Desktop which focuses on the desktop and coordinates artwork for the default theme;
Debian GIS which takes care of Geographical Information Systems applications and users;
Debian Accessibility, finally, improving Debian to match the requirements of people with disabilities.
Daftar ini akan terus tumbuh berkembang seiring berjalannya waktu dan persepsi yang berkembang dengan keuntungan dari sub-proyek Debian. Dengan dukungan penuh dari infrastruktur Debian, mereka dapat fokus pada pekerjaan yang menambah nilai tanpa harus khawatir tentang sinkronisasi dengan Debian, karena mereka dikembangkan di dalam proyek.
1.3.3.2. Tim Administratif
Mayoritas tim administratif relatif dekat dan perekrutan hanya dilakukan dengan cara kooptasi. Cara terbaik untuk bergabung adalah dengan membantu secara cerdas anggota saat ini, menunjukkan bahwa Anda telah mengerti objektif dan metoda operasi.
ftpmasters secara bertanggung jawab dari arsip ofisial paket Debian. Mereka mengelola program yang menerima paket dikirim oleh pengembang dan secara otomatis menyimpannya, setelah beberapa pemeriksaan pada server reference (ftp-master.debian.org
).
They must also verify the licenses of all new packages, in order to ensure that Debian may distribute them, prior to including them in the corpus of existing packages. When a developer wishes to remove a package, they address this team through the bug tracking system and the ftp.debian.org “pseudo-package”.
The
Debian System Administrators (DSA) team (
debian-admin@lists.debian.org
), as one might expect, is responsible for system administration of the many servers used by the project. They ensure optimal functioning of all base services (DNS, Web, e-mail, shell, etc.), install software requested by Debian developers, and take all precautions in regards to security.
listmasters mengelola server milis. Mereka membuat milis baru, mengelola bounces (email yang gagal terkirim), dan mengelola filter spam (email yang tak diinginkan dalam jumlah banyak).
Each specific service has its own administration team, generally composed of volunteers who have installed it (and also frequently programmed the corresponding tools themselves). This is the case of the bug tracking system (BTS), the package tracker,
alioth.debian.org
(FusionForge server, see sidebar
PERKAKAS FusionForge, Pisau Swiss untuk Pengembangan Kolaboratif), the services available on
qa.debian.org
,
lintian.debian.org
,
buildd.debian.org
,
cdimage.debian.org
, etc.
1.3.3.3. Tim Pengembang, Tim Transversal
Tidak seperti tim administratif, tim pengembang relatif lebih terbuka, bahkan pada kontributor luar. Bahkan jika Debian tidak memiliki lokasi untuk membuat perangkat lunak, proyek Debian membutuhkan program spesifik untuk memenuhi tujuannya. Tentu, dikembangkan di bawah lisensi perangkat lunak bebas, perkakas ini menggunakan metode yang sudah terbukti di dalam dunia perangkat lunak bebas.
Debian has developed little software of its own, but certain programs have assumed a starring role, and their fame has spread beyond the scope of the project. Good examples are dpkg
, the Debian package management program (it is, in fact, an abbreviation of Debian PacKaGe, and generally pronounced as “dee-package”), and apt
, a tool to automatically install any Debian package, and its dependencies, guaranteeing the consistency of the system after an upgrade (its name is an acronym for Advanced Package Tool). Their teams are, however, much smaller, since a rather high level of programming skill is required to gain an overall understanding of the operations of these types of programs.
The most important team is probably that for the Debian installation program,
debian-installer
, which has accomplished a work of momentous proportions since its conception in 2001. Numerous contributors were needed, since it is difficult to write a single program able to install Debian on a dozen different architectures. Each one has its own mechanism for booting and its own bootloader. All of this work is coordinated on the
debian-boot@lists.debian.org
mailing list, under the direction of Cyril Brulebois.
The (very small) debian-cd
program team has an even more modest objective. Many “small” contributors are responsible for their architecture, since the main developer can not know all the subtleties, nor the exact way to start the installer from the CD-ROM.
Banyak tim harus berkolaborasi dengan yang lainnya dalam melakukan pemaketan:
debian-qa@lists.debian.org
mencoba, sebagai contoh, memastikan kualitas pada semua tingkatan dari proyek Debian.
debian-policy@lists.debian.org
milis mengembangkan Debian Policy berdasarkan proposal dari berbagai tempat. Tim ini bertanggung jawab untuk setiap arsitektur (
debian-architecture@lists.debian.org
) meng-compile semua paket, mengadaptasi mereka pada arsitektur tertentu, jika dibutuhkan.