Nick Vidal

Debian and the Open Source Initiative

The OSI was co-founded in 1998 by former Debian Project Leader Bruce Perens with the aim of explaining, advocating and protecting the term open source. Debian shares the OSI’s desire to encourage software freedom and Debian’s Social Contract commits it to producing a system which is 100% free. Since 2012, the Debian Project has been part of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as an affiliate member.

This panel/talk will discuss the role of the OSI, some of the history of the OSI and Debian but also how the OSI’s Open Source Definition is closely based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the document that defines the types of software licenses which the Debian Project accepts.