<chapter id="general">
  <title>General ideas</title>
  <sect1 id="lookbeyond">
    <title>Looking beyond</title>
    <para>
 Commercial Linux distributors sell certain products that try to
 address special user needs.

 <variablelist><varlistentry><term>Enterprise solutions</term><listitem><itemizedlist><listitem><para>Corporate Server - Mandriva</para></listitem><listitem><para>Advanced Server - RedHat</para></listitem><listitem><para>Enterprise Server - SuSE</para></listitem></itemizedlist></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)</term><listitem><para>There are a couple of workstation or home editions, as well as
          office desktops built by several GNU/Linux distributors.
        </para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Special task products</term><listitem><variablelist><varlistentry><term>Mail server</term><listitem><para>SuSE Linux Openexchange Server</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Firewall</term><listitem><para>Multi Network Firewall - Mandriva, SuSE Firewall on CD,
                ...</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Cluster</term><listitem><para>Mandriva Clustering</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Content Management System</term><listitem><para>RedHat</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Portal Server</term><listitem><para>RedHat</para></listitem></varlistentry></variablelist></listitem></varlistentry></variablelist>

This is only a small set of examples of commercial GNU/Linux
distributors addressing specific user interests with certain products.
</para>
    <para>
Debian solves this problem with <emphasis>Debian Pure Blends</emphasis>.
</para>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="motivation">
    <title>Motivation</title>
    <sect2 id="userprofile">
      <title>Profile of target users</title>
      <para>
The target user of a Blend may be a specialist of a certain
profession, (e.g. a doctor or lawyer,) a person who has not (yet)
gathered a certain amount of computer knowledge, (e.g. a child,) or a
person with disabilities (e.g.  a visually or hearing impaired
person.)  Moreover, the customisation might deal with peculiarities of
certain regions where users have needs that differ from Debian as a
whole.
</para>
      <para>
It is not unusual for these target users to be less technically
competent than the stereotypical Linux user.  These people are often
not interested in the computer for its own sake, but just want it to
work for them.  Imagine the frustration of a doctor who has to move
the focus of interest from the patient to his stupid computer that
does not work as expected.
</para>
      <para>
Because of limited knowledge or time, the target user is usually
unable to install upstream programs.  This means that in the first
place, they must find out which software packages in their
distribution might serve for a certain problem.  The next step would
be to download and install the packages they choose, perhaps requiring
a certain amount of configuration effort.  This problem is nearly
impossible for a user with limited technical competence and perhaps
poor English language comprehension, which prevents the user from
understanding the installation manual.
</para>
      <para>
The language barrier in this field is an important issue, because we
are targeting everyday users who are not compelled to learn English,
like Free Software developers are, for everyday communication.  So the
installation process has to involve the least possible user
interaction, and any such interaction has to be internationalised.
</para>
      <para>
Furthermore, most target users have no or little interest in
administration of their computer.  In short, the optimal situation
would be that he would not even notice the existence of the computer,
but just focus on using the application to accomplish the task at
hand.
</para>
      <para>
Common to all groups of target users is their interest in a defined
subset of available Free Software.  None of them would like to spend
much time searching for the package that fits his interest.  Instead,
the target user would prefer to immediately and effortlessly locate
and access all material relevant to solving his own problems.
</para>
      <para>
There is an absolute need for easy usage of the programs.  This is not
to say users expect to not have to learn to use the software.  Adults
generally accept that they must spend a reasonable amount of time in
learning how to use a piece of software before they can do something
useful and productive with it.  But a simple-to-learn environment
greatly enhances the value of the software, and if you consider
children as target users, they just want to start using it right away
without reading any documentation.
</para>
      <para>
The more important part of the request for easy usage is a
professional design that is functional and effective.  To accomplish
this, the programmers need expert knowledge, or at least a quick
communication channel to experts to learn more about their
requirements.  One task for Debian Pure Blends is to bring programmers
and experts who will use those special programs together.
</para>
      <para>
Last, but not least, we find certain requirements beyond just which
packages are provided in each target user group.  These may differ
between different Blends.  For instance, while a doctor has to protect
his database against snooping by outside attackers, the privacy risk
for a child's system are of lesser importance.  Thus, the Debian
Junior project cares more for ensuring that the user himself does not
damage the desktop environment while playing around with it than about
remote attacks.  So we find a "defined security profile" for each
single Blend.
</para>
    </sect2>
    <sect2 id="adminprofile">
      <title>Profile of target administrators</title>
      <para>
In the field that should be covered by Debian Pure Blends, we have to
face also some common problems for system administrators.  Often they
have limited time in which they must serve quite a number of
computers, and thus they are happy about each simplification of the
administration process.  The time required to make special adaptations
for the intended purpose has to be reduced to a minimum.
</para>
      <para>
So, administrators are looking for timesaving in repetitive tasks.
While this is a common issue for each general GNU/Linux distribution,
this could have certain consequences in the special fields Debian Pure
Blends want to address.
</para>
      <para>
Another problem administrators face is that they are often not experts in
their clients' special field of work.  Thus, they may need some specialist
knowledge to explain the use of special programs to their users, or at
least need to be able to communicate well with the experts about their
special needs, and how the software can be used to address them.
</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="status">
    <title>Status of specialised Free Software</title>
    <para>
Programs like a web server, or a mail user agent are used by many
different users.  That is why many gifted programmers feel obliged for
this kind of Free Software - they just need it for their own.  So you
normally find a fast, growing community around Free Software packages
that have a wide use.  This is different for specialised software.
</para>
    <para>
In this context, the term "specialised software" refers to the kind of
software that is needed by some experts for their job.  This might be
a practice management system that is used by doctors, a graphical
information system (GIS) that is used by geographers, a screen reader
that helps blind people to work with the computer, etc.  The
difference between such software and widely used software like office
suites is that the user base is relatively small.  This is also true
for certain software that supports special localisation issues.

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
      Specialist software is used only by a limited set of users (i.e. the
      specialists).  There exists a set of software tools that work
      perfectly in the environment where they were developed.  If the
      developers catch the idea of Free Software, and just release this
      software as-is, people in the new, broader user community often run
      into trouble getting it to work in their environment.  This happens
      because the developers did not really care about a robust installation
      process that works outside their special environment.  As well,
      installation instructions are often badly written, if they exist at
      all. But these problem can be easily solved by shipping the software
      as policy-compliant binary packages, which not only ease installation,
      but also require documentation to be included.  Thus, mere inclusion
      in Debian benefits the whole user base of any specialised software.
    </para></listitem><listitem><para>
      The trouble often continues in the maintenance of the installed
      software.
    </para></listitem><listitem><para>
      When it comes to the usage of the specialist software, it often
      happens that it perfectly fits the needs of the developer who wrote it
      for his own purposes, and who is familiar with its quirks, but in many
      cases such software does not comply with ergonomic standards of user
      interfaces.
    </para></listitem><listitem><para>
      Several existing programs that might be useful for specialists are not
      really free in the sense of
      the <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">
      Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)</ulink>. Programs that are
      incompatible with the DFSG cannot be included in Debian.  This is
      possibly a drawback for those programs, because they could profit by
      spreading widely on the back of Debian over the whole world.
    </para></listitem><listitem><para>
        A certain number of programs are developed at universities by students
        or graduates. Once these people leave the university, the programs
        they developed might be orphaned; <emphasis>i.e.</emphasis>, not actively
        maintained anymore.  If their licenses are too restrictive, it may be
        impossible for anyone else to take over; sticking to
        <remark>AT: We should find a way to avoid printing the URL in PDF output.</remark>
        <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">
          DFSG</ulink>-free licenses avoid that problem.
      </para></listitem><listitem><para>
        In special fields, often "typical" (not necessarily Intel-based)
        hardware architectures are used.  Debian currently runs on 11
        different architectures, and automatic build servers normally compile
        software packages as necessary.  If auto-builders for other
        architectures show problems, Debian maintainers will normally fix
        them, and send the original authors a patch.  Moreover, users can
        report run-time problems via the
        <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/Bugs/">Debian Bug Tracking System</ulink>.
      </para></listitem><listitem><para>
        Many programs that are written from scratch use their own non-standard
        file formats.  However, it is often important for programs to be able
        to share data with each other.
      </para></listitem><listitem><para>
        Often there are several programs that try to solve identical or
        similar problems. For instance the Debian Med team faces this in the
        case of programms claiming to serve as a medical practice management
        solution.  Normally, all these programs
        take very interesting approaches but all of them have certain
        drawbacks.  So, joining programmers' forces might make sense here.
      </para></listitem><listitem><para>
        Sometimes the tools or back-ends used in Free Software are not
        appropriate for such applications.  For instance, sometimes
        database servers that do not use transactions are used to store
        medical records, which is completely unacceptable.  Other programs use web
        clients as their front-end, which is not really good for quick (mouse-less)
        usage, a great shortcoming for repetitive tasks.
      </para></listitem></itemizedlist>

</para>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="general_problem">
    <title>General problem</title>
    <para>
Free Software development is a kind of evolutionary process. It needs a
critical mass of supporters, who are:

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>programmers <emphasis>and</emphasis></para></listitem><listitem><para>users</para></listitem></itemizedlist>

Because specialised software has a limited set of users, (specialists,)
this results in a limited set of programmers.
</para>
    <para>
Debian wants to attract both groups to get it working.
</para>
    <para>
      <emphasis>Debian is the missing link between upstream developers and users.</emphasis>
    </para>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="philosophy">
    <title>Debian Pure Blends from philosophical point of view</title>
    <para>
Debian currently grows in several directions:

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>Number of involved people</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of packages</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of architectures</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of bugs</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of users</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of derivatives</para></listitem><listitem><para>Time span between releases</para></listitem></itemizedlist>

So several features are changing at different rates their quantity.
According to Hegel a change of quantity leads into a change in
quality.  That means that Debian will change at a certain point in
time (or over a certain time span) its quality.
</para>
    <para>
"To determine at the right moment the critical point where
 quantity changes into quality is one of the most important and
 difficult tasks in all the spheres of knowledge." (Trotzki) This
 might mean that we just passed the point in time when Debian changed
 its quality.  At one point we even observed a change once the package
 pool system was implemented to cope with the increased number of
 packages while trying to reduce the time span between releases. Even
 if the plan to increase the frequencies of releases failed Debian
 became a new quality.  People started using the <filename>testing</filename>
 distribution even in production which was not really intended and in
 a consequence even security in <filename>testing</filename> was implemented
 for Sarge.
</para>
    <para>
According to Darwin evolution happens through quantitative
transformations passing into qualitative.  So Debian has to evolve and
to cope with the inner changes and outer requirements to survive in
the Linux distribution environment.
</para>
  </sect1>
</chapter>
