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43 \begin{multicols}{3} % 3 columns
47 \includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth]{openlogo}
48 %\includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth]{openlogo-vsop}
50 \url{http://www.debian.org}
51 %\section*{Debian GNU/Linux}
53 \section*{The Universal Operating System}
58 \section*{Debian project}
59 was founded by Ian Murdock in August 1993 with the goal
60 to create an easy to install and maintain non-commercial GNU/Linux
61 distribution that would be able to effectively compete in the
62 commercial market. Since then Debian established itself as an
63 independent and unique project driven by more than 3,000 of
64 enthusiastic Debian developers and contributors all around the globe.
65 Principles of \emph{do-ocracy} and democracy backed up by evolving open
66 standards allowed Debian to deliver the comprehensive operating system largest not
67 only in its coverage of integrated software, but also in the
68 number of the supported hardware architectures.
69 % Current installer of Debian has been translated more that to 60 languages.
70 % (12 ??? officially supported architectures).
72 Acknowledged quality and openness of Debian made it the choice for
73 more than 120 derivative GNU/Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and
76 \subsection*{Debian is}
77 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=0.8em]
78 \item[V\textnormal{ersatile}]\hfill\url{http://packages.debian.org}\\
79 Over 15,000 software products maintained to provide
80 a stable system for any field of application
81 \item[S\textnormal{ecure}]\hfill\url{http://www.debian.org/security}\\
82 Security updates guarantee virus-free safe operation
84 % \item[S\textnormal{imple}]\blank\\
85 % Single command is enough to install or upgrade single
86 % software or the entire system at once
87 \item[O\textnormal{pen}]\hfill\url{http://www.debian.org/social_contract}\\
88 All software is free and open-source (FOSS).\\
89 Debian project decisions are voted for in public
90 \item[P\textnormal{opular}]\hfill\url{http://www.debian.org/users}\\
91 Used by governments, companies, education institutions
95 Original: Very Special Old Pale
98 Very (Special|Stable) Operating Platform
101 %\section*{Understand Debian}
103 \subsection*{Debian suites}
105 % Debian distribution comes in 3 major flavors
107 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=1em]
109 %\item[Unstable] \emph{Constantly changing distribution}\\
110 \item[Development]\hfill\emph{Unstable} (always \emph{sid})\\
111 Never \emph{released}, constantly evolving platform to integrate new
112 versions of software in Debian.\\
113 %entry point for the software to appear in Debian.\\
114 Despite its name, \emph{Unstable} is a good platform for those
115 requiring the most recent versions of software
117 %\item[Testing] \emph{Constantly changing future release candidate}\\
118 \item[``Always-ready-to-release''] \emph{Testing} (now \emph{squeeze})\\
119 % What to become a next \emph{Stable} release candidate.\\
120 Software versions known to be secure and of good quality.
121 % Software migrated from \emph{Unstable} which is known to be of good
122 % quality. Immediate updates are provided only
123 % to assure secure and robust performance. \\
124 \emph{Testing} provides a good balance between stability and recency
127 %\item[Stable] \emph{Official release}\\
128 \item[Official release]\hfill\emph{Stable} (now \emph{lenny})\\
129 % Software verified to be well tested and secure,
130 % Very stable (hence the name) and secure
131 % but might be lacking the most recent versions.\\% of the software.\\
132 % of not the most recent versions. \\
133 \emph{Stable} is released ``when it is ready'', \emph{i.e.} when
134 \emph{Testing} is assured to be robust. %, on average bi-yearly.
135 Complementary updates keep the
137 \emph{Stable} is the choice where stability and security are of
142 \subsection*{It has names}
144 The code names of Debian releases are names of characters from the Toy
145 Story animation, e.g. sid, squeeze, lenny. \emph{Unstable}
146 flavor always called \emph{sid}, while a new name chosen for every
147 upcoming release and assigned to \emph{Testing} to become a code name
148 of the release when it becomes \emph{Stable}.\\ At the moment
149 \emph{squeeze} is \emph{Testing}, and \emph{lenny} is \emph{Stable}.
150 As soon as \emph{squeeze} gets released, \emph{Testing} will be given
151 a new name -- \emph{wheezy}.
154 \subsection*{Debian components}
156 % Debian distribution comes in 3 major flavors
157 %Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)\\
158 %\url{http://www.debian.org/social_contract}
160 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=1em]
161 \item[Free as in freedom]\hfill\emph{main}\\
162 % This is the actual Debian with full support.\\
163 All software in \emph{main} is distributed under FOSS licenses
164 compliant with Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) to assure
165 complete freedom to use, modify, and (re-)distribute
166 \item[Not free \emph{en bloc}]\hfill\emph{contrib}\\
167 FOSS depending on \emph{non-free} 3rd party software
168 % Software which, despite being free itself, depends on
169 % \emph{non-free} 3rd party software, rendering it useless without
170 \item[Somewhat free]\hfill\emph{non-free}\\
171 Software under restrictive licenses
172 % removing some freedoms
173 % (\emph{e.g.} non-commercial use only), but which is allowed to be
174 % used for free and re-distributed (\emph{e.g. NVidia drivers})
178 \subsection*{Debian is driven by enthusiastic experts}
179 % could be simply 'Debian People' or 'Debian Community'
181 Debian is the only major Linux distribution developed
182 cooperatively solely by individuals through the Internet, in the
183 same spirit as Linux and other FOSS.\\
184 Debian developers, teams and the community contribute to the
185 project not by writing new applications (in most cases), but by
186 \begin{itemize}[nolistsep,topsep=0em,leftmargin=1pc]
187 \item integrating existing software into Debian
188 \item fixing and communicating bug reports to upstream developers
189 \item assuring overall quality of the distribution
190 \item improving documentation and internationalization
191 \item providing user support
194 Packaged software in Debian have individual maintainers which are
195 often also the users of that software, so they are interested in its
196 reliable operation. Individual maintainers often join the teams, such
197 as Debian-Science or Debian-Med, based on the common field of
201 \subsection*{HOWTO get Debian}
203 %\subsubsection*{Stable}
204 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,style=nextline]
205 \item[Install on a hard-drive] \url{http://get.debian.net/}
206 \item[Boot from CD/USB] \url{http://get.debian.net/live/}
207 \item[Run in a Virtual Machine] \url{http://neuro.debian.net/vm.html}
208 \item[More options (e.g. buy pre-installed)] \url{http://debian.org/distrib}
209 \item[Testing/Unstable version] \url{http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer}
212 % \subsection*{Get \emph{Testing/Unstable} Debian}
214 % Install on a hard-drive or in a Virtual Machine\\
215 % \url{http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer}
218 \subsection*{HOWTO install software X}
220 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,style=nextline]
222 \item[GUI (Synaptic Package Manager)]
223 % \emph{Synaptic Package Manager}
224 Select X and click ``Apply''\\
225 \includegraphics[width=0.95\columnwidth]{shots/synaptic-fslview}
232 \subsection*{HOWTO upgrade the entire system}
234 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,style=nextline]
235 \item[GUI (Synaptic Package Manager)]
236 Click ``Mark All Upgrades'', ``Apply''
238 apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade
241 \subsection*{HOWTO get support}
243 \url{http://www.debian.org/support}
245 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,style=nextline]
247 % Use \emph{Synaptic Package Manager}
250 \item[Community support]
251 %\begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc]
252 %\item[Mailing lists]
253 \url{http://www.debian.org/MailingLists}\\
254 \url{http://forums.debian.net}\\
255 \url{http://ask.debian.net}
257 \item[Commercial support]
258 \url{http://www.debian.org/consultants}
262 \section*{Reasons to choose Debian}
263 \paragraph{It is maintained by its users}
265 If something needs to be fixed or improved, we just do it.
267 \paragraph{Unparalleled support}
269 Mail sent to the mailing lists often gets answers within 15 minutes (or less),
270 for free, and by the people who developed it. Compare that to typical phone
271 support: hours spent on the phone, for money, only to get someone who doesn't
272 know the system well enough to even understand your question.
274 \paragraph{You wouldn't be alone in your choice}
276 A wide range of organizations and individuals use Debian. See our Who's Using
277 Debian? page for a description of some high-profile sites which use Debian, and
278 have chosen to submit a short description of how they use Debian and why.
280 \paragraph{The best packaging system in the world.}
282 Tired of old files from software three versions old cluttering your system? Or
283 installing a piece of software only to find it causes your system to crash
284 because of software conflicts? Dpkg, Debian's endured packaging system, takes
285 care of these issues for you.
287 \paragraph{Easy installation}
289 If you have heard that GNU/Linux is difficult to install, then you haven't
290 tried Debian lately. We are constantly improving the installation process. You
291 can do the installation directly from CD, DOS, floppies or even over the
294 \paragraph{Incredible amounts of software}
296 Debian comes with over 25000 different pieces of software. Every bit of it is
297 free. If you have proprietary software that runs under GNU/Linux, you can still
298 use it - in fact, there may even be an installer in Debian that will
299 automatically install and set up everything for you.
301 \paragraph{Packages well integrated}
303 Debian surpasses all other distributions in how well its packages are
304 integrated. Since all software is packaged by a coherent group, not only can
305 all packages be found at a single site, but you can be assured that we have
306 already worked out all issues regarding complicated dependencies. While we feel
307 that the deb format has some advantages over the rpm format, it is the
308 integration between the packages that makes a Debian system more robust.
310 \paragraph{Source code}
312 If you are a software developer, you will appreciate the fact that there are
313 hundreds of development tools and languages, plus millions of lines of source
314 code in the base system. All of the software in the main distribution meets the
315 criteria of the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). This means that you can
316 freely use this code to study from, or to incorporate into new free software
317 projects. There are also plenty of tools and code suitable for use in
318 proprietary projects.
320 \paragraph{Easy upgrades}
322 Due to our packaging system, upgrading to a new version of Debian is a snap.
323 Just run apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade (or aptitude update; aptitude
324 dist-upgrade in newer releases) and you can upgrade from a CD in a matter of
325 minutes or point apt at one of the over 300 Debian mirrors and upgrade over the
328 \rotatebox{90}{\includegraphics[height=.9\columnwidth]{distro-dev}}
329 \rotatebox{90}{Description}
331 \paragraph{Multiple architectures and kernels}
333 Currently Debian supports an impressive number of CPU architectures: alpha,
334 amd64, armel, hppa, i386, ia64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, and sparc. It also
335 runs on GNU Hurd and FreeBSD kernels besides Linux, and with the debootstrap
336 utility you will be hard-pressed to find a device that can't run Debian.
338 \paragraph{Bug tracking system}
340 Debian's bug tracking system is publicly available. We don't try to hide the
341 fact that software doesn't always work the way users want. Users are encouraged
342 to submit bug reports and are notified when and why the bug was closed. This
343 system allows Debian to respond to problems quickly and honestly.
346 \section*{Acknowledgements}
356 \begin{multicols}{3} % 3 columns
361 \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{logo_tuned/label}
363 \url{http://neuro.debian.net}
364 %\section*{NeuroDebian Project:}
365 \section*{The Ultimate Research Platform}
370 \section*{NeuroDebian}
372 is a Debian project aiming to provide Neuroscience community with a
373 stable and versatile research platform -- the Debian OS. NeuroDebian
374 (formerly known as Experimental Psychology, ExpPsy) was initiated in
375 2006 to provide packaging of PyEPL and FSL software so they could
376 become an integral part of Debian, thus seamlessly available to users
377 of Debian or any derived distribution. Since 2006 software coverage
378 of NeuroDebian increased more than ten-fold. NeuroDebian repository
379 \url{http://neuro.debian.net} makes recent versions of the software
380 available not only for the \emph{Development} but also for previous
381 releases of Debian and Ubuntu. The tandem of a stable generic
382 operating system, Debian, together with new versions of research
383 software from NeuroDebian repository compose the ultimate research
384 platform -- stable versatile environment with recent neuroscientific
385 methodologies just 1-click away. Such stability, ease of software
386 installation and system maintenance and constantly growing coverage of
387 software solutions made NeuroDebian project popular among
388 neuroscientists and scientific software developers.
391 \subsection*{NeuroDebian is NOT}
393 a yet another Debian GNU/Linux derivative distribution. All work done
394 within NeuroDebian project targets software inclusion in the official
398 \subsection*{Advantages from Debian integration}
400 \begin{itemize}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc]
402 % rephrase to outline the benefit, not burden
403 \item Debian standards and policies guaranty quality and robustness
405 \item Debian centralized bug tracking system provides a unified
406 single-point of entry for bug reporting and troubleshooting for any
409 \item Debian makes software available within world-wide distribution
410 network, thus offloading bandwidth demands
412 \item Other Debian enthusiasts take care about large-scale aspects of
413 deployment, quality assurance, porting and integration at the level
414 of the entire distribution:
416 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc]
417 \item[Porting] Software sources get built for 11 hardware
418 architectures and 3 kernels (Linux, HURD, kFreeBSD). Ports teams
419 maintain build infrastructure and help making the code
421 \item[QA] Whole-archive rebuilds assure robustness of packaging and
422 warn about upcoming problems (core libraries upgrades) beforehand.
423 \item[Internationalization (I18n)] I18n teams contribute by localizing
424 software for more than 50 languages
427 \item Neuroscience software becomes 1st-class citizen within Debian
428 project, which guarantees its availability, longevity, smooth
429 installation and upgrades
431 \item Participation in the Debian community helps to assure Debian's
432 aptness for the neuroscientific software demands
437 \subsection*{NeuroDebian coverage}
440 \url{http://neuro.debian.net/pkgs.html}
443 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=0em]
444 \item[Electrophysiology] BioSig, Sigviewer, Brian, \ldots
445 \item[Machine Learning] PyMVPA, scikits.learn, \ldots
446 \item[Medical Imaging] AFNI, Caret, FSL, Mricron, NiPy, Voxbo, \ldots
447 \item[Psychophysics] PsychoPy, PyEPL
454 \subsection*{HOWTO get NeuroDebian}
455 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc]
456 \item[Debian/Ubuntu]\url{neuro.debian.net} repository
457 \item[Others] NeuroDebian Virtual Machine
458 % Here place a left-top corner of OSX with seamless mode
461 \subsection*{Developers oriented information}
465 \subsection*{Who is using NeuroDebian}
468 %\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{usage_worldmap}
470 buga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga dugabuga duga
473 \def\blank{\hspace{0em}\vspace{-1em}}
475 \subsection*{Work-in-progress}
477 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=1em,style=nextline]
479 \item[Expanded coverage]\blank
480 \begin{description}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=0em,style=nextline]
481 \item[Electrophysiology] BioSig, Brian, NEURON, \ldots
482 \item[Matlab/Octave toolboxes] SPM, EEGLAB, \ldots
485 \epigraph{Having FreeSurfer integrated into the Debian operating system by the NeuroDebian team would have enormous benefits for us, and for the thousands of users of FreeSurfer across the world.}{Prof. Bruce Fischl}{Director, Computational Core at Martinos Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA}
486 \item[Improved quality assurance]
487 Extended integration and regression testing
488 \item[Available snapshotting service]
489 % Entire NeuroDebian repository for any given past moment
490 All versions of packages readily available
491 \item[Data as the 1st class citizen]
492 \url{http://neuro.debian.net/datasets.html}
493 \item[Universal availability]\blank
494 % \begin{itemize}[nolistsep,leftmargin=1pc,topsep=0em]
495 % \item Virtual Appliance enhancements
503 \subsection*{Testimonials}
506 \url{http://neuro.debian.net/testimonials.html}
511 \epigraph{The approach taken with NeuroDebian is plainly the most appropriate
512 approach to software distribution for the dominant platform in brain
513 image analysis, and I have great confidence that this project will be
514 a major asset to the neuroscience community in facilitating the
515 distribution of stable software, improving the reliability and
516 replicability of analyses, and in helping to improve software
517 development practices.}{Prof. Daniel Y. Kimberg}{Director, Data
518 Processing Facility, Center for Functional Neuroimaging, University of
519 Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA}
521 \subsection*{Acknowledgements}
523 We are grateful to all Debian developers and contributors for the
524 development of Debian OS, and to Prof. James V. Haxby (PBS Department,
525 Dartmouth College) for his continued support and endless supply of
526 Italian espresso (\url{http://neuro.debian.net/coffeeart.html}).
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