Debian Non-Profit
Debian-NP
Project status
Debian-NP fell dormant in 2005 and was officially discontinued as an active project in 2007 when the Debian-NP mailing list was deactivated. This page, and our mailing list archives, are maintained for historical reasons, but will not be updated in the future and are currently out of date. It is still our hope that Debian-NP, or a project with similar goals, is revived at some point in the future. If you are interested in helping with such an issue, please bring it up on the debian-devel mailing list.
Project description
Debian-NP is an internal Debian project to develop Debian into an operating system that is designed to fulfill the requirements of small non-profit organizations. The goal of Debian-NP is a complete system for all common tasks that non-profit organization need using 100% free software. We want to provide this functionality in an integrated and documented stable free desktop environment.
The name Debian-NP includes NP meaning "non-profit." We've considered the name Debian-NGO but "non-profit" was the best description of the community of not-for-profit, civil-society, worker-owned, cooperative, and activist groups that we think this distribution will benefit.
The general idea for this kind of project was adopted from the other Debian Custom Distributions that include, in no particular order Skolelinux build by the Debian-Edu project, Debian-Lex, Debian Junior, Debian-Med, Debian Desktop and DeMuDi/AGNULA.
Debian-NP aims to create one or more Custom Debian Distribution (CDD) designed to fit the needs of non-profits. Working within the Debian system, Debian-NP will select, highlight, and document a subset of packages within Debian. In addition to package selection, Debian-NP will customize packages in ways useful to non-profits — all while working completely within the Debian system.
Eventually, many participants aim to write new pieces of software, useful outside of Debian, to replace programs important to non-profits but currently unavailable as free software or on GNU/Linux systems (e.g., a good fund raising database).
Considering the diversity and the complexity of Non Profit organizations, we also aim to be a base for further customizations, and we are helping develop tools and documentation to allow non-profits to easily create their own Custom Debian Distribution tailored to their specific needs.
News
No items for this year.
Project goals
- Build a solid software base for non-profit organizations with emphasis on easy installation, easy maintenance, security, and the creation of a secure, integrated, standard, all-in-one solution.
- Bring users and authors of a range of projects together.
- Provide information, documentation, and tutorials to help acclimate non-profits to GNU/Linux and the Debian-NP system.
- Help non-profit organizations share resources by allowing upstream authors to get their products packaged in Debian and distributed to others as part of the Debian-NP collection.
What can I do to help?
- Sign up on the mailing list and introduce yourself and let your voice and your, or your organization's, needs be known;
- Create an account on Alioth ("Debian Sourceforge") and contact one of the Project Administrators about adding you to Debian-NP Alioth project;
- Tell others in the non-profit world, especially software developers with experience in GNU/Linux and Debian, about the project;
- Begin to enhancing and translating these web pages and information on the Debian-NP Wiki;
- Visit the Debian-NP ToDo list for up-to-date information on tasks that need to be done.
Email List
Debian has set up an email list for this group. You can subscribe to it from the mailing list subscription page and archives.
Wiki
Debian-NP Wiki at DebianWiki - the center for the bulk of Debian-NP planning.
IRC Channel
We have a real-time discussion channel, #debian-np on Freenode IRC (irc.freenode.net).
Support
If you need support for Debian-NP, please see the Debian support page or contact the mailing list.
If you see potential overlap between your organization or project and Debian-NP, please don't hesitate to contact us at debian-nonprofit@lists.debian.org.