Debian wins two of seven categories at the Linux New Media Awards 2011

March 4th, 2011

The Debian representatives were quite busy at this year's Linux New Media Awards, which were presented yesterday during CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. They first took the stage when the award for Best Open Source Server Distribution was presented by Peter Ganten, Managing Director of Univention GmbH. In presenting the award he emphasized that Debian has done pioneering work not only in the technical field but also in the definition of free software standards and processes.

The Debian representatives were called to the stage a second time when the most important award, Outstanding Contribution to Open Source/Linux/Free Software, was presented by Karsten Gerloff, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe. He took the stage to present the award and first put on a Debian Tartan tie before praising Debian with a very moving speech.

He particularly emphasized Debian's dedication to software freedom saying: In Debian, quality is the focus of everyone's attention. But those who work on the Debian system know that great software is worth nothing without Freedom. With the release of Squeeze, the latest stable version, in February, Debian has taken the important step of offering a completely free kernel, with no binary blobs. This is a first for a major distribution in recent times. Debian is giving its users Freedom by default. And this Freedom for users and developers on a massive scale truly is Debian's outstanding contribution, not just to Free Software, but to the information society.

The awards were accepted by Debian Press Officers Meike Reichle and Alexander Reichle-Schmehl, who used their acceptance speeches to thank Linux New Media, the jury and in particular the developers and contributors of the Debian project whose ongoing work and dedication continues to inspire.

The ceremony was also streamed live over the Internet, and a video recording will be available soon.

Debian is particularly proud to have been distinguished on this occasion, having narrowly missed receiving the award Outstanding Contribution to Open Source/Linux/Free Software in previous years.

About Debian

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal operating system.

Contact Information

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at https://www.debian.org/ or send mail to <press@debian.org>.