Debian Social Contract

The Debian Social Contract (DSC) is a formal declaration of the ethical and technical commitments of the Debian project, an open‑source operating system distribution. It outlines the principles that guide the project’s development and distribution policies and serves as the foundation for the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), which in turn form the basis of the Open Source Definition.

Guarantees

The DSC specifies a set of guarantees that the Debian project promises to uphold for its users and the broader free‑software community:

1. Freedom of the operating system – Debian will remain an open and free system, ensuring that the source code of the software it distributes is freely available and can be modified and redistributed.
2. Contribution back to the community – Improvements made to Debian’s software will be returned to the upstream projects and the community that created them.
3. Transparency – The project will not conceal problems with the software or with the organization, and will communicate openly about any issues.
4. User‑centric focus – Debian’s development will continue to prioritize the needs of its users and the original motivations that sparked the free‑software movement.
5. Compatibility with non‑free software – While striving for a completely free system, Debian will make it possible for its software to be used together with non‑free software where required.

History

The concept of a social contract for Debian emerged in 1997. After a discussion between Ean Schuessler and Red Hat co‑founder Bob Young—who warned that a formal commitment might limit commercial flexibility—Schuessler and other Debian developers pursued a document that would supplement Ian Murdock’s original Debian Manifesto. Bruce Perens took the lead in coordinating the effort from June 1997, using the Free Software Definition as a basis.

• Version 1.0 was ratified on 5 July 1997 and became the first formal statement of Debian’s obligations to the free‑software community.
• Version 1.1 was ratified on 26 April 2004, updating the contract to reflect evolving project practices.
• Version 1.2 was ratified on 1 October 2022, the most recent revision, incorporating further refinements and reaffirming the core commitments.

Each version has been published on the official Debian website (https://www.debian.org/social_contract).

Relationship to the Debian Free Software Guidelines

The DSC’s guarantees are directly expressed in the DFSG, a concise set of ten criteria that define what constitutes “free software” for inclusion in the Debian distribution. The DFSG has been widely adopted beyond Debian; it inspired the Open Source Definition, a cornerstone of the broader open‑source movement.

See also

• Debian Free Software Guidelines – The specific criteria derived from the DSC that determine software eligibility for Debian.
• Open Source Definition – The document published by the Open Source Initiative that mirrors the DFSG.
• Debian Project – The volunteer‑driven community responsible for developing and maintaining the Debian operating system.

References

1. “Debian Social Contract.” Debian.org. https://www.debian.org/social_contract (accessed 2024).
2. “Debian Social Contract.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Social_Contract (mirrored via r.jina.ai, accessed 2024).
3. Perens, Bruce. “Debian's ‘Social Contract’ with the Free Software Community.” Debian‑announce mailing list, 4 July 1997.

This entry reflects information available from reliable sources as of 2024.