Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking

packaging—the systematic compartmentalization, customization, and standardization of existing software into one system. (In local lingo, Debian is referred to as a distribution, the unit of software is called a package, and developers are often referred to as package maintainers.) Taken together, these packages constitute the Debian Linux distribution. Along with the package maintainers, teams of Debian developers support infrastructure and develop Debian-specific software, while others write documentation or translate documentation into various languages. Each Debian developer has at least one piece of software (and usually several) packages that they maintain.
    Much of the work on Debian happens in an independent, parallel, distributed fashion through informal collaboration on IRC channels or mailing lists, where developers ask for and receive help. 5 Some collaboration is mediated by bug reports. Written by Debian developers or users, bug reports are filed on a publicly viewable bug-tracking system. Incoming reports can identify a technical problem with a piece of software and provide crucial details; they sometimes even supply the solution in the form of code to be incorporated as a patch.
    While a maintainer holds no legal ownership of the software they package, Debian’s norms of civility dictate that within the boundaries of the Debian project, it is their responsibility alone. The assumption that maintainers enjoy near-absolute control over their software package means that alterations should not take place without their explicit permission. If modifications are needed to eliminate a release-critical bug or fix a security problem, though, there is a socially accepted protocol for doing so: the Non-Maintainer Upload (NMU). This mechanism is designed to allow a nonmaintainer to upload a package in order to fix critical bugs, or compensate for a busy or missing maintainer. While many developers appreciate contributions provided by an NMU, seeing it as a handy mechanism to encourage coparticipation, others find the protocol annoying or even downright obnoxious insofar as it allows inexperienced developers to insert shoddy solutions into their software. Other developers view it in a slightly different light: as a means of exposing poor work. As one developer on IRC told me half jokingly, an NMU reveals “our laundry for public inspection.”
    If much of the project’s work occurs through individualized but parallel efforts, work assumes a more collaborative and populist tone during the period before the release of a new Debian version: bug-squashing parties are held more regularly, and developers work round-the-clock on an IRCchannel to resolve what have been identified as “release critical bugs” in the bug-tracking software. During this period, which can last anywhere from a few months to over a year, Debian’s release managers sanction NMUs with much less stringent criteria, and they are correspondingly more frequent. 6
    Among the hacker and F/OSS publics, Debian’s fame rests on four developments—two technical and two social. Technically, Debian is one of the best-equipped distributions, offering more than twenty-five thousand individual pieces of software, all with DFSG-approved licenses. Debian, relatedly, can currently run on eleven hardware architectures—more than any other Linux distribution. This is one of the reasons it has earned the title of the “Universal OS.” On the social side, Debian holds the distinction of having more individual members than any F/OSS project. It is also known for its strong commitment to the ethical principles of free software, as elaborated in two key documents—the Social Contract and DFSG. These documents figure prominently in the NMP I discuss below. They are also the foundational texts that orient the project’s sense of identity. Now let’s take a closer look at the Debian charters and governing structures that have emerged in the last decade.
    Social Charters and Governance
    Dissatisfied with the then-existing distribution and inspired by the Linux kernel project, Murdock founded the Debian project in August 1993. He attracted a group of volunteers, who began to design a package management system that could integrate the contributions of
every single developer
who chose to maintain the package. I emphasize this point because it marked an important shift in the history of the Unix collaborative ethical temperament—one that explicitly honored