ForUbuntuDevelopers
This article aims to explain the inner workings of Debian project to Ubuntu users and developers
Why should I care about Debian?
Ubuntu is Debian-based.
Debian supports more hardware architectures, so if you want to run something like Ubuntu in your (not so) new mips machine it will be really useful.
- Debian project has more volunteers than Ubuntu. Ubuntu community as a whole can benefit from it (and it's, right now).
Debian project is heavily committed to free software, its free software guidelines and legal mailing list are well recognized by the community.
What's stable, testing, unstable?
The “stable” distribution contains the latest officially released distribution of Debian (4.0 codenamed etch). The “testing” distribution contains packages that haven't been accepted into a “stable” release yet, but they are in the queue for that. The main advantage of using this distribution is that it has more recent versions of software. The “unstable” (or sid) distribution is where active development of Debian occurs. Generally, this distribution is run by developers and those who like to live on the edge.
More information about Debian releases, how "testing" becomes "stable" and more can be found at: Debian releases page.
I'm a Ubuntu user and I want to install Debian
The Debian project and contributors are developing d-i, the new Debian installer. It is in use by Debian and Ubuntu, with minor changes. In other words, if you feel comfortable installing Ubuntu you will have the same feel installing Debian.
Note that Ubuntu (by default) installs a full desktop enviroment called GNOME and other applications for desktop use. Debian installation procedure will ask you which sets of packages you want to install.
You can download latest Debian release to install at: Debian "etch" Installation Information page.
I'm a Ubuntu MOTU and I want to contribute to Debian
It's easier than you think.
First read some related articles: