It has now been thirty-three years since the Debian project was announced to

the world by Ian Murdock, on August 16, 1993. This anniversary is an

opportunity to reaffirm the goals, characteristics, and qualities of the

Debian project: it’s an association of individuals who have made common cause

to create a free operating system. Our distribution is characterized by a

commitment to software freedom, as enshrined in the Debian Social Contract

and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. It focuses on security and

stability. This stability is crucial to Debian position in the free software

ecosystem.

With our users as our priority, Debian makes special efforts regarding

accessibility with Debian-Accessibility and diversity with our Outreach

Programs.

Debian Day is a great opportunity to get together, whether for a local meetup,

or simply to grab a coffee with other members of the Debian community. Check

out the Debian Day wiki to see if there is a celebration near you. And if

there isn't, maybe you can organize it next year!

Today is also an opportunity for you to start or resume your contributions

to Debian. For example, you can install the how-can-i-help package and

see if there is a bug in any of the software that you use that you can help

to fix, contribute small tips on how to install Debian on your machines to our

wiki pages, or put a Debian live image in an USB memory

and give it to some person near you, who still didn't discover Debian.

Thanks to everybody who has contributed to develop our beloved operating

system in these 33 years, and

Happy birthday Debian!