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

[Francesco Potortì]

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The Debian Project                                http://www.debian.org/
Debian wins two of seven Linux New Media Awards 2011    press a debian.org
March 4th, 2011                 http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110304
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The Debian project's 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
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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.  Over three thousand
volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain
Debian software. Translated into over 70 languages, and supporting a
huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the "universal
operating system".


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