Debian and Y2K

Debian and Y2K

One of the goals of Debian is to provide the most robust system possible. This is why we have created a system that makes upgrading completely seamless and why we are investigating how Y2K compliant Debian is.

In evaluating whether a system is Y2K compliant you must look at not only the base system (the kernel and the basic libraries and tools that create a system), but all the tools that you use every day. The near Y2K compliance of a system is meaningless if the failure of even a single non-Y2K compliant component causes your mission critical system to stop functioning.

Unlike some bloated monolithic operating systems on the market, Debian is created by adding a large number of tools on top of the Linux kernel. This type of design allows parts of the system to be upgraded without affecting the rest. It allows for levels of abstraction in design that create a much more robust and flexible system. Since the interaction of different components is well understood, we only need to test the Y2K compliance of each component to verify the compliance of the system.

As a service to our customers, we are collecting a list of packages and their state of the Y2K compliance. Since Y2K compliance is most important to IT departments we have separated the list of 'base' system packages and components most used on server machines from the rest of the packages we provide (over 2500).

Go to the list of optional and extra packages.

[Note: If you know of any other links, send mail to <webmaster@debian.org>]

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