bk99.de entertain the web since 1997

bk99.de
Debian · Open source & communityCurated

The Debian Social Contract: a promise to the free software community

Summary

On 5 July 1997 the Debian project adopted its Social Contract together with the Debian Free Software Guidelines, a list of criteria for when software counts as free. The contract promises a completely free system, open bug reports and contributions back to the original authors. The guidelines, drafted by Bruce Perens, later became the Open Source Definition almost word for word.

What the contract promises

The Social Contract contains five commitments: Debian remains 100 percent free software, gives improvements back to the community, does not hide problems, is guided by the needs of its users and of free software, and offers the separate areas contrib and non-free for non-free programs, which are explicitly not part of Debian.

The Debian Free Software Guidelines define what free means: free redistribution, source code, derived works, no discrimination against persons or fields of use, no Debian-specific licences and no licences that “contaminate” other software. Bruce Perens later removed the Debian references and turned them into the Open Source Definition.

Ideas

  • A project should put in writing what it promises its users.
  • Open bug databases create trust.
  • Clear licence criteria avoid case-by-case disputes.
  • Non-free software can be supported without making it part of the core.

Insights

  • The guidelines had an effect far beyond Debian: through the Open Source Definition they still shape which licences are recognised as open source.
  • The contract is a living document: it was amended in 2004 and 2022, most recently to separate non-free firmware cleanly from the rest of non-free.

Facts

  • Version 1.0 was adopted on 5 July 1997, version 1.1 on 26 April 2004, version 1.2 on 1 October 2022.
  • Bruce Perens wrote the draft; the Debian developers refined it.
  • The Open Source Definition was derived from the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

References

Remarks

  • The linked version 1.0 has since been superseded by version 1.2; Debian keeps all versions online.

Recommendations

  • Before using software, check its licence against the criteria of the Open Source Definition.
  • In your own projects, document openly which components are non-free and why.

Read the original text

Search the Web Archive

Own note · 2026

Member of the Linux Professional Institute

Linux stands for curiosity, self-determination and the freedom to understand technology and shape it the way you want. That makes me all the more pleased about my membership in the LPI. LPI is a non-profit organisation that has certified Linux skills in a vendor-neutral way since 1999.

HF · 2021

A summer of joint open source work

The review brings together projects from an open mentoring programme around NLP, audio, computer vision and tools. It shows how small, clearly defined projects lead new contributors into complex ecosystems. The programme brought students together with mentors from the Hugging Face ecosystem.

HN · 2021

Linux and the limits of responsible research

LWN documents the conflict over deliberately problematic patches from Minnesota and researchers' responsibility towards production communities. The conflict escalated in April 2021.