The current `What is Debian?' section on the front page is slightly confusing, and doesn't convey the actual roles of Debian, GNU, Linux or the Hurd very well. I've made an attempt to rewrite it; let me know what you think:
<H2>What is Debian?</H2> <P>The <A href="http://www.debian.org/";>Debian Project</A> is a loosely-bound democracy of over 300 volunteer developers who collaborate to create releases of <A href="http://www.gnu.org/";>GNU</A>, a <A href="intro/free">free, or Open Source(tm)</A>, operating system for your computer. <P>Debian GNU is made up of over 2250 easy-to-install software packages. Each Debian package contains programs that help you do useful things with your computer. You can use different Debian packages to browse the web, edit documents, run a business, play games, design software, and much more. <P>The <i>kernel</i> is arguably the single most important software in an operating system, because it allows other applications to share the computer hardware safely. We call our system <i>Debian GNU/Linux</i> because it uses the <A href="http://www.linux.org/";>Linux</A> kernel rather than GNU's kernel, the <A href="http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html";>GNU Hurd</A>. <p>We chose the Linux kernel because the Hurd is still under development, and Linux is a free and stable implementation of Unix kernel technology. However, the Hurd has a newer design which promises greater flexibility, and so we are working to make it available as an alternative kernel for those who would like to use it. <p>This story illustrates the greatest strength of the Debian GNU operating system; Debian guarantees you the freedom to choose, use, share, learn from, and modify all of the main Debian software packages. -- Gordon Matzigkeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/) Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
