Userspace Applications

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An extremely wide variety of applications is available for Debian systems. The Debian Project historically has strived to create Debian packages of as many software applications as possible. Whenever possible, these packages are included in the distribution, either on CDs, or over the network. (That is, they are provided in the list of available packages, as described earlier in this chapter, in the section "Managing Packages with Debian's System.") In fact, so many Debian packages are available, that you can even get an installation of Debian on a DVD! Clearly, Debian GNU/Linux does not lack for installation packages.

However, due to the way Debian's packaging system manages installation sources, there isn't really a way to distinguish between CDs. That is, whereas Red Hat provides clearly delineated core CDs and various ancillary CDs (such as PowerTools and so on), Debian GNU/Linux consists of a mad jumble of files spread out across multiple CDs. (It's not really that chaotic, but sometimes it can seem that way to new users!)

In other words, Debian doesn't have any additional CDs the way many other distributions do. So, there aren't any Debian editions or bonus discs or anything like that. However, this doesn't really matter; after all, the only point of labeling CDs like that is to make it easy for the user to figure out which CD contains a desired package. Since Debian removes from the user the burden of locating packages on CDs, there's little reason not to just drop all the files onto one big set of CDs. (Again, though, the organization is not that random; the most crucial packages are located on the first couple CDs, so that users who download the CD images and make their own CD copies don't have to download them all if they don't need them.)

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