An exploration on Devuan-Release semantics

chomwitt · 2025-12-12 09:33:52

Hi to all Devuan community.

I'll make an effort to explore what it means (for me) when we speak of a Devuan Release.
What is means to speak of Devuan and a Release of it .

Something is released, meaning it's becoming public - making it available to more interested people.

The 'Release' event stresses a time point meaning that a commitment of resources to create and support a stable version .Other distros dont have releases.And of course that is a significant aspect of the team's filter policy since between stable releases you effectively ban (or make it more time consuming) further functionality updates in thousand of software. That seems harsh in our era of the ultra-hype networks where fomo and ultrahype attention devouring cycles have been ingrained in users deepest inclination .
More specificaly we make certain version of Devuan available to the public.So that is a special case of making software publicly accessible.

In the 70s,80s,90s software release meant making copies of certain software in a certain info-storage medium , packaging it and either transfering copies to brick-shops (visible in cities where people aggregate) or letting people know from mass media and giving instruction to facilitate brick-mail service. So there are public-space-time places where people's attention aggregates and focus. In ancient greek it was called agora. Are there in our times (2020s) digital public places functioning like agora ? (i would dare to say that an internet search engine in a sense substitutes a trait that a cyber-agore should have).

From 2000s, 2010s, 2020s information and thus software can be made available via the internet. Using a computer connected to the internet a user can access information and thus software.

In our case a Devuan version is made available via the internet. But since we speak of a Devuan version released to the public we speak about a Devuan Release. (but it may be wise to social unstable times for a distro to has official brick release channels in each country-cost-security-support wise.). (narrowing the release relation throught a cable misses formost a human support element since a distro must be installed on hardware which could less easy that it is said)

The Devuan team and broadly the Devuan community creates and maintains what we call a Devuan distro release.

Devuan is a GNU+@Linux distribution . Thus @LinuxKerne; + @GNUSoftware + third party software .

GNU software would currently broadly refer to software created and maintained by people either affiliated at some point in time to the GNU project . But also the GNU project historically due to its foundational pioneer work in establishing libre software and its central role in aiding in Linux kernel development (via accessible necessary tool like gcc compiler and glibc among others) is mentioned not only from a practical standpoint (how many packages are in a linux distro) but from a honorable standpoint. Read Richard Stallman's argument regarding the naming aspect .@Linux and the GNU System.

But i think naming a Devuan Release a distribution hides many procedural semantics and highlights an 'inert' view as a set of packaged software.
Devuan Release includes:

an Installer
repositories of the releases (from where it customary users to update and install software) . Those repos are the result of complex processes that maintain a constant flow of properly packaged binary software. That i guess means automated compilation, packaging,testing . Keep in mind here that Devuan support many architerctures.
package manager of certain type (apt in our case)
a set of software packages rules - policies , community intentions-goals to which packaging and selection of packages should-must align. In a way the DevuanTeam-Community acts as a filter. So in a sense for someone to choose a distro she/he should among other learn the team's goals-intention to check for alignment to his/her intentions.
Interestingly that is not software but could we speak of a 'distribution without naming the 'filter' used? And ofcourse is not random that that is reflected to the www.devuan.org welcome definition where the team's intention is central .
@->see Devuan Infrastructure

The basic difference of of the software included in Devuan from other PC software "distros-bundles' is the libre licence terms. Although the term distro is not used in @proprietary software when a user installed e.g windows essentially installs a windows kernel plus basic user software.

A basic question from a user standpoint , not familiar with linux distros, would be : What software is included ?
and perhaps What hardware is supported? . And WHY should someone access software through a distribution ?
(a filter between software developers and the user? a middleman .) Interestingly that question is linked also to the current dram price rally (as of late 2025). The middleman could enforce widely use libraries that are share by most of what her distro offers. That could decrease pressure on memory . Compare with the late info surfacing in social about windows apps levering web stack drain memory as godzilla's pet would strain a family's food supply.

So Devuan is made available via the internet.
That means that Devuan (as software) is located in one computer that is connected to the internet. That means a computer thats follows some comm protocols in order to be accessible (like having a publicly usable address -url-) .

So it seem that one basic information to 'get' the Devuan Release is a related URL or

Here is an internet url : https://files.devuan.org/ (Devuan release archive)
That is an internet url that can be used in any computer 'connected to internet' to 'download' Devuan installation images.

*_netinstall.iso
*_server.iso
*_desktop.iso
devuan_excalibur_6.0.0_amd64_desktop-live.iso

Devuan installer that will boot-strap a Devuan installation process

Here is another internet url that i like : http://deb.devuan.org/ that contains the packages of all devuan releases (released devuan versions)

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What we call distribution is a kernel,some user programs,a package manager,and a mirror or a repo.
Offering an installer. Installing a set of programs we need to start using a computer.
Family - semiotic - resemblances : a distro as a certain type of library.
Synonyms : Software libraries. A set of book, tagged and placed following a certain system of rules guiding storing and retrieval. debtags was also modeled from principles (facets) originating as a certain conceptual organization of libraries.

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@ DevuanWiki / Devuan Releases

Last edited by chomwitt (2025-12-16 07:06:03)

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#1 2025-12-12 09:33:52

An exploration on Devuan-Release semantics

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