The Debian Social Contract is a document which frames the moral agenda of the Debian

Debian

Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...

 project. The values outlined in the Social Contract provide the basic principles for the rules set forth in the Debian Free Software Guidelines

Debian Free Software Guidelines

The Debian Free Software Guidelines is a set of guidelines that the Debian Project uses to determine whether a software license is a free software license, which in turn is used to determine whether a piece of software can be included in Debian...

. Those guidelines serve as the basis for the Open Source Definition

Open Source Definition

The Open Source Definition is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether or not a software license can be labeled with the open-source certification mark....

.

Debian believes that the makers of a free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

operating system should provide certain guarantees when a user entrusts them with control of a computer. These guarantees include:

• Ensuring that the operating system remains open and Free.
• Giving improvements back to the community which made the operating system possible.
• Not hiding problems with the software or organization.
• Staying focused on the users and the software that started the phenomena.
• Making it possible for the software to be used with non-free software.

External links

• Debian Social Contract and the Free Software Guidelines