Debian Med BOF

Report from the past of Debian Med and discussing the future

DebConf 11, Banja Luka, 30. July 2011

Abstract

Debian Med was started in 2002 and in January 2012 will be its 10th aniversary. What did we approached so far. What do we want to approach in the next ten years?

Medicine is a real niche topic in the Free Software world because the number of user is small and quite a share of those users is conservative about the use of software and has some money left to spend for proprietary licenses. So isn't it crazy to just address this target user group with a dedicated part of Debian? Yes it is, but we used as a start this part where Free Software has several friends: In bio-medical research. So the project began to grow healthy and is now might serve as a positive example for other Blends: If it is possible to successfully establish a Blend in a niche area how much better success could be gained in other fields which are much better covered by Free Software?

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