Dutch Debian Distribution Initiative: About Us

About Us

Since 1997, the Dutch Debian Distribution Initiative aims towards the ongoing distribution of the Debian GNU/Linux Operating System on a low-profit basis.

The DDDI is being operated by the two brothers Anne and Maarten Bezemer, holding Delft University of Technology engineering degrees in Electrical Engineering and Technical Informatics respectively, and having a very wide interest in everything that involves electrical currents. These days, they are part-time entrepreneurs and part-time employees, who occupy themselves with all kinds of IT and telecom related affairs, in which Debian plays an important role.

The DDDI is an activity of OSP Open Source Partners, seated at Beukmolen 46, Papendrecht, The Netherlands, registered at Chamber of Commerce (KVK) Rotterdam nr. 24315390.

Production

The DVDs and Blurays we provide are recordables, that we burn ourselves on customer request. For series of up to a few thousand items, this is cheaper than having them manufactured by a production company. Furthermore, since we keep no specific versions stocked, we can process updates quickly.

The brand of media varies, as we are continuously searching for the best quality media at an acceptable price. This way, it may happen that two subsequent identical orders are delivered on different brands or types of media.

We currently burn discs using Pioneer BDR-209EBK and LG BH16NS55 drives. Prior to shipment, everything is completely and thoroughly checked for readability, which enables us to remove all inferior discs from the series.

The content of all DVDs, Blurays and USB sticks comes directly and unaltered from http://cdimage.debian.org, the site on which the official Debian media images are published.

Website

The website of the DDDI forms a complex unity with the back-end programs. All aspects of it were developed in-house. Next to an efficient system for production planning, there is a direct interface with gnucash for accounting purposes.

As far as necessary, the webpages use 'POST' requests to transfer data to the CGI programs that generate dynamic pages 'on the fly'. No javascript or cookies are used, which makes all pages work in any browser.

All CGI programs are C programs that use the cgic standard library. The database used is a Berkeley db2 key-value type with binary tree indexing. The records contain a fully recursive data structure of arbitrary length, which eases programming considerably.

The total size of the C code is more than 8000 lines. The code is completely internationalized; at the moment there are English and Dutch language libraries of about 70 kB text each.

Privacy and data protection

When ordering, you will need to enter your name and address details so that we can ship the order to you. This will become part of our (financial) records, which we are statutory obliged to retain for at least 7 years. Further, you can choose to receive e-mail notifications on new Debian releases. You can easily unsubscribe from this service at any time, as is detailed at the bottom of any such e-mail message. These are all of the personal data that we process, obviously on systems which are excellently secured. We do not share your data with any other party.

Very limited warranty

Because we don't want you to blame us or the Debian project, we do our very best to prevent and (if at all possible) resolve any problems. But due to the risk of misuse, we necessarily have to be very careful in these aspects.

If any produced DVD, Bluray or USB stick is not readable* in your device, then you can send it back to us. Use sturdy packaging and pay postage yourself. When we receive the item completely undamaged, and it is still readable in our device (since we already checked it prior to shipping), then we will send you a free replacement. Often we will then try a different brand of media.

*readable: this means physical accessibility only. Wheter the software itself works as intended, is not covered by any warranty at all.

In all other situations there is NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, namely as detailed here:

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR ANY PRODUCT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EVERY PRODUCT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF ANY PRODUCT IS WITH YOU. SHOULD ANY PRODUCT PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW WILL ANYONE BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY PRODUCT (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF ANY PRODUCT TO (INTER)OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PRODUCT OR ITEM), EVEN IF SUCH PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

This also means that we do not accept any liability if any postal service does not deliver a package. However, in practice, there hasn't been any problem with this. On request, we can organize insured (registered) transport of the packages at an additional EUR 15.00 shipping fee. A remark requesting insured (registered) transport must be included when placing the order. We will then adjust the total price manually.