Debian is an operating system created by volunteers who decided to make a free operating system.
Debian is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to developing free software and promoting the ideals of the Free Software community. The Debian Project began in 1993 when Ian Murdock made an open invitation to software developers to contribute to a complete and consistent software distribution based on the relatively new Linux kernel.
Originally funded by the Free Software Foundation and influenced by the GNU philosophy, this relatively small group of dedicated enthusiasts has grown over the years into an organization of around 1,000 Debian Developers.