There are a lot of people in the world who are Linux users and choose Debian or a derivation as their distro.  New Linux users do not typically understand how to place and configure Joomla! in their box. Furthermore, people from several countries have limited bandwidth to download Joomla! from JoomlaCode. As a member of the Joomla! Developer Team, I knew it would be nice if the Joomla! package were added to many Linux repositories so it could be grabbed easily and quickly. Then, it will be easy for a Linux user to install Joomla! even if they do not understand how to configure Web server.

So, I decided to create a Joomla! package! that is Debian-based. It was my first time packaging software in Debian. But, it is really interesting stuff.

Once I got the package ready, I needed help with testing. We conducted Joomla! - Debian day last week. I am so thankful for all the help people provided. This event was supported by Indonesian Debian community, Indonesian Debian Women Group, Indonesian Linux Women, Ubuntu Indonesia Group, BlankOn Group and Indonesian Joomla! community. We worked together via IRC testing this package. We spread out the Joomla! Debian package in several repositories and documented the installation process. 

Here is the following instruction in Indonesian for Debian tube, but I will translate it in English:

1. Put deb http://ubuntu.nad.go.id/repo/debian etch local in your /etc/apt/source.list
2. Run updating command #apt-get update
3. Run searching Joomla package #apt-cache search joomla
4. Install your Joomla #apt-get install joomla

If you are not Debian user but Debian user derivation (Ubuntu, Xandros, Knoppix, MEPIS, etc), you can download Joomla! package from the following repositories:

1. JoomlaCode
2. Repo UGM
3. Repo Ubuntu Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD)
4. Foss-ID

After downloading that package, you just double-click the package or run dpkg -i joomla_1.5.3_all.deb in console.

The testing was very productive. There were requests from other Linux distro users, such as Open Suse and Fedora, to package Joomla! for their distro, too. In addition, some features are needed to be added for Web servers other than Apache. So far, this package is really easy to be installed by following the dialog. After installing package successfully, some who were not J! Users had J! questions, especially Joomla! administration. The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Joomla! is good for those who understand English to get started.

I will promote this package to be one of default package in Debian distro, of course in Debian experimental first. We will work smoothly to add some features for this package. You can also report bugs in the Joomla code tracker.  Thanks to the Indonesia Debian community who provided a great repository for Joomla!. Now, Debian users only have to type apt-get install joomla and follow the dialog configuration prompts to install Joomla! in their site.