Finally, I’ve managed to pull together enough disparate components for the project to come together!

Please welcome:

Hibbian Linux, a distribution aimed at ham radio operators.

Another one?

I know - there’s plenty of options for radio operators to choose from. What makes this one different?

Strong Foundations & Long Term Support

The system is built from the ground up on Debian Linux’s Stable release. This provides a strong foundation backed with years of security and support.

Modern Software & Fast Updates

Debian’s strength is in its stability, but for some of the software we want to use, being up to date is more important. wjstx moves quickly, bpq moves quickly. Hibbian offers the latest packages from our community to keep on top of shifting standards and best practises.

Some packages I maintain aren’t in Debian, but still deserve to be distributed easily to users. You’ll find them here!

Deep Experience & Active Operation

Hibbian is the work of me - hibby. I’m a core member of the Debian Hamradio team, maintaining software to be distributed to Debian, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi, Mint and more for a decade. I’ve been running a repository of software for the UK packet radio network, and the lessons, sore points and work from this has naturally expanded into Hibbian.

I run the software I maintain, I run software maintained by others and I try to make computers do interesting things over radio. In other words, I eat my own dog food.

Where possible, contributions and modifications will go back to Debian and software authors.

Stand-Alone Principles

I don’t believe in trusting other companies to host the code, data or the packages on my behalf - everything is owned and run as ‘Hibbian’.

• You will find the code on our own git forge, where bug reports and issues are welcomed.
• You’ll find email communication hosted on Hibbian infrastructure
• You won’t find Hibbian on Discord - try JS8 or Packet.

When all else fails, somehow I’ll still be able to continue and communicate.

Two Ways to Install

There are two ways to run the Hibbian collection of software - as a repository for your existing OS, or as a complete OS itself.

Repo

Can’t run the whole thing or don’t want to commit? Don’t worry - I ship software in the ‘repo’ for Debian & Raspberry Pi. You can pick and choose the latest packages to be delivered straight to your computer and not have to reinstall anything.

• Bullseye - 11 - Oldstable
• Bookworm - 12 - Stable
• Trixie - 13 Testing

To learn more, see the installation pages on the guide.

Full Distro

For those who want a more convenient option, the full Hibbian distribution based on Debian Bookworm for x86_64 and Raspberry Pi will arrive later this year.