</para>
<para>
The main channel for Debian development is <literal>#debian-devel</literal>.
-It is a very active channel since usually over 150 people are always logged in.
+It is a very active channel; it will typically have a minimum of 150 people
+at any time of day.
It's a channel for people who work on Debian, it's not a support channel
(there's <literal>#debian</literal> for that). It is however open to anyone
who wants to lurk (and learn). Its topic is commonly full of interesting
<para>
Packages which do not conform to the DFSG are placed in the
<literal>non-free</literal> section. These packages are not considered as
-part of the Debian distribution, though we support their use, and we provide
+part of the Debian distribution, though we enable their use, and we provide
infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free
software packages.
</para>
<para>
In the first days, the Linux kernel was only available for Intel i386 (or
greater) platforms, and so was Debian. But as Linux became more and more
-popular, the kernel was ported to other architectures, too.
+popular, the kernel was ported to other architectures and Debian started
+to support them. And as if supporting so much hardware was not enough,
+Debian decided to build some ports based on other Unix kernels, like
+<literal>hurd</literal> and <literal>kfreebsd</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-The Linux 2.0 kernel supports Intel x86, DEC Alpha, SPARC, Motorola 680x0 (like
-Atari, Amiga and Macintoshes), MIPS, and PowerPC. The Linux 2.2 kernel
-supports even more architectures, including ARM and UltraSPARC. Since Linux
-supports these platforms, Debian decided that it should, too. Therefore,
-Debian has ports underway; in fact, we also have ports underway to non-Linux
-kernels. Aside from <literal>i386</literal> (our name for Intel x86), there
-is <literal>m68k</literal>, <literal>alpha</literal>,
-<literal>powerpc</literal>, <literal>sparc</literal>,
-<literal>hurd-i386</literal>, <literal>arm</literal>,
-<literal>ia64</literal>, <literal>hppa</literal>,
-<literal>s390</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>,
-<literal>mipsel</literal> and <literal>sh</literal> as of this writing.
-</para>
-<para>
-&debian-formal; 1.3 is only available as <literal>i386</literal>. Debian
+&debian-formal; 1.3 was only available as <literal>i386</literal>. Debian
2.0 shipped for <literal>i386</literal> and <literal>m68k</literal>
-architectures. Debian 2.1 ships for the <literal>i386</literal>,
+architectures. Debian 2.1 shipped for the <literal>i386</literal>,
<literal>m68k</literal>, <literal>alpha</literal>, and
-<literal>sparc</literal> architectures. Debian 2.2 added support for the
-<literal>powerpc</literal> and <literal>arm</literal> architectures.
-Debian 3.0 added support of five new architectures: <literal>ia64</literal>,
-<literal>hppa</literal>, <literal>s390</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>
-and <literal>mipsel</literal>.
+<literal>sparc</literal> architectures. Since then Debian has grown hugely.
+Debian 5 supports a total of twelve architectures: <literal>alpha</literal>,
+<literal>amd64</literal>, <literal>arm</literal>,
+<literal>armel</literal>, <literal>hppa</literal>,
+<literal>i386</literal>, <literal>ia64</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>,
+<literal>mipsel</literal>, <literal>powerpc</literal>,
+<literal>s390</literal>, <literal>sparc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Information for developers and users about the specific ports are available at
have to make sure it sends a copy of those mails to
<literal><replaceable>sourcepackage</replaceable>_cvs@&pts-host;</literal>.
Only the people who accept the <literal>cvs</literal> keyword will receive
-these notifications. Note that the mail need to be sent from a
+these notifications. Note that the mail needs to be sent from a
<literal>debian.org</literal> machine, otherwise you'll have to add
the <literal>X-PTS-Approved: 1</literal> header.
</para>