Sampling in Open Source Software Development: The Case for Using the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution

Research on open source software (OSS) projects often focuses on the SourceForge collaboration platform. We argue that a GNU/Linux distribution, such as Debian, is better suited for the sampling of projects because it avoids biases and contains unique information only available in an integrated environment. Especially research on the reuse of components can build on dependency information inherent in the Debian GNU/Linux packaging system. This paper therefore contributes to the practice of sampling methods in OSS research and provides empirical data on reuse dependencies in Debian