McIntyre campaigned for DPL in both 2006 and 2007, and has worked on the free operating system since 1996. This time it finally worked and McIntyre will be taking over as DPL from Sam Hocevar (who did not stand for reelection) April 17. McIntyre had two strong competitors in Raphael Hertzog and Marc Brockschmidt. A total of 1075 developers were eligible to vote – more than ever before – and some 49 percent of them actually cast a vote. The ballot is based on the fairly complex Condorcet system. The voters rank the candidates and the winner is the majority choice. The Debian project page has details of the voting and the election results.

In his election campaign Steve McIntyre had focused on improving communications between developers and still regards this as the main issue confronting the free distribution. The new project leader will be responsible for the next stable version 5.0, Codename "Lenny", which is due for release later this year. The DPL holds office for a period of one year following which the next elections are held.