Zacchiroli became a Debian Developer in 2001. After attending LinuxTag in 2004, he became more involved in the Debian community and the project itself, eventually being elected as DPL in 2010, succeeding Steve McIntyre, a position in which he served from April 2010 to April 2013. In April 2011, he was re-elected unopposed as project leader.[1] He was himself succeeded by Lucas Nussbaum in an election where he himself was no longer a candidate.