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#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="1999-1-25" SUMMARY="Logo licence problem; Debian at conferences; the Great X Reorganization; package names."
<p>
<b>Welcome</b> to the fourth edition of Debian Weekly News, a newsletter for
the Debian developer community. As you can see, this is now part of the main
Debian web site.
</p>
<p>
<a name="debianlogo"></a>
The <b>license for the Debian logo</b> has
<a href="mail#mail2">expired again</a>. We need to come up with and ratify
a <b>permanent license</b>. There has been some talk about a new logo, too --
one possibility would be to use a <b>gimp logo contest</b>, which has
produced excellent results in the past for projects like Gnome.
</p>
<p>
Bruce Perens asked us what we think about the
<a href="../../oldurl?http://www.zope.org/License">license</a> of
<a href="http://www.zope.org/">Zope</a>. The license has a requirement
that you <b>must add a "powered by Zope" button</b> to your web pages if you
use it. Everyone agrees this is <b>obnoxious</b>, but it may still be
<b>allowed by the DFSG</b>.
One thing this
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-9901/msg00088.html">
discussion</a> highlighted is that point 6 of the DFSG ("<i>No Discrimination
Against Fields of Endeavor</i>") is too vague and too easily misinterpreted.
One way this might be fixed is if we ratify a new version of the DFSG, such
as the <b>draft version</b> Darren Benham <a href="mail#mail1">posted</a>
this week.
</p>
<p>
Should all Debian developers be <b>required to agree with the DFSG</b>? A
thread about this started in debian-private and later
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01263.html">
escaped</a> to the debian-devel mailing list. Everyone agrees developers must
<b>understand and abide by the DFSG</b> when working on Debian, but there is
no consensus that they must also agree with it. One commonly held opinion
is that developers should at least believe in the <b>spirit</b> of the DFSG,
but may disagree with specific points of it. Another common opinion is that it
doesn't matter what developer's <b>private opinions</b> of the document are.
</p>
<p>
On the conferences front, <a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/">LinuxTag
'99</a>, "<i>the largest German Linux user show</i>" (and probably the
largest Linux event in Europe), has
<b>
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01254.html">
invited</a> Debian to attend</b>. Many European developers have expressed
interest, and there is now a
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01648.html">
mailing list</a> devoted to organizing Debian's presence there. Also,
<a href="http://www.linuxcentral.com/">LinuxCentral</a> has donated to Debian
a <b>booth on the LinuxWorld Expo show floor</b> and volunteers are needed to
man the booth. For more information about this event see the
<a href="http://www.debian.org/events/1999/0301-linworldexpo">entry</a> in
the Debian events page.
</p>
<p>
Good news for French developers: the French Prime Minister
<a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01333.html">
has announced</a> that <b>cryptography will become legal in France</b>. This
will finally allow signing of Debian packages in France with standard tools.
</p>
<p>
Last week with excitement growing about the imminent linux 2.2 release, Joey
Hess
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01635.html">
proposed</a> that Debian <b>add a source package for kernel 2.2 to frozen</b>
as a convenience to our users so they can easily get it on CD. Even though
we're in the deep freeze, this idea met with a lot of approval, and our
release manager, Brian White, is cautiously
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01753.html">
agreeing with</a> to allow it in. Now that <b>2.2 is finally released</b>,
preliminary packages are <a href="mail#mail4">available</a>.
</p>
<p>
Branden Robinson posted an
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01722.html">
explanation</a> of the <b>Great X Reorganization</b>, to go into the release
notes for Debian 2.1. If you haven't dealt with the Reorganization yet it's a
useful document to read. A few problems with the renamed font packages are
still being hashed out.
</p>
<p>
Steven Baker
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01527.html">
started a thread</a> about the <b>names used for debian packages</b>, which
increasingly have to contain part of the version number of the package. This
is ugly, but it can be hard for experienced debianites to see this as a
problem until they step back and look at things from a <b>new user's
perspective</b>. One solution could be to modify dpkg so it can install
<b>multiple versions of the same package</b>. Some people
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01572.html">
pointed out</a> that <b>RPM can do exactly this</b>. However, such a change to
dpkg would be a lot of work, for relatively little gain, and could introduce
worse problems.
</p>
<p>
<b>New packages</b> added to Debian this week include:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/admin/vrms.html">vrms</a>,
a "<i>Virtual Richard M. Stallman</i>", it will <b>report all non-free
packages</b> you have installed.
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/rolldice">rolldice</a>, a
computerized dice roller for the RPG'ers out there. (Judging by the
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01590.html">
enthusiastic discussion</a> about this new package, a <b>fair number of
developers are into Role Playing Games</b>.)
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/wmglobe">wmglobe</a>, xearth shrunk
into a 64x64 icon.
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/nestra">nestra</a>, a free Nintendo
emulator.
</ul>
<p>
<b>Help wanted</b>:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Scott Hanson
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors-9901/msg00073.html">
needs a co-maintainer</a> for the mysql packages.
<li>Barak Pearlmutter
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha-9901/msg00210.html">
informed us</a> about a <b>large Debian Beowulf cluster</b> to be set up at UNM
in Albuquerque New Mexico; he is looking for a <b>Debian developer to
admin it</b>.
</ul>
<p>
<b>Followups</b> to previous news items:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Dan Quinlan
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9901/msg01448.html">
responded</a> to the <b>concerns about the LSB test suite</b>. According to
Dan, "<i>...the TOG is *not* defining LSB. Linux people are defining it --
and if a company passes every hurdle we insist that they pass, why shouldn't
we allow them to help?</i>"
<li><b>More information about the Project Leader candidates</b> is available
now. Richard Braakman's interview has been added to the
<a href="http://www.debian.org/~lalo/">page of interviews</a>, and platform
statements for some of the candidates are available
<a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/1999/vote_0001">here</a>.
<li>The <b>Hurd port</b> is continuing to move along, progress this week
includes a
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd-9901/msg00286.html">
working X</a>, and lots of updated packages.
</ul>
#use wml::debian::weeklynews::footer
|
