1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
|
#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="1999-11-23" SUMMARY="Boot floppies development on schedule; Debian Freebsd and package pools discussed again."
<p>
<b>Welcome</b> to Debian Weekly News, a newsletter for the Debian developer
community.
</p>
<p>
Adam Di Carlo
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg01236.html">reports</a>
on the <b>status of the boot floppies</b>: "<i>we've mostly completed shoring
up the internals of boot-floppies</i>". With the internals cleaned up, the
boot-floppies team is ready to work on bugs and todo list items. Adam also
says that "<i>all the major tasks are assigned, and to capable people</i>"
and that the work on the boot floppies is on track to be "<i>feature complete
in early December</i>". The best way to help with the boot floppies now is to
help the team
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg01237.html">work
through</a> their <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/boot-floppies">bug list</a>,
and to help
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-9911/msg00632.html">test the
base system</a> installed by the boot floppies. This last can be accomplished
easily by unpacking a tarball and chrooting; no need to reinstall. These are
tasks anyone with even a few hours can help with, and getting a working
boot-floppies is the critical item that needs to be accomplished before our
next release.
</p>
<p>
<a name="freebsd"></a>
<b>Debian with the FreeBSD kernel</b> was the subject of a heated week-long
discussion. It seems that since this idea was first
<a href="../../1999/8/#freebsd">conceived</a> in February, a few people have been
working on the port. The status of their work can be read about
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg01372.html">here</a>.
Basically, they are using the FreeBSD kernel and libc, and recompiling Debian
packages to work on that system. <b>Reactions varied.</b> John Goerzen
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg01373.html">worries</a>
that a version of Debian based on a BSD copyrighted kernel would open the door
to third parties taking our work and making it proprietary, and also that
"<i>we are essentially giving first aid to software that is dying (and
rightfully so) because of its license</i>". Many others disagree with him and
have no problems with the BSD license. Others
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project-9911/msg00087.html">wonder</a>
if it wouldn't be technically better, and easier in the long run, to port
glibc to FreeBSD, and allow Debian packages to be used unchanged with that
kernel and library combination.
</p>
<p>
<b>Guy Maor takes on the package pool.</b> Guy
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg01522.html">described</a>
a variant of the package pool idea, and said he would implement it. This will
be a major restructuring of the Debian archive, and it will add a great deal
of flexibility: "<i>creating a new distribution requires writing code which
answers the question, given the available versions of this package, which
one to choose?</i>" The downside is that "<i>mirroring by architecture and
by freeness is still possible, but mirroring by distribution is not possible
without a specialized tool.</i>" Response to Guy's posting was enthusiastic;
maybe the package pool idea will finally become reality.
</p>
<p>
<b>New packages</b> in Debian this week include the following and 46 more:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/doc/lasg.html">lasg</a>: Linux Administrator's Security Guide
<li><a href="../../oldurl?/Packages/unstable/games/netcomics.html">netcomics</a>: Retrieve comic strips from the Web
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4.html">php4</a>: A server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language
(<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4-gd.html">gd</a>,
<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4-mysql.html">mysql</a>,
<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4-pgsql.html">pgsql</a>,
<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4-snmp.html">snmp</a>,
<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/php4-xml.html">xml</a>)
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/games/xshipwars-server.html">xshipwars-server</a>: Dynamic space-oriented gaming system server
(<a href="/Packages/unstable/games/xshipwars-images-st.html">images</a>,
<a href="/Packages/unstable/games/xshipwars-sounds-st.html">sounds</a>)
</ul>
<p>
Thanks to Randolph Chung for <a href="../../contributing">contributing</a>.
</p>
#use wml::debian::weeklynews::footer
|
