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#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2002-10-29" SUMMARY="Desktop, PGI, Expo, Removals, GNOME 2, VESA fb, MPlayer, LSB, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DebianEDU"
# $Id$
<p>Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community. This week we are pleased to include items by Matt Black and
Andre Lehovich. As if we didn't know this already, IndustryWeek <a
href="http://www.industryweek.com/CurrentArticles/Asp/articles.asp?ArticleId=1344">\
reports</a> that more and more companies are adopting Linux. After reading
many of the posts regarding the recent Debian review Clinton De Young took the
opportunity and wrote a very verbose <a
href="http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2016">installation
walkthrough</a>. The Danish Board of Technology <a
href="http://lwn.net/Articles/13301/">suggested</a> the use of an open
exchange format for text documents within the public administration, paving
the way for Free Software.</p>
<p><strong>Debian Desktop Subproject Initiated.</strong> Colin Walters <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0210/msg00016.html">\
started</a> the <a href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-desktop/">Debian desktop</a>
subproject that aims at bringing Debian, GNU, and Linux to the mainstream
world. The goal is to create the best possible operating system for home and
corporate workstation use. In short, this subproject wants to ensure that
installing, configuring, and using Debian is as easy and foolproof as
possible. Slashdot <a
href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/24/128257.shtml">notes</a> that the
Debian Project is now officially addressing its usability on the desktop.</p>
<p><strong>New Progeny Graphical Installer Images.</strong> John Daily <a
href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/24/0025210.shtml">writes</a> that, in
light of recent negative reviews of the current Debian distribution in which
the installer was roundly criticized, it may be interesting for users to know
about PGI. <a href="http://www.progeny.com/">Progeny</a> has made available
an <a href="http://archive.progeny.com/progeny/pgi/">image</a> based on PGI,
the Progeny Graphical Installer for the i386 architecture, targetting Debian
3.0 (woody).</p>
<p><strong>Geek Activism forces Congress to reconsider Open Source.</strong>
Robin Miller <a
href="http://www.newsforge.com/newsforge/02/10/24/1739254.shtml?tid=19">writes</a>
on Newsforge about how Open Source advocates are lobbying the U.S. congress as
members decide which software licenses are and are not allowed for release of
<a href="http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/10/23/1247236.shtml?tid=4">\
government-sponsored software</a>. The original letter had no anti-GPL
language in it, but language was added by a Representative from Washington
State whose largest campaign donation <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10655-2002Oct24.html">\
source</a> is a well-known corporation.</p>
<p><strong>Debian at UK Linux Expo 2002.</strong> Wookey wrote a <a
href="$(HOME)/events/2002/1009-linuxexpo-report">report</a> about the Debian
booth at this years' Debian at UK Linux Expo 2002. Phil Hands gave a talk on
Debian and Free Software. The trend of recent years continued with a large
contingent of Debian/ARM showing off interesting devices and entertaining the
visitors. Debian/NetBSD was also demonstrated at the booth.</p>
<p><strong>LWN Subscription for Debian Developers.</strong> Bdale Garbee <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0210/msg00018.html">\
announced</a> that he has arranged group access for Debian developers to <a
href="http://lwn.net/">Linux Weekly News</a> (LWN). They offered to treat
Debian developers as a group, and HP offered to fund Debian's subscription
fee. His thanks go to both parties for their continuing support of the Debian
development community. If you're a Debian developer and you want to have full
access to LWN, you should create a normal account first and contact him
afterwards.</p>
<p><strong>Removing Packages from Unstable.</strong> Anthony Towns <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0210/msg00019.html">\
reported</a> that he plans to remove a large set of packages from unstable
which look like they are not maintained anymore. These packages are listed on
one <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/other/all.html">\
page</a> denoted with the string <em>[REMOVE]</em>. This would remove
packages like <code>emacs20</code>, <code>kaffe</code>, <code>kpackage</code>
and RFC packages.</p>
<p><strong>GNOME 2 Transition.</strong> Colin Walters finally <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0210/msg01770.html">announced</a>
that the GNOME 2 Desktop will be uploaded to unstable this Sunday (Oct 27th),
and it will replace the GNOME 1.4 Desktop. However due to weather delays the
upload did not occur on schedule; upload from incoming to unstable is in
progress and should complete over the next few days. Looks like the <a
href="$(HOME)/News/weekly/2002/36/">plan</a> to keep GNOME 1 while working on
GNOME 2 was reverted. Third party applications like Evolution and others
should continue to work, though. Colin and Christian Marillat even wrote
transition scripts for <code>.gnome</code> directories.</p>
<p><strong>Auditing the Debian Distribution.</strong> It's been <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0210/msg02133.html">reported</a>
that Steve Kemp started a <a href="http://www.steve.org.uk/Debian/">\
project</a> in which he tries to track down software that is susceptible to
buffer overflow attacks, etc. Drew Scott Daniels started a related <a
href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/debraudit/">project</a> which is a more
general audit, but only a rough automated audit which may make developers and
code auditor's jobs easier. Both projects could use more manpower.</p>
<p><strong>Including the VESA Framebuffer?</strong> There is a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte-0210/msg00021.html">dispute</a>
discussed on the list for the Technical Committee concerning the VESA
framebuffer. Eduard Bloch would like to see this framebuffer included in the
Debian kernel image package, however, Herbert Xu <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte-0210/msg00040.html">argued</a>
against this, and he's the maintainer. The upstream author <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte-0210/msg00038.html">noted</a> that
this framebuffer is not used by default, though.</p>
<p><strong>MPlayer to be added to Debian?</strong> The latest release of
MPlayer <a href="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/">announced</a> that the
DivX4 code is finally released under the GNU <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">General Public License</a> (GPL).
Apparently, this was the <a
href="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2002-July/017647.html">\
only</a> source code that was not GPL'd, so this may ease <a
href="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-dev-eng/2002-April/007279.html">\
earlier work</a> at getting MPlayer into the Debian main archive.</p>
<p><strong>Debian: The Past, The Present and the Future.</strong> Christoph
Lameter gave a <a href="http://telemetrybox.org/tokyo/">talk</a> Tuesday at
the Free Software Symposium in Tokyo. In the talk he gave an overview of
Debian and discusses packaging and core elements. Although Christoph calls it
"very superficial stuff; not for hardcore people", there are nice graphs on
the statistics for maintainers, packages and architectures over time and an
attempt to extrapolate the future development from those.</p>
<p><strong>Cdrdao License Issue Resolved.</strong> Earlier this month there
was <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0210/msg00005.html">\
debate</a> about the non-free library libedc_ecc which is used in the
<code>cdrdao</code> package. Andreas Metzler has now <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0210/msg00232.html">advised</a>
that the issue has been resolved upstream and the libedc_ecc library is
finally released under the GNU GPL.</p>
<p><strong>Desktop Linux Summit.</strong> Major technology companies and
DesktopLinux.com <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7709909925.html">announced</a> their
sponsorship of the inaugural <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/summit/">\
Desktop Linux Summit</a>. The Summit will be devoted to GNU/Linux on the
Desktop and the companies involved are trying to make 2003 the 'Year of
Desktop Linux'. The summit will be held in San Diego on Feb 20-21, 2003.</p>
<p><strong>Debian and the LSB.</strong> Jason Lim <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-isp-0210/msg00036.html">started</a> a
discussion about the Debian distribution not being certified by the <a
href="http://www.linuxbase.org/">Linux Standard Base</a> (LSB), while other
distributions were <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961296.html">\
certified</a>. However, after a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-isp-0210/msg00040.html">hint</a> about
the <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/lsb">lsb</a>
package people continued to exchange their experience to use Debian as a
commercial software platform.</p>
<p><strong>Debian/OpenBSD ceased.</strong> Andreas Schuldei <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0210/msg00063.html">announced</a>
that he is discontinuing the effort to combine OpenBSD and Debian. He found
out that there are several indications that security in OpenBSD is mostly at
the same level as it is in Debian. Since the reason to work on this port was
primary to provide a more secure environment for Debian users this port
doesn't seem to be worthwhile anymore.</p>
<p><strong>License Clarification for Debian/NetBSD.</strong> Joel Baker sent a
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd-0210/msg00039.html">clarification
request</a> to Richard Stallman. Files in the NetBSD source tree use widely
varying licenses. While source code owned by the University of California,
Berkeley (UCB) is unproblematic, the NetBSD Foundation previously expressed a
resistance to requests to move from an old BSD license to a revised one
without the advertising clause. Such code is not compatible with the GNU
GPL.</p>
<p><strong>News from Debian/EDU.</strong> Raphaël Hertzog <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-0210/msg00005.html">announced</a>
that debian-edu metapackages were added to the Debian archive. He's looking
for volunteers for various tasks like <a
href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">wiki editors</a>, web editors for <a
href="$(HOME)/">www.debian.org</a>, documentation writers and people who
maintain packages with educational aspects.</p>
<p><strong>Global Technology Policy Institute Created.</strong> Bruce Perens,
former Debian developer and project leader, sent out a <a
href="http://www.techp.org/Articles/CallForDonations.html">call for
donations</a> to set up the <a href="http://www.techp.org/">Global Technology
Policy Institute</a> (GTPI), a new non-profit organization focusing on Free
Software issues. GTPI will operate under section 501(c)6 of the US tax code,
allowing it to engage in political activism. Other non-profits such as <a
href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software in the Public Interest, Inc.</a> use
section 501(c)3 of the tax code which limits their political activity, but
allows them to receive tax-deductible donations. Among other issues, GTPI
will lobby to protect publicly-funded researcher's right to release their
code under the GNU GPL.</p>
<p><strong>Security Updates.</strong> You know the drill. Please make sure
that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-182">kghostview</a> --
Buffer overflow.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-183">kerberos 5</a> --
Buffer overflow.
</ul>
<p><strong>New or Noteworthy Packages.</strong> The following packages were
added to the Debian archive recently or contain important updates.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cameleon">cameleon</a>
-- Integrated development environment for OCaml.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/epydoc">epydoc</a>
-- Edward Loper's API Documentation Generation Tool for Python.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/fnord">fnord</a>
-- Yet another small httpd.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/ijsgimpprint">ijsgimpprint</a>
-- Inkjet Server - Ghostscript driver for GIMP-Print.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/mlchat">mlchat</a>
-- Small peer-to-peer chat application.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/runit">runit</a>
-- UNIX init scheme with service supervision.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xstroke">xstroke</a>
-- X11 Pen-based Character input.
</ul>
<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 12 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 143 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software
community. Please see the <a href="$(HOME)/devel/wnpp/">WNPP pages</a> for
the full list, and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA:
if you plan to take over a package.</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/cbb">cbb</a>
-- The Check-Book Balancer, a Quicken clone.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166249">Bug#166249</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/filemenu-applet">filemenu-applet</a>
-- A directory navigation GNOME applet.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166131">Bug#166131</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/g5">g5</a>
-- gtk-based 5-in-a-row game.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/165500">Bug#165500</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/geas">geas</a>
-- GNU Enterprise Application Server.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166331">Bug#166331</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libobgnome0">gnome-objc</a>
-- Objective-c bindings for gtk/gnome
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/165642">Bug#165642</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/gnue-common">gnue-common</a>
-- The shared library for many items of the GNU Enterprise Framework.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166339">Bug#166339</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gnue-designer">gnue-designer</a>
-- Rapid Application Development tool for GNU Enterprise.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166343">Bug#166343</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/gnue-forms">gnue-forms</a>
-- An XML-based forms painter.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166351">Bug#166351</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/junit-freenet">junit-freenet</a>
-- basic reimplementation of the JUnit unit testing framework.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/165504">Bug#165504</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/kdestudio">kdestudio</a>
-- Development environment for KDE.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166847">Bug#166847</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/konverse">konverse</a>
-- Jabber client for KDE.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166846">Bug#166846</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/scannerdaemon">scannerdaemon</a>
-- Virus scanner written in Java.
(<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/166545">Bug#166545</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Want to continue reading DWN?</strong> Please help us create this
newsletter. Currently, it's mostly a one-man show, which is anticipated to
fail in the long term. We urgently need volunteer writers who prepare items.
Please see the <a href="$(HOME)/News/weekly/contributing">contributing
page</a> to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at <a href="mailto:dwn@debian.org">dwn@debian.org</a>.</p>
#use wml::debian::weeklynews::footer
|
