path: root/english/News/weekly/2002/50/index.wml

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2002-12-24" SUMMARY="Mono, GFDD, Hurd, Desktop, IEEE, CD, Installation, Cooperation, Search, Libraries, GNOME"
# $Id$

<p>Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community.  If you are living in Australia and want to know more about
IPv6, you may be interested in an <a href="http://ipv6.ztsoftware.net/">IPv6
Mini-Conf</a> prior to the <a href="http://www.linux.conf.au/">Linux
Conference Australia</a>.  Unfortunately, it takes place at the same time as the <a
href="$(HOME)/events/2003/0120-linuxconf">Debian Mini-Conf</a>.  The German <a
href="http://www.debianforum.de/">debianforum</a> also has had its
first anniversary.  We wish everybody who celebrates Christmas a Merry
Christmas and enjoyable holidays.</p>

<p><strong>Mono for Debian?</strong> The most recent <a
href="http://linuxpr.com/releases/5421.html">Mono Weekly News</a> reported
that Alp Toker released <a href="http://www.atoker.com/platano/">Platano</a>,
the very first Mono based media player.  <a
href="http://www.go-mono.org/">Mono</a> is the free implementation of the <a
href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/">.NET framework</a>.  He also
packaged GNOME# capable packages and created an <a
href="../../oldurl?http://www.debianplanet.org/mono/">archive</a> for both sid and woody
for easy use via <code>apt-get</code>.</p>

<p><strong>Debian Documentation in GFDD.</strong> Gaetano Paolone <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc-0212/msg00231.html">announced</a> the
'stable' launch of the <a href="http://www.gfdd.org/">GNUtemberg! Free
Documentation Database</a> (GFDD).  The GFDD is a free database for free
documentation, providing services such as indexing, translation management,
information on official publishing, document ratings, statistics and search.
The database currently contains 18 English documents and 4 Italian documents
that cover the Debian system.</p>

<p><strong>SSH for Hurd.</strong> Philip Charles <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd-0212/msg00071.html">discovered</a>
that Hurd does not provide <code>/dev/urandom</code>.  Unfortunately, ssh
requires its randomness for key creation.  Because of this, the newest Hurd <a
href="$(HOME)/ports/hurd/hurd-cd">CD</a> contains an ssh package but doesn't
install it by default.  Simon Law <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd-0212/msg00072.html">pointed out</a>
that a <a href="http://mactest98.ruk.cuni.cz/~hramrach/random/">random
translator</a> can be attached to the device.</p>

<p><strong>Debian GNU/Linux for Tech Writers.</strong> In the article <a
href="http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/linux.html">\
Painless</a> <a
href="http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/linux2.html">\
Linux</a>, which is aimed at technical writers, Bruce Byfield explains
GNU/Linux and the benefits of using it.  Several applications are listed that
technical people would probably like to use.  Debian GNU/Linux is among the
distributions he proposes.</p> 

<p><strong>Colin Walters talks about the Desktop.</strong> <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/">DesktopLinux.com</a> featured an <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2559097045.html">interview</a>
with Colin Walters, who founded the <a
href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-desktop/">Debian on the Desktop</a> subproject in
October.  Colin explains the philosophy behind the project, talks about the
new debian-installer and says why he thinks that parts of the Debian
infrastructure should move towards XML.</p>

<p><strong>Updated Statistics about Debian on the Desktop.</strong> On the
same subject, DWN has been regularly reporting details of an ongoing <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.cgi?view=results&amp;id=10292001114910">\
survey</a> about which GNU/Linux distribution users prefer for desktop
computing.  We are pleased to announce that Debian is now placed first with
22&nbsp;% of the vote, marginally ahead of Mandrake (21.7&nbsp;%).  Around
2700 more votes were registered since November, totalling over 8900
responses.</p>

<p><strong>IEEE Introduction to Debian GNU/Linux.</strong> The Consultants
Network of the San Diego section of the <a
href="http://www.ieeeconsultants.com/">Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers</a> (IEEE) announced that they will be hosting a one-evening <a
href="http://www.ieeeconsultants.com/change.htm">introduction</a> to Debian
GNU/Linux.  The goal is to help attendees understand the installation process
and basic administration.  The session will be held on Monday January 13th at
the Sizzler in San Diego.  The speaker will be Alex Perry, a system
administrator and senior member of the IEEE and the Consultants Network in San
Diego.</p>

<p><strong>Building Small CD Images.</strong> Santiago Garcia Mantinan <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0212/msg00152.html">advised</a> that
he has developed a patch for debian-cd to enable building small CD images.
The patch allows images to be produced with just the debian-installer and
documentation (45MB) or in addition the
necessary files for a minimal install (83MB).  Santiago wondered which of these two
images should be built officially.  Tollef Fog Heen <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0212/msg00154.html">thought</a> both
could be built but Jason Andrade <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd-0212/msg00155.html">pointed out</a>
that too many different CD images makes life difficult for mirrors and also
confuse beginners.</p>

<p><strong>Complete Network Installation.</strong> Cassandra Lynette Brockett
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0212/msg00669.html">advised</a>
that she is modifying one of the root.bin files from woody to allow complete
network booting and installation without the need for a disk or CD in the
target machine.  She has already got this <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0212/msg00779.html">working</a> on
the i386 architecture and is continuing to work on documentation.  However,
after little response from the mailing list, she <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0212/msg00785.html">wonders</a> if
anybody is interested.</p>

<p><strong>Cooperation with Debian based Distributions?</strong> Javier
Fernández-Sanguino Peña <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01220.html">wondered</a> if
GNU/Linux distributions which are based on Debian were being as cooperative as
they could be.  While distributions like Progeny contribute back into the
Debian core, work from other distributions tends not to be integrated into
Debian.  Javi is trying to work with <a href="http://www.linex.org/">Linex</a>
(Spanish only) to contribute improvements back to Debian but
wonders how other Debian based distributions can be encouraged to be more
cooperative.</p>

<p><strong>Search Engine Back Online.</strong> Craig Small <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-www-0212/msg00302.html">announced</a>
that the Debian web <a href="http://search.debian.org/">search engine</a> is
back online.  Dual byte languages have some support, but still don't work as
well as they should and translators should check whether their translations
are up-to-date.  Nevertheless, Craig believes that a pretty-good search engine
is better than none.</p>

<p><strong>Library Versioning.</strong> Rob Browning <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg00995.html">wondered</a>
which version the soname of a library should contain if the same source is
used as before but linked against a new major version of another library.  If
the soname version is incremented the library may be incompatible with other
vendors' libraries.  But if not, it will render packages unusable that depend
on it and weren't rebuilt.  Junichi Uekawa (&#19978;&#24029;&#32020;&#19968;) <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01006.html">explains</a>
his <a href="http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/column/libpkg-guide/">soname
management</a> and <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01127.html">adds</a> that
unstable will be broken unless a coordinated upload with rebuild packages of
all packages that depend on this library is performed.  Later Rob added his
proposed <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01309.html">\
approach</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Watching Debian in GNOME Panel.</strong> Daniel Burrows <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01150.html">announced</a> a
preview version of <code>apt-watch</code>, a panel applet for GNOME 2 that
checks for upgrades.  He won't be able to work on it for a while but concluded
with a list of unfinished parts.  Emile van Bergen <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01152.html">added</a> that
icons should not be flashing since that would add too much pressure to update
the system and distract people from other work, however, that <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01156.html">may</a> be a
good idea for systems running stable.</p>

<p><strong>Default Wallpaper.</strong> Stefan Schwandter <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01193.html">wondered</a>
how to set a default background image for most desktop environments and
window-managers.  Colin Walters <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0212/msg01241.html">replied</a>
that this requires GNOME 2.2 at least and he has already spent time on
implementing this in the <code>desktop-base</code> package.</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="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-213">libpng</a> --
    Buffer overflow.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-214">kdenetwork</a> --
    Buffer overflows.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-215">Cyrus Imapd</a> --
    Buffer overflow.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2002/dsa-216">fetchmail</a> --
    Buffer overflow.
</ul>

<p><strong>New or Noteworthy Packages.</strong> The following packages were
added to the unstable Debian archive recently or contain important updates.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/adzapper">adzapper</a>
    -- squid_redirect advertisement zapper.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/caudium-perl">caudium-perl</a>
    -- Perl script support for Caudium.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/cryptplug">cryptplug</a>
    -- Collection of plugins to crytographic engines.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/dovecot">dovecot</a>
    -- A secure IMAP server that supports mbox and maildir mailboxes.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/grunt">grunt</a>
    -- Secure remote execution via UUCP or e-mail using GPG.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/honeyd">honeyd</a>
    -- Small daemon that creates virtual hosts simulating their services and behaviour.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/iacd">iacd</a>
    -- IRC Server.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/irpas">irpas</a>
    -- Internetwork Routing Protocol Attack Suite.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/ospics">ospics</a>
    -- Some images of operating system logos/mascots.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/plone">plone</a>
    -- A zope/cmf-based content management system.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/pv">pv</a>
    -- Terminal-based tool for monitoring the progress of data through a pipeline.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/spamprobe">spamprobe</a>
    -- C++ Bayesian spam filter.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/tkabber">tkabber</a>
    -- Tcl/Tk based Jabber client.
</ul>

<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 21 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer.  This makes a total of 156 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/utils/countrycodes">countrycodes</a>
     -- ISO 3166 country code finder.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174111">Bug#174111</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libgdkxft0">gdkxft</a>
     -- Transparently add anti-aliased font support to gtk+-1.2.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/173651">Bug#173651</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/grpn">grpn</a>
     -- GTK+ Reverse Polish Notation calculator.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174112">Bug#174112</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/libhdf5-doc">hdf5</a>
     -- Hierarchical Data Format 5.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174114">Bug#174114</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/hindent">hindent</a>
     -- Reformats HTML code.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174116">Bug#174116</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-us/hsftp">hsftp</a>
     -- FTP emulator which uses ssh as end-to-end transport.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174122">Bug#174122</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/knapster2">knapster2</a>
     -- KDE2 Napster client.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174113">Bug#174113</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libdsp0">libdsp</a>
     -- Digital signal processing routines (C++).
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174118">Bug#174118</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/linuxinfo">linuxinfo</a>
     -- Displays extended system information.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174115">Bug#174115</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/longrun">longrun</a>
     -- Transmeta(TM) Crusoe(TM) LongRun(TM) utility.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/173887">Bug#173887</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/manpages-nl">manpages-nl</a>
     -- Dutch manpages.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174178">Bug#174178</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/mmucl">mmucl</a>
     -- Mark's MUd CLient.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174117">Bug#174117</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/noteedit">noteedit</a>
     -- KDE Music Note Editor.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174119">Bug#174119</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/sciplot-dev">sciplot</a>
     -- Widget for scientific plotting.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174123">Bug#174123</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/simh-rsts-images">simh-rsts-images</a>
     -- RSTS/E V7.0-07 images for simh.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174127">Bug#174127</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/simh-unix-images">simh-unix-images</a>
     -- UNIX V[567] images for simh emulator.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174128">Bug#174128</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/snes9express">snes9express</a>
     -- GTK+ front-end for snes9x.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174126">Bug#174126</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-us/steghide">steghide</a>
     -- Steganography tool.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174125">Bug#174125</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libtcp4u3">tcp4u</a>
     -- The tcp4u portable networking API.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174120">Bug#174120</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/traceroute-nanog">traceroute-nanog</a>
     -- NANOG traceroute.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174121">Bug#174121</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libtse3">tse3</a>
     -- Portable sequencer engine in C++.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/174124">Bug#174124</a>)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Want to continue reading DWN?</strong> Please help us create this
newsletter.  Several people are submitting items already, but we are
still in need of 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 editor="Andrew Shugg, Matt Black, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"