path: root/english/News/weekly/2003/04/index.wml

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2003-01-28" SUMMARY="NetInst, x86-64, DPL Election, PTS, Debian-Edu, Interest, Quality, Award, LWCE, DFSG"
# $Id$

<p>Welcome to this year's fourth issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community.  Netcraft recently added <a
href="http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/200301/developers/debian.html">\
Debian</a> to the list of operating system <a
href="http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/200301/developers/">\
vendors</a>.  The security team finally got everything together and was
able to release a whole bunch of advisories for the version of KDE in woody.
Only one package could not be compiled on two architectures.</p>

<p><strong>Working New Network Installation Floppy.</strong> Matt Kraai <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0301/msg00309.html">announced</a>
that he successfully used a custom-built debian-installer net installation <a
href="http://www.lafn.org/~kraai/net-1440.img">floppy</a> to install sarge
(testing).  Matt found that he had to use custom ethdetect, netcfg-dhcp and
netcfg-static packages, and the "edit sources list by hand" option to work
around a <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/148606">base-config bug</a>.  He
would appreciate it if people could test the <a
href="http://www.lafn.org/~kraai/net-1440.img">image</a> and report bugs.</p>

<p><strong>Bug Page for the Debian-Installer.</strong> Matt Kraai <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0301/msg00250.html">wondered</a> if
there was a nice page listing bugs in the debian installer, similar to the <a
href="http://bugs.qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/base.cgi">base system bugs page</a>.
Colin Watson promptly <a
href="http://bugs.qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/debian-installer.cgi">prepared</a>
one.  The page lists bugs in packages the debian-installer depends on.  Petter
Reinholdtsen was more <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0301/msg00252.html">interested</a>
in the packages which are maintained by the installer people and is already using this <a
href="http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=debian-boot@lists.debian.org">\
overview</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Cross Compiler for x86-64 Hardware.</strong> Arnd Bergmann has
packaged a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01558.html">cross
compiler</a> for building binaries for AMD's <a
href="http://www.x86-64.org/">x86-64</a> architecture.  He and <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01573.html">several
others</a> are starting preliminary work on an x86-64 port of Debian using the
<a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/">Bochs</a> hardware emulator.</p>

<p><strong>Debian Project Leader Elections.</strong> Manoj Srivastava <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0301/msg00006.html">informed</a> us
about the upcoming election for the next Debian Project Leader.  The
Nomination period for this year starts today, 2003/01/24, and shall end on
2003/02/14 0:0:0 UTC. Voting shall start on March 7th (2003/03/07 0:0:0 UTC),
and shall end on 2003/03/28 0:0:0 UTC.  Prospective leaders should be familiar
with the constitution and Manoj intends to collect platform statements from
the candidates and publish them at a known location at the end of the
nomination period and the beginning of the campaign.</p>

<p><strong>News from the PTS.</strong> Raphaël Hertzog sent in a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0301/msg00007.html">\
report</a> about the Package Tracking System (PTS).  Together with Michael
Bramer, who maintains the <a href="http://ddtp.debian.org/">Debian Description
Translation Project</a> (DDTP) he combined the two systems.  New links point
to pages where you can see all available translations for the package.  From
there you can easily request a translation that you want to contribute.</p>

<p><strong>Debian-Edu Subproject needs new Leader.</strong> Raphaël Hertzog <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0301/msg00007.html">\
reported</a> that the Debian-Edu subproject is essentially stalled.  He admits
that this is his fault because he wasn't able to invest enough time into it.  That's
why he is now looking for a volunteer who would like to take over and lead
this subproject.  Additionally, the current edition of the monthly <a
href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/">TUX&amp;GNU@school</a>
column, concerning free educational software, has a section about Debian and
schools.</p>

<p><strong>Surge of Interest in Debian.</strong> DesktopLinux.com <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT4498018607.html">talked</a> to
Bdale Garbee, Project Leader for Debian, who spoke about his impressions during a year
in which Debian saw commercial products based on it reach the market.  Bdale says
that the recent surge of interest in Debian has to do with the completely
non-commercial nature of Debian, and the value of community. Among major
GNU/Linux distributions, Debian is the closest to a pure expression of the
ideals and processes that make GNU/Linux special.</p>

<p><strong>Debian losing Quality?</strong> Erik Steffl <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01467.html">noticed</a>
that Debian unstable contains many broken packages at the moment.  He's been
using unstable for few years and didn't encounter problems generally.
However, currently we face a Perl and Python transition which were fine, and
an ongoing Glibc, GCC, Gnome and libpng transition while the KDE transition is
still outstanding.</p>

<p><strong>Official Sarge Net-Installation CD Images.</strong> Santiago García
Mantinan <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot-0301/msg00386.html">\
announced</a> that network-installation CD images for testing (sarge) will be
created weekly for i386 hardware.  There are two <a
href="http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/">images</a>: a <a
href="http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/sarge-i386-businesscard.iso">\
smaller image</a> (41MB) that requires network access and a <a
href="http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/sarge-i386-netinst.iso">\
larger image</a> (83MB) that contains a complete basic installation.  These
images should be used to test the new installation process and generate
feedback reports.</p>

<p><strong>Scope Creep in DDP Policy.</strong> Adam Di Carlo <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc-0301/msg00214.html">suggested</a>
that the <a href="$(HOME)/doc/ddp">Debian Documentation
Project</a> (DDP) Policy which is currently under <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc-0301/msg00206.html">discussion</a> is
too broad in scope and will never be implemented.  For example, the policy
considers a Debian Manual to be any piece of documentation created to address
the needs of Debian users.  Adam thinks this is too broad and may be a reason
for the DDP Policy being stalled.  He proposes that the DDP limit itself to
Debian documentation managed by the DDP itself.</p>

<p><strong>Debian GNU/Linux is the "Best Budget Choice".</strong> The Swedish
computer magazine <a href="http://mikrodatorn.idg.se/">Mikrodatorn</a> has a
comparison between different GNU/Linux distributions as server operating
systems in their issue 1/2003.  Debian was pitted against Mandrake, Red Hat,
Slackware and SuSE and received the award "<a href="$(HOME)/misc/awards">best
budget choice</a>" with the motivation "Debian has as good a choice of
software as SuSE, but is somewhat more complicated to manage.  However, the
price is very attractive.  The system can be downloaded without charge and
otherwise cost 279 Swedish kronor (30 euro)."</p>

<p><strong>Report from the LWCE.</strong> Last week the Debian project
attended the <a href="$(HOME)/events/2003/0122-lwce-ny">Linuxworld Conference
&amp; Expo</a> (LWCE) in New York.  According to <a
href="http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-01-27-014-26-NW-CY-EV">\
LinuxToday</a> this conference was quite different from earlier
Linuxworlds.  For example, Microsoft won an Open Source award.  Clint Adams
from Debian also noted that lots of software vendors were dropping by, saying
they want to 'partner' with us.  They're asking about Debian's 'business
model.'  What they don't understand is that Debian doesn't have a business
model.</p>

<p><strong>Open Source Games and Cheating.</strong> Joachim Breitner <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01492.html">noted</a> that
games awake computer interest and skills in young kids.  Debian needs those kids as
volunteers.  However, if Debian can't offer popular games (i.e. online
multiplayer games) because they are closed source, a lot of teenagers will use
commercial Distributions and won't learn about Free Software and Debian.
There is <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01526.html">\
evidence</a> on why it doesn't matter whether network games are closed source
or not to prevent cheating.</p>

<p><strong>Pentium Pro Optimisation?</strong> Adam Majer <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01581.html">announced</a>
that he has started another pbuilder <a href="http://www.zombino.com/logs/">\
run</a> for the sid distribution.  However, this time packages are compiled
with pentium-pro optimizations.  The resulting packages can be used for
benchmarks to find out how much of a speed improvement the optimizations give.
Andrew Suffield pointed <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01660.html">out</a> that
GCC support for i386 subarchs is generally very poor and has been wrong on
numerous occasions.</p>

<p><strong>Myths about APT Pinning.</strong> Since some people seem to think
APT pinning can solve all problems with outdated packages in stable Adrian
Bunk <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01644.html">\
explained</a> why this is wrong.  Mixing stable and unstable is a bad idea
because nearly every installation of a package from unstable pulls a new libc6
and it's also possible that it pulls a new Perl and Python.  These in turn
pull in more packages from unstable and one gets a potentially buggy
mixture, with broken security support.</p>

<p><strong>Illegal Packages in Debian?</strong> After a lengthy <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01676.html">\
discussion</a> an MPlayer core developer posted a <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0301/msg01772.html">list</a> of
files that he believes are included illegally in Debian.  They are all part of
the <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libxine1">\
libxine1</a> package.  The libraries implement certain audio or video decoders
whose use may be legally problematic.  Similar problems already keep mplayer
outside of Debian.</p>

<p><strong>OSD and DFSG Convergence.</strong> Russell Nelson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0301/msg00046.html">contacted</a>
Debian to explore convergence between the <a
href="http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php">Open Source
Definition</a> (OSD), and the <a href="$(HOME)/social_contract#guidelines">\
Debian Free Software Guidelines</a> (DFSG).  The <a
href="http://opensource.org/">Open Source Initiative</a> (OSI) is
interested in mending differences in the community, so that we can stand
together.  Even though the OSD was originally the DFSG, it was changed in the
meantime and OSI even approved a license that requires click-wrap.  However,
this <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0301/msg00066.html">\
places</a> a restriction on modification, <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0301/msg00057.html">failing</a>
DFSG paragraph 3.</p>

<p><strong>Sponsored People.</strong> Martin Michlmayr <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2003/debian-qa-200301/msg00040.html">\
announced</a> that there are currently 191 sponsored prospective new
maintainers, who already maintain software within Debian.  However, he
wouldn't be surprised if several of these people were already inactive.
Discovering inactive sponsored people is one thing he will investigate next,
in order to orphan unmaintained packages.</p>

<p><strong>Debian at FOSDEM and Solutions Linux.</strong> The Debian project
<a href="$(HOME)/News/2003/20030127">announced</a> that members of the project
will represent Debian at <a href="$(HOME)/events/2003/0204-linexpo-paris">\
Solutions Linux 2003</a> / Linux Expo France in Paris, France on February 4th
to 6th and at the <a href="$(HOME)/events/2003/0208-fosdem">Free and Open
Source Software Developers' Meeting</a> (FOSDEM) in Brussels, Belgium on
February 8th to 9th.  At FOSDEM Raphaël Hertzog will talk about Debian-Edu and
Martin Michlmayr will give a talk about adapting Debian to embedded use.</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="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-234">kdeadmin</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-235">kdegraphics</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-236">kdelibs</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-237">kdenetwork</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-238">kdepim</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-239">kdesdk</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-240">kdegames</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-241">kdeutils</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-242">kdebase</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-243">kdemultimedia</a> --
    Several vulnerabilities.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-244">noffle</a> --
    Buffer overflows.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-245">dhcp3</a> --
    Potential network flood.
</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/interpreters/amrita">amrita</a>
    -- HTML/XML template library for Ruby.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/aswiki">aswiki</a>
    -- WikiWikiWeb clone (Wiki Engine) written in Ruby.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/bittorrent">bittorrent</a>
    -- Scatter-gather network file transfer.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/cdargs">cdargs</a>
    -- Bookmarks and browsing for the cd command.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/dasher">dasher</a>
    -- Graphical predictive text input system.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/fig2sty">fig2sty</a>
    -- LaTeX layout generator based on XFig.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/fonttools">fonttools</a>
    -- Converts OpenType and TrueType fonts to and from XML.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/foobillard">foobillard</a>
    -- 3D billiards game using OpenGL.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/mdbtools">mdbtools</a>
    -- MS Access database (MDB) tools.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/myphpmoney">myphpmoney</a>
    -- Finance manager written in PHP.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/ppmd">ppmd</a>
    -- Fast compression program with good compression ratio.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/resample">resample</a>
    -- Resamples a sound file using an FIR filter.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/smartmontools">smartmontools</a>
    -- Control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/stellarium">stellarium</a>
    -- Real-time photo-realistic sky generator.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/systeminstaller">systeminstaller</a>
    -- Creates Linux distribution images from a set of packages.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/zssh">zssh</a>
    -- Interactive file transfers over ssh.
</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="Matt Black, Peter Karlsson, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"