path: root/english/News/weekly/2003/45/index.wml

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2003-11-11" SUMMARY="DFSG, Jr., Social Contract, SPI, Versions, Apache, XML/SGML, MiniConf, FHS, Awards"
# $Id$

<p>Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community.  According to the latest data from <a
href="http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/11/03/november_2003_web_server_survey.html">\
Netcraft</a> the number of websites running on the Apache web server has shown
a significant gain over the last month and is now at 67.41 percent.  James
Maguire wanted to <a href="http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22629.html">\
know</a> if Java is dead and concluded that nothing could be further from the
truth.  Also, another <a href="http://master.debian.org/~joey/3.0r2/">\
update</a> for the stable Debian release (codename woody) is being <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00004.html">\
prepared</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Exec-Shield for Debian?</strong> Russell Coker <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00047.html">looked</a> at
<a href="http://people.redhat.com/mingo/exec-shield/">exec-shield</a> which
adds a certain amount of precaution similar to what <a
href="http://pageexec.virtualave.net/docs/pax.txt">PaX</a> does, which is the
most desirable feature in <a href="http://www.grsecurity.net/">\
GRSecurity</a>.  Exec-shield also has support for 2.6 and looks like it will
be a standard feature in Red Hat.  Russell proposed to add exec-shield to the
standard Debian kernel source.  If adding exec-shield to the Debian kernel is
not considered a good idea then he'll create a kernel-patch package for
exec-shield.</p>

<p><strong>Clarification of DFSG Clause 1.</strong> Roland Stigge <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00013.html">proposed</a> to
alter the <a href="$(HOME)/social_contract#guidelines">Debian Free Software
Guidelines</a> (DFSG) in order to add a little bit of clarification to clause
one.  This is a reminiscence of the <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0310/msg00383.html">discussion</a>
about the legal status of LaTeX2HTML.  Henning Makholm <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00014.html">added</a> that
this complies with the consensus on debian-legal.</p>

<p><strong>Debian Jr. joins OSEF.</strong> Ben Armstrong <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00000.html">\
announced</a> that <a href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-jr/">Debian Jr.</a> joined
the <a href="http://www.osef.org/">Open Source Education Foundation</a>
(OSEF).  Ben is also a new board member of their newly expanded board.  This
will strengthen both Debian Jr. and OSEF.  Both groups aim to improve the
quality of Debian Jr. packages and they share the common goal to introduce
children to Free Software.</p>

<p><strong>Discussion about the Social Contract.</strong> Branden Robinson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00139.html">summarized</a>
part of the thread about his proposed amendment of the Social Contract.  He
stated that he would be willing to consider breaking up the proposal, and is
seeking guidance from the Project Secretary.
Anthony Towns stated that if he were to propose a rewrite of the <a
href="$(HOME)/social_contract">Social Contract</a> it would include <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote-0311/msg00148.html">points</a>
like building a free and superior operating system, supporting the
community, being open and supporting all the software that Debian can.</p>

<p><strong>SPI Board Vote begins.</strong> Wichert Akkerman
<a href="http://lists.spi-inc.org/pipermail/spi-announce/2003/000060.html">announced</a>
that the voting period has begun to elect three new directors to the
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI)
board of directors.  The candidates are
<a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/DavidGraham.xhtml">David
Graham ("cdlu")</a>,
<a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/IanJackson.xhtml">Ian
Jackson</a>,
<a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/JimmyKaplowitz.xhtml">Jimmy
Kaplowitz ("Hydroxide")</a>,
and <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote2/MartinSchulze.xhtml">
Martin Schulze ("Joey")</a>.
All contributing members can cast their vote <a
href="https://members.spi-inc.org/vote/">online</a> until November 21st.
People who become contributing members during this period are also eligible
for voting.  Newsflash: There will be a debate with all candidates on Monday,
November 17th, at 17:00 UTC on Channel #SPI on irc.oftc.net.</p>

<p><strong>Package Version Numbering.</strong> Mark Johnson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00438.html">wondered</a>
how he is supposed to update the <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/docbook-simple">docbook-simple</a> package
from version 1.0cr2 to version 1.0.  Neil Roeth <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00454.html">suggested</a>
to use 1.0.0 as version string.  Andreas Metzler <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0311/msg00447.html">explained</a>
that removing the old package from the archive and uploading a new one would
not solve the problem, because anybody who has already installed the old
version would not be upgraded automatically if the new upload had a lower
version-number in dpkg's understanding.</p>

<p><strong>New proposed Apache License.</strong> The <a
href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache Software Foundation</a> is <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00052.html">considering</a>
the adoption of a new set of <a
href="http://www.apache.org/licenses/proposed/">licenses</a> for their open
source projects.  They have invited the public to review and comment on the
proposed 2.0 <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00053.html">license</a> and
related material.  Brian Carlson has <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal-0311/msg00054.html">doubts</a> that
part of the new license are even legal, at least in the U.S.</p>

<p><strong>Debian Installer Beta 1.</strong> Joey Hess <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0311/msg00003.html">\
announced</a> the first beta release of <a
href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-installer/">debian-installer</a>, the new
installation system for sarge.  This first beta is available for the i386 and
powerpc architectures only.  More architectures were said to follow in later
betas.  Please see the <a
href="http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/TODO?rev=HEAD&amp;content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup">\
todo</a> if you want to help out.</p>

<p><strong>Debian-Installer Floppies with BRLTTY.</strong> Mario Lang <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-accessibility-0310/msg00023.html">\
announced</a> a new <a href="http://people.debian.org/~mlang/install/">floppy
set</a> based on the new Debian-Installer for Sarge with support for BRLTTY
included.  He has also installed a fresh system with them, so they appear to
work.  You need to pass a kernel option to lilo when the first floppy boots,
to tell brltty what display you have, and where it is connected.</p>

<p><strong>New Skolelinux CD Image.</strong> Petter Reinholdtsen <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-0311/msg00000.html">announced</a> the
new Skolelinux CD <a href="ftp://developer.skolelinux.no/skolelinux-cd/">\
image</a>, prerelease 41.  He included the changelog which notes several
security and language updates besides updates in the Debian installer such as
improved support for PCMCIA and USB as well as hardware detection.</p>

<p><strong>Debian XML/SGML Policy Draft.</strong> Mark Johnson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00005.html">announced</a> a
<a href="http://people.debian.org/~mrj/xml-sgml-policy/debian-policy/">policy
draft</a> for XML and SGML resources.  At this point, only chapters 2 and 3
(covering directory layouts, etc.) are anywhere near being finished.  Feedback
should be sent to the <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/">\
debian-sgml</a> list.</p>

<p><strong>Collaborative XML/SGML Packaging Project.</strong> Mark Johnson <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml-0310/msg00010.html">invited</a> all
XML/SGML package maintainers to join a collaborative packaging and maintenance
effort hosted on <a href="http://debian-xml-sgml.alioth.debian.org/">\
Alioth</a>.  Motivation is provided by the implementation of the OASIS XML
Catalog specification and the proliferation of newly available XML
resources. Another motivation is to eliminate the hassles of non-maintainer
uploads.</p>

<p><strong>Debian MiniConf3 in Adelaide.</strong> The Debian <a
href="http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/">MiniConf</a> will once again be held
in conjunction with <a href="http://lca2004.linux.org.au/">Linux Conference
Australia</a> in Adelaide.  <a href="http://lca2004.linux.org.au/register/">\
Registration</a> for the conference also includes registration for the Debian
MiniConf, and the organisers are currently <a
href="http://www.debconf.org/miniconf3/cfp/">calling for papers</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 2.3.</strong> Martin Michlmayr <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb-0311/msg00009.html">noted</a> that <a
href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3402935&amp;forum_id=3128">\
FHS 2.3</a> will be released soon, but there is currently some controversy
over <code><a
href="http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16">/\
srv</a></code> and <code><a
href="http://bugs.freestandards.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27">\
/media</a></code>.  He thought it would be good if Debian
had an opinion about this and encouraged people to look at and comment on the
proposals.</p>

<p><strong>Debian wins several Readers' Choice Awards.</strong> The Debian
project <a href="$(HOME)/News/2003/20031110">announced</a> that this year was
quite successful and it has won several readers' choice awards from major
GNU/Linux magazines.  Debian has won in the category of "Favourite
Distribution" of the <a
href="http://pr.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=785">Linux Journal 2003
Readers' Choice Awards</a>, in the category "Best Enterprise Distribution" of
<a
href="http://www.linuxenterprise.de/itr/service/show.php3?id=104&amp;nodeid=35">\
Linux Enterprise Reader's Choice 2003</a> and in the category "Best
Distribution" of the <a
href="http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2003/12/award/award.html">\
Linux New Media Award 2003</a>.</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="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-397">PostgreSQL</a> --
    Buffer overflow.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-398">conquest</a> --
    Local conquest exploit.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-399">EPIC4</a> --
    Denial of service.
<li><a href="$(HOME)/security/2003/dsa-400">omega-rpg</a> --
    Local games exploit.
</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/devel/aap">aap</a>
    -- Make-like "expert system" for building software.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/anteater">anteater</a>
    -- MTA log analyser written 100% in C++.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/aqmoney">aqmoney</a>
    -- Command line utility for HBCI homebanking.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/arc">arc</a>
    -- Archive utility based on the MSDOS ARC program.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/arptables">arptables</a>
    -- ARP table administration.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/chasen-dictutils">chasen-dictutils</a>
    -- Japanese Morphological Analysis System - utilities for dictionary.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/cutter">cutter</a>
    -- Disconnect routed IP connections.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/digikam">digikam</a>
    -- Digital Camera Application for KDE 3.x.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/discus">discus</a>
    -- Pretty version of df(1) command.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdauthor">dvdauthor</a>
    -- Create DVD-Video file system.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/otherosfs/dvdrtools">dvdrtools</a>
    -- DVD writing program.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/eagle">eagle</a>
    -- Printed circuit board design tool.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/eciadsl">eciadsl</a>
    -- User-space driver for the Globespan-based USB ADSL modems.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/festalon">festalon</a>
    -- NSF player for OSS (/dev/dsp).
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/fisg">fisg</a>
    -- Fast IRC Statistics Generator.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gngeogui">gngeogui</a>
    -- GUI frontend for gngeo.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-office">gnome-office</a>
    -- The GNOME Office suite.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/gnusound">gnusound</a>
    -- Powerful sound editor.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ifmetric">ifmetric</a>
    -- Set routing metrics for a network interface.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/doc/lg-issue96">lg-issue96</a>
    -- Issue 96 of the Linux Gazette.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/opendb">opendb</a>
    -- Web Open Lending Database.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/osdsh">osdsh</a>
    -- Overlays your screen with various system information.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/powernowd">powernowd</a>
    -- Control CPU speed and voltage using 2.6 kernel interface.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-lml">prelude-lml</a>
    -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Log Monitoring Lackey ].
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/prelude-manager">prelude-manager</a>
    -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Report Manager ].
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/prelude-nids">prelude-nids</a>
    -- Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Network sensor ].
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/pxe">pxe</a>
    -- Free PXE daemon.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/qalculate">qalculate</a>
    -- Powerful and easy to use desktop calculator.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/smbget">smbget</a>
    -- Downloader for the SMB/CIFS protocol.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/sng">sng</a>
    -- Specialized markup language for representing PNG contents.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/tcltls">tcltls</a>
    -- TLS OpenSSL extension to Tcl.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/toursst">toursst</a>
    -- RSS channel news items where you want them.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/vpnc">vpnc</a>
    -- Cisco-compatible VPN client.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/vqadmin">vqadmin</a>
    -- Web based control panel for vpopmail.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/waproamd">waproamd</a>
    -- WLAN roaming daemon.
</ul>

<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 3 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer.  This makes a total of 187 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/net/ipmasq">ipmasq</a>
     -- Securely initializes IP Masquerade forwarding/firewalling.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/219173">Bug#219173</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/php4-apc">php4-apc</a>
     -- Caches PHP scripts to get them loaded much faster.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/219571">Bug#219571</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/snd">snd</a>
     -- Sound file editor.
     (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/219837">Bug#219837</a>)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Want to continue reading DWN?</strong> Please help us create this
newsletter.  We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian
community and report about what is going on.  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="Drew Scott Daniels, Andre Lehovich, Matt Black, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"