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#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PUBDATE="2004-12-14" SUMMARY="Critique, Feminists, Desktop, Advertising, SVG, dpkg, LCC, GNOME, Java"
# $id: index.wml,v 1.2 2004/07/06 20:09:11 joey Exp $
<p>Welcome to this year's 49th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the
Debian community. Bruce Byfield released a short <a
href="http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/12/02/1710208">introduction</a>
in <code>apt-get</code> on <a href="http://www.newsforge.com/">\
NewsForge</a>. Again, developers were <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00907.html">advised</a>
to close bugs automatically with a changelog entry only in connection with a
proper description. Jason Boxman wrote a <a
href="http://trekweb.com/~jasonb/articles/exim4_courier/">guideline</a> for
using Exim 4 and Courier IMAP on a Debian system.</p>
<p><strong>Constructive Critique of Debian.</strong> In a guest <a
href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT7588639943.html">editorial</a>
on <a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/">DesktopLinux</a> Binh Nguyen
noted some key design attributes of Debian that make it one of the strongest
and most versatile GNU/Linux distributions. He also observed certain weaknesses
and argued that a few simple improvements and a more welcoming attitude to
new users would significantly improve Debian. He concluded that Debian is a
competent and robust distribution, but with a few critical flaws that have
led to a perception of it being an elitist distribution.</p>
<p><strong>Geek Feminists in Debian.</strong> Bruce Byfield <a
href="http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/12/03/173216">reported</a>
about the <a href="http://women.alioth.debian.org/">Debian women</a>
sub-project and its beginnings. One of Debian women's main roles is to help
women become Debian developers, partly by being supportive and encouraging,
but also by demystifying the process. Debian women has created a friendly
place for learning more about Debian and has drawn out many women to talk
about their experiences and ambitions.</p>
<p><strong>Multi-Head Computing.</strong><a
href="http://www.opensensesolutions.com/products.html">OPENSense
Solutions</a> <a
href="http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/12/emw187925.htm">announced</a>
the availability of Groovix, a Debian-based multi-user computer. Up to
three sets of monitor, keyboard, mouse and speaker are attached to a single
AMD Athlon based computer. The <a
href="http://opensensesolutions.com/software.html">system</a> consists of
Debian GNU/Linux with KDE as desktop environment. The vendor stresses
that they can't support other configurations, but, <code>apt-get
install gnome</code> is not that hard to type.</p>
<p><strong>Advertising on the Debian Website.</strong> Martin Michlmayr <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00028.html">forwarded</a>
an inquiry to place advertising on the Debian website. Stephen Frost would <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00039.html">welcome</a>
the potential revenue stream. However, <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00034.html">several</a>
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00046.html">\
developers</a> <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00053.html">didn't</a>
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00068.html">\
like</a> the idea and Alexander Schmehl even <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2004/12/msg00072.html">gave</a>
an example for content-driven advertising: if you search for the terms
"Debian" and "Linux", you'll get an advertisement telling you the "true facts"
about open source.</p>
<p><strong>Support for SVG Icons.</strong> Jay Treacy <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00869.html">wondered</a>
how <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/">SVG</a> (Scalable Vector Graphics)
icons are supposed to be handled in the Debian system. Josselin Mouette <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00886.html">explained</a>
that all of GTK+ already supports them and where they are usually put on the
filesystem. Bill Allombert <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00910.html">added</a>
that the menu manual only talks about XPM icons.</p>
<p><strong>Ongoing dpkg Development.</strong> In a reply to an <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00842.html">intent to
package</a> by Martin F. Krafft, Adam Heath <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01099.html">\
revealed</a> future plans for the <code>dpkg-deb</code> utility. In such a
modular design editing Debian package without the need to install them would
become an easy task. It would also support <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg01247.html">excluding</a>
entire directory hierarchies, such as <code>/usr/share/doc</code>.</p>
<p><strong>GNU/Linux Core Consortium.</strong> Bruce Perens <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00912.html">explained</a>
that the GNU/Linux Core Consortium (LCC) is what he originally proposed to do
as the <a href="http://www.linuxbase.org/">LSB</a> and would like to have
Debian's involvement. The main technical effect that he sees would be that
the names of some dynamic libraries would change, which was <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00915.html">not</a> <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00940.html">appreciated</a>.
The LCC <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/12/msg00975.html">\
aims</a> to complement the LSB by agreeing on a single solutions for grey
cases in the LSB.</p>
<p><strong>GNOME Transition into Sarge finished.</strong> Jordi Mallach <a
href="http://oskuro.net/blog/freesoftware/gnome-2.8-sarge-2004-12-13-15-07">\
reported</a> that <a href="http://packages.debian.org/gconf-editor">\
gconf-editor</a> was the last component of GNOME 2.8 that was pending
to enter testing, which is done already. Earlier he <a
href="http://oskuro.net/blog/freesoftware/gnome-2.8-sarge-2004-12-03-18-19">\
reported</a> that this has been the smoothest transition to testing since
GNOME 2.0. Additionally, a new version of Evolution with all release-critical
bugs fixed has been uploaded.</p>
<p><strong>Supporting Free Java.</strong> Arnaud Vandyck <a
href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/avdyk/9097.html">asked</a> other Java
developer to test their programs with a free runtime and report the results.
He started a <a
href="http://java.debian.net/index.php/DebianSupportsFreeJava">page</a> where
he will document results of running projects with a free Java virtual machine.
His own <a href="http://people.debian.org/~avdyk/freejava/">remarks</a>
contain experiences with a project that makes heavy use of threads.</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>DSA 606: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-606">nfs-utils</a> --
Denial of service.
<li>DSA 607: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-607">XFree86</a> --
Several vulnerabilities.
<li>DSA 608: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-608">zgv</a> --
Arbitrary code execution.
<li>DSA 609: <a href="$(HOME)/security/2004/dsa-609">atari800</a> --
Local root exploit.
</ul>
<p><strong>New or Noteworthy Packages.</strong> The following packages were
added to the unstable Debian archive <a
href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main">recently</a> or contain
important updates.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/bld-postfix">bld-postfix</a>
-- Black List Daemon, automatically build blacklists.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/courier-filter-perl">courier-filter-perl</a>
-- Purely Perl-based mail filter framework for the Courier MTA.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/guile-simplesql">guile-simplesql</a>
-- SQL library for Guile.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/l2tpns">l2tpns</a>
-- Layer 2 tunnelling protocol network server (LNS).
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lemon">lemon</a>
-- The Lemon Parser Generator.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/lockout">lockout</a>
-- Self-imposed discipline and productivity enforcer.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/mathpartir">mathpartir</a>
-- LaTeX macros for typesetting inference rules.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/muscle">muscle</a>
-- Multiple alignment program of protein sequences.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/neutrino">neutrino</a>
-- GNOME shell for managing your Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/noiz2sa">noiz2sa</a>
-- Abstract arcade shooter.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/omnievents">omnievents</a>
-- Implementation of the CORBA Event Service.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/polygen">polygen</a>
-- Generate random sentences according to a grammar definition.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/rawdog">rawdog</a>
-- RSS aggregator without delusions of grandeur.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/sqlite3">sqlite3</a>
-- Command line interface for SQLite 3.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/varkon">varkon</a>
-- CAD system with parametric modelling.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/webcalendar">webcalendar</a>
-- PHP-based multi-user calendar.
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/xmms-kde">xmms-kde</a>
-- MP3 player integrated into the KDE panel.
</ul>
<p><strong>Orphaned Packages.</strong> 4 packages were orphaned this week and
require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 226 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software
community. Please see the <a href="$(HOME)/devel/wnpp/">WNPP pages</a> for
the full list, and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA:
if you plan to take over a package.</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/bbtime">bbtime</a>
-- Time tool for the blackbox window manager.
(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/285161">Bug#285161</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/display-dhammapada">display-dhammapada</a>
-- Displays verses from the Dhammapada.
(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/285159">Bug#285159</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/comm/obexftp">obexftp</a>
-- File Transfer to Flex.Memory on Siemens GSM Mobiles.
(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/284654">Bug#284654</a>)
</li>
<li> <a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/ttf-thryomanes">ttf-thryomanes</a>
-- Unicode font covering Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and IPA.
(<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/285162">Bug#285162</a>)
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Want to continue reading DWN?</strong> Please help us create this
newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian
community and report about what is going on. Please see the <a
href="$(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="Matt Black, Adrian von Bidder, Martin 'Joey' Schulze"
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