path: root/english/News/weekly/2010/10/index.wml

#use wml::debian::projectnews::header PUBDATE="2010-08-26" SUMMARY="Debian turns 17, screenshots at <tt>packages.debian.org</tt>, some bits from ARM porters"
#use wml::debian::acronyms

<!--
 Copyright (c) 2010 Alexander Reichle-Schmehl
 Copyright (c) 2010 Jeremiah C. Foster
 Add other people here
 All rights reserved.
 
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
 met:
 
     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 
 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
 IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
 TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
 OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
 SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
 LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
 DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
 THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
 (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
 OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
-->


<p>Welcome to this year's tenth issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:</p>
<toc-display/>


<toc-add-entry name="birthday">Debian turns 17</toc-add-entry>

<p>The seventeenth birthday of the Debian Project caused <a
href="http://www.tecchannel.de/pc_mobile/news/2030272/debian_wird_17_jahre_alt/">quite</a>
<a href="http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/41241-how-to-thank-debian-for-17-great-years">some</a>
<a href="http://www.dobreprogramy.pl/Debian-ma-juz-lat,Aktualnosc,19930.html">media</a>
<a href="http://www.marlexsystems.org/debian-festeja-17-anos-de-existencia/11374/">echo</a>,
<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDay2010">birthday parties</a> and
<a href="http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/478">c</a><a
href="http://jonathancarter.org/2010/08/16/happy-birthday-debian-2/">o</a><a
href="http://news.debian.net/">n</a><a
href="http://blog.venthur.de/2010/08/16/happy-birthday-debian/">g</a><a
href="http://digitizor.com/2010/08/16/happy-17th-birthday-debian-and-some-interesting-history/">r</a><a
href="http://www.stormos.org/node/2327">a</a><a
href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/happy-17th-birthday-debian-826722/">t</a><a
href="http://www.linux.com/community/blogs/happy-17th-birthday-debian.html">u</a><a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20100816111701.717D7C818@nereida.gnuservers.com.ar">l</a><a
href="http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=541">a</a><a
href="http://andrew.mcmillan.net.nz/blog/thank_you_debian">t</a><a
href="http://www.itoperationz.com/2010/08/happy-birthday-debian/">i</a><a
href="http://blog.irwan.name/?p=1520">o</a><a
href="http://insidesocal.com/click/2010/08/happy-belated-birthday-debian.html">n</a><a
href="http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2010/08/happy_birthday_debian/">s</a>.</p>

<p>As a surprise present for most Debian contributors, Maintainers and Developers,
users were asked to submit their thanks via the website <a
href="http://thanks.debian.net">thanks.debian.net</a>, and birthday balloons pointing
to that page were added to several of Debian's web services.</p>

<p>About <a href="http://thank.debian.net/read_thanks">3000 submissions</a> were
received, ranging from plain <q>Thanks</q> in various forms, up to <a
href="http://www.marga.com.ar/blog/index.cgi/debian/Debian_Appreciation_Day_Recap.html">heartwarming</a>
messages in <a href="http://thank.debian.net/message/136">(to most of us) foreign
languages</a>.  We would like to thank all users for their feedback, which
really strengthened our project's morale and motivation!  Thanks!</p>

<p>As an unrelated sidenote, the editor would also like to mention that
Debian's <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/reportbug">bug submission tool
<tt>reportbug</tt></a> supports a <tt>--kudos</tt> option, making it
easy to submit thanks to package maintainers on the other 364 days of the year
;).</p>



<toc-add-entry name="screenshots">Screenshots at <tt>packages.debian.org</tt></toc-add-entry>

<p>As it is often easier to get an impression of an application by looking
at screenshots, instead of just reading a descriptive text, Gerfried
Fuchs <a
href="http://rhonda.deb.at/blog/debian/packages-screenshots.html">has
integrated</a> the <a
href="http://screenshots.debian.net"><tt>screenshots.debian.net</tt> service</a>
into the package information at <a
href="https://packages.debian.org"><tt>packages.debian.org</tt></a>.  See for example
the screenshot of the package <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/sid/extremetuxracer">extremetuxracer</a>.</p>

<p>For packages that do not yet have a screenshot available, a placeholder
image is shown. Users are encouraged to contribute by uploading their own
screenshots for their favourite applications.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="arm">Some bits from ARM porters</toc-add-entry>

<p>Riku Voipio published some <q><a
href="http://suihkulokki.blogspot.com/2010/08/unnofficial-bits-from-arm-porters.html">unofficial
bits from the ARM porters</a></q> in which he thanked ARM and Canonical for
sponsoring new machines for the project.  Besides giving Debian Contributors
a three times faster machine for their development work, it has allowed the buildd
infrastructure of machines automatically building new packages for specific architectures
and suites to be renewed, so that experimental
packages, <a href="http://www.debian.org/volatile/">volatile</a> packages,
non-free packages and packages from <a
href="http://www.backports.org/"><tt>backports.org</tt></a> are now automatically
built as well.  Finally, he announced some work being done on a <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2010/08/msg00008.html">Hardfloat
ARM port</a>, which will work better on newer ARM processors with a hardware
floating-point unit.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="dc">Join the DebConf Team</toc-add-entry>

<p>Richard Darst started a <a
href="http://debian-administration.org/users/rkd/weblog/1">series of blog
posts about the organisation of the annual Debian Conference</a> by
commenting on the recent <q>DebConf &amp; Debian</q> discussion. He
doesn't see a difference between the two, and invites all interested
people to join the organisation team by subscribing to the <a
href="http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team">DebConf team
mailing list</a> and joining the <tt>#debconf-team</tt> IRC channel on
<tt>irc.debian.org</tt>. In his
<a href="http://debian-administration.org/users/rkd/weblog/2">second post</a>,
he explained the timeline of a DebConf.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="kfreebsd">Progress of the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD port</toc-add-entry>

<p>Different aspects of the port of the Debian operating system <a
href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">to the FreeBSD kernel</a>
have made great progress recently.  The Debian installer has been <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20100818113558.GA24988@hall.aurel32.net">upgraded</a>
to the FreeBSD kernel version 8.1, which also allows the
installation system to be used in languages other than English. Also the <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/debian-cd">debian-cd</a> scripts used to
create CD and DVD images <a
href="http://blog.einval.com/2010/08/20#kfreebsd_cds">now support the creation
of the new architectures</a>. Daily build images for Debian unstable are
already available; daily and weekly builds for <q>Squeeze</q> will be made available
with the next beta release of the Debian installer. However, the Debian
GNU/kFreeBSD related web pages are outdated, and help is needed to <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/4C6EAAE9.7090500@aurel32.net">fix the web and
wiki pages</a>.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="mia">Bits from the MIA team</toc-add-entry>

<p>Jan Hauke Rahm sent some <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20100819082337.GA3379@ca.home.jhr-online.de">bits
from the MIA team</a>, which tries to identify and handle package maintainers
who sadly have become inactive. He gave some advice on how package maintainers should
react when they think a package has been neglected by its maintainer, and
stressed that the work of the <q>MIA</q> team is an important aspect of
quality assurance.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="other">Other news</toc-add-entry>

<p>Valessio Brito <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20100822233610.17057e8pnlc6inq2@ssl.eumx.net">wondered</a>
whether a webchat interface similar to the one used during the last Debian conference
should be permanently available, to make it easier for users unfamiliar with
IRC to join.</p>

<p>Martin Zobel-Helas <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/20100817190121.GA31072@ftbfs.de">noted</a> that
now more than 50% of Debian's hosts and public services are reachable over
IPv6.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="rcstats">Release-critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release</toc-add-entry>

	<p>According to the <a href="http://bts.turmzimmer.net/details.php">unofficial
	release-critical bug counter</a>, the upcoming release,
	Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q>, is currently affected by
302 release-critical bugs. Ignoring bugs which are easily solved
	or on the way to being solved, roughly speaking, about
128 release critical bugs remain to be solved for the
	release to happen.</p>

	<p>There are also <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/rc-stats/#2010-33">more detailed
	statistics</a> as well as some <a
	href="https://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/RC-Stats">hints on how to
	interpret</a> these numbers.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="dsa">Important Debian Security Advisories</toc-add-entry>

	<p>Debian's Security Team recently released
	advisories for these packages (among others):
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2091">squirrelmail</a>,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2092">lxr-cvs</a>,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-1919">smarty (update)</a>,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2093">ghostscript</a>,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2094">Linux 2.6.26</a>,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2095">lvm2</a>, and
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2096">zope-ldapuserfolder</a>.
	Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.</p>

<p>Please note that these are a selection of the more important security
advisories of the last weeks. If you need to be kept up to date about
security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please
subscribe to the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/">security mailing
list</a> for announcements.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="nnwp">New and noteworthy packages</toc-add-entry>

<p>The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive
recently (<a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg">among
others</a>):</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/3depict">3depict &mdash; visualisation and analysis for single valued point data</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/bluedevil">bluedevil &mdash; KDE Bluetooth stack</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/eatmydata">eatmydata &mdash; library and utilities designed to disable fsync and friends</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/font-manager">font-manager &mdash; font management application for the GNOME desktop</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/freetts">freetts &mdash; speech synthesis system</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gitit">gitit &mdash; wiki engine backed by a Git or Darcs filestore</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/luakit">luakit &mdash; fast and small web browser extensible by Lua</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mpris-remote">mpris-remote &mdash; command-line interface for MPRIS compatible media players</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/mricron">mricron &mdash; magnetic resonance image conversion, viewing and analysis</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/phoneui-apps">phoneui-apps &mdash; SHR applications</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/spectacle">spectacle &mdash; RPM Spec file generator and management tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/stackapplet">stackapplet &mdash; panel applet to track reputation on StackExchange sites</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/wordpress-shibboleth">wordpress-shibboleth &mdash; Shibboleth plugin for WordPress</a></li>
</ul>



<toc-add-entry name="wnpp">Work-needing packages</toc-add-entry>

	<p>Currently
576 packages are orphaned and
135 packages are up for adoption. Please take a look at the
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/E1Oji8F-0004w9-3M@merkel.debian.org">recent</a>
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/E1OmFTO-0002lR-Jb@merkel.debian.org">reports</a>
	to see if there are packages you are interested in or view the complete
	list of <a href="http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested">packages
	which need your help</a>.</p>



<toc-add-entry name="continuedpn">Want to continue reading DPN?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Please help us create this newsletter.  We still need more volunteer writers
to watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the
<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute">contributing
page</a> to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail
at <a href="mailto:debian-publicity@lists.debian.org">debian-publicity@lists.debian.org</a>.</p>


#use wml::debian::projectnews::footer editor="Jeremiah C. Foster, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl"
<!-- Translators may also add a translator="foo, bar, baz" to the previous line -->