path: root/english/News/weekly/2011/06/index.wml

#use wml::debian::projectnews::header PUBDATE="2011-04-18" SUMMARY="Kicking off <q>Wheezy</q>, registrations and contributions for DebConf11, FTP Master meeting"
#use wml::debian::acronyms

<define-tag MID whitespace=delete>https://lists.debian.org/$0</define-tag>

# Copyright (c) 2011 Alexander Reichle-Schmehl
# Copyright (c) 2011 David Prévot
# Copyright (c) 2011 Jeremiah C. Foster 
# Copyright (c) 2011 Francesca Ciceri 
# 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 sixth issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:</p>

<toc-display/>


<toc-add-entry name="wheezy">Bits from the Release Team &mdash; Kicking off <q>Wheezy</q></toc-add-entry>

<p>
Neil McGovern sent some <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/03/msg00016.html">\
bits from the Release Team</a> calling for feedback on the recent release.
He also addresses various subjects that are currently under discussion:
time-based freezes, transitions, release goals, sprint organisation and
0-day NMU policy.
</p>

# Removal: Old libs, HAL, defoma
<p>
Luk Claes proposed (amongst other ideas) continuing the <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2011/03/msg00492.html">\
removal of obsolete libraries</a>. Josselin Mouette suggested <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2011/03/msg00493.html">\
starting</a> with <a href="https://packages.debian.org/src:hal">HAL</a> and
<code><a href="https://packages.debian.org/src:gnome-vfs">gnome-vfs</a></code>.
Although there has been some progress towards getting rid of HAL (still used by
<code><a href="https://packages.debian.org/xserver-xorg">xserver-xorg</a></code>
on kFreeBSD), Cyril Brulebois pointed out that <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01194.html">\
this effort is stalled for now</a>.
Christian Perrier also proposed to <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01166.html">\
drop </a><code><a href="https://packages.debian.org/defoma">defoma</a></code>.
</p>

# NM as Default (next: libreoffice-writer as standard text editor)
<p>
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01146.html">\
Limitations</a> in <code><a href="https://packages.debian.org/ifupdown">ifupdown</a></code>
led to calls for an
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01167.html">\
overhaul</a> of Debian's default network management infrastructure.
<code><a
href="https://packages.debian.org/network-manager">network-manager</a></code>
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00041.html">could
be adopted</a> to this end, though this proposal has provoked a great many
objections, whether
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00051.html">\
rational</a> or <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00120.html">\
less so</a>.
</p>

# Other Release Goals
<p>
Among other <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01136.html">\
release goal proposals</a> (such as read-only root file system and
C.UTF-8 provided by default), Roger Leigh started a <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg01118.html">\
discussion about supporting <code>/run</code> for <q>Wheezy</q></a>.</p>

<p>
Stefano Zacchiroli proposed <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2011/03/msg00510.html">\
some further release goals</a> relating to package quality, and relaunched the
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00091.html">\
time based freezes</a> proposal.  He argued that fixed freeze dates would
allow Debian's developer base to improve planning and coordination with
upstream developers, and underlined that the first part of the
<q>Squeeze</q> freeze (blocking library transitions while being lax about
general migration of new packages) was quite successful, and that it
should be done similarly in the future.  While the time frame for such
freezes (and <a href="https://lists.debian.org/20110404070550.GL21476@rivendell.home.ouaza.com">how
they should be announced</a>) is still being discussed, there generally seems to be a
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/20110407160009.GA25468@upsilon.cc">consensus
in favour</a>.
</p>

<toc-add-entry name="debconf">Registration now open for DebConf11 and call for contributions</toc-add-entry>

<p>
Gunnar Wolf announced the <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/04/msg00005.html">\
opening of DebConf11 registration</a>.
<a href="http://debconf11.debconf.org/register.xhtml">Registration
instructions</a> are available and the deadline for sponsored food and
accommodation is 8 May 2011. A <a href="$(HOME)/News/2011/20110408">\
call for contributions</a> has also been sent, and the organisers
welcome all sort of submissions: performances, art installations,
debates, or anything else can be proposed as well as traditional talks.
There will be a poster session this year.
More information on submissions of events or posters is available on
the <a href="http://debconf11.debconf.org/cfp.xhtml">DebConf11
website</a> and the deadline for submissions is also 8 May 2011.
</p>


<toc-add-entry name="FTPMaster">Report from the FTP Master meeting</toc-add-entry>

<p>
J&ouml;rg Jaspert sent a <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/03/msg00015.html">report
from the FTP Master meeting</a> which was held at Linux Hotel in Essen,
21&ndash;27 March. During the meeting a lot of work was done, in
various areas:
</p>

<ul>
<li>
an upgrade of the main archive machine (as well as backports and
security machines) to <q>Squeeze</q> was performed;
</li>
<li>
the update frequency
of the DD accessible copy of the <code>dak</code> installation (moved from
<tt>merkel.debian.org</tt> to <tt>ries.debian.org</tt>) was changed to
reflect the database changes immediately
</li> 
<li>
a new field (<code>Built-Using</code>) was implemented in <code>dak</code>
and a related patch for <code><a
href="https://packages.debian.org/dpkg">dpkg</a></code> has been prepared
</li> 
<li>
the creation of the <code>Maintainers</code> and <code>Uploaders</code> files
was sped up (from roughly 15 minutes to about a minute)
</li> 
<li>
the project of enabling autosigning for the buildds has finally been completed
</li> 
<li>binary-all <code>dists</code> files were added</li> 
</ul>

<p>
Meanwhile, in a discussion with the Debian GNU/Hurd porters it was
decided that the Hurd port will stay on <tt>ftp-master.debian.org</tt>
until <q>Wheezy</q> is released, while the alpha port will be completely
removed from Debian and the hppa port will move over to <tt>debian-ports.org</tt>.

As a side note, J&ouml;rg added that during the meeting Ansgar Burchardt was
appointed to the post of FTP Assistant; congratulations, Ansgar!
</p>


<toc-add-entry name="cant">The Canterbury Project: an amazing example of
cross-distro collaboration</toc-add-entry>

<p>
Gerfried Fuchs blogged from <a
href="http://rhonda.deb.at/blog/debian/the-canterbury-project.html">behind
the scenes of one of the most hilarious &mdash; and well orchestrated &mdash;
April Fools' pranks of this year: the Canterbury Project</a>. As you probably
noticed, on the morning of April the first, the homepages of Arch Linux,
Debian, Gentoo, Grml and OpenSUSE were replaced by a <a
href="https://www.debian.org/misc/canterbury">placeholder</a> announcing the
merging of all these distributions into one new one.
In the posting, Gerfried said that the initial idea was to simply do a sort of
exchange of homepages between participants. <q>Then the thing happened which
the Free Software community is so well known for: additional ideas came in,
two people independently addressed me whether it wouldn't be better that
instead of a circle replacement of the frontpage, why not display the same
page on all of them. And one of them added that a corresponding news item
might make sense.</q> said Gerfried. Another example of new ideas coming
up during the whole Canterbury Project was the introduction of the <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/cant">cant package manager</a> (see also
<a href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/cant-package-manager">Alexander's
blog for details</a>).
Gerfried revealed also the reason behind the name <q>Canterbury</q>: it was
adopted when Alexander Reichle-Schmehl noticed that, according to the
relevant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day">Wikipedia
page</a>, <q>the earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness
can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392)</q>.
As a final note, Gerfried added that even if the all-in-one distribution was only
a joke, the cross-distro collaboration was real and exciting, and thanked all
the participants for their efforts.
</p>

<toc-add-entry name="med">Report from Med@Tel</toc-add-entry>

<p>Andreas Tille sent a <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2011/04/msg00024.html">report
from the Med@Tel conference</a> held in Luxembourg and dedicated to medicine
informatics. This year, Andreas delivered a talk titled <a
href="http://people.debian.org/~tille/talks/201104_luxembourg"><q>Benefits of
Free/Libre Open Source Software in Health Care (FLOSS-HC): Communities,
Collaboration, Development Issues, Technology Transfer</q></a>, based on a
paper written by the Debian Med team. As Andreas reported, the talk was well
received and the main impression is that the Debian Med Blend itself is
considered as a really helpful and needed thing. It also seems that
Debian Med and other important &mdash; and very useful &mdash; Blends are little known
by the wider public.
For this reason, Andreas proposed to use microblogging to better promote the existence of
Debian Med and &mdash; in the following thread &mdash; <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2011/04/msg00032.html">many
other ways to improve the visibility of Debian Blends</a>.
</p>

<toc-add-entry name="twid">Further interviews</toc-add-entry>

	<p>Since the last issue of the Debian Project News, 
two new issues of the <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/ThisWeekInDebian"><q>This week in
	Debian</q> podcast</a> have been published:  with <a
href="http://frostbitemedia.libsyn.com/this-week-in-debian-episode-24">Jonathan
Nadeau</a>, about current Debian news; and with <a
href="http://frostbitemedia.libsyn.com/this-week-in-debian-episode-25">Roberto
Sanchez</a>, who gave a talk at the Northeast GNU/Linux Fest.
</p>

	<p>There have also been
two further <q>People behind Debian</q> interviews: with
<a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/03/28/people-behind-debian-bdale-garbee-chair-of-the-technical-committee/">\
Bdale Garbee</a>, chair of the technical committee; and with
<a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/04/07/people-behind-debian-adam-d-barratt-release-manager/">\
Adam D. Barratt</a>, release manager.
</p>


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

<p>
Steve McIntyre made available online a new <a
href="http://cdimage-search.debian.org">cdimage search tool</a> that
has knowledge of just about all the Debian CDs and DVDs produced by
Debian since the Woody release, covering all the official releases
(both older archived releases and the current <q>stable</q> release)
and the current sets of daily and weekly testing builds.
</p>

# Needs to add a link to the result and some stats.
	<p>
	Stefano Zacchiroli has just been <a
href="$(VOTE)/2011/vote_001">\
	reelected as Debian Project Leader</a>, supported by
98% of valid voters.
	Congratulations, and keep up the good work!
</p>

<p>Guido G&uuml;nther sent some <a
href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/04/msg00003.html">bits
from the fourth Debian Groupware Meeting</a>, held
at the Linux Hotel in Essen, Germany. During the weekend the group has fixed
various issues (mostly related to <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/gnome-shell">gnome-shell</a> in <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/iceowl">iceowl</a>), and has been able to push
new versions of <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/icedove">icedove</a> and <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/iceowl">iceowl</a> to <q>unstable</q> and to resurrect the
<a href="https://packages.debian.org/iceowl-l10n">iceowl-l10n</a> language packs. Some work was also done on <a
href="https://packages.debian.org/src:citadel">Citadel</a>, Z-Push and
SOGo.</p>

<p>Raj Mathur sent a <a
href="http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/msg28166.html">report
about a large Debian installation in India</a>: the installation involved
about 2,500 desktops and 40 servers, on which were installed <q>Squeeze</q> and
<q>Wheezy</q>. The installation was done in six different locations in India for a large call-out
business headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Well done!</p>

<p>Cyril Brulebois published the <a
href="http://blog.ikibiki.org/2011/04/03/DXN-8/">eighth</a>, <a
href="http://blog.ikibiki.org/2011/04/10/DXN-9/">ninth</a> and <a
href="http://blog.ikibiki.org/2011/04/11/DXN-10/">tenth</a> issues of his
Debian XSF News.</p>

<p>Rapha&euml;l Hertzog blogged about his <q><a
href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/04/11/journey-of-a-new-gnome-3-debian-packager/">journey of a new
GNOME 3 Debian packager</a></q>.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="newcontributors">New Debian Contributors</toc-add-entry>

	<p>
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2011/04/msg00004.html">\
Seven applicants</a> have been accepted
	as Debian Maintainers
	since the previous issue of the Debian
	Project News. Please welcome
Pau Garcia i Quiles, Andrew O. Shadoura, Ignace Mouzannar,
Hans-Christoph Steiner, Timo Juhani Lindfors, Jaromir Mikes,
and Asias He into our project!</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="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2205">gdm3</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2206">mahara</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2207">tomcat5.5</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2208">bind9</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2209">tgt</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2210">tiff</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2211">vlc</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2212">tmux</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2213">x11-xserver-utils</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2214">ikiwiki</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2215">gitolite</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2216">isc-dhcp</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2217">dhcp3</a>, and
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2218">vlc</a>.
	Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.</p>

        <p>Debian's Backports Team released advisories for these packages:
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/03/msg00002.html">iceweasel</a>,
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/03/msg00003.html">nss</a>,
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/04/msg00000.html">squid3</a>, and
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/2011/04/msg00001.html">tmux</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> (and the separate <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/">backports
list</a>, and <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-stable-announce/">stable updates
list</a> or <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce/">volatile
list</a>, for <q>Lenny</q>, the oldstable distribution) for announcements.</p>


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

<p>
1244 packages were added to the unstable Debian archive
recently. <a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg">Among
many others</a> are:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/4store">4store &mdash; RDF database storage and query engine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/biogenesis">biogenesis &mdash; artificial life program that simulates evolution of organisms</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/brewtarget">brewtarget &mdash; GUI beer brewing software</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/clam-networkeditor">clam-networkeditor &mdash; prototyping tool for CLAM</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cliquer">cliquer &mdash; clique searching program</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/commit-patch">commit-patch &mdash; utility to commit fine grained patches to source code control repositories</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cpan-listchanges">cpan-listchanges &mdash; package change history notification tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/cpanminus">cpanminus &mdash; script to get, unpack, build and install modules from CPAN</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ctioga2">ctioga2 &mdash; polymorphic plotting program</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/daisy-player">daisy-player &mdash; player for DAISY Digital Talking Books</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/darnwdl">darnwdl &mdash; WDL document format viewer</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/downtimed">downtimed &mdash; monitor of downtime, shutdown, and crashes</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/facturlinex2">facturlinex2 &mdash; ERP/CRM for small and medium businesses</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fadecut">fadecut &mdash; toolset to rip audiostreams, cut, fade in/out and tag the resulting audiofiles</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/fcitx-config-gtk">fcitx-config-gtk &mdash; graphic fcitx configuration tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/florence">florence &mdash; extensible and scalable virtual keyboard for GNOME</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gaduhistory">gaduhistory &mdash; EKG history viewer</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/gem2deb">gem2deb &mdash; Debian Ruby packaging suite</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/get-flash-videos">get-flash-videos &mdash; program to download Flash videos</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/haci">haci &mdash; web based IP(v6) address and network administration tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/hydra">hydra &mdash; very fast network login cracker</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ipxe">ipxe &mdash; PXE boot firmware</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/jstest-gtk">jstest-gtk &mdash; joystick testing and configuration tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/laditools">laditools &mdash; set of tools to control and monitor LADI (JACK+LASH) system</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/logtop">logtop &mdash; real time log line rate analyzer</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/npm">npm &mdash; package manager for node.js</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/openafs-fuse">openafs-fuse &mdash; AFS distributed file system experimental FUSE client</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/oxref">oxref &mdash; cross reference utility</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/photofilmstrip">photofilmstrip &mdash; slide show creator with Ken Burns effect</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/pnp4nagios">pnp4nagios &mdash; Nagios addon to create graphs from performance data</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/psensor">psensor &mdash; display graphs for monitoring hardware temperature</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/qmail">qmail &mdash; secure, reliable, efficient, simple message transfer agent</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/scolasync">scolasync &mdash; graphic tool to copy data to or from a set of USB storage media</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/scute">scute &mdash; OpenPGP smartcard plugin for Mozilla Network Security Services</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ssl-cert-check">ssl-cert-check &mdash; proactively handling X.509 certificate expiration</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/sslstrip">sslstrip &mdash; SSL/TLS man-in-the-middle attack tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/starman">starman &mdash; high-performance preforking PSGI/Plack web server</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/synapse">synapse &mdash; semantic file launcher</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/twms">twms &mdash; tiny web map service</a></li>
</ul>


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

	<p>Currently
<a href="$(DEVEL)/wnpp/orphaned">314 packages are orphaned</a> and
<a href="$(DEVEL)/wnpp/rfa">154 packages are up for adoption</a>: please visit the complete 
	list of <a href="$(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="Justin B. Rye, Jeremiah C. Foster, Francesca Ciceri, David Pr&eacute;vot, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl"
# Translators may also add a translator="foo, bar, baz" to the previous line