New stuff in lenny:

Kernel and utilities

Expected

Desktop

Expected

  • Gecko 1.9
    • Rendering uses native widgets
  • KDE 4.1?
  • Iceweasel/Firefox 3 [?]
    • drag and drop tabs across windows

Laptop

  • cpu frequency scaling enabled by default.

Server

Programming

  • Python 2.5 as the default Python interpreter
  • Tcl/Tk 8.5
  • Perl 5.10
  • GCC 4.3
    • gcc/g++ 4.2/4.3 as default C/C++ compiler depending on architecture
    • gfortran 4.3 as default FORTRAN compiler (g77 has been removed)
  • ROOT data analysis package/toolkit, version 5.18, see ["DebianScience/ROOT"]

Debian system

  • Support of symbols files (dpkg-gensymbols, dpkg-shlibdeps)
  • Support of new source package formats (so that they can be used in lenny+1)
  • debhelper 7
  • dpkg triggers
    • Manual page database updated automatically when installing packages
  • apt-get autoremove
  • Usable cross-building support of Debian packages with Debian tools.
  • DebianVolatile is official.

  • kerneloops / kerneloops.org

Expected

  • TDebs (?)

Debian Installer

Only major changes are listed. For details the various release announcements can be checked.

  • Support for multiple CDs/DVDs during the installation
  • Update of system clock using NTP
  • volatile.debian.org added to sources.list by default
  • Experimental support for SATA RAID (dmraid)
  • relatime mount option
  • isolinux boot menu (i386/amd64)
  • Option to install Debian from MS Windows (i386/amd64)
  • Various changes affecting automated installs (preseeding)
  • New hardware support: ...
  • New translations: ...
  • Dropped translations: ...
  • ...

Expected

  • multipath support
  • relatime default

No longer supported in Lenny

Even though the page is called "New" this is probably the best place to track major changes in this category too (after all, the fact that support for something was dropped is new too). -- fjp

Upgrade issues

This section lists (potential) upgrade issues that may need to be documented.

  • [sparc] 2.6.26 kernel does not work with X.Org 7.0/7.1, but should work with 7.3; see [http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/6/3/43 lkml]

  • [i386] Some AMD systems using k7 kernels may end up with non-working kernel after upgrade as replacing pseudo-packages depend on the 686 flavor, but some older k7 systems may not have SSE support. See also: [http://bugs.debian.org/490542 #490542].

Notes

  • a good start would be to review the programs in default tasks + the most installed programs not in tasks.
  • New hardware support ; new modules ?


The layout for this page can have two axis. We'll have to figure out how to write it down at some point :

  1. New vs dropped feature :
    • New stuffs (especially those with high popcon count !)
    • Improved stuff since Etch.
    • Dropped stuffs
    • Deprecated stuffs
  2. Categories
    • Infrastructure, Organization, etc.
    • Architectures.
    • Software Theoretically, we should focus on user features (i.e sysadmin feature). However, considering our audience, we should include a few word on technologies

      • Common software (kernel)
      • Server oriented software.
      • Desktop oriented software.
      • Developer features (esp. DD ?).
      • Other features (embedded, etc.)
    • Miscellaneous (the last but not the least) : Debian Installer, Debian Live, LSB, CDD