[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none

(!) ["/Discussion"]



Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:

TODO:

First Release Candidate for the new Debian Installer

Otavio Salvador [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/11/msg00002.html announced] the first release candidate for the installer to be shipped with Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny".

Improvements since the last beta release include:

Images are available for testing at [http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ the Debian Installer website] which also contains an [http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata errata list]. After testing the installer please send a report about the installation as explained in the [http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s03.html#submit-bug Debian Installer manual].

Tracking GCC 4.4 related build errors

Martin Michlmayr [http://www.cyrius.com/journal/gcc/gcc-4.4-archive-build announced] the results from an archive rebuild with a snapshot of the upcoming GCC 4.4. About 220 bugs were filed as part of the archive rebuild and a small number of build failures still need to be analyzed. The majority of GCC 4.4 related build failures are trivial, often because of [http://www.cyrius.com/journal/gcc/gcc-4.4-preprocessor-errors improved] preprocessor checks in GCC 4.4 or [http://www.cyrius.com/journal/gcc/gcc-4.4-include missing] #include statements.

Debian screenshot service started

Christoph Haas [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/11/msg00003.html announced] a new [http://screenshots.debian.net screenshots.debian.net] web site that serves as a public repository of screenshots of applications contained in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It was created to help users get an impression of what a given piece of software will look like on their desktops before they install it. Anybody can take screenshots and upload them; the site admin team will review the contributions before they become publicly visible. Support for screenshots has already been built into the [http://packages.debian.org/synaptic synaptic] package manager, while integration in specialized package browsers like [http://packages.debian.org/goplay goplay] and the [http://packages.debian.org general web interface] are being discussed.

"Open Use Logo" relicensed

Francesco Poli noted that the license for the [http://www.debian.org/logos/ "Open Use Logo"] (also known as the "swirl") has been changed from a license considered to be non-free to an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License MIT style license] granting more rights to everyone. This fixes a long standing [http://bugs.debian.org/212895 bug].

The new license grants everyone the right to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the logo while the logo with the trademarked text "Debian" may still only be used to refer to the Debian project.

Call for Help: Debian 5.0 release notes

Martin Borgert [http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc/2008/11/msg00034.html asked for help] for the release notes of the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny". Some noteworthy problems have not yet been documented, so he asks for volunteers who understood some of these issues to write about them.

His mail contains a list of open issues as well as instructions for how texts should be submitted.

Custom Debian Distributions renamed and new services available

Andreas Tille [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2008/11/msg00001.html announced] that the Custom Debian Distributions (more or less, package sets for specific needs maintained inside Debian) should now be referred to as "Debian Pure Blends". The name has been changed, since the old one was misleading. Many people thought Custom Debian Distributions were something maintained outside of Debian adding new features. After some discussion members of all these teams agreed on the new name, hoping it would clarify their status (though this [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00202.html was] [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00249.html not] universally seen as a success).

He also announced two web services for quality assurance: one can be used to list bugs reported against packages of Debian Pure Blends, while the second one lists packages of interest for them. URLs for the services for each of the Pure Blends are given in his mail.

Survey about the Debian Wiki

Anne Goldenberg, a PhD student in communication and sociology, who is currently studying the Debian Wiki, [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/10/msg00757.html announced] a [http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/labcmo/portraitdulibre/index.php?sid=65733&lang=en survey] aimed at gaining a better understanding of the uses and conceptions of the Debian Wiki within the Debian community. The results will be put online under a free license and announced via the mailing-lists.

A [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWikiSurvey Debian Wiki page describing the survey] is also available.

New Developers

3 applicants have been [http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2008/11/msg00027.html accepted] as Debian Maintainers since the previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Giuseppe Iuculano, Thorsten Glaser and Franck Joncourt to our project!

Other news

Florian Weimer [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00310.html noted] that the names of source packages should not be reused, even if the name hasn't been used for a while. Some parts of Debian's infrastructure (including the [http://packages.qa.debian.org package tracking system] and the [http://security-tracker.debian.net/tracker/ security tracker] don't handle that very well.

Vincent Bernat [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00343.html wondered] how to name system accounts used for installed services. Referring to a [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00343.html wiki page] he asked to standardize the naming scheme. Some packages use a prefix "debian-", while there is also some support for the way OpenBSD handles it by prefixing system accounts with an underscore.

Holger Levsen [http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2008/11/msg00038.html announced] a web service showing how far DebianEdu, the Debian pure blend taking care of the needs of teachers and schools, is away from Debian itself.

Important Debian Security Advisories

Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages (among others): [http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1662 mysql], [http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1663 net-snmp] and [http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1666 libxml2]. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.

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

New and noteworthy packages

The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently ([http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/newpkg among others]):

Debian Package of the Day featured the packages [http://debaday.debian.net/2008/11/16/remind-a-text-based-agenda-and-todolist-manager/ remind] (a text based agenda and todolist manager) and [http://debaday.debian.net/2008/11/09/apt-p2p-peer-to-peer-downloading-of-debian-packages/ apt-P2P] (peer-to-peer downloading for Debian packages).

Work-needing packages

Currently 489 packages are orphaned and 118 packages are up for adoption. Please take a look at the [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00104.html recent] [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/11/msg00330.html reports] to see if there are packages you are interested in or view the complete list of [http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested packages which need your help].

Want to continue reading DPN?

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 [http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/HowToContribute contributing page] to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at debian-publicity@lists.debian.org.

[http://www.techforce.com.br Andre Felipe Machado], Martin Michlmayr, Christoph Haas and Z contributed to this issue of the Debian Project News.


CategoryProjectNews