#use wml::debian::projectnews::header PUBDATE="2011-01-31" SUMMARY="Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> to be released this weekend, Join the DebConf team, Bits from the Security Team"
#use wml::debian::acronyms

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# $Rev$
# Status: content-frozen

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

# Copyright (c) 2011 Alexander Reichle-Schmehl
# Copyright (c) 2011 Jeremiah C. Foster
# Copyright (c) 2011 Francesca Ciceri
# Copyright (c) 2011 David Paleino
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<a name="0"></a>
<p>Welcome to this year's second issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#1">Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> to be released this weekend</a></li>
  <li><a href="#2">Join the DebConf team</a></li>
  <li><a href="#3">Bits from the Security Team</a></li>
  <li><a href="#4">Debunking Myths About Debian's Firmware (non-)Removal</a></li>
  <li><a href="#5">Updated Debian GNU/Linux: 5.0.8 released</a></li>
  <li><a href="#6">Debian Installer 6.0 RC2 released</a></li>
  <li><a href="#7">Cross-distro Application Installer</a></li>
  <li><a href="#8">On the maintainability of Ruby</a></li>
  <li><a href="#9">Bits from Debian GIS</a></li>
  <li><a href="#10">Debian Project at several conferences and trade fairs</a></li>
  <li><a href="#11">Further <q>This week in Debian</q> interviews</a></li>
  <li><a href="#12">... and much more</a>.</li>
</ul>


<a name="1"></a>
<h2>Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> to be released this weekend</h2>

<p>Release Manager Neil McGovern <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110118193635.GC4061@halon.org.uk">announced the release date of Debian 6.0
<q>Squeeze</q></a>:  On the very next weekend, the weekend of the 5th and
6th February  Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q> will finally be realed as a stable
release!  Final work towards has began, inlcuding preparation for <a
href="http://wiki.debian.org/ReleasePartySqueeze">release parties</a> all
over the world!</p>

<p>For those of the community waiting impatiently for the release, <a
href="http://news.debian.net/2011/01/22/join-us-in-the-countdown-to-squeeze/">news.debian.net</a>
provides a <a href="http://news.debian.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/squeeze_countdown.png">countdown
banner</a>.  As the release process takes quite some time, members of the
Debian Project while provide live comments and interesting facts via <a
href="http://identi.ca/debian">Debian's official identi.ca account</a>.</p>

<p>One interesting number has already <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/bugs-closed-for-squeeze">been noted
down</a>:  In the two years of development of Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q>
the Debian Project has closed 149,862 bugs. Thank you everyone for this
fantastic work!</p>


<a name="2"></a>
<h2>Join the DebConf team</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.debconf.org/">DebConf</a> is a yearly conference for the Debian community. Like 
everything else in Debian, DebConf is run completely by volunteers. Organizing 
a conference is a lot of work as you might imagine, so it is no surprise that
the DebConf team is eager to have people help out. As Richard Darst <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/01/msg00004.html">writes</a>:</p>
<q>DebConf is a huge process, and there are many things we could use help
on.  People come and go, and are usually overworked after a year or
two &mdash; so we would love new people to get involved.  If you have new
ideas, we'd love to hear about them and we can discuss if they'd work
and how to make them happen. And by the way, if you are looking for a
good way to get involved with Debian and don't know where to start,
this might be among the best options!</q></p>


<a name="3"></a>
<h2>Bits from the Security Team</h2>

<p>
Thijs Kinkhorst sent some <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/201101232332.11736.thijs@debian.org">bits from
the Debian Security Team</a> reporting about the group's meeting at the <a href="http://www.linuxhotel.de/">Linux
Hotel</a> in Essen, Germany. Among the things they discussed was various
improvements to the team workflow, particularly regarding therelease
process of Debian Security Advisories - redesigned from the ground up; a longer security support for Debian
stable - still a proposal - and backports security support. The report also
mentions various other interesting topics as <q>Beta testing</q> of security
updates, a README.test file to include into packages to explain how its
functionality can be tested, and the problem of some specific packages which
are difficult to handled because of they include a lot of source packages.
The mail ends with a call for volunteers. More details can be read on the
full <a
href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianSecurity/Meetings/2011-01-14">minutes of
the meeting</a>.
</p>

<p>In related news, Simon Paillard from our mirrors team, gave some <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110126221211.GA8460@toshi">news
for sponsors of Debian mirrors</a>.  An interesting part of it was his
request for help to provide more official mirrors of the security archive.
He's especially interested in new official mirrors in South America, Asia
and Africa.</p>


<a name="4"></a>
<h2>Debunking Myths About Debian's Firmware (non-)Removal</h2>

<p>After noticing, that Debian's recent announcement to <a
href="http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20101215">release Debian 6.0
<q>Squeeze</q> with a completly free Linux kernel</a> seems to have been
often missunderstood, Debian Developer Alexander Reichle-Schmehl <a
href="http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/myths-and-facts-about-firmware">debunked
some myth about the non-Removal of Firmwares</a>, including <q>Debian
removed all firmware files from its kernels</q> (short answer:  No);
<q>Debian will be uninstallable for many users</q> (short answer:  There
are <a
href="http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/">netinstall</a>
images and <a
href="http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/">tarballs</a>
for other installation media available): <q>Ah, those Debian freedom
zealots again...</q> (short answer:  It's not only Debian).</p>

<p>He also explained some of the reasons for the fuss about non-free
firmware files, and recommended all people, who find it difficult to find
the non-free images, to just remember two things: wiki and Firmware,
as everything one would need can be found on the <a
href="http://wiki.debian.org/Firmware">Firmware page of Debian's
wiki</a>.</p>


<a name="5"></a>
<h2>Updated Debian GNU/Linux: 5.0.8 released</h2>

<p>
A new <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110122">update for Debian
GNU/Linux 5.0 <q>Lenny</q></a> has been released. This update mainly adds
corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few
adjustment to serious problems.
</p>


<a name="6"></a>
<h2>Debian Installer 6.0 RC2 released</h2>

<p>
The second release candidate of the installer for Debian Squeeze was <a
href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2011/20110122">released
on January 22nd</a>. Some fixes, e.g. keyboard configuration for the
graphical installer fixed for several languages, have been included in this
releases of the installer.
<br />
The <a href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata">errata</a>
collects some details and a full list of known issues. You are encouraged to
test the installer and report bugs; media and further information are
available on the <a
href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian Installer
page</a>.
</p>

<p>In related news, Matthew Palmer announced test images of the <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110121035943.GK3846@hezmatt.org">debian-installer
supporting IPv6 </a>(suitable for IPv6-only networks) and <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110124104234.GH20367@hezmatt.org">test
images supporting Wi-Fi Protected Access</a> (WPA).  He calls for testers
for both images.</p>

<a name="7"></a>
<h2>Cross-distro Application Installer</h2>

<p>
Enrico Zini has published on his blog a <a
href="http://www.enricozini.org/2011/debian/appinstaller2011/">report</a>of
his participation at the <a
href="http://distributions.freedesktop.org/wiki/Meetings/AppInstaller2011">Cross-distro
Meeting on Application Installer</a>.
The meeting, organised by <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110127021338.GA18879@upsilon.cc">Vincent
Untz</a>, was focused on metadata (both from
packages and users) and how to share them between distributions or, at
least,
how to define some standards for these metadata. Enrico has presented <a
href="http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/">Debtags</a> and <a
href="http://www.enricozini.org/sw/apt-xapian-index/">apt-xapian-index</a>,
two of the most powerful tools for handle package metadata in Debian. As 
a result of the meeting, there's now the intent of match package names 
across distributions.
</p>

<p>It's also nice to see, how Debian's services and projects like <a
href="http://screenshots.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a> (providing
screenshots of applications to users and package management frontends), <a
href="http://ddtp.debian.net">Debian Description Translation Project</a>
(DDTP for short; translating Debian package description into other
languages), or <a href="http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/">debtags</a>
(tagging debian packages for easier search) where a very welcome help and
much marveled by other representatives.</p>


<a name="8"></a>
<h2>On the maintainability of Ruby</h2>

<p>The maintainability of Ruby became <a
href="$(HOME)/News/project/2010/12/">again</a> topic of discussion, after
two of the long term package maintainers, decided to <a
href="http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=617">give up on ruby</a> <a
href="http://paul.luon.net/journal/debian/AlsoGivingUpOnRubyPackaging.html">and
related packaging</a>.  He explains some of the problems he sees, which
make it difficult for distributions to package Ruby and its libraries;
often problems seem to arrise due to different needs of developers and
administrators / distributors. The topic was also discussed in an article
on <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/423732/">Linux Weekly News</a>.  How
the situation will continue is not yet clear, even so some progress has
been reported.  Both maintainers also said, that they will be open to hand
over package maintainance of their Ruby related packages, to new
volunteers.</p>


<a name="9"></a>

<h2>Bits from Debian GIS</h2>
<p>The mailing list for general discussion of GIS issues in Debian
was moved from Alioth to <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-gis/">lists.debian.org</a>.
As usual at <tt>lists.debian.org</tt> is open also for non-subscribers, has
a more generic name and hopefully can attract more GIS users and
developers in Debian to discuss relevant issues.</p>
<p>The Debian GIS Blend has defined a new task <q>SAR and earth
observation</q>
at their <a href="http://blends.alioth.debian.org/gis/tasks">tasks page</a>
which contains a list of not yet official packages which are potential
targets for inclusion into Debian.  Feel free to discuss this task or
other ideas you might have about the GIS relevant packages on the
mailing list mentioned above.</p>
<p>Please note that Debian GIS also maintains OpenStreetMap-related
packages, together with the Debian OpenStreetMap Team
(<a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-osm/">pkg-osm on
Alioth</a>).
Feel free to join us!</p>


<a name="10"></a>
<h2>Debian Project at several conferences and trade fairs</h2>

<p>The Debian project <a
href="http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110126">announced</a>, that it will
be present on several upcoming <a href="http://www.debian.org/events/">events and trade fairs</a>, including
<a href="http://www.debian.org/events/2011/0202-cloudexpoeurope">Cloud Expo
Europe 2011</a> in London, United Kingdom,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/events/2011/0205-fosdem">FOSDEM</a> in
Brussels, Belgium, <a href="http://www.debian.org/events/2011/0225-scale9x">SCaLE</a> on Los Angeles, USA,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/events/2011/0301-cebit">CeBIT</a> in Hanover, Germany, and the <a
href="http://www.debian.org/events/2011/0319-linuxtage-chemnitz">Chemnitzer Linux-Tage</a> in Chemnitz,
Germany.</p>


<a name="11"></a>
<h2>Further <q>This week in Debian</q> interviews</h2>

<p>Since the last issue of the Debian Project News, one new issues of the
<a href="http://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-16">Jonas
Smedegaard</a>, discussing the Freedom Box.
</p>

<p>There has also been one furhter <q>People behind Debian</q> interview
with <a
href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/01/21/people-behind-debian-michael-vogt-synaptic-apt-developer/">Michael
Vogt</a>, synaptic and APT developer.</p>


<a name="12"></a>
<h2>Other news</h2>

<p>Aurelien Jarno announced the new <a
href="http://lists.debian.org/20110112184950.GA5244@hall.aurel32.net">debian-ports
archive signing key</a>, which will be used signing the archive with
unofficial ports.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://www.debian-administration.org">Debian
Administration</a> blog published a howto about <a
href="http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Installing_an_encrypted_openvpn_on_Lenny">installing
an encrypted openvpn on <q>Lenny</q></a> and one about <a
href="http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Creating_dynamic_volumes_with_loop_devices">creating
dynamic volumes with loop devices</a>.</p>

<p>Mike Hommey bloged about <a
href="http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1529">Changes to the Debian Mozilla team
APT archive</a>, where test versions of several Mozilla products (like
Firefox 3.6 and 4.0) are made available.</p>

<p>Rapha&euml;l Herzog noticed, that unlike <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/422710/">other</a>
<a href="http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandrivauser.de%2F">distributions</a>,
<a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/01/24/debian-is-eating-its-own-dog-food-more-than-ever/">Debian
is doing very well <q>eating his own dog food</q><a>, meaning that its
infrastructure is running on its own distribution.  He gave big kudos to
<a href="http://dsa.debian.org/">Debians System Adminstration Team</a> for
keeping more than <a href="http://db.debian.org/machines.cgi">140
servers</a> running Debian.</p>

<p>Cyril Brulebois published <a
href="http://blog.ikibiki.org/2011/01/21/DXN-2/">Debian XSF News</a>
summarize many recent events around package X.org in Debian.</p>

<p>Yves-Alexis Perez requested a <a
href="http://bugs.debian.org/610872">crypto declaration file
number to the French authorities</a>.  It is 1101027; he made <a
href="http://people.debian.org/~corsac/anssi/">scans of the documents</a>
available, too.</p>


<a name="13"></a>
<h2>New Debian Contributors</h2>

	<p>
3 applicants have been
<a href="https://nm.debian.org/nmlist.php#newmaint">accepted</a>
	as Debian Developers and
1 applicant has been
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/E1PhYE1-0001aE-Tc@franck.debian.org">accepted</a>
	as Debian Maintainer and
3 people <a href="http://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/new-maintainers.cgi">started
        to maintain packages</a> since the previous issue of the Debian
	Project News. Please welcome
Kamal Mostafa, Scott Howard, Kai Wasserb&auml;ch,
Vincent Legout,
Christer Edwards, Rico Tzschichholz, and Krzysztof Klimonda
	into our project!</p>


<a name="14"></a>
<h2>Release-critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release</h2>

	<p>According to the <a href="http://udd.debian.org/bugs.cgi">Bugs Search
        interface of the Ultimate Debian Database</a>, the upcoming release,
	Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q>, is currently affected by
8 release-critical bugs. Ignoring bugs which are easily solved
	or on the way to being solved, roughly speaking, about
5 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/#2011-04">more detailed
	statistics</a> as well as some <a
	href="http://wiki.debian.org/ProjectNews/RC-Stats">hints on how to
	interpret</a> these numbers.</p>


<a name="15"></a>
<h2>Important Debian Security Advisories</h2>

	<p>Debian's Security Team recently released
	advisories for these packages (among others):
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2144">wireshark</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2145">libsmi</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2146">mydms</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2147">pimd</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2148">tor</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2149">dbus</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2150">request-tracker3.6</a>,
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2151">openoffice.org</a> and
<a href="$(HOME)/security/2011/dsa-2152">hplip</a>.
	Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.</p>

        <p>Debian's Backports Team releases advisories for these packages:
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/20110115153937.GA10631@edna.deb.at">egroupware (removal)</a>,
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/20110115162646.GA15463@edna.deb.at">kvm (removal)</a>,
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/201101240810.01018.waja@cyconet.org">request-tracker3.8</a> et
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/20110127201221.GC12906@rene-engelhard.de">openoffice.org</a>.
# Note:  That mail was actually broken (at least for me), so it's possible,
# that it get's resend and the link will change
        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="http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/">security mailing
list</a> (and the separate <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-backports-announce/">backports
list</a> and <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile-announce">volatile list</a>) for announcements.</p>


<a name="16"></a>
<h2>New and noteworthy packages</h2>

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

<ul>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/accountsservice">accountsservice &mdash; query and manipulate user account information</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/amqp-tools">amqp-tools &mdash; Command-line utilities for interacting with AMQP servers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/clipit">clipit &mdash; lightweight GTK+ clipboard manager</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/d-itg">d-itg &mdash; Distributed Internet Traffic Generator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/focuswriter">focuswriter &mdash; A fullscreen, distraction-free writing program</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/ministat">ministat &mdash; a simple tool for statistical comparison of data sets</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/nagios-plugin-check-multi">nagios-plugin-check-multi &mdash; run nagios checks as a group</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/rdfind">rdfind &mdash; find duplicate files utility</a></li>
<li><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/xdeb">xdeb &mdash; Cross-build tool for Debian packages</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Please note that due to the <a
href="$(HOME)/News/2010/20100806">freeze of the upcoming
Debian 6.0 <q>Squeeze</q></a> acceptance of new packages has almost ceased.</p>


<a name="17"></a>
<h2>Want to continue reading DPN?</h2>

<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="http://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="David Paleino, Francesca Ciceri, Jeremiah C. Foster, Alexander Reichle-Schmehl"
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