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[Computerbank] Computerbank on Debian Weekly News - 20/01/2004

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Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/03/
Debian Weekly News - January 20th, 2004
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Welcome to this year's third issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. Looks like we are popular among [1]Slashdot
readers as well, since we were [2]quoted by the word recently.
Another news site, [3]Symlink, recently [4]noticed that the most
important [5]contract is Debian's [6]social contract. Domenico
Andreoli also [7]noticed another Free Software developer [8]survey.

 1. http://slashdot.org/
 2. http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/14/1319228.shtml
 3. http://www.symlink.ch/
 4. http://www.symlink.ch/articles/04/01/14/1658210.shtml
 5. http://www.google.de/search?q=contract
 6. http://www.debian.org/social_contract
 7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00791.html
 8. http://survey.bdf-net.com/

Moving Java Packages from contrib to main. [9]Arnaud Vandyck started
to investigate whether Java-using packages in Debian's contrib archive
can move into main by using [10]kaffe or [11]gcj instead of a non-free
Java environment. His progress [12]notes suggest that a few packages
can indeed be used with free Java environments.

 9. http://www.livejournal.com/users/avdyk/
 10. http://packages.debian.org/kaffe
 11. http://packages.debian.org/gcj
 12. http://java.debian.net/index.php/MovingJavaToMain

Outdated Web Site Translations. Peter Karlsson has been working on
[13]identifying outdated web site translations. He prepared a
[14]report which lists, for each language, all documents not updated
for two weeks. Once normal [15]CVS operations are restored, Peter's
intention is to start removing all translation pages that have not
been updated six months after the original document has changed.
Keeping outdated translations on-line only confuses readers rather
than helping them.

 13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-www-0401/msg00044.html
 14. http://people.debian.org/~peterk/outdated/
 15. http://cvs.debian.org/webwml/?cvsroot=webwml

Debian Developer wins Sun Award. The Sydney Morning Herald
[16]reported that Matthew Palmer, a Debian developer, has won the 2004
national Regional Delegates Program Award at Australia's national
[17]Linux conference. Matthew was given the award for development and
management of eight software packages for the Debian project. [18]Sun
Microsystems also said that he had made a significant contribution to
the [19]NSW ComputerBank project, an initiative to supply free
GNU/Linux systems to low-income individuals, community groups and
disadvantaged schools.

 16. http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/14/1073877881076.html
 17. http://linux.conf.au/
 18. http://www.sun.com/
 19. http://www.cbnsw.org.au/

Debian-Installer Beta 2. Joey Hess [20]announced the second beta
release of the Debian sarge installer for the i386, PowerPC, and IA-64
architectures. Besides the addition of the ia64 architecture, new
features in this release include an improved and streamlined
installation process, support for installation from USB mass storage
(USB keychain, etc). and support for systems with only 32 MB of memory
on the i386 architecture. The installer is also translated completely
or nearly completely into 16 languages.

 20. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0401/msg00006.html

Debian used for Data Mining in Business. Rodney Gedda [21]reported in
Computerworld about the use of Debian by [22]Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. Principal
computer scientist for enterprise data mining, Dr. Graham Williams,
stated that CSIRO uses a number of toolkits including R, GNOME, and
Python scripting, running on the Debian GNU/Linux operating system.
"The Department of Health and Ageing has a 200 CPU cluster running
Debian GNU/Linux", Williams said. "Debian is a stable server operating
system that is easy to maintain and we also use it on desktops."

 21. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=351192284
 22. http://www.csiro.au/index.asp

Remote Debian Installation over Red Hat. Emma Jane Hogbin
[23]proclaimed the success of her remote Debian installation on the
Debian user list. This method does not use [24]debootstrap, and is
documented in two files, which describe the [25]installation and the
post-installation [26]configuration. Emma Jane acknowledged the
helpful mails and original HOWTOs of [27]Karsten Self and [28]Erik
Jacobson and described her notes as a bit rough, but most people will
find them well documented.

 23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-0401/msg02972.html
 24. http://packages.debian.org/debootstrap
 25. http://xtrinsic.com/geek/config/remoteinstall.txt
 26. http://xtrinsic.com/geek/config/postinstall.txt
 27. http://twiki.iwethey.org/Main/DebianChrootInstall
 28. http://trilldev.sourceforge.net/files/remotedeb.html

Bug Tracking System moved to new Machine. Colin Watson [29]announced
that the [30]bug tracking system (BTS) has been moved to a dual
hyperthreaded Xeon hosted at [31]Oregon State University, with lots of
disk space and bandwidth. The reason for this move is that master (the
old host) has been getting rather low on disk space lately, it's
difficult to add more to that particular machine, and it became
obvious that trying to run the lists [32]web archives and BTS on the
same machine is an increasingly painful proposition.

 29. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce-0401/msg00009.html
 30. http://bugs.debian.org/
 31. http://www.orst.edu/
 32. http://lists.debian.org/

New Approach to coordinate Translations. Tim Dijkstra [33]explained
how the Dutch and French translation teams coordinate translations
through their mailing lists. They use [34]pseudo-urls in the subject
line of the mail for this, much like the [35]wnpp does. A script is
generating this [36]status page from their mails. Tim wants to extend
this system, so that other translation teams could benefit from it as
well.

 33. http://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n-0401/msg00034.html
 34. http://www.famdijkstra.org/debian/l10n/pseudo-urls.html
 35. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
 36. http://www.famdijkstra.org/debian/l10n/

Debian at LinuxWorld Expo New York. The [37]LinuxWorld Expo &
Conference will once again take place in New York City from Jan 21st
to 23rd, 2004, at the Jacob Javits Center. The Debian project will be
in booth #2 in the .Org pavilion. Visitors can get their GnuPG key
signed, make a donation to the Debian project by buying a t-shirt or
just to say hello. If you don't have an entrance pass you can
[38]print one out and register at the show for free access to the
expo.

 37. http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny/
 38. http://people.debian.org/~jaldhar/lwceny2004.html

Dependency on Ext2 Checker? Donggyoo Lee [39]wanted to clean up his
system and remove Ext2/3 utilities which are essential. Thus, he
[40]proposed that [41]util-linux includes /sbin/fsck and suggests
packages providing this program for other filesystems. Theodore Ts'o,
though, hasn't implemented this since this would only [42]save a few
hundred kilobytes. Adrian Bunk also [43]added that one must not remove
essential packages.

 39. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00767.html
 40. http://bugs.debian.org/111651
 41. http://packages.debian.org/util-linux
 42. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00953.html
 43. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00831.html

Top 5 missing Things in Debian. Dan Shearer [44]asked about
technologies or significant packages which should be in Debian but are
not? Quickly, mplayer was [45]named, [46]Mono, which is in
[47]progress already, threaded boot [48]scripts, and good Java
[49]support, including a free Java plugin for web browsers.

 44. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00794.html
 45. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00820.html
 46. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00790.html
 47. http://pkg-mono.alioth.debian.org/
 48. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00901.html
 49. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00830.html

Dropping Support for old libtool? Scott James Remnant [50]pondered
removing [51]libtool 1.4 since it is no longer [52]maintained upstream
and superseded by [53]libtool 1.5. The old version is only required by
using Autoconf 2.13, which is also no longer maintained upstream, and
only 10 Debian packages include a [54]build dependency on it.

 50. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0401/msg00968.html
 51. http://packages.debian.org/libtool1.4
 52. http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool/2003-07/msg00127.html
 53. http://packages.debian.org/libtool
 54. http://people.debian.org/~keybuk/libtool1.4-rdepends.txt

Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.

 * [55]Linux 2.4.17 (ia64) -- Several vulnerabilities.
 * [56]mc -- Buffer overflow.
 * [57]tcpdump -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
 * [58]netpbm-free -- Insecure temporary file creation.
 * [59]Linux 2.4.17 (mips+mipsel) -- Local root exploit.
 * [60]slocate -- Buffer overflow.

 55. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-423
 56. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-424
 57. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-425
 58. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-426
 59. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-427
 60. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-427

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [61]recently or contain important updates.

 61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main

 * [62]libaire0 -- The (VHDL) Advanced Intermediate Representation
   for Extensibility.
 * [63]libaltlinuxhyph-dev -- ALTLinux hyphenation library
   development files.
 * [64]libassuan-dev -- IPC library for the GnuPG components.
 * [65]scrabble -- Popular crossword game.
 * [66]siege-ssl -- HTTP/HTTPS regression testing and benchmarking
   utility.
 * [67]tunnelv -- Encrypted network connection within a TCP/IP
   connection.
 * [68]vtun -- Virtual Tunnel over TCP/IP Networks.
 * [69]yahoo2mbox -- Retrieve and store Yahoo! Groups messages.

 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/electronics/libaire0
 63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/libaltlinuxhyph-dev
 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libdevel/libassuan-dev
 65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/scrabble
 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-US/siege-ssl
 67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-US/tunnelv
 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/non-US/vtun
 69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/yahoo2mbox

Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community
and report about what is going on. Please see the [70]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [71]dwn@debian.org.

 70. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
 71. mailto:dwn@debian.org


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