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Distributions
News and Editorials
Distributions in the Summer of Code
For the fourth year, Google's Summer of Code will pay undergraduate students to work with some of the world's top developers on open-source projects. Students and mentors also get a T-shirt, which for many of us is motivation enough. Many of the accepted projects are not surprising, such as GNOME, KDE, Drupal, and Python. One interesting category of projects, however, is distributions. Aren't they just writing packages? What would they do with a Summer of Code project? That's what this article aims to discover.
This year, four distributions were accepted for a combined total of 40 slots: Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, and openSUSE. Conspicuous in their absence are other major distributions such as Mandriva and Ubuntu. One wonders what happened—did they apply (if not, how come?); were they rejected? Ubuntu participated in 2006 and 2007, so it is curious that the distribution is not in SoC this year. In addition to these four distributions, three of the BSDs participated as well, receiving a combined total of 35 slots: DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. Since these are operating systems in addition to their own package distributions, many of their slots are devoted to core OS code, while the Linux distributions' slots are not.
Let's take a closer look at the types of distribution projects in this year's Summer of Code. Many of Debian's 12 projects relate to installation (two slots), configuration management (two slots), or package management/development (seven slots). The exception is a project to make an embedded, Debian-based NAS device.
Another 12 slots went to Fedora, which shared two of its slots with JBoss. Fedora has a more eclectic mix: it devoted two slots to package management and two to configuration management, investing the remaining slots in features for a translation framework (three), creation of a new Web interface for the hardware profiler Smolt, enhancement of the booting profiler Bootchart to use SystemTap, and creation of a simple, non-linear video editor for ogg video to integrate with the screencasting tool recordmydesktop.
Gentoo received six slots, of which two relate to package management. The other four are dedicated to diverse projects: implementing OpenPAM-compatible modules for Linux, improving a Web-based, WYSIWYG XML editor, making it easy to set up a Beowulf cluster, and improving Gentoo's embedded network-appliance framework.
OpenSUSE got ten slots; five of these are going toward package management/development, and one is going toward installation. The remaining four are the most generally interesting: implementing a face-based authentication module, enabling ext4 as GRUB's boot partition, interactive crash analysis (presumably an improvement upon what recent GNOME versions do rather than a duplication), and creation of a GUI manager for LTSP thin clients.
Now let's take a quick look at BSD land. Of DragonFly's projects, six out of seven are OS-related, and the other is installation-related. FreeBSD received 21 slots, of which many are devoted to the core OS—of the rest, four are related to package management/development, and one aims to improve Wine support. NetBSD received 14 slots, of which many again went to the core OS. Other than that, one slot went to installation and another to package management.
Distributions and "mixed" distributions/OSs unsurprisingly devote a large quantity of their efforts to their core competencies of package management, configuration management, and installation. At least in the Summer of Code, however, they do devote a significant amount of effort to solving larger problems that affect people outside the distribution.
New Releases
The Heron has landed
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, aka Hardy Heron, has been released. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) on desktop and server, continuing Ubuntu's tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution." Click below for more details.
Slackware 12.1 RC3
The third release candidate for Slackware 12.1 was announced in the April 28th entry of the slackware-current changelog. "We'll call this Slackware 12.1 RC3, and freeze the tree for anything that isn't critical. Things seem very stable, so it's probably a good idea to save any further upgrades and additions until -current restarts."
Gentoo 2008.0_beta2 released
The second beta for Gentoo 2008.0 has been announced. "This should be the last beta and will be followed by the final 2008.0 release after further bug fixing."
Distribution News
Debian GNU/Linux
Debian participates in the 2008 Google "Summer of Code"
The Debian Project takes a look at this year's Summer of Code projects. "We have been allocated twelve tasks for this year. Google will fund the students mentioned here to work full time on those tasks during their summer vacation, from May 26th to August 18th. They will be guided and evaluated during this time by a team of Debian developers."
Latest stuff from the DPL: teams review starting
Steve McIntyre has started reviewing Debian teams. "As part of my election platform this year, I promised a thorough review of how Debian's team are working. It's taken a few days longer than I planned to get here, but I've just sent out copies of a survey to lots of our mailing lists."
New addition to the DAM team
The Debian Account Manager team has another new member, Christoph Berg.
New README.source documentation for Debian packages
According to discussions on the debian-policy list, a new documentation file, debian/README.source, is recommending for any Debian source package with a complex build system. So far this is just a recommendation and not considered release-critical for Lenny.
Blocking uploads of packages involved in the Python 2.5 transition
Python 2.5 is migrating to testing and is the planned default for Lenny. Click below for more information.
Fedora
Fedora 7 End of Life
Fedora 7 will reach its End of Life for official updates on Friday, June 13, 2008. Fedora 9 will have been available for one month by this time, and Fedora 8 is also available for upgrade.
Fedora Board Recap 2008-APR-22
Click below for a summary of the April 22 meeting of the Fedora board. Topics discussed include Red Hat Summit and FUDCon, Board Succession, and Spins.
Fedora Board public meeting, 1800 UTC 2008-05-06
The Fedora Board is holding its monthly public meeting on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at 1800 UTC on IRC Freenode. The public is invited to listen in at #fedora-board-meeting and discuss topics and post questions at #fedora-board-public.
SUSE Linux and openSUSE
openSUSE Google Summer of Code Projects Announced
openSUSE announced its Google Summer of Code projects. "Special thanks to everybody that has been involved so far: the volunteering mentors, those driving the application process, and of course - all of the students. Congratulations to all the selected students!"
Distribution Newsletters
BSD Magazine #1 published
The first issue of BSD Magazine has been announced. It's available by subscription in print or electronic form, with a corporate rate for companies.
Misc Debian development news (#7)
This edition of Debian development news covers debhelper v7, Help the DPL, New debian-ports.org machine, Debconf translation updates, and Planet Debian via Mail.
Gentoo Monthly Newsletter: 24 April 2008
The fourth edition of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter is out. " This month, we haven't made any significant changes from the previous edition. However, we have featured an interview, and we hope to include more of them in future issues. You'll note that we will be interviewing not only Gentoo developers, but also people involved in the Gentoo community at large."
OpenSUSE Weekly News/19
This edition of openSUSE Weekly News looks at OpenOffice_org 2.4 available, 11.0 feature by feature: All you ever wanted to know!, Tips and Tricks: fdupes & freedup, Building KDE on openSUSE was never easier, Lukas Ocilka: Image-based Installation, and several other topics.
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #88
The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for April 26, 2008 covers Hardy Heron Release Parties, Ubuntu 8.04 press release translations, Open Week, Forum Interviews & Tutorials, Preinstalled Ubuntu PCs for Russia, Ubuntu UK Podcast, Full Circle Magazine, Team Meeting Summaries, and much more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 250
The DistroWatch Weekly for April 28, 2008 is out. "This was surely one of the most trying weeks for the system administrators of many public FTP and HTTP servers that provide the Ubuntu ISO images - such was the demand for the new release that not even the project's main web site could keep up with the request rate! But that's a testament to Ubuntu's popularity, which has now grown into the world's most wanted alternative operating system. In other news, the Debian project has revived the Debian Weekly News, OpenSolaris has announced a final release candidate for its upcoming first stable release, Software Wydawnictwo has published the inaugural issue of the new BSD Magazine, and openSUSE has unveiled a new resource for beta testers of its distribution. Also not to be missed: our first look at the new ASUS Eee PC 900 with Xandros Desktop pre-installed."
Distribution meetings
Announcing Ubuntu Open Week
This week is Ubuntu Open Week, which is a community building event for the distribution. Running April 28 through May 3, the event consists of IRC sessions on multiple topics for all segments of the community, not just programmers or folks doing packaging. "The aim of the week is to help grow the Ubuntu community, and we have an awesome set of topics ready for you to attend. If you've considered getting involved in Ubuntu and don't know where to start, then this is a great opportunity to jump in." Click below for the announcement.
Miscellaneous Articles
The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) (HowtoForge)
HowtoForge provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the Hardy Heron on the desktop. "This document describes step by step how to set up a Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) desktop. The result is a fast, secure and extendable system that provides all you need for daily work and entertainment."
Interviews
Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival (The Register)
The Register talks with Mark Shuttleworth about the Hardy release. "[Shuttleworth] is giddy about the inclusion of the Wubi installer with Hardy Heron. This software package lets you run Ubuntu on a Windows machine without bothering to set up a dedicated partition. So, you can play with Ubuntu and see if you like it while avoiding a major disk commitment. "What I really like is that Canonical didn't invent it. It was a community guy decided this was possible, and he worked through the community process and got it in. And it is a major feature for this release.""
Interview: Steve McIntyre, Debian Project Leader (ComputerWorldUK)
ComputerWorldUK has an interview with Steve McIntyre, the recently elected Debian Prioject Leader. "Debian is sometimes criticised as being for hobbyists despite evidence that it's used by some very serious organisations for some massive deployments. Do you think the Debian project has some work to do in articulating its enterprise credentials? I think that there's always scope for us to do more on that front. There will always be some users who won't believe in Debian as an option for the enterprise just because we're not directly backed by a large corporation, and that will be a difficult attitude to change. However, I know of lots of companies today that will provide paid support for Debian where it's required, and we already have a fine reputation for stability. I think that the next trick is to start making more of a positive impact directly in the "Enterprise" space with positive press exposure and good reviews."
Distribution reviews
Ubuntu 8.04 Brings Power and Polish to the Linux Desktop (Wired Blog)
Scott Gilbertson reviews Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. "Ubuntu 8.04 also features a new version of Xorg, which offers much better auto-configuration options for setting up your monitor. The new Screen Resolution utility also makes it easier to dynamically change your screen resolution and control a second or external monitor. Other significant under-the-hood changes are aimed at improving security -- like the new PolicyKit interface which makes it easy to allow or deny access to applications and even specific parts of applications. PolicyKit is a huge step forward for administrators looking to maintain tight control over their systems."
The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment (Content Consumer)
There is lots of Ubuntu buzz right now due to the release of Hardy, but the Content Consumer weblog has an article with wider applicability as well. If the year of the Linux desktop is ever going to happen, usability by non-technical folks is a requirement. One way to measure the usability is to sit your girlfriend in front of a Linux desktop and see what problems she encounters trying to do some normal desktop tasks. "Erin’s knowledge of computers is limited to word processors, spreadsheets, Photoshop and a reasonable amount of browsing on the Web. Fairly standard stuff for a university philosophy student. All I did to the system (before leaving Erin at the log-in screen) was to install it and create a user account for her. She had no problems logging in, and loved the stylised heron background. Then I gave her one by one the tasks I’d set her. I didn’t give her any help at all." (seen at Slashdot)Update: As can be seen in the comments, this item offended some of our readers. I offer my deepest apologies to anyone who was offended by it. That was certainly not the intent.
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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