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Fedora and feature inclusion

Projects like to see new features get highlighted in in the press, but when a feature is misunderstood or misinterpreted—at least from the project's perspective—it can be seen as a bad thing. The inclusion of Zarafa (and to a lesser extent Déjà Dup) into Fedora 13 ran into exactly that kind of problem, but rather than just gnashing their teeth, Fedora developers set out to correct the record and try to turn it into a positive. Because the conversation took place on the open fedora-marketing mailing list, we get a glimpse inside the thinking of the project and how it handled a somewhat delicate task.

Zarafa is a free software replacement for Microsoft Exchange. According to the Fedora wiki feature page, it provides a web application with a "look and feel" that is similar to what users of Microsoft Outlook have come to expect. It also includes calendar, contacts, and task list features while integrating with an existing Linux mail server. It is, in short, a feature that many different organizations would be likely to find useful, but it is also an "open-core" solution.

The idea behind open-core licensing is fairly straightforward: release the core of the application as free software, while adding other features to versions that come with a price tag. As might be guessed, it has its proponents and detractors, but it is becoming increasingly popular as a way to generate revenue for a (mostly) open source company. As long as the free software core is not "crippleware"—deliberately leaving out features that are crucial to actually using the application—and can be further modified and distributed, it is generally, though not universally, considered to be a useful addition to a distribution. But open-core can certainly be seen as something of an advertisement for the more-feature-rich version, which may lead to charges of commercialism. Or it might be seen as an indication of Red Hat's future intentions for groupware.

Neither of those interpretations were quite what the project had in mind. Adam Williamson noted that the inclusion of Zarafa is "being read in ways in which we certainly didn't intend", and wondered if the description of the feature should be clarified. David Nalley thought the project should be playing up the inclusion: "this (Zarafa's inclusion in Fedora) is a wonderful success story that I think we should use the opportunity to highlight that a community member (or two) worked to get this feature in the distribution".

Unlike Zarafa, Déjà Dup is not open-core licensed, and just provides a GUI for the Duplicity backup tool. Duplicity allows sending backups to the Amazon S3 "cloud", among several other choices like ssh/scp, rsync, ftp, and WebDAV, which Déjà Dup then provides an interface to. The S3 choice was portrayed in the article as more evidence of the commercialization of Fedora.

Lumping the inclusion of those two packages into Fedora 13 with some of the recent Ubuntu moves, like Ubuntu One and the Ubuntu music store, was something that irked various thread participants. Fedora project leader Paul Frields put it this way:

But, as Frields noted in another part of the thread, it gives "an opportunity for us to learn about how marketing materials might be interpreted by others". It led him to clarify some of the Fedora 13 marketing materials as well as leaving a comment on the article to correct things for other readers. In a related thread, he also said that the article which said that Red Hat chose Zarafa for Fedora, rather than it being chosen by the project itself, had been updated after his correction.

The discussion also sparked an idea about communicating how the feature process itself works. John Poelstra described it this way: "To me these stories show that we might need to do a better job explaining how our releases processes work and that *anyone* (regardless of employer) can submit a feature for inclusion in a Fedora release." Frields agreed and added it to the "marketing brain dump" on the Fedora wiki.

Taking what was perceived as a negative—misleading or incorrect information in the press—and looking at it carefully to see what the project could have done better is an excellent approach. While Zarafa and Déjà Dup may clearly be on one side of the commercialization line, other efforts, which may come closer to—or cross—that line, may be proposed in the future. This incident has likely helped Fedora better understand where to draw that line, and better ways to communicate how and why it makes its feature inclusion decisions. Because it played out in the open, other projects can also learn from the experience, not necessarily to follow exactly in Fedora's footsteps, but to see where to draw their own lines and communicate them effectively.

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New Releases

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Beta2 is available

The second beta release of Mandriva 2010 Spring is available for testing. This beta release features updates and improvements in data encryption, parental control, network profiles, and more.

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openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 6: The Dust Begins to Settle

The sixth milestone release of openSUSE 11.3 is available for testing. "Milestone 6 (of 7), a snapshot of the Factory "work in progress" build, leading up to openSUSE 11.3 release in July, is now available for download. M6 is the first release during the "Stablizing Freeze": focus has transitioned away from the inclusion of new features and applications toward increasing stability and usability. To that end, 162 bugs were resolved during the M5 - M6 timeframe!"

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Ubuntu 10.04 LTS ("Lucid Lynx") released

Ubuntu has announced the release of "Lucid Lynx", Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, for both desktops and servers. It is available in 29 languages, and is the basis for 10.04 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu. From the Canonical press release: "'Ubuntu 10.04 LTS challenges the perceptions of the Linux desktop, bringing a whole new category of users to the world of Ubuntu,' said Jane Silber, CEO, Canonical. 'Changes like the new look and feel and the addition of a music store, layered on top of our relentless focus on delivering an intuitive and attractive user experience for new and existing Ubuntu users -- these are the bridging elements to the mainstream market that our community, our partners and our users really want. Long-term support makes Ubuntu 10.04 LTS very attractive to corporate IT as well.'" Click below for the announcement email.

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Ubuntu Rescue Remix

Version 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) of the Ubuntu Rescue Remix has been announced. "This release of Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix features a full command-line environment with up-to-date versions of the most powerful free/libre open-source data recovery software including GNU ddrescue, Photorec, The Sleuth Kit and Gnu-fdisk. Packages new to the Rescue Remix include aoetools, array-info, ext3-grep, gptsync, kpartx, and scrounge-ntfs."

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Distribution News

Debian GNU/Linux

PGP v3 key support to be dropped from Debian keyring

Jonathan McDowell reports that Debian keyring-maint is in the process of removing all keys generated with PGP v3. Keys should be generated with PGP v4 instead. "So, on 1st July 2010 keyring-maint will remove all v3 keys from the active Debian keyring; debian-keyring.pgp will become an empty file (we will cease to generate it at all once DSA and ftp-master have confirmed none of their tools are using it any longer)."

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Fedora

Dan Walsh: Introducing the Fedora Kiosk Spin

Dan Walsh introduces the Fedora Kiosk Spin. "Imagine a machine sitting at a library, that had no operating system on it, except a livedvd. The livedvd has a disabled root account, and the only user account is xguest. The xguest account can only talk to web ports and when you logout all files and processes get destroyed so there is nothing left in the user account for the next user to search for. And since all processes are destroyed on logout, you can be assured no one left a process to watch your keystrokes. If the machine gets hosed up for any reason, the library can just reboot the machine and have a clean system."

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Fedora 14 release name voting information

Fedora 14 release name voting is open until May 10, 2010. "To vote, you must have a valid Fedora Contributors License Agreement (CLA) and be a member of at least one non-CLA group."

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Fedora Board Recap 2010-04-29

Click below for a recap of the April 29, 2010 meeting of the Fedora Advisory Board. Topics include MeeGo status, License agreement for fedora-uk.org, and Short list of F14 names.

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Kernel: An Overview and Genealogy

Red Hat News looks at the process of creating a RHEL kernel. "When Red Hat announces a new major Red Hat Enterprise Linux release, such as with the recent Beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, invariably among the first questions asked is, "What is the kernel version number?" The answer to this question is never a simple one-number reply. The construction of an enterprise-caliber kernel is an extremely complex exercise that requires close evaluation of hundreds of individual features and interactions. This blog outlines how we create our Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels."

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 - 6-Month End Of Life Notice

Red Hat has announced that RHEL 3 will reach its end of life in six months. "In accordance with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy, the regular 7 year life-cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 will end on October 31, 2010. After this date, Red Hat will discontinue the regular subscription services for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. Therefore, new bug fix, enhancement, and security errata updates, as well as technical support services will no longer be available..."

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Ubuntu family

Shuttleworth: Window indicators

Mark Shuttleworth takes a look at another use for the right side of the window title bar. "We've carefully placed all the panel indicators on the right, and we've carefully put the window controls and window title on the left. So now we have all this space on the right. As a pattern, it would fit to put the window indicators there. Cody Russell is leading some work in Canonical around the technology which actually draws the window title bar and borders. It's called "client side window decorations". We are moving the rendering of the window decorations into the app itself, so that you don't have the window manager and application drawing those pieces separately. That simplifies certain things (of course it also makes some things harder)."

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Minutes from the Ubuntu Technical Board meeting, 2010-05-04

Click below for the minutes from the May 4, 2010 meeting of the Ubuntu Technical Board. Topics include Action review, Request for Kubuntu Unseeded Packages Team, Scope of Canonical's acquired ffmpeg patent licenses for derivatives, and Default sync source for Maverick.

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Distribution Newsletters

CentOS Pulse #1003

The CentOS Pulse for May 1, 2010 is out. This edition contains an interview with Frank Cox, the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Beta, and several other topics.

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Debian Project News

The Debian Project News for May 3, 2010 is out. "Topics covered in this issue include: * New Debian Project Leader * Special funding for DebConf Newbies * Debian welcomes Google Summer of Code students * ... and much more."

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 352

The DistroWatch Weekly for May 3, 2010 is out. "The main event of the week was, of course, the release of Ubuntu 10.04, together with a plethora of official and unofficial Ubuntu variants. The tradition dictates that we take a look at the new release. What has changed during the past six months? And would we recommend it to new Linux converts? Read on to find out. In the news section, the Linux Mint development team announces the imminent release of a candidate for version 9, Fedora develops a custom spin designed for public kiosks, and Linux Journal reviews SUSE Studio, an easy-to-use tool for developing specialist distributions and appliances. Also in this issue, good news for Linux Mint fans with a spare PowerPC-based Apple machine and a quick opinion piece about the status of OpenSolaris since it was acquired by Oracle. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com April 2010 donation is the Bacula project. Happy reading!"

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Fedora Weekly News 223

The Fedora Weekly News for April 28, 2010 is out. "In Project announcements, a Fedora Community Gaming session this Friday/Saturday, correction on Fedora 11 EOL, and details on the latest round of Fedora elections. In news from the Planet Fedora, details on updates to MobileManager, a look at KDE 4 on Fedora, and jQuery for educational gaming. Marketing provides coverage of recent discussion on keyword optimization to the main Fedora Project web site and a Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier IRC Classroom. Fedora In the News returns with recent coverage of Fedora in the trade press and blogs over hte past week, while the Ambassadors beat features an event report from FLISoL of Santo Andre, Brazil. In QA news, details on last week's Test Day on Anaconda (the Fedora installer)'s storage support, a proposal on new release criterion stating that it must be possible to install a system in such a way that it is immediately remotely accessible and Fedora 13 testing activities. In Artwork team news, details on final art push for Fedora 13, while Security Advisories returns after a week away, providing security-related packages released for Fedora 11, 12 and 13. Our issue wraps up with updates from the Fedora Summer Coding activities. Enjoy FWN 223!"

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openSUSE Weekly News/121

The May 1, 2010 issue of the openSUSE Weekly News is out. "Welcome to issue # 121 of openSUSE Weekly News. Now the seventeenth Week goes to the End, and we are pleased to announce our new issue. Every week we have some interesting news to read, so it is difficult to decide what should go into the Weekly News. But we have finished it for this Issue. We're looking ever for new sources. If you have an own Blog, and you would like to have your Blog as new source, just write to us. Otherwise you can add your Blog into planet.opensuse.org. Then your Blog is aggregated by the Planet. So we're hoping, that you like the new Weekly News. Enjoy it..."

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #191

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for May 1, 2010 is out. "In this issue we cover, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS released, Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 released!, Operation Lucid - Ubuntu in London, A global menu for Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, Ubuntu Open Week, Ubuntu 8.10 reaches end-of-life, Una Fiesta MUY Lucida..., Lucid Release Party Recap, Launchpad News, Ubuntu Forums News, Thank You Everyone For Ubuntu 10.04, ZaReason to sponsor the Ubuntu Women World Play Day Competition, Blogging Against Disablism Day 2010: Accessibility & Ubuntu, Ubuntu Up and Running, Canonical Announces, Canonical to roll out independent Ubuntu Certified Professional certification for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Ubuntu: Matt Asay Discusses Canonical Revenue Strategy, Frugal Tech Show: Matt Zimmerman, CTO of Canonical (Ubuntu Linux), System76 Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems May 3, ZaReason Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems, Full Circle Magazine #36,Ubuntu-UK podcast: Bughouse Bellhops, and much, much more!"

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Distribution reviews

An In-Depth Look at Gentoo Linux (Kernel News)

Kernel News has a review of Gentoo Linux. "The genius behind the Gentoo Linux Distribution is it's package management utility, Portage. Basically, you tell Portage to compile so and so program and it will calculate all of the dependencies that the software needs, compile those dependencies (if any), then compile the program that you specified. Finally, it adds that program into the database of installed applications so in the future when an updated version is released it will give you the option of compiling and installing the updated software."

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Seven Reasons to Upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (Linux.com)

Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier takes a look at the final release of Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx (10.04). "Unless you really enjoy being on the cutting edge of open source software, there's usually very little reason to upgrade with every release. This hasn't always been true. When I first started using Linux, each new release was chock full of major new features and better hardware support. Linux has evolved to the point now where you'll still find lots of new stuff, but it's generally in smaller increments. And Lucid Lynx is full of those types of improvements. You'll find the latest release of GNOME, Firefox and OpenOffice.org; improvements that come with the newer Linux kernel; and whatnot. But Lucid also brings several really noteworthy features that make it a good choice for a long term desktop OS."

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