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The Debian Maintainers General Resolution
The second call for votes has gone out on the General Resolution (GR) on the concept of Debian Maintainers (DM). This was first covered in LWN here. The current vote is on a modified version of the original proposal. The debate continues though, and it seems likely that "Choice 2: Further discussion" will win this vote, which ends August 4. Here are some quotes from some of the discussion on debian-vote. And for the uninitiated, other common acronyms include DD (Debian Developer) and NM (New Maintainer).
Christoph Berg began this thread with:
I haven't said anything in the DM threads yet because I still don't
know which actual problem the introduction of DMs is trying to solve.
IMHO the current process with sponsors reviewing and uploading packages has proven to work nicely, i.e. the amount of broken packages uploaded is not too high. Most of the perceived problems with this process stem from the fact that most of the packages offered on debian-mentors or #debian-mentors are initially crap and need lots of review cycles. Once people produce good packages asking the last sponsor for another upload should work. (And at that point NM will be a breeze.)
IMHO DMs is something Debian needs, a bunch of people stuck at NM is
perfectly able to upload high quality packages themselves but
otherwise I completely agree with the paragraph above. DMs is a small
patch, not a solution.
With your rationale, NMs who maintain packages well and are sufficiently
clueful should be granted upload rights even before finishing NM, instead
of the invention of a second class of maintainers.
You do realize that the DM proposal solves other problems than just
the "it takes forever for a qualified NM to get upload rights", too?
Since not everyone does know what other problems might be solved by this, Raphael Hertzog posted a refresher:
- Not everybody wants to be DD. [1]
- Not everybody deserves to be DD. [2]
- Everybody who is able to properly maintain a package according to our rules should have the possibility to maintain that package.
- Not everybody deserves to be DD. [2]
- Everybody who is able to properly maintain a package according to our rules should have the possibility to maintain that package.
This is still not convincing to Josselin Mouette among others:
If someone doesn't want to be a DD because the NM process is broken, we
should fix the NM process. If someone doesn't want to be a DD because of
laziness or whatever other excuse, I think the current rules are
perfect.
It is to others, including Steve Langasek:
The question was,
"will this allow us to integrate the contributions of non-DDs more
effectively, with less overhead and without a reduction in quality, for the
betterment of Debian?"
I believe the answer to this question is "yes", and I don't feel any particular need to belabour the reasons why I think this is the case as it's my impression that they've already been adequately covered in the list discussion. I would only like to point out that it seems to me that many of those speaking out against the DM proposal are doing so on the basis of different questions.
This thread continues on for some time. Some oppose the GR because they feel that it will address a broken new maintainer (NM) process (and not do a very good job of that). Some don't believe that Debian needs the introduction of "second class citizens". A few developers support the proposal.
There is another thread on the discussion that with this post by Joerg Jaspert:
The short text of this post is _I am against the_
_proposal as it is right now and think it does more harm than good_
and so I did vote for Further Discussion. See below for a bit more about
my reasoning, or just skip if you are already bored. :)
For those who have read this far, Anthony's new proposal is a Constitutional amendment to reduce the length of DPL election process.
New Releases
64 Studio 2.0 'Electric' released
64 Studio is a GNU/Linux distribution made for digital content creation, including audio, video, graphics and publishing tools. It comes in both AMD64/Intel64 and 32-bit flavors. The stable 2.0 Debian 'etch' based release has been announced.LFS 6.3-rc1 Released
Linux From Scratch has announced the first release candidate for LFS 6.3. "This being a test release, we would appreciate you taking the time to try it out and report any bugs you find in it to the LFS development team."
LFS LiveCD x86_64-6.3-min-pre1 Available
The Linux From Scratch LiveCD team has announced a new 64bit-only CD. "It is a minimal CD, meaning that it contains no X Windows System and dependent software nor any source packages. The LFS book that is included is based on the current development x86_64 branch. Be advised that as of now that book contains no instructions for building a boot loader, and some of the textual information may need adjusting. However, it will produce a working base system."
Lunar 1.6.2-beta1 (i686) ISO Released
Lunar Linux has announced the first beta release of a new series of lunar-linux installer ISO's. "Our new ISO's will be as easy to install as 1.6.1, but pack an extra punch: This series of ISO's preinstalls a basic Xfce4-4.4.1 desktop with XOrg-7.2, together with firefox, thunderbird, pidgin, audacious, gimp and a few other basic desktop utilities."
Opie 1.2.3 Release Announcement
The Opie Project has announced the immediate availability of version 1.2.3 of the Open Palmtop Integrated Environment, a comprehensive user environment and application suite for portable devices running Linux. "Like most Linux software, Opie is able to run on a wide variety of platforms. Opie has direct hardware support for Hewlett Packard iPAQ, Sharp Zaurus, Yopy, Siemens SIMpad devices, and now also various Palm handhelds. Opie is provided in several Linux distributions including Familiar."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 Beta Announcement
Red Hat has announced the availability of a beta release of 5.1 with kernel-2.6.18-36.el5 for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 family of products. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 is still in development and therefore the contents of the media kit, the implemented features, and the supported configurations are subject to change before the release of the final product. The supplied beta packages and CD images are intended for testing purposes only."
Distribution News
Debian release update: Release goals, testing transition, arch requalification
The Debian release team has an update for the Lenny release. You can see the current release goals, which are not yet set in stone. The testing transition should be smoothed out by now, but this update has some news about more thrashing soon to come.Fedora 8 Test 1 delayed
What's a Fedora release cycle without schedule slips? The word has duly gone out that Fedora 8 Test 1 will be delayed by one week to August 7. "This gives us time to consume the kernel build and generate a release candidate tree early tomorrow, and spend all day, and all of Thursday beating on it for real blocker issues. Friday morning is our Go/No Go point. If all things are Go, we'll be handing it off to mirrors and giving them the weekend and Monday to sync up the release. If we're No Go, we will determine then a new release date."
Ask Fedora: Fedora Weekly News Column
The Fedora Weekly News is starting a new column called Ask Fedora. "Send your questions to askfedora@fedoraproject.org and Fedora news team will bring you answers from the right places to selected number of questions every week as part of our weekly news report."
Extra Packages for (Fedora based) Enterprise Linux (EPEL) Now Open
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is brought to you by a community of package maintainers working from inside of Fedora. If you are looking for extra packages for a Fedora based Enterprise Linux system (such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS) the EPEL repository may have just what you are looking for.RPM roadmapping on Fedora list
Panu Matilainen has started looking forward to the next major release of RPM, on the fedora-devel mailing list. "Not everybody is on rpm-maint list and we'd like to hear the wishes of (Fedora) developers/packagers too. So: what have you always wanted to do with rpm, but wasn't able to? Or the other way around: what you always wished rpm would do for you? What always annoyed you out of your mind?"
Fedora Board Recap 2007-JUL-24
John Poelstra presents a recap of the latest Fedora Board Meeting, held July 24, 2007. Topics discussed include Freeze for F8 Test1, Virtual FUDCon Update, Update on Feature Process and Targeted Audience Discussion.New mailing list: opensuse-kernel
The opensuse-kernel mailing list has been created for the discussion of openSUSE kernel development (Factory et al) and the kernels in the buildservice.
New Distributions
Poky 3.0 released
Poky 3.0 is out; read about it on the project web page. "Poky is an embedded Linux build system, distribution and developer environment which builds upon OpenEmbedded technologies. Poky's focus is purely on building stable optimised GNOME Embedded type platforms (X11/Matchbox/GTK+) together with a streamlined system layer and cross development environment." Features in 3.0 include an early version of the "Sato" smartphone framework, an improved build system, Nokia N800 support, and more. Some Sato screenshots can be found on this page.
Distribution Newsletters
Fedora Weekly News Issue 98
The Fedora Weekly News for July 27, 2007 looks at Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL), 3000 Fedora 7 Installations, FESCo Election Results, the launch of a special section called 'Ask Fedora' where you can ask questions to Fedora Project, and development news covering RPM Roadmap, Fedora Sound System, Desktop Menus, Licensing and several other topics.Foresight Linux Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 5
The Foresight Linux Newsletter for July 2007 covers Foresight Linux 1.3.2 released, Linux World Expo, Foresight Linux logo, and several other topics.Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for July 23, 2007 looks at new guides for Gentoo, including the Gentoo Realtime Guide and the Compilation Optimization Guide. Gentoo artwork is looking for volunteers, the Alpha project has a status update, and much more in this edition.Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #50
The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for July 27, 2007 covers Canonical seeking help with training courses, last call for Software Freedom Day registrations, a call to arms for US Lo``Co teams, new Drag & Drop Gnome tabs, new Launchpad features, and much much more.DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 213
The DistroWatch Weekly for July 30, 2007 is out. "The beginning of August is traditionally a month when many Linux distributions launch new development drives and outline some of the planned features for their upcoming releases. And indeed, if all goes according to the plan, we should see the first test release of Fedora 8 and the first beta release of Mandriva Linux 2008 later this week. Before that happens, we'll bring you the highlights of the past week, including updates on Debian "Lenny", the launch of the OpenBSD Foundation, an initiative to provide extra packages for Red Hat and Red Hat-derived distributions, and a coverage of the Ubuntu Live conference. Finally, don't miss our brief article featuring the Linux User Group of New Caledonia, complete with a few thoughts on the availability of bandwidth in remote parts of our planet."
Newsletters and articles of interest
Ars at Ubuntu Live: Mark Shuttleworth's keynote (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica covers Mark Shuttleworth's keynote presentation at the Ubuntu Live conference. "Shuttleworth started by explaining the distribution's role within the open-source ecosystem. According to Shuttleworth, the Ubuntu project is a "nexus of collaboration" and an "interface point" which facilitates interaction between individual contributors, upstream projects, and third-party vendors. Ubuntu is building stronger ties with industry, said Shuttleworth, because the commercial ecosystem is critical to the future of the project. Hardware and software certification is a big part of those plans, and Shuttleworth also wants the Ubuntu project to work closely with third-party developers and other vendors to help align them with the Ubuntu release cycle."
Distribution reviews
Turn your computer into a media center PC with GeeXBoX 1.1 (Linux.com)
Linux.com reviews GeeXBox. "GeeXBoX, a small media center Linux live CD distribution, can run from any small device, such as a USB disk or a wallet CD-R, and can play both disk-based media like DVDs and online media like Icecast streams. The project has been in development for several years and has just released version 1.1. I fed it every kind of media file I could lay my hands on -- Ogg, MP3, MP4, AVI, DVDs, VCDs, and their ripped versions -- and it played them all without a hiccup. But what makes GeeXBoX a fantastic distribution is its ease of use and malleability."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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