Debian Weekly News - June 8th, 1999
Welcome to Debian Weekly News, a newsletter for the Debian developer community.
The logo results are in: The Swirl logo is the winner. Its first appearance: gracing a rather nice banner ad at the top of themes.org. Even a Window Maker theme based on the logo and scalable postscript versions of the logo are available now. But this saga isn't over yet: a proposal has been made to switch the official and liberal use logos.
The security team is working on a new site, security.debian.org where they can upload security fixes immediately without waiting on the maintainer or even for a dinstall and mirror run. This should get important fixes out ASAP. One such fix is a new version of ipopd that fixes a remote shell hole.
SPI is now an official US non-profit organization. Among other things, this means that Donations to SPI are now tax-deductible for US taxpayers.
With the latest version of dpkg (1.4.1.3) to hit the archive, it's finally possible to list fixed bugs in the changelog and have them automatically closed by dinstall. No more mailing bugs.debian.org directly...
Here's an interesting twist - an offer has been made on the Free Software Bazaar for some enhancements to apt's download methods. Complete the modifications and get 50 Euro.
Mozilla M6 has been Debianized. This is particularly good news on the Debian/Alpha platform, which now has a fairly well working graphical web browser for the first time.
Linux Laptops is a new hardware company that sells laptops preloaded. They put Debian on all their systems. "We chose Debian for several reasons. The most important is that it has earned its reputation as the most reliable distribution."
Corel now has a FAQ which explains why they chose Debian: "Debian has a solid charter, a strong worldwide developer base and a thorough testing period. These three factors have contributed to the most comprehensive and cleanest code that provides Corel and its customers with the most robust operating system."
Quite a few opportunities to meet fellow Debianites are coming up:
- A Debian BOF has been organized at Usenix. It's this Thursday at 7pm.
- On June 15th, the Bay Area Linux User's Group will hold a Benefit Dinner for Debian. Linus Torvalds is the speaker, and VA Linux Systems and LinuxCare are contributing $10 to Debian for each person who attends. There will also be a sizable number of developers present.
- There will be a gathering of developers including the Project Leader, Wichert Akkerman, during the Paris Linux Expo on the 17th or 18th.
New packages added to Debian this week include the following and 29 more:
- gsfonts-x11: Make Ghostscript fonts available to X11
- knfs: Kernel NFS Server Tools
- stalin: An extremely aggressive Scheme compiler
- theme-converters: Convert WindowMaker/GTK+ theme packages to .debs
Followups to last week's news:
- In marked contrast to last week's gloomy discussion of Debian at expos, check out this sweet deal from LinuxWorld Expo. They're providing Debian with a free booth and all the trimmings, in a ".org pavilion [...] that will be designated as an area to foster the open style that the Linux Community stands for. Ideas will be shared, video games will be played, lounging will be on couches, and snacks will be enjoyed."
Thanks to Katsura S. Yoshio and Christian Meder for contributing.
Closing with a personal note -- DWN is late this week and will probably be late next week because I'm moving. The good news is that VA Linux Systems has hired Sean Perry and me to work on Debian full time, details here.
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This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Joey Hess.