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DEBIAN GNU/LINUX NEWS
Code Freeze
The Code Freeze for Debian 1.2 happened on Monday. Many people are
already testing the system. Prospective testers should subscribe to the
debian-user mailing list (by sending the word "subscribe" to
debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org). We will issue a call for
additional testers to that list in a few days. When the release of 1.2
happens, we will announce it to debian-announce@lists.debian.org, the
mailing list you are now reading.
Lots of New Packages!
See http://www.debian.org/FTP for a list of them all!
With the release of 1.2, Debian may have the largest number of
ready-to-run packages of any Linux distribution - we haven't studied
this thoroughly enough to say so for sure. We also think we may have
the largest development staff of any Linux distribution. 150 developers
can get a lot done!
Surprising New Features!
Christoph Lameter has demonstrated the capability to install Red Hat
and Slackware packages on a Debian system. His "alien" program actually
converts these package formats into to a Debian package (so that our
auto-removal and other features are supported), applies a
package-specific "patch" if necessary to tweak the package into
complete conformance with Debian standards, and then installs the
package. We don't plan to support this feature for every package on the
net, however it will be tremendously useful for commercial programs
that are not available directly for Debian. "Alien" arose from
Christoph's work on "debmake", a program that automates the task of
building a Debian package from source code. Using "debmake", most
programs can be packaged for Debian in ten to thirty minutes. We hope
that other Linux distribution makers will copy these concepts so that
they can provide compatibility for Debian packages on their systems.
New Architectures!
Most of Debian 1.2 has been built for the DIGITAL ALPHA and some Motorola
68030-compatible platforms. This software is available for testing.
The easy bootstrap installation system used on our i386 architecture is
_not_ yet running on the other architectures, but this is expected shortly
after the release of 1.2 on the i386 architecture.
Mailing Lists
User-to-User support is available on the debian-user mailing list. To
subscribe, send "subscribe" to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org .
The debian-changes mailing list is for changes to released software in
the "stable" directory of our FTP archive. Send "subscribe" to
debian-changes-REQUEST@lists.debian.org to see changes to released
software.
Changes to unreleased software (which we keep in the "unstable" or
"codefreeze" directory), including announcements of programs that have
just been packaged to Debian, will now be sent to
debian-devel-changes@lists.debian.org . To subscribe, send "subscribe"
to debian-devel-changes-REQUEST@lists.debian.org .
Announcements about the Debian system are sent to this list,
debian-announce@lists.debian.org . To subscribe, send "subscribe"
to debian-announce-REQUEST@lists.debian.org .
Thanks
Bruce Perens
Debian Project Leader
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