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Release announcement texts for review



I'm attaching both WML files for the upcoming release announcements.
The emails to be sent to debian-devel-announce will be based on the
text in these files and the commit itself will happen tomorrow
sometime. (I'll run an additional update of the website at the time.)

I've done one each for Grip and Crush. There is a little duplication
but not much.

There are a few other tweaks to the website that I'll be committing at
the same time - mainly ensuring that Crush is described as Crush, that
references to Crush use the http://www.emdebian.org/crush source
(which is already available) and not ..../packages and various other
tweaks for clarity. (Hopefully).

I'm also replacing the "Download" item on the top navbar with two
separate links - Grip and Crush, linking to the relevant descriptions
of the two distributions.

I've emailed the DD's behind press@debian.org to alert them to the
pending releases and I'll provide whatever extra information they may
now need.

The News items are based directly on the Debian release announcement
that was posted to debian-i18n for translation yesterday.

One additional email to d-d-a tomorrow will be alerting all developers
and maintainers to the em[0-9] suffix and requesting that any bugs
filed against packages using this version suffix (or any bugs filed
against packages where the dependencies include this version suffix)
can be re-assigned to buildd.emdebian.org if there is any problem
reproducing the bug in Debian itself or any doubt that the problem is
due to something in Emdebian. The patch for reportbug will be filed at
the same time.

-- 


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

<define-tag pagetitle>Emdebian Grip 1.0 (lenny) released</define-tag>
<define-tag release_date>2009-02-14</define-tag>
#use wml::emdebian::news

<p id="head">The Emdebian Project is very pleased to announce the
official release of two flavours of Embedded Debian - Emdebian Grip 1.0
and <a href="20090214a.html">Emdebian Crush 1.0</a>, each based on
Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed <q>lenny</q>),
after several years of constant development.
</p>
<hr/>
<h2>Emdebian GNU/Linux Grip 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 <q>lenny</q>).
</h2>
<h3>A small Debian-compatible Emdebian installation</h3>

<p id="summary">Emdebian Grip 1.0 (lenny) is a smaller Debian that is
binary compatible with Debian and based around a small set of Debian
packages intended for embedded machines. Emdebian Grip 1.0 provides
complete repositories of packages for seven architectures (i386, amd64,
powerpc, arm, armel, mips and mipsel), based on coreutils, glibc and
perl. Grip includes support for standard Debian tools like debootstrap
and debian-installer and no functional changes compared to Debian
GNU/Linux 5.0 <q>lenny</q>.
</p>

<p>Installations of Emdebian Grip 1.0 will work with standard Debian
tools like debootstrap, debian-installer and maybe debian-live - as
long as the device has enough space to generate such systems.</p>

<p>Emdebian Grip can support building packages (although this currently
requires using packages from Debian and is untested) and can be
installed as a simple migration from Debian in the normal ways. Indeed,
the recommended way to install Emdebian Grip 1.0 is to use the Debian 5.0
<q>lenny</q> installer in Automatic Installation mode to install a
Debian base system and use pre-seeding to migrate to Grip during the
installation process.
</p>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) includes the new ARM EABI port, <q>Armel</q>.
This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern and future ARM
processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now been deprecated
for both Debian and Emdebian Grip.
</p>

<p>This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as
the Xfce 4.4.2 desktop environment, X.Org 7.3, Iceweasel (an unbranded
version of Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6), Linux kernel version 2.6.26,
Python 2.5.2 and 2.4.6, Perl 5.10.0 and more than 1,000 other ready to
use software packages.</p>

<p>With the integration of X.org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself
with most hardware. Newly introduced packages allow the full support of
NTFS filesystems or the usage of most multimedia keys out of the box.
Overall improvements for notebooks have been introduced, like out of the
box support of CPU frequency scaling.</p>

<p>Further improvement regarding the security of the system include the
installation of available security updates before the first reboot by the
installation system, the reduction of setuid root binaries and open ports
in the standard installation as well as building several
security-critical packages with GCC Hardening features. Various
applications have specific improvements, too.</p>

<p>For non native English speaking users the package management systems
now support translated package descriptions which will automatically
show the description of a package in the native language of the user
if available.</p>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux can be installed from various installation media such
as DVDs, CDs, USB sticks and floppies, or from the network. XFCE is the
default desktop environment for Emdebian Grip 1.0.</p>

<p>The installation process for Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 has been improved
in many ways: among many other improvements, firmware required by some
devices can be loaded by using removable media and installations via
braille display are supported. The installer boot process has also
received much attention: a graphical menu can be used to choose
front-ends and desktop environments, and to select expert or rescue
mode. The installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now
been translated to 63 languages.</p>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux can be downloaded right now via bittorrent (the
recommended way), jigdo or HTTP;  see <a
href="http://www.debian.org/CD/";>Debian GNU/Linux on CDs</a> for further
information. The recommended media for Emdebian Grip is <a
href="http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst#verysmall";>USB stick</a>.
It will soon be available on DVD, CD-ROM and Blu-ray Disc from numerous <a
href="http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors";>vendors</a>,
too.</p>

<p>Upgrades to Emdebian Grip GNU/Linux 1.0 from the previous Debian
releases, are automatically handled by the apt package management tool
for most configurations.  As always, Debian GNU/Linux systems can be
upgraded painlessly, in place, without any forced downtime, but it is
strongly recommended to read the <a
href="$(HOME)/releases/grip/">release notes</a> for possible issues
and for detailed instructions on installing and upgrading.</p>

<h2 id="names">Release names</h2>

<dl>
<dt>Full release title:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian GNU/Linux Grip 1.0 (based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "lenny").
</dd>
<dt>Short release name:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian Grip 1.0 (lenny)</dd>
<dt>Common release names:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian Grip or Grip (lenny)</dd>
</dl>

<p>Please use these names if promoting the releases elsewhere.</p>

<p>Grip and Crush are a play on words for the next Debian release -
<q>squeeze</q>. Emdebian will continue to use the Grip and Crush titles
for future releases and will continue to use the unstable, testing and
stable suite names. Future releases are intended to continue following
Debian in the codenames (lenny, squeeze etc.) and be tied firmly to
Debian release schedules.</p>

<p>More information: <a
href="$(HOME)/grip/">http://www.emdebian.org/grip/</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="dedication">Dedication</h2>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 <q>Lenny</q> is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a
Debian Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident.
Thiemo was involved in Debian and Emdebian in many ways.  He has
maintained several packages and was the main supporter of the Debian port
to the MIPS architectures.  He was also a member of our kernel team,
as well as a member of the Debian Installer team.  His contributions
reached far beyond the Debian project.  He also worked on the MIPS port
of the Linux kernel, the MIPS emulation of qemu, and far too many smaller
projects to be named here. </p>

<p>Thiemo's work, dedication, broad technical knowledge and ability to
share this with others will be missed. The contributions of Thiemo will
not be forgotten.  The high standards of Thiemos work make it hard to
pick up.</p>

<p>Thiemo also contributed to Emdebian and so the first ever release
of Emdebian to be available on MIPS (Grip 1.0) is also dedicated to
his memory.</p>

<h2 id="debian">About Debian</h2>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet.  Debian's dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.</p>

<p>The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide
the best operating system possible.  Debian 5.0 is another important step
in that direction.</p>

<h2 id="contact">Contact Information</h2>

<p>For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
<a href="http://www.debian.org/";>http://www.debian.org/</a>, the Emdebian
web pages at <a 
href="http://www.emdebian.org/";>http://www.emdebian.org/</a> or send
mail to &lt;press@debian.org&gt;.
</p>
<define-tag pagetitle>Emdebian Crush 1.0 (lenny) released</define-tag>
<define-tag release_date>2009-02-14</define-tag>
#use wml::emdebian::news

<p id="head">The Emdebian Project is very pleased to announce the
official release of two flavours of Embedded Debian - <a
href="20090214.html">Emdebian Grip 1.0</a> and Emdebian Crush 1.0,
each based on Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed <q>lenny</q>),
after several years of constant development.
</p>
<hr/>
<h2>Emdebian GNU/Linux Crush 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 <q>lenny</q>).
</h2>
<h3>The smallest Emdebian installation</h3>

<h4>Limitations of selecting Emdebian Crush 1.0:</h4>
<ol>
<li>Crush 1.0 (lenny) is a developer-release, full support is expected
in Crush 2.0 (squeeze).</li>
<li>Support is only available for ARM in Crush 1.0 (lenny).</li>
<li>No pre-built installation images - Crush supports customisation
for each machine type and variant.</li>
<li>Installing and maintaining Crush requires <b>significant user
involvement</b> but provides complete flexibility to achieve the
smallest installation sizes.</li>
<li>Emdebian Crush requires Debian to build - using Debian derivatives
or other GNU/Linux distributions is unsupported.</li>
<li>Emdebian methods are Debian methods, so a knowledge of Debian
packaging methods is also required.</li>
<li>Uses glibc until uClibc can be reintroduced into Debian 6.0
<q>squeeze</q>.</li>
<li>Some library packages in Crush 1.0 have had functionality (and
therefore symbols) removed, so care is needed when building applications.
</li>
</ol>

<h2 id="names">Release names</h2>

<dl>
<dt>Full release title:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian GNU/Linux Crush 1.0 (based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "lenny").
</dd>
<dt>Short release name:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian Crush 1.0 (lenny)</dd>
<dt>Common release names:</dt>
<dd>Emdebian Crush or Crush (lenny)</dd>
</dl>

<p>Please use these names if promoting the releases elsewhere.</p>

<p>Grip and Crush are a play on words for the next Debian release -
<q>squeeze</q>. Emdebian will continue to use the Grip and Crush titles
for future releases and will continue to use the unstable, testing and
stable suite names. Future releases are intended to continue following
Debian in the codenames (lenny, squeeze etc.) and be tied firmly to
Debian release schedules.</p>

<p>More information: <a
href="$(HOME)/crush/">http://www.emdebian.org/crush/</a>.
</p>

<h2>Features of Emdebian Crush 1.0</h2>

<p id="summary">Busybox based root filesystem and cross-built packages
to support the <a href="http://gpe.linuxtogo.org/";>G Palmtop Environment</a>
based on GTK+2 or any workable package selection in-between. Kernels and
kernel modules are not provided directly but support exists to add
custom kernels to the installation tarballs. Packages are heavily
modified and then cross-built from Debian source packages - functional
changes do exist between Emdebian Crush and standard Debian. Emdebian
Crush 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 <q>lenny</q>) is only available for
ARM - adding more architectures is non-trivial.</p>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) includes the new ARM EABI port, <q>Armel</q>.
This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern and future
ARM processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now been
deprecated in Debian. Subsequent Crush releases will migrate to armel
instead of ARM and include i386, mips and mipsel. Powerpc support can be
considered, if there is sufficient interest.</p>

<p>Emdebian Crush does not support building packages on Crush itself,
all work to develop packages for Crush must be done on a normal Debian
machine using cross-building support provided by Emdebian. There is no
migration path from Debian to Emdebian Crush due to functional changes
in the core package set of standard Debian. In particular, the
emdebian-tools package used to build packages for Crush cannot work
on a machine already running Crush (or packages from Crush) because
Crush does not include perl or perl scripts.</p>

<p>Installations of Emdebian Crush will require significant user
involvement, images will not generally be available for direct download.
Instead, each installation is customised from the available package set
using the scripts in the emdebian-rootfs package and possibly a few
custom packages cross-built using scripts in the emdebian-tools package.
</p>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 <q>Lenny</q> contains the emdebian-tools package
to allow Debian source packages to be cross-built and shrunk for Crush
and updates to emdebian-tools on lenny are available via Emdebian.</p>

<p>Users will need to customise Crush for their respective machines,
including configuring the base system (including inittab and boot
sequences, configuring and cross-building appropriate kernels and
fitting the Crush root filesystem into existing installation methods.
</p>

<p>This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as
the X.Org 7.3, GNU Compiler Collection 4.3.2, Linux kernel version
2.6.26 and more than 700 other ready to use software packages. With
the integration of X.org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself
with most hardware.</p>

<p>For non native English speaking users the package management systems
now support translated package descriptions which will automatically
show the description of a package in the native language of the user if
available.</p>

<h2>About Debian</h2>

<p>Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet.  Debian's dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.</p>

<p>The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide
the best operating system possible.  Debian 5.0 is another important
step in that direction.</p>

<h2>Contact Information</h2>

<p>For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
<a href="http://www.debian.org/";>http://www.debian.org/</a>, the
Emdebian web pages at <a
href="http://www.emdebian.org/";>http://www.emdebian.org/</a> or send
mail to &lt;press@debian.org&gt;.</p>

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