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Second draft (was Re: we need a release announcement -- soon [source material])



Here's a second draft.  Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions here
and in private mail: Joey Hess, Santiago Vila, Anne Bezemer, Randolph
Chung, and Tomasz Wegrzanowski.  Of course, I'm still open to
revisions; I just wanted to make sure people critique the latest draft.


                              Debian 2.2 Released
                                       
   The Debian Project is pleased to announce the latest release of the
   Debian GNU/Linux Operating System, version 2.2 (codename "potato").
   This release has been in development for approximately 18 months, and
   has been extensively continuously tested by several thousand
   developers and end-users; accordingly, we believe Debian 2.2 is an
   extremely well-tested Linux distribution ever.
   
   As in previous releases, Debian 2.2 uses our proven dpkg package
   manager to provide the most thorough dependency protection available
   in Linux distributions. We continue to provide the alien package for
   installation of packages in other formats, but you'll rarely need it;
   we have installers available for many third-party packages that are
   distributed by others.
   
   Perhaps the most significant change in Debian 2.2 is our transition to
   version 2.1.3 of the GNU C Library (also known as libc 6.1). Debian
   2.2 also includes the latest stable Linux kernel (2.2.16), updated
   with Alan Cox's patches expected to go into 2.2.17. The 2.2 kernel
   series includes significant improvements in usability and stability;
   it also includes more hardware support, for both older and newer
   products; laptop users will particularly notice improvements in the
   PCMCIA subsystem.
   
   Debian 2.2 includes over 1200 new packages of software; in addition,
   nearly 800 existing packages have been updated since Debian 2.1. Some
   of the most significant changes are:
     * New packages:
          + postfix - A new secure mail transport agent developed at IBM.
          + openssh - A free implementation of the secure shell, enhanced
            by the OpenBSD project.
          + openldap - LDAP client and server packages, including
            bindings to C, Perl, and Python.
          + w3m - New text-mode browser, with support for tables. (An
            SSL-enabled version is also available.)
          + ruby - An interpreted, object-oriented scripting language;
            syntactically similar to Perl.
          + lm-sensors - Kernel modules for monitoring hardware sensors,
            like the temperature sensors included in modern PCs.
          + gdm - The GNOME display manager.
          + cvsup - An efficient mirroring system designed to work well
            with the Concurrent Versioning System (CVS)
          + everybuddy - An all-in-one messaging client, compatible with
            AOL's Instant Messanger, ICQ, and Yahoo! Chat.
          + tidy - An HTML sanitizer, developed by the World Wide Web
            Consortium.
          + xplanet - Displays images of the Earth (or other planets) on
            your desktop.
          + debbugs, jitterbug - Problem report tracking systems.
          + reportbug - A tool to report problems in Debian.
          + zope - A web application server suited to developing dynamic
            web sites, such as portals and weblogs.
          + xmms - The X Multimedia System; an audio player, similar to
            the popular WinAmp program available for another platform.
          + logrotate - A log rotation tool, developed by Red Hat
            Software.
          + kaffe - A free, JIT-capable, virtual machine for Java
            bytecode.
          + gnome-napster, gnapster, gnap - Three interfaces to the
            popular MP3 sharing service.
          + Last, but not least: 56 new games.
     * Major updated packages:
          + XFree86 3.3.6 - The X Window System, X11R6.3.
          + GCC 2.95.2 (formerly EGCS) - The GNU C/C++ compiler.
          + Perl 5.005.03 - The ubiquitous scripting language.
          + Python 1.5.2 - An object-oriented, interpeted language known
            for its relatively clean syntax.
          + PAM 0.72 - Pluggable Authentication Modules.
          + GTK+/GLib 1.2.7 - The free widget set.
          + GNOME 1.0.56 (You can get GNOME 1.2 packages for Debian 2.2
            from [1]Helix Code) - A free desktop environment.
          + ncurses 5, S-Lang 1.3.9 - Terminal drawing libraries.
          + teTeX 1.0.6 - Complete TeX/LaTeX implementation.
          + Emacs 20.7, XEmacs 21.1.8 - The world's largest text editor.
          + GGI 1.99.2 - The Generalized Graphics Interface
          + GnuPG 1.0.1 - The GNU Privacy Guard, a free public key
            encryption system that is compatible with the OpenPGP
            standard.
       
   Debian 2.2 also includes support for two new architectures, PowerPC
   and ARM; with this addition, Debian has now released a distribution on
   six architectures, more than any other Linux distribution. Of course,
   Debian continues to support the Alpha, Intel 80x86, Motorola 680x0,
   and SPARC platforms. We expect even more architectures to be released
   with "woody," our current development tree.
   
   Our installation system has been improved since Debian 2.1: we now
   have better network installation capabilities (including BOOTP/DHCP
   configuration), a simplified configurator for the X Window System, an
   improved "task" selector, and serial console support on more
   architectures. Our "first reboot" configuration is now handled by a
   new package, called base-config, and has a more appealing interface
   using our debconf configuration system.
   
   Upgraders from Debian 2.1 and earlier releases will find our upgrade
   process fairly painless; as with Debian 2.1, the best upgrade method
   is to use the "apt-get" tool. As with previous releases, we expect
   upgrades from any Debian release to work without problems.
   
   Administrators will appreciate the widespread of the Pluggable
   Authentication Modules (PAM) system in Debian; with PAM, Debian
   systems can be configured with standard Unix crypt(3) passwords, or
   more secure options such as shadow and MD5 passwords, "smart cards",
   and one-time-password implementations. They will also appreciate our
   new networking configuration system, configured through the
   /etc/network directory, which improves support for multihomed hosts.
   We have also moved closer to compliance with the Linux Filesystem
   Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including a better separation between
   system-specific, architecture-specific, and architecture-independent
   data for use in heterogeneous environments.
   
   International users are also better served by Debian 2.2. Japanese
   support has been integrated into the core Debian archive, and other
   non-Latin character encodings are also better supported through wider
   internationalization (I18N) support. European languages are also
   better supported, with more and better translations to more languages.
   
   Perhaps the most interesting social change since Debian 2.1 has been
   the adoption of the Debian system as a basis for commercial Linux
   distributions. Corel Corporation, Libra Computer Systems, and Stormix
   Technologies are among the companies that currently distribute
   distributions based on Debian; others are on the horizon. What remains
   the same, however, is the project's volunteer base, its dedication to
   the [2]Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide the best
   operating system possible. We think Debian 2.2 is another important
   step in that direction.

References

   1. http://www.helixcode.com/
   2. http://www.debian.org/social_contract



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