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Re: Goodbye, all! (Whatever became of X3.2)



> This thread seems to have appeared in the debian-user lists a little
> like a bolt from the blue. I am a very keen Debian user and
> proselytiser and I'm sure that many of us are very concerned about the
> future of Debian re. what we have read.
> 
> I don't want debian-user to become a war zone or a mud slinging forum,
> but perhaps a short statement from Brain and Bruce would be in order.

This was completely my fault.  I wasn't watching what I typed in the CC
line and typed "debian-user" instead of "debian-devel".


> What is the problem with XFree3.1 that to release Debian 1.2 with it
> would have been so disastrous? (I have a lot of machines running 3.1
> connected to the Internet, I feel I should be told.)

There is a security hole in XFree3.1 that allows any user to get
root access.  X3.2 fixes this, but just came out recently.  The
discussion on debian-devel was whether it was better to release
Debian 1.2 with X3.1 and a notice about the security problem, or
to delay the release and ship it with X3.2.  There are arguements
both ways.

The final decision was to delay and ship with X3.2.


> I really like Debian, both as an excellent high quality GNU/Linux
> distribution, and (I thought) as a model of cooperative, dispersed
> development. I really hope that it succeeds, in fact I hope to
> contribute to its success, but my _perception_ at the moment is of
> technical secrets being kept from users (re. XFree3.1) and of possibly
> dark and unpleasent personal problems dammaging the distribution's
> development. That, alas, really smacks of proprietary development models.

Debian is all of those things.  Nothing is ever perfect, though.  The
message I sent would not make much sense without the context of the last
week.  Please try not to read too much into it.

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )
                                             
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