[4529] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #821
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Wed Jul 7 07:13:06 2004
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Reply-To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:13:04 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #821, Volume #4 Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:13:04 EDT
Contents:
[FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe Newsletter (fwd) ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
[FSFE PR][EN] Free Software Foundation Europe writes an Open Letter ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 2004 (fwd) ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: [FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe Newsletter (fwd)
Date: 7 Jul 2004 11:10:05 GMT
========== Forwarded message ==========
1. Georg Greve in South America 2. Wizards of OS 3. Firenze Tecnologia
becomes Patron of FSF Europe 4. Sources-switch, the Italian coordination
effort of communities 5. Introducing Matthias Kirschner 6. GNU/Linuxtag in
Karlsruhe 7. Strengthening the global Free Software network 8.
Demonstration against software patents 9. Introducing the translators team
10. Fundraising campaign
1. Georg Greve in South America
Georg Greve continued his visit to South America by taking part in several
events in La Plata, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo and Brasilia. A summary of his
most important activities in South America as well as some pictures are
available online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/2004/FISL/fisl.en.html.
2. Wizards of OS
The third "Wizards of OS" conference took place in Berlin from June 10th,
2004 until June 12th, 2004. Georg Greve took part in the WSIS (World
Summit on the Information Society) panel.
3. Firenze Tecnologia becomes Patron of FSF Europe
To facilitate the technological innovation of the region Toscana and
the province of Firenze, Firenze Tecnologia (a company owned by the
Chamber of Commerce of Firenze) is investing on Free Software for the
technological innovation of the Toscana territory. Firenze Tecnologia
has therefore decided to protect their investement financing the work
that FSF Europe is doing for defending and promoting Free Software in
Europe. It is a very important success for the activities of FSFE,
since the donation is included in a wider strategical plan to support
innovation, in which Free Software and freedom play a central role.
4. Sources-switch, the Italian coordination effort of communities
Too many times our community have faced attacks from outside. Given
the growing importance of Free Software in all aspects of life, the
members of the main italian associations promoting Free Software have
founded a common working group, the "sources switch", aimed at
coordination and information exchange. Sofar the associations are
Chapter Italy of FSF Europe (FSFE-I), Associazione Software libero
(AsSoLi), Italian Linux Society (ILS), ROSPA and the business
Consortium Italicum Ratione Soluta (CIRS). The group will provide a
framework for promotional events organized by each association, and
will define a common strategy to increase effectiveness. Members
participate to the works as individuals, but they have agreed to
promote the initiatives within their organizations. The group met in
Avellino from April 28 through 30; results of the discussions include
an initial agenda, setting up of a secretary and a press office, a
common position on software patents and open standards, and a schedule
for the next meetings.
5. Introducing Matthias Kirschner
Matthias Kirschner has joined the FSF Europe team as Georg Greve's
Assistant. He will mainly help with administrative tasks such as
moderating mailing lists or coordinating the President's numerous
appointments. While he currently contributes as a volunteer, he will
work as an intern from September 2004 to March 2005.
6. GNU/Linuxtag in Karlsruhe
GNU/Linuxtag is one of the major Free Software events in Europe. Like
every year, the FSF Europe was present there with a well visited booth.
Georg Greve and Bernhard Reiter held speeches on the basic principles
of Free Software.
7. Strengthening the global Free Software network
The FSF Europe was happy to share it's GNU/Linuxtag booth with several
people from outside Europe. Federico Heinz is the president of Via
Libre, an Argentinian foundation for Free Software. Hong Feng from
China is the publisher of the Free Software Magazine, and Fumitoshi
Ukai, Niibe Yutaka, and Takatsugu Nokubi are members of the Free
Software Initiative Japan. The possibility to mutually share the
experiences was very positive not only for the guests but also for the
FSF Europe.
8. Demonstration against software patents
More than 1000 people demonstrated against software patents on June 24
in Karlsruhe. Along with several other speakers, Georg Greve expressed
his hope that the European Union will not give in under the pressure of
the strong lobby pushing for patentability of algorithms.
9. Introducing the translators team
With the growing attention the FSF Europe attracts in many countries,
the need has arised to build up a flexible, responsive, and well
coordinated translator team. Translating and proofreading texts is a
precious contribution to the work of the FSF Europe and an excellent
chance to spontaneously take part in the activities of the FSF Europe
without long-term obligations. You can find more information on:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html
10. Fundraising campaign
In order to be able to extend its activities, the FSF Europe has
started a fundraising campaign. The web page
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2004/news-20040701.en.html contains more
details.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
_______________________________________________
Press-release mailing list
Press-release@fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release
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------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: [FSFE PR][EN] Free Software Foundation Europe writes an Open Letter
Date: 7 Jul 2004 11:10:08 GMT
========== Forwarded message ==========
Dear Professor Bullinger,
"Research should be able to earn its money also on the market!" - say
politicians – so we, the Free Software Foundation Europe, understand
when researchers use creative ways to get a better income. But even
researchers should take care not to bite the hand that feeds them. This
danger
is real, especially with the actual software patent discussion:
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is well known for its patent of the MP3
audio-compression standard. Another compression procedure, named Ogg
Vorbis,
is considered to be of higher technological value by experts. If software
patents should indeed be introduced in Europe, the Ogg Vorbis developers
could be confronted with license claims at will by the Fraunhofer IIS [1],
although they took care not to infringe the MP3 patent. The FhG might be
able to get rid of an unpleasant competitor or would at least better its
income substantially. We will avoid a discussion of the ethical questions
related to such a behaviour.
But it certainly is not very useful from the economical point of view if a
good idea blocks an even better one: this is also shown by Dr. Daniel
Probst
of the chair of Economy and Economical Theory at the University of
Mannheim.
Dr. Probst stated in a hearing of the German parliament regarding software
patents in June 2001 [2]:
"The part of SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) would sink and a
concentrational process would begin. Based on network effects, a few large
enterprises would gain a dominant place on the market. As far as allowed by
competition regulations, they would agree on cross-licensing their patent
portfolios and would hinder market entry of new companies with blocking
patents. The research intensity in the branch would stagnate or fall."
There
would also be a significant decrease of Free Software solutions.
Personally I regret every single point of the above. There are many more
deficiencies, some of them have been shown to the new German president,
Professor Köhler, in an open letter in June [3]. A particular important
point
for you as head of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft should certainly be the
quote
"The part of SME would sink...", especially regarding the fact that,
according to the German government [4], the FhG is taking 60 percent of its
research orders from SMEs.
Another point to take into consideration would be that big companies
might move
the research to the eastern parts of the European Union, because they can
find in Poland and other newly entered EU countries perfectly competent
software developers at a fraction of actual costs.
For Europe's greatest research society in the field of "information and
communication technology", this could mean not only the disappearance of
their project partners but, even worse, the dying of the companies which
FhG
wanted to live of. "Sawdust is falling since quite a certain time, the
splintering of the branch is imminent."
Kind Regards
Georg Greve
[1] http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/
[2] http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2001/bundestag/probst/index.de.html
[3]
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release-de/2004q2/000030.html
[4] http://www.bmbf.de/pub/inno-masterplan.pdf
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve@fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
GNU Business Network (http://mailman.gnubiz.org)
Brave GNU World (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition - allow equal participation in the information
age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe,
which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the
Free Software Foundation in the United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
_______________________________________________
Press-release mailing list
Press-release@fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release
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------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 2004 (fwd)
Date: 7 Jul 2004 11:10:12 GMT
========== Forwarded message ==========
===========================================================================
Debian Weekly News
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/26/
Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 2004
===========================================================================
Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for
the Debian community. The online-forum debianHELP is carrying an
online [1]Debian Trivia Quiz for you to see if you can put yourself
into the hall of fame. In retrospect of this year's [2]Debian
conference Joey Hess [3]complained about being not very productive at
conferences and high expectations that also block productivity and
socialising.
1. http://www.debianhelp.org/index.php?module=vquiz
2. http://www.debian.org/events/2004/0526-debconf
3. http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/being_productive_at_conferences-2004-06-09-18-56.html
Quantian 0.5.9.1 released. Dirk Eddelbuettel [4]announced a new
release of Quantian, a re-mastered version of [5]Knoppix for use by
applied or theoretical workers in quantitative or data-driven fields.
This version is intended for DVDs and no longer fits on a CD-ROM.
Users without a DVD can use their hard disk to [6]boot the ISO image.
4. http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2004/06/14/#uploaded_0.5.9.1
5. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
6. http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2004/06/16#howto_winboot
GNOME 2.6 moves into testing. The latest version of GNOME has started
to propagate into Testing (Sarge), less than a month after the release
managers [7]gave permission for GNOME 2.6 to migrate from
experimental to unstable. Jordi Mallach [8]provided temporary
workarounds for several packaging bugs.
7. http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2004/05/msg00126.html
8. http://oskuro.net/~jordi/blog/freesoftware/gnome-mayhem-2004-06-18-00-33.html
Future of Debian X11 Packages. Fabio Massimo Di Nitto, the current
Debian X11 release manager, [9]inquired about which direction these
packages should go. Because of a licensing change Debian can no longer
use [10]XFree86 as upstream. Keith Packard [11]suggested moving away
from a monolithic source package and switching to [12]X.org as the new
upstream. Daniel Stone [13]described several of the options.
9. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg00979.html
10. http://www.xfree86.org/
11. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01006.html
12. http://www.x.org/
13. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01051.html
Mozilla Public License 1.1. MJ Ray [14]posted an update about the
[15]Mozilla license 1.1, claiming that there is no consensus about all
MPL-covered works and they should be checked individually, as before.
The discussion continues and more information are sought, in
particular about the US venue choice.
14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/06/msg00514.html
15. http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.1.html
Preparing for Debian-Installer TC2. Joey Hess posted an [16]update on
the important and unresolved issues remaining in [17]debian-installer
testing. He has tried to track release critical issues, and get the
fixes into testing. His plan is to wait for the
[18]libdebian-installer and busybox fixes to reach testing and then do
another official debian-installer images build on the autobuilders.
That build will then be blessed as Test Candidate 2, and there will be
another round of testing to see if it is finally in a releasable
state.
16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/06/msg02369.html
17. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
18. http://packages.debian.org/libdebian-installer
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD live CD. Robert Millan [19]created a GNU/kFreeBSD
[20]live CD. A new installation guide is also [21]available. This ISO
image contains a basic rescue system with GNU/kFreeBSD. It is usable
for simple tasks and for just testing, but doesn't setup writable
filesystems for you or has development tools installed.
19. http://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd/2004/06/msg00014.html
20. http://people.debian.org/~rmh/livecd/
21. http://svn.debian.org/viewcvs/glibc-bsd/trunk/web/kfreebsd/INSTALL?view=auto&rev=65
Debian-Women List operational. Pascal Hakim [22]announced that the
[23]debian-women list has now been created. It is an un-moderated
mailing list for Debian users and developers who wish to involve more
women in the Debian project. It is for discussion and sharing of ideas
as well as project collaboration.
22. http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/2004/06/msg00000.html
23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/
Dropping Freeswan for Openswan. Rene Mayrhofer [24]discussed his
current difficulties with freeswan. He noted that the list of bugs on
the freeswan packages is too long and although it is improved over a
year ago he is unable to fix all possible combinations of freeswan and
kernels. Rene's preferred option for dealing with the situation is to
remove freeswan in favour of openswan.
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01460.html
Removal of outdated Translations. Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña
[25]discovered that translations are removed from the website after
six months of not being updated. He thought that since some version
changes in the English wml files are merely cosmetic, the translations
may not need updating. He asked that only translations that are way
too outdated be removed (more than 5 versions behind). Peter Karlsson
[26]did not agree there was a problem. He thought six months without
any reaction from the translation team qualified as way too outdated.
25. http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2004/07/msg00015.html
26. http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2004/07/msg00019.html
Fingerprint of the Archive Signing Key. Martin F Krafft [27]noted that
as APT 0.6 will check for package signatures, the archive signing key
will become more relevant to Debian users. However, he could not find
a place on the web page from which the key is linked, nor information
on how to get it or how to verify it. He proposed having a web page
explaining the key and its trust basis, and also publishing the key's
fingerprint. As Frank Lichtenheld [28]pointed out the key is indeed
[29]linked from the web pages, though not very visible.
27. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01499.html
28. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01525.html
29. http://www.debian.org/releases/
State of Sarge Debian-Installer: Broken. Joey Hess [30]looked at
sarge's debian-installer and concluded that it is broken. He sees many
instances of changes that break dependencies. He thought it likely
that sid's d-i now has less bugs than sarge's and that sid is
diverging too far from sarge for it to be easy to keep maintaining
sarge. He may throw away the plan of incremental copying of binary
packages into sarge, and revert to taking a snapshot, hoping that it
mostly works and copying everything to sarge in one go for a release.
30. http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/07/msg00053.html
Debian used in German Agencies. The German [31]agency for security in
the information technology (BSI) [32]released (German only) the so
called "agency-desktop" ERPOSS which was developed in collaboration
with [33]credativ GmbH and uses Debian GNU/Linux, KDE 3.2, a
preconfigured and activated personal firewall and among other software
the mail client KMail with integrated virus and spam protection. BSI
offers a [34]live CD and an [35]installation CD.
31. http://www.bsi.bund.de/
32. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48828
33. http://www.credativ.de/
34. http://www.bsi.bund.de/produkte/erposs3/ERPOSS3_LIVECD.ISO
35. http://www.bsi.bund.de/produkte/erposs3/ERPOSS3_INSTALLATION.ISO
Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update
your systems if you have any of these packages installed.
* [36]webmin -- Multiple vulnerabilities.
* [37]pavuk -- Buffer overflow.
36. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-526
37. http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-527
New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the
unstable Debian archive [38]recently or contain important updates.
38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main
* [39]archzoom -- Web-based Arch repository browser.
* [40]asc -- Turn-based strategy game.
* [41]barrage -- Rather violent action game.
* [42]bicyclerepair -- Refactoring tool for python.
* [43]bittornado-gui -- Bittorrent client with enhanced GUI
interface.
* [44]cpqarrayd -- Monitoring tool for HP (Compaq) SmartArray
controllers.
* [45]cream -- VIM macros that make the VIM easier to use for
beginners.
* [46]dlume -- Handy and easy to use addressbook.
* [47]fastdep -- Fast dependency generator for C/C++ files.
* [48]ghextris -- Tetris-like game on a hexagonal grid.
* [49]glosstex -- Prepare glossaries and lists of acronyms.
* [50]hydra -- Very fast network logon cracker.
* [51]k3d -- 3D modeling and animation system.
* [52]keyanalyze -- OpenPGP key analysis.
* [53]links2 -- Web browser running in both graphics and text mode.
* [54]medussa -- Distributed password cracking system.
* [55]metapixel -- Generator for photomosaics.
* [56]moaggedit -- Map editor for the Moagg game.
* [57]mp3roaster -- Perl hack for burning audio CDs out of
MP3/OGG/FLAC files.
* [58]oggz-tools -- Utilities for mangling Ogg streams.
* [59]orpie -- RPN calculator for the terminal.
* [60]otrs -- Open Ticket Request System.
* [61]rbldnsd -- Small and fast DNSBL nameserver daemon.
* [62]rpl -- Intelligent recursive search/replace utility.
* [63]samidare -- Web page updates checker.
* [64]sip4 -- Python/C++ bindings generator.
* [65]smb4k -- Samba (SMB) share advanced browser for KDE.
* [66]unrar -- Unarchiver for .rar files.
* [67]vino -- VNC server for GNOME.
* [68]wmhdplop -- Hard drive activity monitor dockapp.
* [69]yaret -- Console tool to turn CDs into encoded music.
39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/archzoom
40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/asc
41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/barrage
42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/bicyclerepair
43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/bittornado-gui
44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/cpqarrayd
45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/cream
46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/dlume
47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/fastdep
48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/ghextris
49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/glosstex
50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/hydra
51. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/k3d
52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/keyanalyze
53. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/links2
54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/medussa
55. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/metapixel
56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/moaggedit
57. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/mp3roaster
58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/oggz-tools
59. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/math/orpie
60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/otrs
61. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/rbldnsd
62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/rpl
63. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/samidare
64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/sip4
65. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/smb4k
66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/unrar
67. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/vino
68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/wmhdplop
69. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/yaret
Debian Packages introduced last Week. Every day, a different Debian
package is [70]featured from the testing distribution. If you know
about an obscure package you think others should also know about, send
it to [71]Andrew Sweger. Debian package a day introduced the following
packages last week.
70. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/
71. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=debaday
* [72]ecasound -- Multitrack-capable audio recorder and effect
processor.
* [73]firehol -- Easy to use but powerful iptables stateful
firewall.
72. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/21115.html
73. http://www.livejournal.com/users/debaday/21856.html
Orphaned Packages. 3 packages were orphaned this week and require a
new maintainer. This makes a total of 171 orphaned packages. Many
thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free
Software community. Please see the [74]WNPP pages for the full list,
and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA: if you
plan to take over a package.
74. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
* [75]lavaps -- Lava lamp of currently running processes.
([76]Bug#257561)
* [77]linuxlogo -- Color ANSI System Logo. ([78]Bug#256685)
* [79]login.app -- Login application designed with the NeXTStep look
in mind. ([80]Bug#256681)
75. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/lavaps
76. http://bugs.debian.org/257561
77. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/linuxlogo
78. http://bugs.debian.org/256685
79. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/login.app
80. http://bugs.debian.org/256681
Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community
and report about what is going on. Please see the [81]contributing
page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your
mail at [82]dwn@debian.org.
81. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
82. mailto:dwn@debian.org
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