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• bsdtalk various interviews with BSD people
• debaday not really a debianwhore but nice gems to be found there
• fleshbot who doesn't like porns?
• hubertf everyone's favorite NetBSD dev
• papod PA podcast
• tdwtf the daily wtf so you don't feel you are alone in your editor
• thinkgeek must buy everything!
• undeadly not dead yet

Unfortunately, it isn't updated daily, but when it is, it's usually very good. It gives reviews of free software you might not be aware of. http://debaday.debian.net/feed/atom/

if you want a simple, software-based quasi-raid and you're running *nix, try mhddfs - the only drawback is that it doesn't support splitting large files across multiple volumes (so it may not work for video production, depending on whether you've got a couple huge files or a bunch of smaller ones)

In Linux, you may be able to replicate that behaviour using an xnest. http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=14072

Unfortunately packages in contrib and non-free do not receive security updates, which is worse than if the packages did not exist in the first place: anyone running etch who installed the packages, expecting them to be updated is now screwed.

http://bugs.debian.org/431831

According to the security bug tracker, etch's java package is vulnerable to CVE-2007-2435, CVE-2007-2788, CVE-2007-2789, CVE-2007-3004, CVE-2007-3005 and CVE-2007-3503. No security updates are planned for any of these issues.

Debian's next testing version will be code named "Lenny" (from the movie Toy Story).

http://times.debian.net/1034-Release-update:-Etch+ 1-=-Lenny,-Call-for-Testing,-Time-shift

May this "new" project be a reincarnation of this site: http://debaday.livejournal.com/ ? [I've stumbled across this when i wanted to add the feed and wondered that my liferea examples already contained a "Debian Package a Day" feed :)]

If it is, the question will be: Why did it die back in 2004 (the last article is dated Nov. 15, 2004)? I guess it suffered from not enough people actually adding reviews of packages. As this article http://debaday.debian.net/2007/02/15/we-need-your- help-now/ suggest, the new (old?) maintainers are still worried about this problem.

Let's see how long it'll be alive this time.

My main objection to apt is that on 2 seperate occasions (once with Xandros, and once with Debian itself) I've had apt go berserk when trying to uninstall Open Office...the dep chain somehow got confused and I ended up with a completely corrupted system. It was deleting things in what seemed like an entirely random manner. That in my mind is not a stable system.

Subpackaging is an attrocity in both systems as well...it makes source compilation outside either system (for scenarios where you find a package where there isn't an rpm/deb; it does happen) largely impossible.

The other thing is that saying you can put a custom kernel in without the system complaining isn't anything Debian users should be bragging about...it can be done in Slackware, minus the screwing around with making a kernel deb.

A lot of Debian fanboys here might love apt...but it isn't the silver bullet it's made out to be. As I said earlier, for end users who don't use much other than Open Office, XMMS, VLC, and Firefox, it'd be fine...but for those of us who want to use our systems for something slightly more meaningful, there are areas where it is wanting.

Well if you want eg. LiveCD, then there already an unofficial project which aims on creating Debian Etch live cd. http://live.debian.net/debian-cd/current/i386/

Sadly the gamet of answers runs from:

- some weak or hard to implement ideas.. to..

- "screw it, just reformat".. to..

- "let the kids mess up everything and let them fail!!".

Great.

So for those who are still interested in some additional information from someone who has a negative (yes negative Karma rating-- after 3 years of contributing here).. listen up.

This is a great opportunity to help expand this 'Computer Lab' by introducing alternatives such as Linux. After all not only is Xp over 5 years old.. it is actually MUCH older since it is JUST a rehash of the original 'New Technology' (NT) version of M$ (wotta laff!)

In taking the time to create an installable *custom Linux LiveCD* based on the criteria of the school.. I would strongly suggest:

http://live.debian.net/wiki/live-package/

After MUCH research I selected this package to create my first Live CD :)

DON'T waste your time with the limited information and other programs on this subject because it is mostly incomplete, wrong, outdated.. or just doesn't do what it says (without wanting to take a ball-pene-hammer to your pc).

Basically what it does is take your current-running desktop and Operating System and puts it in a format where you can burn it to a cd/dvd.

The config file is short & sweet.. and most of all: IT WORKS!!

I initially passed by looking into details of this great program because I was concentrating tooo much on the fact that it downloads the newest version of Debian (Etch) instead of just taking my *base* OS the way it was.

However even this can made to be changed easily enough by listing your package list on a local (ie. on your Hard Disk) repository.

Creating a stand alone Live CD to the schools and your liking will be a benefit in many ways including:

- Minimal or NO worries about corrupting the local pc's or servers

- Easy to hand out to students to take home and use/learn there as well

- Easy to update

- NO M$ TAX!!

- No LEGAL worries (the GPL is VERY liberal)

I could go on (and I think I will)..

- Most Microsoft programs can run or be made to run if their equivalent is not written for Linux yet (a VERY rare situation).

- Students are leaning from an OS that is the child of Unix-- the OS that the world's Fon System was built on and the current InterNet... it is where ALL knowledgable and open minded dynamic engineers, musicians and business people are gravitating too exponentially.

-- SORRRY!! But I am still a proud member of /. :]

The actual isos are available here:

NTSC: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meet ings/2006/debconf6/dvd/ntsc/
PAL: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meet ings/2006/debconf6/dvd/pal/

4.3 Gigs each!

By navigating the menus in the one of the first couple links you can get an overview of the content: Basically the lectures/whatever that were given at debconf.

You can only trust Debian to not only release DVDs, but the source behind making them. :)

The actual isos are available here:

NTSC: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meet ings/2006/debconf6/dvd/ntsc/
PAL: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meet ings/2006/debconf6/dvd/pal/

4.3 Gigs each!

By navigating the menus in the one of the first couple links you can get an overview of the content: Basically the lectures/whatever that were given at debconf.

You can only trust Debian to not only release DVDs, but the source behind making them. :)

http://www.parisc-linux.org/mailing-lists/outlooko oo.html

The berkeley vacation program doesn't by default respond to mail marked as bulk and you should set -z option to avoid mail loops.

http://manpages.debian.net/cgi-bin/display_man.cgi ?id=ca0d6c2df2692e4ef9cd16ec1408a40d&format=html

The excellent network attack package dsniff has a really cool utility tcpnice that may help.

It's http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-mee tings/2006/debconf6/theora-small/2006-05-14/tower/ O penSolaris_Java_and_Debian-Simon_Phipps__Alvaro_Lo pez_Ortega.ogg

The article says there is a video where "Danese Cooper clearly stated there that the CDDL was intentionally modelled on the MPL in order to make it GPL- incompatible", but the URL given (http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-mee tings/2006/debconf6/theora-small/2006-5-14/tower/O penSolaris_Java_and_Debian-Simon_Phipps__Alvaro_Lo pez_Ortega.ogg gives me a 404.

Anyone got a working URL? Thanks.

I like google groups better than the google linux search, but I don't think either are the best sites. IMHO any site that purports to have all answers to all linux questions isn't going to do very well with any semi-complex question. They just can't have the know-how.

IRC channels are good, but it is kind of like IM - if the devs aren't on you're out of luck.

I think it really depends on the distro. For Ubuntu, there is Ubuntu forums for SuSE there are SuSE forums. The same goes for Gentoo, Mepis, Debian, Redhat, Fedora or any other distro out there. The larger projects also have their own forums.

Getting as specific a location as you can will help (e.g. the google group on Debian is better than the one on Linux users for Debian problems). That is why IRC is great when you have a reasonably well-researched and specific question. Before you ask a dev (who may be working on fixing the problem, or may have already fixed it, or may be plagued by the same question over and over again) please read how to ask a question properly. That way you are maximizing the chance that you get the right answer, people won't get mad at you, and you won't be wasting anyone else's time.

You will find more information here : http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meet ings/2005/debconf5/mpeg/2005-07-09/08-Extremadura_ Countys_70000_Debian_Workstations-Dario_Rapisardi_ and_Pedro_Perez.mpeg

except OpenOffice, which demonstrates some very dubious programming techniques based around the assumption that the word length and addressing space are exactly 32 bits

FYI, there actually is now an AMD64 port of Openoffice, available in Debian packages (albeit still only in experimental) since about March. I don't rely on it personally just yet because I've found it to be very unstable, but it is getting there. It's linked from http://openoffice.debian.net/, though the actual 2.0.3 files can be found at http://people.debian.org/~rene/openoffice.org/2.0. 3/amd64/.

Actually, there is 64-bit openoffice. Actually an ubuntu development passed back to debian, I believe.

http://openoffice.debian.net/

Okay, that's a low blow. The definition Emacs is Emacs, just like GNU's Not Unix, so the definition is recursive. You might want to point out their higher quality man pages that can save you a lot of sleep:

http://manpages.debian.net/cgi-bin/display_man.cgi ?id=0d866dee6b3985e33da7a6345cb8edab&format=html

http://secure-testing-master.debian.net/

These Theora files crash VLC and Totem on my Debian Stable box. With Xine I get an empty blue screen. Other Theora files work fine for me.

Arg, I meant to say it isn't in "Debian Stable", and it wasn't in Debian Testing the last time I checked.

Although, it's hard to research this when the http://packages.debian.org/ is sick.

Ubuntu team actually patches software and debian is the one who benefits from Ubuntu patches, so shut up please. Here's a video presentation where Mark Shuttleworth explains how it is:

http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-me etings/2005/debconf5/mpeg/2005-07-14/

Debconf 5 video archive has a video about Fully Automated Install, FAI really is impressive it does a full installation which taks a bit more time but it's alot more flexible than using Partition Image.

I use a 10GB partition with 5GB of data which Partition Image does in 3min, the exact same thing is done in 10min with FAI. On the other hand with FAI it is very easy to keep the image up to date, which is a very tedious process with Partition Image. Also growing filesystems aren't really that wasy in Linux yet.

I would say go with FAI, it's the cheapest route, in hours.

This doesn't mean etch will be released as stable soon. All RC bugs will have to be fixed first.
But since there is now a security team for testing, http://secure-testing-master.debian.net/ ,
it means you can now install testing and use apt to get security updates.

"testing" is now a full debian distro (if not official) as are "oldstable", "stable" and "unstable"

If you want to see and hear him talk about many of the things he mentions in the FAQ, you should watch his Ubuntu talk at Debconf this year. Theora 132MB, MPEG 257MB

If you want to see and hear him talk about many of the things he mentions in the FAQ, you should watch his Ubuntu talk at Debconf this year. Theora 132MB, MPEG 257MB

Slides and Video.

http://dc5video.debian.net/2005-07-11/03-Debian_De rivatives_Panel-Benjamin_Mako_Hill.mpeg (right at the end: 1h 42 min)

Just a guess: On DebConf 6 someone mentiones he presents Nokia that are "trying to build a Debian-based Tablet". So is this a Debian Derivative??

Check out http://wiki.debian.net/?DebConf5Talks for more details about the available videos (some including slides).

And this video is clearly inspiring on those issues

http://dc5video.debian.net/2005-07-14/02-Ubuntu_Ta lk-Mark_Shuttleworth.mpeg

The video server is still responsive; there should be a mirror or two of that video, btw.

whoa. just whoa.

There was a nice talk about this at Debconf last week in Finland. About writing enterprise ready software , it was one of the SkoleLinux developers (pere). And even though School != enterprise there are some valid point about how to make thing work for large organizations.

Great talks.

http://changelogs.debian.net/menu

If your attention span permits, I suggest you scroll to the bottom and observe the date that menu was first uploaded to Debian.

How about I wake up and try that again.

I am continually surprised to have never seen this implemented in online video. Not only for ads but for data other than the video stream.

Videos such as the ones in the flashy new h.264 codec or others.
Command N, Systm, Diggnation, Debcon, and Others.

Titles, credits, links, etc. are all shown encoded into the video. There must be a better way. Flash encoded video may have an answer already but I have never seen it implemented. QuickTime may also have a solution but again I have never seen it.

Has anyone done this? Is anyone pushing a standard? Fancy having a computer being interactive..

I am continually surprised to have never seen this implemented in online video.

Videos such as the ones in the flashy new h.264 codec or others.
Command N, Systm, Diggnation, Defcon, and Others.

Titles, credits, links, etc. are all shown encoded into the video. There must be a better way. Flash encoded video may have an answer already but I have never seen it implemented. QuickTime may also have a solution but again I have never seen it.

Has anyone done this? Is anyone pushing a standard? Fancy having a computer being interactive..

Yes and no.

Yes - It's already supported in i386, with the amd64 kernel images. You can run some 64-bit stuff with amd64-libs.

No - there is no *official* support yet for a 64-bit kernel with 64-bit userland. For an unofficial (and IMO fairly stable) port that will definitely be in etch, check http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/ and http://amd64.debian.net/.

There was a huge debate about it, but leaving it out was for the greater good. Don't worry about it - it's definitely coming up if I can help it at all.

amd64 is not supported officially in sarge. But there is unofficial support from http://amd64.debian.net/

amd64 will be included in etch!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Debian developers! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, for us non-programmers, non-gurus using Sarge, what's the next step? I've carefully changed my sources list in the last month or two from testing to sarge . So I'm only hitting Sarge repositories. Also, thanks to info on the mailing lists, I've added security (security.debian.org) to my repository, and the new Debian Volatile went into my repository today.

The concern has always been, what happens when Sarge goes stable, and the "prefers" should become stable instead of testing. I saw a while back in the Debian-Testing list that someone asked and someone else tried to explain how to transition by using pinning.

Is there going to be a release of a how-to of how to transition a purely Sarge installation from "testing" to "stable" in apt-preferences without then ending up in a situation where the install tries to go to woody, or some other serious situation results?

Sorry, just a lot of confusion and apprehension from someone who wasn't using potato-> woody or earlier releases and doesn't have a clue about what to do next. Any guidance would really be appreciated.

and btw, thanks Debian developers!

None of (1), (2) or (3) are true: There's this on Debian's Wiki, Installing Optimized Kernel Package, which points to the package list. The package list for testing/sarge contains 386-, 586-, 686-, K6-, & K7-optimised 2.4 kernels, 32-bit generic, 386-, 586-, 686-, K6-, K7-, 64-bit generic, EM64T- and AMD64-optimised 2.6 kernels.

• comp.arch.fpga Google archive of Usenet groups, where people interested in FPGA hang out.
• Opencores A set of free IP cores that can be implemented in FPGAs
• Comprehensive tutorial on FPGA
• A comprehensive list of FPGA CPUs
• A good FPGA tools overview
• FPGAworld news, jobs, forums, demos etc.(http://www.fpgaworld.com)
• FPGA Basics by Ray Andraka
• Fpga4Fun various fpga projects
• FPGA Boards
• AP100 PCI Platform FPGA Development Board
• Information about signal processing on FPGA by RF Engines
• FPGA manufacturers
  • Xilinx Xilinx has traditionally been the FPGA leader. Their general philosophy is to provide all the features possible, at the cost of extra complexity.
  • Altera Altera is the second FPGA heavyweight. Their philosophy is to provide the features that most people want while keeping their devices easy to use.
  • Lattice Lattice's focus is on low-cost, feature-optimized FPGAs and non-volatile, flash-based FPGAs.
  • Actel (http://www.actel.com/) and QuickLogic have antifuse (programmable-only-once) products.
  • Cypress
  • Atmel
  • Debian FPGA.

Debian to the rescue! http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DFSGLicenses

It is a CPL is a decent enough Free Software license. However it is incompatible with the GPL due to technical legal reasons (https://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/license-li st.html for details).

A quick Google search does not show any Definate answers.

But yeah, things like this should be in the FAQ or perhaps the Wiki.

I'm a Debian developer, and I haven't voted -- yet. I'll cast my DPL vote towards the end of the cycle, as usual. Here's why:

• At the start of the cycle, I hadn't made up my mind. That's generally the case, except in one or two General Resolution votes where I already understood the issue under consideration (e.g. the non-free vote.)
• I haven't finished reading the candidate platforms and debate material yet. When voting opens, the project leader debates are just freshly over. This year, since once again I couldn't attend them live, I have to read them afterward, which takes time. Last year the debate was cancelled, because an email debate had already occurred on debian-vote -- same situation. Voting in Debian is just like voting anywhere else, you often have to do a lot of reading to understand the issues. Debian developers are shy about this right now, because the Social Contract clarification vote a ways back opened a huge unforseen can of worms concerning the freeness of documentation, and derailed Sarge again, until a second vote was undertaken to put the issue off until post-Sarge.
• With Sarge at a release tipping point (RC3 on the installer, and the Vancouver proposal still kicking around), I delay voting so I can see how those issues play out and adjust my planned vote.
• My local Debian meetup is unpredictable, and there might be one, where some longtime DDs show up and can enlighten me on the machinations going on in the Debian functional committees. You know, all those smoke-filled rooms in which the ftpmasters and application managers and buildd administrators meet to shoot heroin and plot how they're going to sabotage the next planned release date and sell the sparc porters into slavery or whatever.
• I am a lazy procrastinating bastard.

The sad thing is, nobody can fix the problems you encountered because a month from now the packages you're using from Testing will be replaced with new ones from Unstable. Despite it being the design goal for the Testing branch, it's impossible for Testing to ever be "almost ready to release" because it's never frozen. If it's never frozen, no one will be able to contribute to stabilizing it, even UserLinux developers.

Check out the release proposals wiki for more info.

Seems that I confused Planet Debian for Debian Planet, and extrapolated from there. Apologies

I always hear about Sarge, but what about the unstable branch of Debian ? I still don't get why Sarge would require unstable to be frozen like that - and in fact, it isn't the case for most of the other packages.

It's very simple.

Debian has three major branches: stable, testing, and unstable.

The stable branch is treated very carefully. It will get security patches, but otherwise will not be changed. It's a "frozen" release. Most Debian users will run the stable branch on their servers.

The testing and unstable branches work together and are closely related. The unstable branch is where new packages are checked in. Once the new package has been in unstable for a while and is working out well, it will be auto-migrated into the testing branch.

And this is the answer to your question: Debian cannot update the unstable branch to X.org without cutting off the testing branch from further updates, or risking that X.org packages might get migrated into sarge by the scripts that update testing. Why would the Debian guys make more work for themselves by doing this?

All three branches have "code names". The unstable branch is code-named "sid", always. The testing branch is currently code-named "sarge". When sarge is "released", what will happen? First, the current stable branch (code-named "woody") will be retired from the main servers. Second, the servers will be updated to have the sarge packages listed as the stable branch. Third, a new code name will be chosen for the next release, and the testing branch will be named with that code name. (At that exact moment, I guess the testing branch will be identical to the stable branch, but that won't be true for long.) Finally, all the checkins that were held back, waiting for the release of sarge, will start to flood into unstable; this is when you can expect to see X.org in unstable.

Actually there is a fourth branch of Debian: experimental. You will really see X.org show up in experimental before it even shows up in unstable. Once people have good success with the packages in experimental, the packages will be checked in to unstable. (Just because it is called "unstable" doesn't mean that Debian is completely careless.)

The problem is that the expected date release of Sarge was pushed back over and over.

This is just Debian for you. Debian is a loose coalition of volunteers, and their sole goal is to put out a distribution that will be rock solid. They ship "when it's done", not according to some schedule.

Note that there is any reason you cannot use sarge now. Why wait? It's already very stable. I used to use unstable on my desktops, and that was stable enough for me; testing should be even more stable.

The Debian X Strike Force was IMHO quite slow at reacting to the upcoming of XOrg.

The X Strike Force is not a large team, it has a lot of work to do, and what you think of it doesn't really change anything. If you join the X Strike Force and help them get their work done, then I will listen attentively to your opinions, and until then, I'll gently suggest you not complain of their slowness.

If you want to combine the Debian goodness with the X.org exciting new flavor, I have two suggestions for you.

First, you can read the discussion here about how to compile your own X.org from the CVS, and set that up on your Debian system. It works so well there is "no need for packages", according to that discussion.

Also, if you would like everything that is good about Debian but with faster release cycles, you ought to look into Ubuntu. Ubuntu is committed to a new version every six months, and their next release (due to release in April 2005) already has X.org checked in. I'm using that to type this message. It's definitely not as stable as the released version of Ubuntu from October 2004 but I can deal with it and I like th