Chris Lawrence wrote: > > The Debian Project is pleased to announce the latest release of the > > Debian GNU/Linux Operating System. This release has been in > > development for approximately 18 months, and has been extensively > > tested by several thousand developers and end-users. > [...] > > Looks great! Nice happy medium between my excessive verbosity and > hacker-standard brevity ;-)
Ah, with just 1 comment before, I wasn't sure if everyone hated it, or if it was just perfect. ;-) I'm still trying to come up with an alternative for the cliched first paragraph. I've chacked all the package version in it now, and corrected one. Other details that I think need checking: * 500 developers? * Does Debian ppc support the iMac, and if not, what is a common peice of hardware it _does_ support? What about the G4? (I'm trying to list some sample hardware by name, not by chip type.) Latest draft attached. -- see shy jo
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Debian GNU/Linux http://www.debian.org/ Announcing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2, the "Joel 'Espy' Klecker" release August 15th, 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Debian Project is pleased to announce the latest release of the Debian GNU/Linux Operating System. This release has been in development for approximately 18 months, and has been extensively tested by several thousand developers and end-users. Debian is a free Linux system. The developers are 500 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 Linux distributions. With the addition of the PowerPC and ARM architectures, Debian now supports a total of six architectures -- more than any other distribution. Debian now runs on iMacs and Netwinders, and of course Intel PC's, Sun SPARCs, Alphas, and older Macintosh and Amiga hardware are still supported. Debian 2.2 features a more streamlined and polished installation, including automatic network setup via DHCP, a simplified software selection process (just indicate the tasks your Debian system will be used for), and a simplified configurator for the X Window System. Debian can be installed via CD, or from the network and a few floppies: FTP: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ Mirrors: http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist CD-ROM: http://www.debian.org/distrib/vendors CD Images: http://cdimage.debian.org/ Upgrades to Debian 2.2 from earlier releases are automatically handled by the apt package management tool. As always, Debian systems can be upgraded painlessly, in place, with no downtime. For detailed documentation about installing and upgrading Debian, please see <http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/>. Debian 2.2 is based on 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. Some other highlights from the nearly 800 updated packages include: o C Library 2.1.3 o XFree86 3.3.6 o GCC 2.95.2 o GnuPG 1.0.1 o Perl 5.005.03 o Python 1.5.2 o PAM 0.72 o ncurses 5.0 o teTeX 1.0.6 o Emacs 20.7 o XEmacs 21.1.10 o GNOME 1.0.56 [1] 1200 new software packages have been added to Debian 2.2. Some of the newly available software includes: o postfix A new secure mail transport agent o openssh A free implementation of the secure shell o openldap LDAP client and server packages o w3m A new text-mode browser, with support for tables o gdm The GNOME display manager o cvsup An efficient mirroring system for CVS o everybuddy An all-in-one messaging client o reportbug A tool to report problems in Debian o zope A web application server for dynamic web sites o xmms The X Multimedia System; an audio player o kaffe A free, JIT-capable, virtual machine for Java bytecode o gnapster An interface to the popular MP3 sharing service o And last, but not least, 56 new games. Debian 2.2 incorporates not only a great deal of updated and new software, but many enhancements, such as: o Widespread use of the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM). With PAM, Debian systems can be configured with standard Unix passwords or more secure options such as shadow and MD5 passwords, "smart cards", and one-time-password implementations. o A new network configuration system, configured through the /etc/network directory, which improves support for multihomed hosts. o Closer compliance to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including a better separation between system-specific, architecture-specific, and architecture-independent data for use in heterogeneous environments. o Better support for international users. Japanese support is integrated into the core Debian archive, and other non-Latin character encodings are also better supported through wider internationalisation (I18N) support. European languages are also better supported, with more and better translations to more languages. The Debian project has always hoped to serve as a base for more specialised distributions, and in the past year this goal has been realized, with 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. In addition, Debian CDs have been bundled with several Debian books. What remains the same, however, is the project's volunteer base, its dedication to the Debian Social Contract[2], and its commitment to provide the best operating system possible. Debian 2.2 is another important step in that direction. Debian 2.2 is dedicated[3] to the memory of Joel "Espy" Klecker, a Debian developer who unbeknownst to most of the Debian project, was bedridden and fighting a disease known as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy during most of his involvement with Debian. Only now is the Debian project realizing the extent of his dedication, and the friendship he bestowed upon us. So as a show of appreciation, and in memory of his inspirational life, this release of Debian is dedicated to him. References 1. GNOME 1.2 packages for Debian 2.2 are available from Helix Code http://www.helixcode.com/ 2. http://www.debian.org/social_contract 3. ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/doc/dedication-2.2.txt
