Fedora Weekly News Issue 95
Thomas Chung
tchung at fedoraproject.org
Mon Jul 9 07:55:10 UTC 2007
= Fedora Weekly News Issue 95 =
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 95[1] for the week of July 1st
through July 7th 2007. The latest issue can always be found here[2]
and RSS Feed can be found here[3].
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue95
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/LatestIssue
[3] http://fedoranews.org/cms/FWN/feed
1. Announcements
1. New Infrastructure Ticketing System
2. Reminder -- Vote in the Fedora Board election
3. Fedora Core 5 Retirement (EOL)
2. Planet Fedora
1. Red Hat High
2. Fedora Free Media Program
3. The Tone of Fedora
3. Marketing
1. Fedora 7 Review - Technetra
2. Fedora 7 Review - Shift Backspace
3. Fedora 7 Review - PC Advisor
4. Developments
1. Like This Content?
5. Documentation
1. Fedora Documentation Project Steering Committee Elections
2. Mailing List Owners
3. Translation Quickstart Guide
4. Samba Plus LDAP Tutorial
6. Translation
1. Translations, Damned Lies and Transifex
2. Fedora Translation Project Mailing List
7. Infrastructure
1. fedorapeople.org
2. Using Trac for Task Requests and Management
3. Infra Chooses Git for Self
8. Artwork
1. Sound Theme?
2. Round 1 Deadline Approaching
3. Theme Proposals
4. Stickers
9. Security Week
1. Why an ATM PIN Has Four Digits
2. Vulnerability for sale
10. Daily Package
1. Nedit - Programmer's notepad editor
2. Optipng - PNG Optimizer
3. The login prompt
4. gTweakUI - Tweak the GNOME User Interface
5. Friday Fun: Ball: Buster - Breakthrough game
11. Advisories and Updates
1. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
2. Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories
12. Events and Meetings
1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD
2. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-MM-DD
3. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-MM-DD
4. Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Meeting 2007-07-05
5. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-07-05
6. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-07-03
7. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-07-02
8. Fedora Translation Project Meeting 2007-07-03
13. Feedback
== Announcements ==
In this section, we cover announcements from various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== New Infrastructure Ticketing System ===
MikeMcGrath announces in fedora-devel-announce[1],
"The Infrastructure Team has decided to change ticketing systems. The
new system is available at [2]. We'll be continuing to set that site
up but tickets can now be filed there. The previous ticketing system
at [3] turned out to be a bit to heavy for our teams needs. Using a
Trac system feels more natural to us and we suspect it will feel more
natural to the community as well."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2007-July/msg00003.html
[2] https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/projects/fedora-infrastructure/report
[3] https://admin.fedoraproject.org/tickets/
=== Reminder -- Vote in the Fedora Board election ===
MaxSpevack announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"I would like to remind everyone to vote in the Fedora Board
elections[2], which are currently ongoing..."
"The Fedora Board's membership changes on a rotating basis. This
election is for 3 of the 9 Fedora Board seats. The Fedora Board is the
Fedora Project's "executive committee" and is ultimately accountable
for everything that happens within Fedora, and delegates
responsibillity to various sub-projects accordingly"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-July/msg00002.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Elections
=== Fedora Core 5 Retirement (EOL) ===
WarrenTogami announces in fedora-announce-list[1],
"As of Monday, July 2nd 2007, Fedora Core 5 has gone into retirement.
No further updates will be issued for FC5 or FE5 as we refocus our
developer attention to development of F8 and maintenance of our most
recent stable Fedora 7."
"By the current Fedora 8 development schedule[2], the supported
lifetime of FC6 is to continue to a minimum of early December 2007."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-July/msg00001.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/8/Schedule
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet
Contributing Writers: ThomasChung, KarstenWade
=== Red Hat High ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1]
"Red Hat High[2] is a week-long summer camp for rising 8th and 9th
graders. This is the second year that Red Hat has done the program.
Last year my contribution was giving a talk about the collaborative
power of wikis to the campers. This year, GregDeKoenigsberg is the
primary organizer of Red Hat High, and I'm spending most of my day
today reverting to my QA roots and helping out by testing the Red Hat
High LiveCD (based on Fedora 7 with some software from the Planet
CCRMA repos) in the various computer labs on NCSU's campus that will
be home to the different tracks."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/22916.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/redhathigh/
=== Fedora Free Media Program ===
MaxSpevack points out in his blog[1]
"Some of you, I'm sure, are quite familiar with the Fedora Free Media
Program[2]. For those of you who aren't, it's our community-run
distribution engine. Fedora only produces enough DVDs and CDs to ship
mass quantities out to various events or groups that need them in
quantities of several hundred each. We simply don't have the people
power to ship out media on a one-off basis. That's where the Free
Media program comes in -- they harness volunteers who are willing to
burn any number of Fedora discs and mail them out all over the world.
Each month, they do about 100. We'd love to increase the capacity, but
that requires more volunteers."
[1] http://spevack.livejournal.com/22319.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/FreeMedia
=== The Tone of Fedora ===
On a somber note, ThorstenLeemhuis had some thoughts[1] on the
evolution of the Fedora community:
"I started to contribute to Fedora(.us) years ago; Fedora has grown a
lot since then -- especially now with the merge we are lot more people
that have to interact with each other.
What really disappoints me about that: the tone on the mailing lists
afaics got and constantly gets worse and unfriendlier. Sure, there
were flamewars in the past (and I were part of them as well), but
people showed more respect to each other.
I'm not sure if I would start contributing to Fedora today if I would
be searching for a project to contribute to."
[1] http://thorstenl.blogspot.com/2007/07/evolution-or-growth-of-fedora.html
== Marketing ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 7 Review - Technetra ===
ThomasChung reports in in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"As their "Flying High" theme promises, Fedora 7 is indeed a great
plane to fly. It is a first class distro that demonstrates solid
progress in improving the user experience, easing the move to
virtualization and enabling the user to create their own flying
machine through custom build tools. So grab your flight gear and take
Fedora 7 for a spin. See you onboard![2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-July/msg00010.html
[2] http://www.technetra.com/writings/archive/2007/07/01/review-fedora-7
=== Fedora 7 Review - Shift Backspace ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"After writing this entire review while using Fedora 7, I feel much
better about it. I am thoroughly impressed by the offering supported
in part by Red Hat and the community involved. Unfortunately, the
choice to use only non-proprietary software makes this distribution
more difficult to use "out-of-the-box". However, I whole-heartedly
commend the Fedora team on ensuring that every aspect involved is
within the free and open-source boundaries and any user who wants
additional functions can easily get them using the yum installer.[2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-July/msg00007.html
[2] http://shiftbackspace.com/2007/06/10/fedora-7-a-review/
=== Fedora 7 Review - PC Advisor ===
RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],
"Like everything else, this arrangement is a result of Fedora's focus:
Fedora is very Free Software-centric - far more so than Ubuntu, which
ships with some proprietary components (including 3D graphics drivers)
that Fedora steadfastly eschews on principle.[2]"
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-July/msg00003.html
[2] http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=1003&pn=1
== Developments ==
In this section, we cover the problems/solutions,
people/personalities, and ups/downs of the endless discussions on
Fedora Developments.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
=== Like This Content? ===
FWN is sorry we are falling short on coverage for this important area
of the Fedora Project. Unfortunately, the regular writer is on
vacation, and we do not have enough resources to cover.
In the future, watch this area for more information on how you can
help cover the happenings with Fedora development. If you are
interested in contributing regularly, visit this page to learn how:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
== Documentation ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Documentation Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== Fedora Documentation Project Steering Committee Elections ===
Planning has begun for the next FDSCo election, specifically which
date to hold the election on[1]. The plan is for nominations to take
place between 20th July to 2nd August, and voting to take place
between 3rd August and 13th August, including two weekends.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-July/msg00004.html
=== Mailing List Owners ===
KarstenWade informs the list that he has made all FDSCo members admins
for the fedora-docs-list and fedora-docs-commits mailing lists[1].
Hopefully this will reduce the work load on individuals, by spreading
spam management between a number of people.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-July/msg00006.html
=== Translation Quickstart Guide ===
The translation quickstart guide is set to be updated, in line with
the ongoing efforts of the L10N team to make contribution easier for
new and existing translators[1]. If you have any thoughts on how this
guide can be improved, add your thoughts to the appropriate wiki
page[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-July/msg00007.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N/Tasks/TQSG
=== Samba Plus LDAP Tutorial ===
Deependra Singh Shekhawat wrote to the docs-list to inform readers
that he has begun work on updating a tutorial on the use of Samba plus
LDAP on Fedora 7[1]. While the guide is still a work in progress, it
has a lot of useful information and is set to be ported to DocBook XML
in the DocsProject's CVS repository. This will help to make the
information accessible to a lot more people, allowing easier
translation.
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-July/msg00012.html
== Translation ==
This section, we cover the news surrounding the Fedora Translation
(L10n) Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
(The regular contributor JasonMatthewTaylor is not available for this
week. ThomasChung is covering for him.)
=== Translations, Damned Lies and Transifex ===
DimitrisGlezos reports in gnome-i18n[1],
"For a while now, along with contributing to the Greek GNOME team, I've been
working on Fedora's L10n infrastructure. We're moving it from RH to Fedora
systems, so some work was needed to be done."
"Firstly, we needed a new web frontend for statistics. Damned Lies (DL), and the
whole GNOME i18n infrastructure[2] rocks, so it was a no-brainer to
base off these
approaches. We quickly got a system up and running using DL[3]."
[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2007-July/msg00003.html
[2] http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/
[3] http://translate.fedoraproject.org/
=== Fedora Translation Project Mailing List ===
DimitrisGlezos reports in fedora-trans-list[1],
"So for 1. there's an idea to create a fedora-trans-announce list, which will be
moderated and kept only for interesting announcements. *Every* translator will
be requested to be subscribed to this list."
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-July/msg00019.html
== Infrastructure ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure
Contributing Writer: KarstenWade
(The regular contributor JasonMatthewTaylor is not available for this
week. KarstenWade is covering for him.)
=== fedorapeople.org ===
SethVidal reports[1] that the new Fedora community lightweight web
hosting is nearing completion. A discussion ensued about what not to
have on the server, to keep it secure and focused on a simple job --
receiving files via rsync, scp, and sftp, and delivering those files
via HTTP. JesseKeating provided[2] a different viewpoint, that
providing too limited of a solution is no fun for anyone; at the
minimum, he suggests support for git:// access. SethVidal replied
with some clarification, pointing out his understanding that http://
provided all the access git and hg need.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00063.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00075.html
[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00078.html
=== Using Trac for Task Requests and Management ===
After continued evaluation, MikeMcGrath announced[1] that the
Infrastructure team had switched to using an instance of Trac for
systems administration task requests and tracking. This function is
also commonly called a ''ticket system'', a role previously filled by
OTRS.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00035.html
=== Infra Chooses Git for Self ===
After several rounds of deliberations and an eventual vote[1],
MikeMcGrath mentioned[2] that the Infrastructure team had chosen to use
git as the SCM for their own source control needs. As was repeated
throughout the thread, this discussion has nothing to do with
project-wide SCM changes, and pertains only to code maintained by the
Infrastructure team for it's own missions.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00005.html
[2] http://mmcgrath.livejournal.com/6018.html
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: JonathanRoberts
=== Sound Theme? ===
DanielGeiger sent a message to the art-list proposing a number of
ideas for Fedora 8 and 9 themes, including better integration between
Firefox and OpenOffice with GTK+, and also a sound theme for
Fedora[1]. The discussion reached agreement that it would not be
necessary for a sound theme to have a lot of electronic effects, but
could be purely instrumental, potentially lowering the barrier for
entry to anyone considering helping with the project[2]. It was,
however, eventually decided that the best place for this discussion is
on the fedora-music-list[3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00010.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00022.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00025.html
=== Round 1 Deadline Approaching ===
MáirínDuffy contacted the list to remind everyone that the deadline
for submitting theme ideas for consideration in the first round of
competition is quickly approaching[1]. The deadline is Wednesday 11th
July. If you have any proposals for Fedora 8 artwork, contacted the
art-list and create a wiki page[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00042.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F8Themes
=== Theme Proposals ===
JohnBaer contacted the list[1] with his idea for a theme based around
the idea of Feng Shui[2].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00030.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F8Themes/FengShui
MartinSourada informed the list[1] of his proposal for a GTK+ and
Metacity theme, Nodoka[2]. An RPM is available to install and try this
theme[3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00038.html
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DanielGeiger/F8ThemeNodoka
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00049.html
=== Stickers ===
GeroldKassube contacted the list, inquiring about official Fedora
Project stickers[1], after discovering one for sale on a website. It
was concluded that this is likely a breach of the Fedora trademark
guidelines, and the website was contacted about this[2]. The post did,
however, raise the interesting question of whether there should be an
official Fedora Project sticker[3].
[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00058.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00059.html
[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2007-July/msg00060.html
== Security Week ==
In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.
Contributing Writer: JoshBressers
=== Why an ATM PIN Has Four Digits ===
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/why_an_atm_pin.html
Bruce Schneier has an interesting blog entry that explains why our ATM
PIN is four digits. A four digit password is laughable, but in the
same respect, so is writing your password down and sticking it to your
monitor. A big reason a four digit PIN works for an ATM is that you
also need the ATM card in order to use the PIN. That's known as two
factor authentication, what you know (PIN) and what you have (card).
Any group that wishes to keep their users secure will rely on a
multi-factor authentication system. It's a lot harder to steal my ATM
card and my PIN than it is to find just one of them. From a user
perspective it makes more sense to let them choose a crappy password
they can remember, then secure their crappy password with something
like a smart card or token.
=== Vulnerability for sale ===
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=128411&WT.svl=news1_1
Another vulnerability auction site has arisen. This isn't the first
site to attempt this and surely won't be the last. Most of these
sites are really just marketing scams that attract a great deal of
attention to the group conducting the auction. It's very possible
that these flaws are real, but it's far more likely they are extremely
lame flaws, or are just plain fakes. Even if these flaws prove to be
real, one of the significant advantages to open source software is the
speed that flaws can be fixed. There are few companies that can claim
to have a large group of well qualified people able to help develop a
fix for a flaw. Rather than fret over a site such as this, it makes
far more sense to just keep doing the things that make open source
great, and deal with bumps as they appear.
== Daily Package ==
In this section, we recap the packages that have been highlighted as a
Fedora Daily Package.
http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com
Contributing Writer: ChrisTyler
=== Nedit - Programmer's notepad editor ===
''Productive Mondays'' highlight a timesaving tool. This Monday[1] we
covered Nedit[2]:
"Nedit is a venerable programmer's editor. It uses the older
Motif/Lesstif toolkit, so it doesn't offer antialiased text, and the
Motif widgets (user interface controls) seem clunky at times. But it
offers a streamlined user interface with almost all of the window
dedicated to editing text, and it has a lot of features useful to
programmers..."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/83-Productive-Monday-Nedit-Programmers-notepad-editor.html
[2] http://nedit.org/
=== Optipng - PNG Optimizer ===
''Artsy Tuesdays'' highlight a graphics, video, or sound application.
This Tuesday[1] Optipng[2] was featured:
"Optipng is a command-line tool for optimizing PNG file sizes. The
screenshot shows a sample run which produced a 13% reduction in file
size, which is typical and can represent a significant savings in disk
(and backup) space as well as transfer requirements for online work if
repeated across a library of images. Considering how easy it is to run
the optipng, that's a pretty good return on your investment of time."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/84-Artsy-Tuesday-Optipng-PNG-Optimizer.html
[2] http://optipng.sourceforge.net/
=== The login prompt ===
The ''Wednesday Why'' article[1] was on the Fedora character-mode login prompt:
"Most Fedora users realize that there are two ways to locally log in
to a Fedora system: using a character-mode display, or through the
graphical user interface. ... The login prompt presented on the
character-mode screens is taken from the file /etc/issue. In some old
versions of Fedora the /etc/issue file was overwritten at each boot by
the startup scripts, but this is no longer the case."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/88-Wednesday-Why-The-login-prompt.html
=== gTweakUI - Tweak the GNOME User Interface ===
''GUI Thursdays'' highlight a software that provides, enhances, or
effectively uses a GUI interface. This Thursday[1], gTweakUI[2] was
discussed:
"The gTweakUI package provides four tiny tools that enable additional
customization of the GNOME2 desktop. Once the package is installed,
your System > Preferences menu will have options to adjust the
behaviour of the GNOME menus, session manager, file manager
(Nautilus), and web browser (Galeon -- though most Fedora GNOME users
use Firefox)."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/87-GUI-Thursday-gTweakUI-Tweak-the-GNOME-User-Interface.html
[2] http://gtweakui.sourceforge.net/
=== Friday Fun: Ball: Buster - Breakthrough game ===
''Friday Fun'' highlights fun, interesting, and amusing programs. This
Friday[1], our young reviewer r.k.ryale took a look at the game
Ball:Buster[2]:
"Ball: Buster is a game where the goal is to keep a ball bouncing off
a paddle while trying to hit coloured blocks of varying strength. By
varying strength, it means some blocks require numerous hits to make
them fall."
[1] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/89-Friday-Fun-Ball-Buster-Breakthrough-game.html
[2] http://www.patrickavella.com/ballbuster.shtml
== Advisories and Updates ==
In this section, we cover Secuirity Advisories and Package Updates
from fedora-package-announce.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===
* [SECURITY] dar-2.3.4-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0904
* [SECURITY] ekg-1.7-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0791
* [SECURITY] file-4.21-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0836
* [SECURITY] php-pear-Structures-DataGrid-DataSource-MDB2-0.1.10-1.fc7
- http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0847
* [SECURITY] quagga-0.99.7-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0838
* [SECURITY] wordpress-2.2.1-1.fc7 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/F7/FEDORA-2007-0894
=== Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories ===
* [SECURITY] perl-Net-DNS-0.60-1.fc6 -
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA/FC6/FEDORA-2007-609
== Events and Meetings ==
In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various projects.
Contributing Writer: ThomasChung
=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD ===
* No report in this week
=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-MM-DD ===
* No report in this week
=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-MM-DD ===
* No report in this week
=== Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Meeting 2007-07-05 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-July/msg00075.html
=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-07-05 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-July/msg00051.html
=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-07-03 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2007-July/msg00043.html
=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-07-02 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-July/msg00184.html
=== Fedora Translation Project Meeting 2007-07-03 ===
* https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-July/msg00018.html
== Feedback ==
This document is maintained by the Fedora News Team[1]. Please feel
free to contact us to give your feedback. If you'd like to contribute
to a future issue of the Fedora Weekly News, please see the Join[2]
page to find out how to help.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
--
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung
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