Table of Contents

• Welcome
• Events
• Frugalware's developer are people too!
• Tips and tricks
• Focus on package(s)
• Bug fixes
• Security announcements
• About the newsletter

Welcome

The newsletter's aim is to keep you up to date with what's happened recently in the world of the Linux distribution 'Frugalware'.

Features of this issue include:

• Kalgan is nearly here!
• Memory donation - if I recall correctly :)
• Frugalware's developers are people too!
• Tip - Free some space on your hard drive

Events

Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:

• Kalgan is nearly here!

  Frugalware 0.8 - code-named "Kalgan" - is scheduled to be released on 11 March 2008. If you're "geek" enough you'll set up a cron job to download the ISO(s) as soon they are sync-ed to your prefered mirror.

• Memory donation - if I recall correctly :)

  Sebastien Mazzucco ('pizux') recently donated two lots of 512 MB RAM which will be used in the build servers. Many thanks to Sebastien for his kind donation. One of the build servers may be renamed in his honour. :)

• Kalgan's going to look great (we hope)

  Masta64 began work some time ago on artwork to be released with Frugalware 0.8 ("Kalgan"). His artwork is nearly finished and work is being done to include it in Kalgan. This includes adapting it to themes for Splashy, KDM, GDM, XFCE. There have been some technical problems but it's expected that these will be be fixed in preparation for Kalgan's release.

• Czech translation

  Martin Burda has begun translating various parts of Frugalware into the Czech language. He has completed work on Setup, GFpm, Frugalware Control Center and frugalwareutils. In a recent email message to the developers mailing list, he declared himself to be the "Creative maintainer and chief of Czech section" :-)

• It may not be news to you but it was to me...

  I recently discovered that as well as being a Frugalware developer, Michel Hermier ('hermier') is the maintainer of Kopete's IRC plugin. Kopete is the KDE instant messenger client.

Frugalware's developers are people too!

This is a new feature of the newsletter in which various Frugalware developers reveal a little about themselves. The aim is to show that "Frugalware's developers are people too!" I thank the developers for taking the time to answer the questions. There will be one interview per newsletter (until we run out of developers).

voroskoi

This issue's interview is with voroskoi, whose roles in the Frugalware development team include: security advisories and maintenance of e17. Please stand and hum the Hungarian national anthem while you read his interview.

What's your name?

My name is András Vöröskői, that's Andrew Redstone in English.

What's your IRC nickname?

That's voroskoi. I used to play Counter Strike, then I've used The UnderTaker, itL and Csingacsguk too :)

In what country do you live?

Kesztölc, Hungary. This is a small village next to Esztergom.

In what country were you born?

Miskolc, Hungary.

What do you like the most about where you live?

Well, I don't know where I actually live. I live in Miskolc usually because of the university, but I was on passive term this autumn, so I am at home these days. The two places are totally different, but I love them both. I have a lot of friends here and there too. And the pubs are also good enough :)

What do you do for the Frugalware project?

Nowadays almost nothing. I should maintain the stable tree with security fixes, but my real life ate up all my spare time. And of course I have a few packages to maintain in the current tree.

What motivates you to work on Frugalware?

I tried this distribution because it was Hungarian. I was a beginner linux user. Really. I've learnt a lot from the guys on #frugalware and it was fun. I also had a lot of free time those days :)
Now creating a new package is not that entertaining, but the quality of our packages is much higher. Frugalware has really good tools to work with, but we lack the manpower. Well, it's a problem in almost every distribution I think. So I started it because I was interested in it and I met some good guys here. I like "working" with them. And satisfied users make me very happy.

What do you do when you're not working on Frugalware?

Nothing useful :) I watch movies, go to pubs or concerts. Something.
I have been working in Tesco for four months because of the passive term, but I'll go back to university in February. I study mechanical engineering there. I used to learn IT too, but that was boring.

What's the view from your front door?

There is a mountain, called Pilis and the limestone mine. Looks good, really.

Tips and tricks

Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.

• Free some space on your hard drive - by 'shrift' (edited by 'phayz')

  To free some space, you can delete from your pacman cache those packages which have been replaced by a later version by typing this as root:

  pacman -Sc

  To remove ALL packages from pacman's cache, type this as root:

  pacman -Scc

This section relies on your contributions! If have some tips and tricks that you would like to be shown in the newsletter, please post them on the forums in the Tips and Tricks section!

Focus On Package(s)

HomeBank

First, let me tell you that the "HomeBank" package doesn't turn your home into a bank. :( It's a personal financial management application much like the proprietary Quicken and Microsoft's Money.

According to the web site - "HomeBank is free software. Use it to manage your personal accounts. It is designed to easy to use. Analyse your finances in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs. ...If you are looking for an easy way manage your accounts then HomeBank should be the software of choice. Take some time to try it out, you won't regret it."

Try it out if you you find that you just don't know where all your money goes. Most of us find that we never seem to have quite enough money. Better management of the money you do have is likely to improve your future. If HomeBank doesn't meet your requirements, you might like to try some other open source personal financial management applications - e.g. GnuCash and KMymoney.

Bug fixes

A list of bugs closed since the previous newsletter is available here.

Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, when Frugalware 0.8 ("Kalgan") is released, support for the previous release will end. This means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 0.7 ("Sayshell").

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 0.7 release since the previous newsletter.

• FSA371 - openldap: A vulnerability has been reported in OpenLDAP, which can be exploited by malicious users to cause a DoS (Denial of Service). Please upgrade to openldap-2.3.39-1sayshell2.
• FSA370 - mplayer: Some vulnerabilities have been reported in MPlayer, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. Please upgrade to mplayer-1.0rc1-9sayshell1.

About the newsletter

Author

The Frugalware newsletter is written by Russell Dickenson (AKA phayz). Credit for the Frugalware distribution goes to the development team.

Translations

The newsletter is currently translated into French and Danish. The French translation is provided by the French Frugalware community. The Danish translation is provided by the Danish Frugalware community. Thanks to all those involved in providing and hosting these translations.

Release

To allow time for review and corrections, each newsletter is written ahead of its release date. Therefore it may not mention events which occured in the few days before its release - e.g. security fixes. To be sure that you've got the very latest information on these topics, go to the appropriate page of the Frugalware web site.

Feedback

If you have feedback about the Frugalware newsletter - whether good or bad - please provide it via the forums. Your feedback is valuable because we want the newsletter to meet the needs of Frugalware's users.