Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 57
...to inform...to educate...to entertain
"The number of people watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your action."
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:
- Farewell to Jercel
- Crazy's back
- I am missing "you"...
- Getting To Know You - Patches
- FLOSS developers are people too - Jeff Bailes
Events
Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:
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From Last to Libre
Last.fm is a web-based service which analyses what music you play and suggests music which you also might like. Until recently it was very popular, including within the FLOSS community, because the service cost nothing to use. However, some people were concerned about the fact that it wasn't a FLOSS service, also privacy protection. Last.fm announced a few months ago that it would begin charging users outside the USA, UK and Germany for streaming media. This change was something which many people could not accept.
In response to Last.fm's changes, Matt Lee, of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) began a new, similar service named Libre.fm. The name represents the fact that it's truly free, with no cost to users and being licenced under the Affero GPL (AGPL). This is a quite new licence aimed at web-based services which collect and store data from its users. The AGPL ensures not only that the code to the service's software is free, but also that each user's content is available to them, to take elsewhere. This is something that most people don't consider until they want to move to a different service and realise too late that they're "locked in" to a service provider.
"How does this relate to Frugalware?" I can hear you ask. Frugalware has a group on the web-based service Libre.fm, which allows users to submit data about the music they listen to via their media player. The idea is to allow members of the Frugalware group to know what music others in the group are playing. If you play music while on your PC, please join the Frugalware community on Libre.fm.
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Farewell to Jercel
On 12 December 2009, Frugalware developer Jercel announced his departure from the team in a message to the developers' mailing list. He's leaving for professional reasons, as his current job, together with his other commitments, doesn't leave him enough time to work on Frugalware. We will miss him because over the 7 months he was a developer, he made made an excellent contribution. Of course we wish him well for the future.
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Crazy's back
After recuperating in hospital for a while, Frugalware developer Crazy has returned, already busy bumping packages. Aside from the large amount of work that Crazy does, you have to admire him for his often entertaining commit messages, such as:
- * damn , forgot the patch :|
- * arghhhhh
* that was meant as taglib-extra's' which is already there may - * Ohh lol die here #Fdie -> Fdie ;)
* I don't think it was meant like this
Thankyou Crazy, for helping to make reading the developers' mailing list fun. :)
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KDE 4 is here!
In newsletter issue 50 it was announced that KDE 4 was being packaged. This was a major piece of work, because KDE 4 was a complete redesign and a LOT changed between version 3.5 and 4. Thanks to Dex77, Hermier, Exceed, Crazy and Vmiklos, KDE 4 is now available in the 'current' repository for everyone to install and enjoy. Even if you don't use it now, why not try it out? You never know, you just might switch to it once you've tried it.
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I am missing "you"...
Each Frugalware newsletter issue starts life as an empty HTML skeleton, with each piece fitted into place as it is written. One unfortunate result of this method is that if there is an error in the template, that error is copied into each issue. This happened early in the life of the newsletter, and I only found the error recently. In the text which asks readers to contribute hints and tips, the word "you" was missing. A search revealed the error in 45 issues, almost the complete catalogue of newsletters! They were all fixed quickly, though, thanks to 'sed'. For someone like me, who takes care that spelling and grammar is correct, it was very embarrassing.
I hope that this is the last of any such errors, but I need your help. If yoo doo find airnee erruz in thee newzletta, pleaze tell mee. :P
Getting To Know You
In this section of the newsletter, we get to know Frugalware Linux a little at a time. This is not meant to replace the official documentation but instead make it easier to read. This should suit those people who, like me, have short attention spans. :)
Patches
Patches are often applied to the original source code of applications by Linux distributors. The reasons for applying patches vary but the main reason is to have the application behave according to the distribution's wishes. Frugalware's policy is to maintain and apply as few patches as possible, for the following reasons:
Maintenance effort
Every patch has to be maintained by the Frugalware development team. When a package is upgraded, the package's maintainer must check if all its patches (if any) are still relevant. If they're no longer relevant then they can be deleted. This process is manual and can take a long time, depending on the number and complexity of the patches. In summary, all this time spent maintaining patches could be better spent on other activities.
Respect for developers
A patch is applied to a package's original source code to change its behaviour from what the original developer(s) intended. Frugalware's policy is to first try to have patches accepted by the original developer(s). This means that (1) the original developer(s) accepts the change as being valid, and (2) it avoids the cost of having the Frugalware development team maintain the patch. If a patch is refused by the original developer(s) then it's not likely to be maintained by the Frugalware development team.
Troubleshooting
Applying patches to a package's original source makes troubleshooting more difficult for everyone involved. When a problem occurs, someone has to find out if it's caused by any of the package's patches. If the answer is "No', then the bug can be reported upstream. If the answer is "Yes", then it's the responsibility of the distribution to fix the problem. This extra step in troubleshooting complicates the process and adds to the workload of the distribution's developers.
A design principle which Frugalware borrowed from Slackware is simplicity and since patches go against this principle, they're used only when absolutely necessary.
FLOSS developers are people too
Without developers, we wouldn't have the Linux kernel and all the software that we run on the platform. What motivates FLOSS developers? Why does anyone choose to spend their time writing software when they don't get paid to do so? What do developers do when they're not writing software? These questions and more are the inspiration behind this new section of the newsletter.
In interviews with FLOSS developers, we get to know them a little better as people, and what motivates them in their quest for better software. I'm very excited by this new series because I admire their work very much. I'm also very grateful to them for taking the time to reply to my requests.
Interviews in the next few issues will feature:
- The developer of Code Browser;
- Ali Abdallah - Xfce developer & Parole developer;
- Jesse van den Kieboom - gedit developer.
This issue, we have an interview with Jeff Bailes - developer of Whaaw!, a GStreamer-based media player.
- What's your name?
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Jeff Bailes
- What FLOSS projects are you involved in?
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I'm the main developer for 'Whaaw! Media Player' (whaawmp for short). I also do the en_GB translations for Xfce and various other projects.
- What led to you being a FLOSS developer/contributor?
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I had been using Linux and free software for a while, was interested in programming and I wanted to give something back to the community. (That and I was sick of putting up with 'color' popping up everywhere). I looked around a bit and found that there was a lack of a GStreamer based GTK+ media player without GNOME dependencies (ie Totem for Xfce). I created an initial version and thought others might like it too so I registered it on Google Code, later moving it to its current home on GNA.
- What do you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?
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Writing code that other people will use and (hopefully) find useful and, if they want, can change the program to their liking.
- What don't you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?
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Not a whole lot, the main thing I suppose is feeling bad for not doing any coding for months on end.
- What motivates you to work on your project(s)?
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Mainly wanting new features I'd like to see in a media player I use. The recent addition of DVD Menu support was fun, albeit the amount of code I ended up needing to add was rather disappointing compared with how much time I spent on it.
- What do you do outside the FLOSS world?
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I'm currently in my third year of a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Melbourne, majoring in Pure Mathematics. My final exams are just under two weeks away, so expect at least some increase in development after that's done. Though I'm planning on doing a Masters degree next year so that increase may be short lived. I also do a bit of work at the local supermarket when I have time.
- What operating system(s) do you use and why?
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I've used Arch Linux for the last three years. I use it over Ubuntu and others because I like its rolling release system, simple updating, simple configuration and almost any package I would ever want is in the AUR (and no annoying -dev packages). I'm sure there's some reason I chose it over Frugalware but I can't for the life of me remember why.
- If people are interested in helping your project(s), how might they do this?
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I'd say come and visit me in #whaawmp on OFTC, but I don't go there nearly as often as I'd like, though if you did you'd probably run into Mark__T who helps out a bit as well. Your best bet is to send an e-mail to the mailing list (the link is somewhere on the GNA project page).
New Packages
In this new section of the newsletter I'll highlight some new packages which have been added since the previous issue.
| Package's Name | Description | Maintainer |
|---|---|---|
| shotwell-0.4.1-1 | Shotwell is an open source photo organizer designed for the GNOME desktop environment. | devil505 |
| pino-0.1.0-1 | Pino is a Twitter client for the Linux desktop. It's simple and fast. | devil505 |
| moonlight-2.0-1 | Moonlight is an open source implementation of Microsoft Silverlight for Unix systems. | bouleetbil |
| postr-0.12.4-1 | Flickr Uploader | bouleetbil |
| wired-0.7.0-1 | Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer written in C++ with the Qt4 framework | exceed (with help from elentir) |
| connman-0.47-1 | open source connection manager | bouleetbil |
Tips and tricks
Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.
Portable pacman-g2 cache
When pacman-g2 downloads a package, it is stored in pacman-g2's package cache folder - /var/cache/pacman-g2/pkg by default. If you maintain several computers running Frugalware, a portable pacman-g2 cache can reduce the time required to download packages. To use a portable cache, edit pacman-g2's configuration file (/etc/pacman-g2.conf) on each PC or server with which you want to share the portable cache, adding the following line:
CacheDir = [path_to_removable_media_directory]
Before you issue pacman-g2 commands, you simply insert (and mount, if it is not automatically mounted) the removable media. Just as normal, if pacman-g2 can't find the package in its cache, it will be downloaded and put into the cache. If you then need the same package on another PC, it will not be downloaded because it's already in pacman-g2's cache. This method saves disk space and time downloading the same packages on multiple PCs/servers.
Note:If you use this method, please be careful in using the command "pacman-g2 -Sc", which deletes old versions of packages. If you are maintaining PCs or servers with different repositories, you might delete packages from the removable media which you had wanted to keep.
This section relies on your contributions! If you have some tips and tricks that you would like to be shown in the newsletter, please post them on the forums.
Focus On Package(s)
Chromium B.S.U. (the game)
As quoted on the home page, "Chromium B.S.U. is a fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter." When you run this game, the first things you notice are the excellent graphics, sound and music (unless you have sound muted :P). A lot of work has gone into the game's artwork, including backgrounds, ships and other items (powerup bonuses etc). The controls are quite easy to learn and use, so you don't need to be an expert games player. Since you have a view of the action from the top, not a first-person view, it's easy to keep an eye on all the action. That doesn't mean that it's an easy game, because your enemies will do their best to blast you into oblivion!
If you have ever dreamed of living in a 2D universe, making a living as a space pilot (be honest, we have all had that dream), then you must play Chromium B.S.U. If you take up the challenge, may all your moves be quick, and may your keyboard be strong. Good luck!
Chromium (the web browser)
As everyone in the world of technology knows, "Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome." Google's aims with Chromium/Chrome are to produce a browser which is: secure, fast, reliable and standards compliant. Firefox has long been the favourite web browser in the FLOSS world, partly because of the quantity and quality of extensions available for it. Chrome/Chromium also has extensions available, but since this is a relatively new feature, there are not nearly as many available as for Firefox. Take the time to try Chromium and judge for yourself whether or not it's a better browser.
Bug fixes
The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 4 February 2010. In each cell of the table is a link to a detailed list of the relevant bugs or feature requests.
| Activity | Bugs | Feature Requests |
|---|---|---|
| Open | 163 | 196 |
| Opened since the previous newsletter | 18 | 7 |
| Closed since the previous newsletter | 29 | 14 |
Security announcements
Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 1.1 ("Getorin") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 1.0 ("Anacreon") or earlier releases.
Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 1.1 release since the previous newsletter.
| FSA | Package | FSA Description | Upgrade To |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSA625 | kernel | This fixes a vulnerability, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (immediate OOPS and hang, complete loss of response, even of console) | kernel-2.6.30-4getorin1 |
About the newsletter
Author
The Frugalware newsletter is written and edited 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 by their respective communities. 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 occurred 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.