Gentoo Weekly Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of January 19th, 2004.
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==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Gentoo Linux a finalist for LWE's "Best Open Source Project" 
 * Gentoo Linux Desktop Project Co-leads chosen 
    
Gentoo Linux a finalist for LWE's "Best Open Source Project"
------------------------------------------------------------
  
We're very proud to announce that Gentoo Linux has been announced as a 
finalist[1] for Linux World Expo's Product Excellence Award, under the 
"Best Open Source Project" category. The other nominees are KDE 3.2, Sun's 
JXTA technology, and RealNetworks' Helix Player project. The winners are 
scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, January 21 from 4:00-5:00pm at the 
Taste of Linux Booth at the 2004 New York LWE. If you register by today, 
January 19, you'll be able to enter the exhibition hall for free, so it's 
still not too late if you're undecided about attending. If you do come, 
make sure to drop by and wish us some luck! 

 1. http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny/V40/index.cvn?ID=10240
    
Gentoo Linux Desktop Project Co-leads chosen
--------------------------------------------
  
After a poll held on -core and discussions within the management teams and 
with these two developers, Donnie Berkholz[2] and Brandon Hale[3] have 
been chosen as the new co-leads for the Desktop Project[4]. The two 
co-leads will immediately begin work on getting the Desktop Project 
organized; we'd like to wish them success with this endeavor. 

 2. [email protected]
 3. [email protected]
 4. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/index.xml
    
=================================
2. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
  
Brandon Hale
 
Figure 2.1: Brandon Hale
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20040119_tseng.jpg
 
Our featured developer this week is Brandon Hale[5] (tseng), the lead for 
the Gentoo WM Project[6], and one of the newly appointed co-leads of the 
Gentoo Desktop Project[7]. He maintains the x11-wm/*box ebuilds and helps 
to organize the Gentoo Desktop Project, as well as working with the 
Hardened Gentoo[8] team on implementing a PaX[9] enabled desktop for 
Gentoo. He also applies himself to improving developer relations, and is 
frequently seen on IRC helping users. 

 5. [email protected]
 6. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/wm/index.xml
 7. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/index.xml
 8. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/index.xml
 9. http://pax.grsecurity.net/docs/pax.txt
 
Brandon lives in York, Pennsylvania. He is currently between employers, 
giving him ample time to work on Gentoo. He hopes to apply his skills at 
network security and Unix desktop support in his future career. He has 
been using Linux since 2000, with Red Hat and Debian. He moved to Gentoo 
in early 2002, after testing it on a server. After meeting Matt Keadle[10] 
and Seemant Kulleen[11] on IRC, he steadily became more involved with 
Gentoo, ultimately taking over significant responsibility for desktop and 
WM projects. He said that he was very proud of that accomplishment and the 
opportunity to "work side by side with some really great developers". 

 10. [email protected]
 11. [email protected]
 
Brandon claims he is afflicted with "an odd fascination with things that 
go way too fast" - which would explain his taste for hard-core metal 
music, as well as Gentoo. He is usually connected to IRC when he is on a 
computer, and the first thing he does on waking is check his awaylog in 
irssi[12]. His favorite apps also include vim[13], gaim[14], and 
epiphany[15]. He uses gnome-session[16] with openbox3[17], and is a big 
fan of the openbox themes Brandon's friend, Merry[18] made. They are 
available in portage as x11-themes/openbox-themes. He also likes the GTK2 
themes made by Jimmac. Brandon concluded our interview by saying that he 
would "like to thank the entire community for making my experience with 
Gentoo a positive one." 

 12. http://irssi.org/
 13. http://www.vim.org/
 14. http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
 15. http://www.gnome.org/projects/epiphany/
 16. http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/gnome-session/
 17. http://icculus.org/openbox/2/
 18. http://gumerry.co.uk
   
==================
3. Gentoo Security
==================
   
There were no security announcements posted this week.
    
=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================
  
Web Forums
----------
  
At the Sound of the Falling Hammer, It's - Project Support
 
Wolvenwraith[19] may have expected a lot of things, but quite possibly not 
what happened when he started looking around for some auction management 
software for Linux. Not finding anything to please his tastes, he decided 
to drop eBay a line about possible support for open source projects, and 
guess what: Much to his and everybody else's surprise, eBay's development 
section not only said "sure, anytime" - one of their lot[20] actually 
subscribed to the Gentoo Forums right away, to offer hands-on support to 
potential open source developers for auction management software:

 19. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=39245
 20. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=40756
 
 * eBay Software?[21] 
 21. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=123105

Rsync Round-Robin Routing to Rocalhost
 
Yet another example of the Gentoo web forums being a prime address for 
people in search of answers to severe technical problems, here are the 
threads that survived the weeding out of duplicates for the big question 
last week: Have the servers gone up in smoke?:
 
 * Emerge sync problems (servers resolving to 127.0.0.1 et al)[22] 
 * rsync Probleme behoben (13.01.) [23](German) 
 22. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=123909
 23. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=123932
    
gentoo-user
-----------
  
rsync.gentoo.org Problems 
 
The gentoo-user list had its share[24] of panicky posts[25] earlier this 
week as the primary rsync mirror had some hardware issues. As usual, the 
best policy is just to sit tight and watch the forum announcments[26]. 

 24. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/61692
 25. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/61649
 26. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=123981
 
Qmail/Sendmail/Postfix 
 
Every once in a while, we need an MTA opinion thread! Well, here's 
this[27] installment! 

 27. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/61399
    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
/usr/portage to /var/portage.
 
Gentoo is always trying to keep up with standards, and the FHS[28] is no 
exception. So, should our favorite tree stay where it is, or make a move? 
Questions around portage's cache and architecture (in)dependant features 
are all discussed. Check it out.[29]

 28. http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
 29. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/15078/
    
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
  
Spain: Zaurus Goes Gentoo!
 
Sharp Corporation's bold attempt at marketing Linux-based PDAs both in- 
and outside their Japanese home market was successful enough to create an 
illustrous group of followers worldwide. Some of those tried early on to 
replace the stock ROM delivered by Sharp installed on their Zaurus models 
with an alternative, either at kernel level or window management or both. 
Now a Spanish company[30], or more precisely Fernando Monera Daroqui aka 
Lekter[31] has done what many Gentooists have secretly hoped for: Gentoo 
for Zaurus v0.2 is out and about[32], giving people with any one of 
Sharp's model range an opportunity to run Portage on a handheld. Emerging 
on the Zaurus works a little differently from a desktop, of course. 
Downloading is done on the PDA, but distcc subsequently takes care of the 
actual compilation being executed on a remote workstation. A script then 
converts the binary package to the .ipk format that the Zaurus installer 
(and Familiar's[33] Linucised iPaqs, by the way) understands. For anyone 
in similar awe as the first people to react to the announcement, don't 
hold back, go express your feelings at this Forum thread[34].

 30. http://www.opensistemas.com/
 31. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=30247
 32. http://www.opensistemas.com/Gentoo_for_Zaurus.715.0.html
 33. http://www.handhelds.org
 34. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=124018
 
Italy: Call for Participation in Webbit 2004
 
Still a few days left to think about possible topics: Contributions to 
Italy's Webbit conference[35] have to be registered before 30 January. The 
GECHI[36] lot has started rounding up the usual suspects, and they'll be 
present with one or more 50 minute talks, to be held at the first 
Webbit.con in 2004 (there are going to be three of these events in Italy 
this year), between 6 and 8 March, in Padova. There's a coordination 
thread[37] in the Forums where you can volunteer for speaking engagements. 

 35. http://www.webbitcon.org/
 36. http://www.gechi.it
 37. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=124155
   
===========
6. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed Bug Ranking 
 * New Bug Rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[38]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 09 January 2004 and 15 January 2004, activity on 
the site has resulted in: 

 38. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 600 new bugs during this period 
 * 263 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 18 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 4786 currently open bugs: 109 are labeled 'blocker', 191 are 
labeled 'critical', and 349 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Gentoo Games[39], with 33 closed bugs[40]  
 * x86 Kernel Team[41], with 14 closed bugs[42]  
 * Alpha Porters[43], with 11 closed bugs[44]  
 * Mike Frysinger[45], with 8 closed bugs[46]  
 * Sven Vermeulen[47], with 8 closed bugs[48]  
 * Gnome Desktop Team[49], with 8 closed bugs[50]  
 39. [email protected]
 40. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 41. [email protected]
 42. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 43. [email protected]
 44. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 45. [email protected]
 46. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 47. [email protected]
 48. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 49. [email protected]
 50. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01-15&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
    
New Bug Rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Core System Packages Team[51], with 26 new bugs[52]  
 * Gentoo KDE Team[53], with 19 new bugs[54]  
 * Net-Mail Packages Team[55], with 14 new bugs[56]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[57], with 13 new bugs[58]  
 * Java Team[59], with 13 new bugs[60]  
 51. [email protected]
 52. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01
-15&[email protected]
 53. [email protected]
 54. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01
-15&[email protected]
 55. [email protected]
 56. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01
-15&[email protected]
 57. [email protected]
 58. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01
-15&[email protected]
 59. [email protected]
 60. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-01-09&chfieldto=2004-01
-15&[email protected]

==================
7. Tips and Tricks
==================
  
Using nl to number lines
 
This weeks tip shows you how to use nl to add line numbers to a file. One 
of the more common commands to add line numbers is simply cat -n. However, 
nl adds extra functionality (such as controlling for white space, zero 
padding, and column justification). 
 
To use nl with its default options, type nl filename. This will output the 
file with line numbers to standard out. Empty lines will be skipped by 
default. 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 7.1:                                                       |
| Example Usage                                                           |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                         |
|basic use                                                                |
|% nl filename                                                            |
|                                                                         |
|Include empty lines                                                      |
|% nl -ba filename                                                        |
|                                                                         |
|Left justified number column                                             |
|% nl -nln filename                                                       |
|                                                                         |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
For more information on using nl see man nl or info nl. 
   
===========================
8. Moves, Adds, and Changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 * none this week 
 
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
 
 * Daniel Black (dragonheart) - embedded 
 * Michael Januszewski (spock) - x86 kernel, ekg 
 * Kris Kersey (augustus) - amd64 
 * Andreas Proschofsky (suka) - openoffice, openoffice-ximian 
 * Ray Russell Reese (anti) - amd64, asterisk/zaptel 
 * Eric Sammer (esammer) - perl, server-related 
 * Matthieu Sozeau (mattam) - ML, emacs 
 * Bryan Stine (battousai) - X-related, hardened 
 * Gustavo Zacarias - HPPA, Sparc 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * none this week 
    
====================
9. Contribute to GWN
====================
  
Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an 
email[61].

 61. [email protected]
   
================
10. GWN Feedback
================
  
Please send us your feedback[62] and help make the GWN better.

 62. [email protected]
   
================================
11. GWN Subscription Information
================================
  
To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
[email protected].
 
To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
[email protected] from the email address you are 
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===================
12. Other Languages
===================
  
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Dutch[63] 
 * English[64] 
 * German[65] 
 * French[66] 
 * Japanese[67] 
 * Italian[68] 
 * Polish[69] 
 * Portuguese (Brazil)[70] 
 * Portuguese (Portugal)[71] 
 * Russian[72] 
 * Spanish[73] 
 * Turkish[74] 
 63. http://www.gentoo.org/news/be/gwn/gwn.xml
 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
 70. http://www.gentoo.org/news/br/gwn/gwn.xml
 71. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
 72. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
 73. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 74. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml
  
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Editor
AJ Armstrong <[email protected]> - Contributor
Brian Downey <[email protected]> - Contributor
Luke Giuliani <[email protected]> - Contributor
Kurt Lieber <[email protected]> - Contributor
Rafael Cordones Marcos <[email protected]> - Contributor
David Narayan <[email protected]> - Contributor
David Nielsen <[email protected]> - Contributor
Ulrich Plate <[email protected]> - Contributor
Hendrik Eeckhaut <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Jorn Eilander <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Bernard Kerckenaere <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Peter ter Borg <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Jochen Maes <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Roderick Goessen <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Gerard van den Berg <[email protected]> - Dutch Translation
Matthieu Montaudouin <[email protected]> - French Translation
Xavier Neys <[email protected]> - French Translation
Martin Prieto <[email protected]> - French Translation
Antoine Raillon <[email protected]> - French Translation
Sebastien Cevey <[email protected]> - French Translation
Jean-Christophe Choisy <[email protected]> - French Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <[email protected]> - German Translation
Steffen Lassahn <[email protected]> - German Translation
Matthias F. Brandstetter <[email protected]> - German Translation
Lukas Domagala <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Scherbaum <[email protected]> - German Translation
Daniel Gerholdt <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marc Herren <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Matzat <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Christian Apolloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Stefano Lucidi <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Yoshiaki Hagihara <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Katsuyuki Konno <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Takashi Ota <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Radoslaw Janeczko <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Lukasz Strzygowski <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Michal Drobek <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Adam Lyjak <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Krzysztof Klimonda <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Atila "Jedi" Bohlke Vasconcelos <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Eduardo Belloti <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Jo達o Rafael Moraes Nicola <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Marcelo Gon巽alves de Azambuja <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Otavio Rodolfo Piske <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Pablo N. Hess -- NatuNobilis <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Pedro de Medeiros <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Jos辿 Costa <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Luis Medina <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Ricardo Loureiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Aleksandr Martyncev <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Sergey Galkin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Sergey Kuleshov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Alex Spirin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Denis Zaletov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Lanark <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Fernando J. Pereda <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Lluis Peinado Cifuentes <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Zephryn Xirdal T <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Guillermo Juarez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Jes炭s Garc鱈a Crespo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Sergio G坦mez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Aycan Irican <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Bugra Cakir <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Cagil Seker <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Emre Kazdagli <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Evrim Ulu <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Gursel Kaynak <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation

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