Tag Archives: Debian Testing

Linux

Have you heard of Tanglu?

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If not, read this. This sounds like it’s going to be an awesome project, and I’m going to contribute in any way I can.

To quote some highlights from the initial announcement:

Tanglu will be based on Debian Testing and follow the Debian development closely. It will have a 6-months release-cycle and it’s target audience are Linux desktop users. We will make installing and setting up the distro as easy as possible.

Tanglu will be usable for both developers of upstream software and the average Linux user and Linux newbie. This is possible because in our opinion developers and users don’t have different needs for a desktop system. Both kinds of users like a polished desktop which “just works”. We will, hwever, not apply any kind of fancy modification on upstream software, we will basically just distribute what upstream created, so users can get an almost “pure” GNOME and KDE experience.

Tanglu is designed to be able to solve the issue that Debian is frozen for a long time and Debian Developers can’t make new upstream versions available for testing easily. During a Debian freeze, DDs can upload their software to the current Tanglu development version and later start the new Debian cycle with already tested packages from Tanglu. The delta between Tanglu and Debian should be kept as minimal as possible. However, Tanglu is not meant as experimental distribution for Debian, so please upload experimental stuff to Experimental. Only packages good enough for a release should go into Tanglu.

And the best part (to me, anyway 🙂 ):

Which desktop will you use?

Everyone can add a new desktop to Tanglu, as long as the desktop-environment is present in Debian. Long term, we will have to offer Linux-newbies a default flavour, probably by setting a default download on the website. But as long as there is a community for a given desktop-environment, the desktop is considered as supported.
At the beginning, we will focus on KDE, as many people have experience with it. But adding vanilla GNOME is planned too.

Yay for another option for a Debian based, pure KDE distro. I’m running both openSUSE and Kubuntu now on different machines. I’m surely more comfortable with Debian, but Kubuntu is simply more up-to-date, and KDE is really well integrated. I’m trying openSUSE, but having used Debian based distros for going on 10 years now, I still don’t have the level of comfort, so it lives on my (less critical) Laptop.

I see this as great because it will help the overall Debian ecosystem, which feeds not only Debian, but The ‘buntu’s, Mint CrunchBang and many others.

I just think it’s awesome to have something with a pure KDE more closely aligned with Debian coming soon.

Does this all sound as exciting to you as it does to me? Because, man, I’m pumped!

If so, do like I did and sign up for the mailing list, join the Freenode …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE

Linux

Tanglu

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A new logo?

Hi everyone!

Today I make an announcement I thought I would never ever make. But things changed.

Discussion about this has a long history, starting as a non-serious suggestion at DesktopSummit 2011, continued with people on IRC, but it was decided back then that it wouldn’t be worth the effort. This has changed too, and a small team has formed to work on it.

We hereby announce Tanglu, a new Debian-based-Linux distribution.

Why do we need another one? Let me explain the concepts of that distro:

Tanglu will be based on Debian Testing and follow the Debian development closely. It will have a 6-months release-cycle and it’s target audience are Linux desktop users. We will make installing and setting up the distro as easy as possible.

Tanglu will be usable for both developers of upstream software and the average Linux user and Linux newbie. This is possible because in our opinion developers and users don’t have different needs for a desktop system. Both kinds of users like a polished desktop which “just works”. We will not apply all kinds of fancy modifications on upstream software, we will basically just distribute what upstream wrote.

Tanglu is designed to be able to solve the issue that Debian is frozen for a long time and Debian Developers can’t make new upstream versions available for testing easily. During a freeze, DDs can upload their software to the current Tanglu development version and then start the new Debian cycle with tested packages from Tanglu. The delta between Tanglu should be kept s minimal as possible. However, Tanglu is not meant as experimental distribution for Debian, so please upload experimental stuff to Experimental. Only packages good enough for a release should go into Tanglu.

Ideally, Tanglu and Debian should be working well together in mixed environments, where you for example have Debian servers and multiple Tanglu desktops with the new software, targeted at desktop user. Since the differences between Tanglu and Debian should not be very high, administering both systems should be very easy (if you know Debian).

Tanglu will be an open project, driven by community. At the beginning of each cycle, people can make suggestions for release goals they want to implement (Similar to Fedora, but without FESCo). These proposals are discussed in public and are rejected if there are major technical concerns. If consensus about a certain proposal is lacking, a vote is done for it. The proposal can be accepted with absolute majority. If this does not happen, the proposal is postponed for the next release, where people can vote for it again. If nobody wants that function, it is rejected. In general, decisions made by Debian are superior and have to be followed.

We don’t think we know every package and every software better than the original upstream. That’s why it makes much sense to rely on feedback from others and to have a community-based and peer-reviewed distribution, instead of secretly developing stuff and dumping it on the community. Tanglu will have a highly predictable set of features, defined at …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE

Linux

A new Debian-based distribution

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Debian Development

Disclaimer: This post just sums up a concept for a new distribution which matches certain ideals. It is not the announcement of a new distribution. These are just abstract ideas. (However, if there is high interest in a project like this, it might of course develop into something real…)

I have been involved in Debian and Ubuntu for a long time now. When Ubuntu started, I was a Debian Testing user, and I immediately switched to Ubuntu when it started, because I liked the idea of a short-release-cycle, user-centric company-supported Debian based Linux distribution. However, I am now back to Debian for a long time, because of many reasons which nearly all had to do with Canonical policy. But this is not a post to criticise Ubuntu, so I’ll leave out most of that part. I am highly disappointed on how Ubuntu develops – not only the technical decisions are at least questionable, but also the social and community part is not that great anymore. There is a high asymetry in the relation between Canonical and other developers, Ubuntu mailinglists basically don’t create meaningful results, they sometimes even mutate to a Canonical Q/A session. The community does not seem to have a large influence on decisions about core services, and it can’t have it if there are things developed behind closed doors. (This is all, of course my subjective impression)

But really nobody can argue against the basic idea of Ubuntu and the great things Ubuntu created Also, many of the processes Ubuntu uses to develop the distribution are just great and well-working, as well as there is a highly active community around it. As you simply cannot argue with Canonical to change their policy (they are a company and have hidden plans, also they have every right to apply whatever policy they want), the natural way in any OSS project would be to fork it. But doing that blindly would just create another distribution, which would almost certainly vanish again soon, since there are already many Ubuntu derivatives which cover many use-cases using an Ubuntu base.

I discussed this stuff with Daniel some time ago, and we did some kind of brainstorming about what a perfect distribution would look like, from the perspective of a developer who wants to use a Debian-based distribution.

Here is a list of points which would define such a project:

  • Every available package complies with the DFSG and Debian policy.
  • Packages of DISTRO stay in close sync with Debian packages, changes are preferrably applied in Debian. DISTRO might work as a playground for new technology while Debian is in freeze.
  • DISTRO stays as close to upstream as possible. It applies as less patches as possible, to deploy desktop environments which look like the thing upstream intended it to look like. Changes for DISTRO are developed upstream and only applied downstream if doing that doesn’t make sense or changes are distribution-specific and can’t be abstracted.
  • All desktop environments are treated equally. There is no preferred DE.
  • DISTRO stays in sync with release …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE