The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.
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really rough first draft of release announcement

Here's a really rough draft of the release announcement. Please get back
to me with changes ASAP, I'd like to get it to the translators before the
release.

	Thanks

	Bruce
                  Software in the Public Interest

                        KEEPING LINUX FREE

                             Presents

                    *** Debian GNU/Linux 1.3 ***

				and

          	*** The first Debian OFFICIAL Two-CD Set ***

   * This is the Linux distribution that recently orbited on the U.S. Space
     Shuttle. Two more Debian space missions are already scheduled!
   * 100% Free software! Our goal is to keep Linux free!
   * NEW: Anyone can duplicate and sell our Official CD, with no fee from us!
   * NEW: The largest pre-release testing program in the Linux world means
     fewer bugs, fixed more quickly!
   * NEW: Floppy-less install directly from CD, one-floppy install using NFS
      or hard disk!
   * 974 entirely free software packages. The largest Linux distribution!
   * 200 developers! Largest staff of any Linux distribution!
   * Compatible with RPM and Slackware packages!
   * We are a non-profit organization!

Debian is a free Linux distribution. Its creators are 200 unpaid
volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the Internet.
Our goal is to keep Linux free. While other Linux distributions make
their systems more and more dependent on commercial software, Debian
is 100% free and always will be.
 
This release introduces several new features:

Since our last release, we have organized a large formal
quality-assurance team. We have put more energy into testing and
quality of the released software than ever before. This will be evident
in the quality and the trouble-free nature of your Debian system.

This is the first Debian release to have an "Official" CD. Our Official
Debian Two-CD Set is different from all others in that anyone can
duplicate and sell the Official Debian 2-CD Set without any fee from
us! Debian will provide the Official CD "masters" to all CD
manufacturers at no charge via FTP, or on CD-writable ready to take to
the duplication house, shipped overnight, for a $50 handling fee.
We have taken this step to make sure that our free Linux system is
available everywhere at a fair price.

We've "gotten real"! Until now, Debian was a large informal organization,
with no treasury or incorporation, and only one real officer. We have
submitted our incorporation papers to the State of New York. As soon as
the State returns them, we'll file with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
to be a tax-exempt non-profit. This status will let us handle tax-exempt
donations and grants for the development of Linux. Since everything we do
is free software, our work will benefit all Linux users. For information on
how to donate money to Debian, see http://www.debian.org/donations.html .

A distinguishing feature of Debian is the most comprehensive package
system available for any Unix or Linux system. Debian was the first
Linux distribution to provide a package system with dependencies, a
feature that has been copied by all but one of the leading Linux
distributions. Our package system is technically superior to that
of any Linux system. We were the first to provide automatic conversion
of package types using the "alien" program. RPM and Slackware packages
can be converted to Debian packages, and I understand there is a Debian
to RPM converter as well.

There are ports of Debian 1.3 to the m68k, ALPHA, and SPARC,
and a PowerPC port is just starting. Installation disks already exist
for most of these ports, however we have not released them because they
do not yet meet the standard set by our i386 release. If you'd like to
download and test the unreleased ports, you can get it from most of the
FTP sites listed at http://

There are two versions of the Debian distribution: the "stable", and
the "development" version. The "stable" directory currently contains
Debian 1.3.0 . Point releases of "stable" happen every few weeks as
bug-fixes are submitted, but there are no large changes until the next
major release. The "development" version is where we are building
Debian 2.0 . The development directory is updated continuously, and you
can retrieve packages from the "development" archive on our FTP sites
and use them to upgrade your system at any time. Thus, users who need
stability are well-supported, and those who wish to be constantly at
the leading edge are accommodated just as well.

FTP Sites:

Debian FTP sites are everywhere from Kansas to Croatia! A list of them
is available at http://www.debian.org/ftplist.html .

The installation floppy disk images and a full installation manual are
in the Debian-1.3/disks-i386/current subdirectory on these sites.
You can access the installation manual using the URL
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/Debian-1.3/disks-i386/current/install.html .
The rest of the software packages are in the Debian-1.3/binary-i386
subdirectory.

Web Site

Visit our web site http://www.debian.org/ for more information about
Debian.

Mailing Lists

To subscribe to the mailing lists, send the word "subscribe" to one of
these addresses:

debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
    There are a lot of experienced users on this list who can answer
    any question you might have. There can be 50 messages a day or more
    on this list.

debian-announce-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
    Major system announcements. Averages only a few messages per month.

debian-changes-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
    This is a list for announcements of new package uploads with bug fixes
    for the stable version of the Debian system. It may carry many
    announcements per day.

debian-devel-changes-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
    This is a list for announcements of new package uploads and bug fixes in
    the development version of the Debian system. This is where you'll find
    out about programs that have just been packaged for Debian. It may carry
    many announcements per day.

Questions and Answers

Q: How should Debian be compared to other Linux systems?

A: Debian 1.3 is at least as good as any other Unix or Linux distribution,
even the most professional.

One major difference between Debian and other Linux distributors is
that Debian is a non-profit organization, and the others are commercial
companies. Debian's aim is to work together with other Linux distributions
rather than compete with them. We respect these organizations and their
employees. We encourage all creators of Linux distributions to derive
components or their entire distributions from Debian.

Q: How compatible is Debian?

A: We communicate with other Linux distribution creators in an effort
to maintain binary compatibility across Linux distributions. Most
commercial Linux products run as well under Debian as they do on the
system upon which they were built. Our "alien" program allows you to
treat packages created for these other systems as if they were Debian
packages.

Q: What about Internationalization?

A: There's an active subgroup of our developers who are internationalizing
Debian. Translations of Debian documentation are available in several
different national languages. 

Q: How do I become a Debian Developer?

A: We're looking for people who would like to contribute work to Linux
and be members of an international community of software developers
that's making something that matters! You can find all of the
developer's information in the "Debian Policy Manual" and "Dpkg
Programmer's Manual", which are both available in Debian packages.

Q: Can I make and sell Debian CDs?

If you want to distribute the Official Debian Two-CD Set, please
contact Bruce Perens at <bruce@debian.org>. You can get free
access to the CD "masters" via FTP, or we can express ship you
CD-writables ready for duplication for a $50 materials and handling
fee. There is no fee for you to duplicate or sell Debian CDs.

If you want to distribute a non-official CD, such as one to which you
have added value, just download the files from our FTP site. Please
only distribute the _released_ Debian versions.

Q: What is "Software in the Public Interest"

A: It's a non-profit corporation we formed to sponsor the Debian
effort. The purpose of the organization is to develop and distribute
free software. Our goals are much like those of FSF except that our
main project is a Linux system. We encourage programmers to use the GNU
General Public License or another license that allows free
redistribution and use of software.

                               * * *

The trademarks "Unix", "Red Hat", "Slackware", and "RPM" are the
property of their respective owners. Ownership of the name "Linux" is
currently in dispute.
-- 
Bruce Perens K6BP   Bruce@Pixar.com   510-215-3502
Finger bruce@master.Debian.org for PGP public key.
PGP fingerprint = 88 6A 15 D0 65 D4 A3 A6  1F 89 6A 76 95 24 87 B3 


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