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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Re: really rough first draft of release announcement

From: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@rosebud.sps.queensu.ca>
> "Software in the Public Interest" is unknown to the public at large. 

I'd like to stick with that, as we will have more projects than just
Debian eventually. I think we've been using it since 1.1 .

> "KEEPING LINUX FREE"  in the title is a little to loud for my liking.

OK, I toned that down.

> "200 developers!"  is an illusion.

I read 160 package maintainers and about 40 people who help out in other
ways. I don't think it's so far off base. I can crank it down to 180.

> Generally, I find the draft stresses the Q&A and "no bugs" too much.

OK, I toned that down a bit, and removed references to the previous release.

Here's a modified copy.

	Bruce

                  Software in the Public Interest

                             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 help 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.
* NEW: Floppy-less install directly from CD, one-floppy install using NFS
  or hard disk!
* 974 entirely free software packages. The largest Linux distribution!
* 180 developers! Largest staff of any Linux distribution!
* Compatible with RPM and Slackware packages!
* We are a non-profit organization!

Debian is a free-software Linux distribution. Its creators are 180
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:

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 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 501(c)3 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 we 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://www.debian.org/ftplist.html .

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.

To Upgrade From an Older Debian System

With this release, it is very important to upgrade our "dpkg" package
tool first, before you upgrade other packages in an older Debian system.
To do this, change into the Debian-1.3/binary-i386/base directory on
your CD or hard disk copy of Debian. As root, run these commands:

	dpkg -i dpkg_1.4.0.8.deb dpkg-ftp_1.4.8.deb
	dpkg --clear-available

Once that has been done, you should be able to upgrade the entire system
automaticaly using our "dselect" tool.

Installing a New Debian System

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?

A: If you want to distribute the Official Debian Two-CD Set, please
   contact Bruce Perens at <bruce@debian.org>. There is no fee for you
   to duplicate or sell Debian CDs. 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 shipping fee.

   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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