Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 56

...to inform...to educate...to entertain

"It is important that you recognize your progress and take pride in your accomplishments. Share your achievements with others. Brag a little. The recognition and support of those around you is nurturing."   Rosemarie Rossetti

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'.

This issue of the newsletter is a special issue, devoted to a review of Frugalware's achievements and events in 2009. There will be a "normal" issue published soon. Most of the content in this issue has come from Frugalware developer Devil505's blog, with his permission. However any factual errors are the responsibility of myself (Phayz).

2009 - A Year In Review

2009 was a very successful year for Frugalware, with new developers, new artwork, work on KDE4 having begun. The two scheduled releases were made on time and included some great improvements. Projects such as Fwife (the GUI installer) and a live USB option may make Frugalware more attractive to the FLOSS community. Blogs are now more active than before and, together with a presence on microblogging sites such as identi.ca, make those outside the Frugalware community aware that ours is a very active distribution.

It's important to acknowledge that Frugalware's achievements in 2009 were only possible because of the excellent work done in previous years. Thanks go to everyone involved, both now and in the past: developers, artists, translators and other contributors. In 2009 we had several new developers join the project, but we also had several existing developers go quiet or leave. For many reasons, people need a rest, or decide to leave the project. Regardless of their reasons we thank them for their contribution and wish them well in the future.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Frugalware community on a great year. Let's hope that 2010 is even better.

Do you remember when...?

Below are some of the highlights of 2009's events and achievements. Do you remember where you were when Frugalware 1.0 was released? If I remember correctly, I was asleep.

January

• A new developer

  Elentir was accepted to the development team and immediately began working on a Fwife, a GUI installer, soon releasing version 0.3.

• gService

  Priyank released gService, a GUI service level manager.

• Microblogging arrived

  Devil505 created a presence on Twitter. With the rise of identi.ca, an open (as in "beer" and "free") microblogging service, he also created a Frugalware group on that service. git commits began being announced on identi.ca.

• Baby steps for Cedynamix

  Cedynamix, already active in the Ubuntu community, took his first steps as a Frugalware contributor.

February

• New artwork

  A new wallpaper was voted by the developer team to be the default for Frugalware release 1.0.

• Count with me...1..2..3..4

  The ext4 filesystem generally having been accepted as an improvement over the ext3 filesystem, it was added as an option in the ncurses installer.

• Gnome 2.26

  Gnome 2.26 was released and Bouleetbil began packaging it for Frugalware.

March

• We made it to 1.0!

  Frugalware 1.0 - codename 'Anacreon' - was released, with cheers from millions of people, street parades and generally a lot of excitement. In fact my memory's not very good, so I may be thinking of the election of the USA's new president. I'm quite sure, though, that there was a lot of excitement on 1.0's release. Five years of hard work by developers, artists, translators and other contributors had resulted in a distribution to be very proud of.

• A new Gnome in the garden

  Gnome 2.26 was released to the 'current' repository, thanks to hard work by Bouleetbil.

• YAND - Yet Another New Developer

  After submitting a number of FrugalBuild files, Cedynamix was accepted into the Frugalware development team.

April

• Devil505 and KDE 4

  Devil505 began "playing" with KDE 4, working to resolve those problems which prevented it being included in Frugalware.

• Crazy returns

  After a period of convalescence, Crazy returned and began updating the GCC chain. Of course anyone else would still have been resting at home, but Crazy's dedication to Frugalware is (almost) unstoppable.

May

• A new Xfce

  Xfce 4.6.1 was released to the 'current' repository, thanks to hard work by Priyank.

• Publicity for Frugalware

  VMiklos, Hermier and Bouleetbil were interviewed by Philippe Scoffoni. Afterward they all claimed that their fame would not change them at all. Is it a coincidence, though, that they began charging US$5 for an autograph?

• Let's meet PAM

  Bouleetbil began working to integrate PAM into Frugalware, a change which had been delayed for as long as possible for technical and security reasons.

June

• A new X

  X.org 7.4 was released to the 'current' repository.

• Priyank's new baby

  Priyank released a new utility just for Frugalware, a Nautilus and Thunar GFpm plugin.

• A new developer

  Jercel was accepted into the development team.

July

• A new developer

  Exceed, a former developer of the Slax-LFI Linux distribution, was accepted into the development team.

• Fwife 0.5

  Elentir released network installation ISOs which used Fwife 0.5.

August

• A new KDE in progress

  Work began to package KDE 4.3.

• CAN YOU HEAR ME!?

  PulseAudio, a sound server which allows for multiple inputs and outputs, was released to the 'current' repository.

• That's WIckeD!

  WICD, an easy-to-use GUI network connection utility created for the Ubuntu distribution, was released to the 'current' repository.

October

• A new Gnome in the garden

  Gnome 2.28 was released to the 'current' repository, thanks to hard work by Bouleetbil.

November

• "The Wiki Returns"

  No, it's not yet another Star Wars episode. Instead the Frugalware wiki was available again after a few technical problems. Many thanks to VMiklos, Devil505 and others for retrieving the old content. At the same time, it was agreed that the artwork team's wiki would be merged with the official wiki. Devil505 began the task of translating content from the French-speaking community's wiki and adding this to the official wiki. This was one of those situations when you realise how much you need something only when it's no longer available. It's a little like moving out of home for the first time (for those who have done this and can still remember).

• Live USB

  Bouleetbil launched into his plan of creating a Live USB option for Frugalware.

December

• Frugalware developer Crazy hadn't been heard of for some time and so some people were a little worried. Thankfully news came direct from Crazy that he was recovering in hospital. Finally we could squash those rumours about why he had been away for so long, including:

  • He had become involved in the Microsoft Windows 7 beta programme;
  • He had switched to Ubuntu release 9.04 - "Karmic Koala";
  • His wife banned him from using any electrical device, even a toaster.

• YAPFB (Yet Another Project For Bouleetbil)

  Bouleetbil launched into another project, packaging Moblin.

• Farewell Jercel

  Jercel left the development team for professional reasons.