• A WeMos Mini D1
  • Cost 3.00
  • ESP8266-powered board, which can be programmed easily in C++ and contains on-board WiFi as well as a bunch of I/O pins.
• A RDA5807M FM Radio chip.
  • Cost 37 cents.
  • With a crystal for support.

lintian (2.5.53) unstable; urgency=medium
  The "we are all Perl developers now" release.
  * Summary of tag changes:
    + Added:
      - alternatively-build-depends-on-python-sphinx-and-python3-sphinx
      - build-depends-on-python-sphinx-only
      - dependency-on-python-version-marked-for-end-of-life
      - maintainer-script-interpreter
      - missing-call-to-dpkg-maintscript-helper
      - node-package-install-in-nodejs-rootdir
      - override-file-in-wrong-package
      - package-installs-java-bytecode
      - python-foo-but-no-python3-foo
      - script-needs-depends-on-sensible-utils
      - script-uses-deprecated-nodejs-location
      - transitional-package-should-be-oldlibs-optional
      - unnecessary-testsuite-autopkgtest-header
      - vcs-browser-links-to-empty-view
    + Removed:
      - debug-package-should-be-priority-extra
      - missing-classpath
      - transitional-package-should-be-oldlibs-extra
  * checks/apache2.pm:
    + [CL] Fix an apache2-unparsable-dependency false positive by allowing
      periods (".") in dependency names.  (Closes: #873701)
  * checks/binaries.pm:
    + [CL] Apply patches from Guillem Jover & Boud Roukema to improve the
      description of the binary-file-built-without-LFS-support tag.
      (Closes: #874078)
  * checks/changes. pm,desc :
    + [CL] Ignore DFSG-repacked packages when checking for upstream
      source tarball signatures as they will never match by definition.
      (Closes: #871957)
    + [CL] Downgrade severity of orig-tarball-missing-upstream-signature
      from "E:" to "W:" as many common tools do not make including the
      signatures easy enough right now.  (Closes: #870722, #870069)
    + [CL] Expand the explanation of the
      orig-tarball-missing-upstream-signature tag to include the location
      of where dpkg-source will look. Thanks to Theodore Ts'o for the
      suggestion.
  * checks/copyright-file.pm:
    + [CL] Address a number of issues in copyright-year-in-future:
      - Prevent false positives in port numbers, email addresses, ISO
        standard numbers and matching specific and general street
        addresses.  (Closes: #869788)
      - Match all violating years in a line, not just the first (eg.
        "2000-2107").
      - Ignore meta copyright statements such as "Original Author". Thanks
        to Thorsten Alteholz for the bug report.  (Closes: #873323)
      - Expand testsuite.
  * checks/cruft. pm,desc :
    + [CL] Downgrade severity of file-contains-fixme-placeholder
      tag from "important" (ie. "E:") to "wishlist" (ie. "I:").
      Thanks to Gregor Herrmann for the suggestion.
    + [CL] Apply patch from Alex Muntada (alexm) to use "substr" instead
      of "substring" in mentions-deprecated-usr-lib-perl5-directory's
      description.  (Closes: #871767)
    + [CL] Don't check copyright_hints file for FIXME placeholders.
      (Closes: #872843)
    + [CL] Don't match quoted "FIXME" variants as they are almost always
      deliberate. Thanks to Adrian Bunk for the report.  (Closes: #870199)
    + [CL] Avoid false positives in missing source checks for "CSS Browser
      Selector".  (Closes: #874381)
  * checks/debhelper.pm:
    + [CL] Prevent a false positive of
      missing-build-dependency-for-dh_-command that can be exposed by
      following the advice for the recently added
      useless-autoreconf-build-depends tag.  (Closes: #869541)
  * checks/debian-readme. pm,desc :
    + [CL] Ensure readme-debian-contains-debmake-template also checks
      for templates "Automatically generated by debmake".
  * checks/description. desc,pm :
    + [CL] Clarify explanation of description-starts-with-leading-spaces
      tag. Thanks to Taylor Kline  for the report
      and patch.  (Closes: #849622)
    + [NT] Skip capitalization-error-in-description-synopsis for
      auto-generated packages (such as dbgsym packages).
  * checks/fields. desc,pm :
    + [CL] Ensure that python3-foo packages have "Section: python", not
      just python2-foo.  (Closes: #870272)
    + [RG] Do no longer require debug packages to be priority extra.
    + [BR] Use Lintian::Data for name/section mapping
    + [CL] Check for packages including "?rev=0&sc=0" in Vcs-Browser.
      (Closes: #681713)
    + [NT] Transitional packages should now be "oldlibs/optional" rather
      than "oldlibs/extra".  The related tag has been renamed accordingly.
  * checks/filename-length.pm:
    + [NT] Skip the check on auto-generated binary packages (such as
      dbgsym packages).
  * checks/files. pm,desc :
    + [BR] Avoid privacy-breach-generic false positives for legal.xml.
    + [BR] Detect install of node package under /usr/lib/nodejs/[^/]*$
    + [CL] Check for packages shipping compiled Java class files. Thanks
      Carn  Draug .  (Closes: #873211)
    + [BR] Privacy breach is no longer experimental.
  * checks/init.d.desc:
    + [RG] Do not recommend a versioned dependency on lsb-base in
      init.d-script-needs-depends-on-lsb-base.  (Closes: #847144)
  * checks/java.pm:
    + [CL] Additionally consider .cljc files as code to avoid false-
      positive codeless-jar warnings.  (Closes: #870649)
    + [CL] Drop problematic missing-classpath check.  (Closes: #857123)
  * checks/menu-format.desc:
    + [CL] Prevent false positives in desktop-entry-lacks-keywords-entry
      for "Link" and "Directory" .desktop files.  (Closes: #873702)
  * checks/python. pm,desc :
    + [CL] Split out Python checks from "scripts" check to a new, source
      check of type "source".
    + [CL] Check for python-foo without corresponding python3-foo packages
      to assist in Python 2.x deprecation.  (Closes: #870681)
    + [CL] Check for packages that Build-Depend on python-sphinx only.
      (Closes: #870730)
    + [CL] Check for packages that alternatively Build-Depend on the
      Python 2 and Python 3 versions of Sphinx.  (Closes: #870758)
    + [CL] Check for binary packages that depend on Python 2.x.
      (Closes: #870822)
  * checks/scripts.pm:
    + [CL] Correct false positives in
      unconditional-use-of-dpkg-statoverride by detecting "if !" as a
      valid shell prefix.  (Closes: #869587)
    + [CL] Check for missing calls to dpkg-maintscript-helper(1) in
      maintainer scripts.  (Closes: #872042)
    + [CL] Check for packages using sensible-utils without declaring a
      dependency after its split from debianutils.  (Closes: #872611)
    + [CL] Warn about scripts using "nodejs" as an interpreter now that
      nodejs provides /usr/bin/node.  (Closes: #873096)
    + [BR] Add a statistic tag giving interpreter.
  * checks/testsuite. desc,pm :
    + [CL] Remove recommendations to add a "Testsuite: autopkgtest" field
      to debian/control as it is added when needed by dpkg-source(1)
      since dpkg 1.17.1.  (Closes: #865531)
    + [CL] Warn if we see an unnecessary "Testsuite: autopkgtest" header
      in debian/control.
    + [NT] Recognise "autopkgtest-pkg-go" as a valid test suite.
    + [CL] Recognise "autopkgtest-pkg-elpa" as a valid test suite.
      (Closes: #873458)
    + [CL] Recognise "autopkgtest-pkg-octave" as a valid test suite.
      (Closes: #875985)
    + [CL] Update the description of unknown-testsuite to reflect that
      "autopkgtest" is not the only valid value; the referenced URL
      is out-of-date (filed as #876008).  (Closes: #876003)
  * data/binaries/embedded-libs:
    + [RG] Detect embedded copies of heimdal, libgxps, libquicktime,
      libsass, libytnef, and taglib.
    + [RG] Use an additional string to detect embedded copies of
      openjpeg2.  (Closes: #762956)
  * data/fields/name_section_mappings:
    + [BR] node- package section is javascript.
    + [CL] Apply patch from Guillem Jover to add more section mappings.
      (Closes: #874121)
  * data/fields/obsolete-packages:
    + [MR] Add dh-systemd.  (Closes: #872076)
  * data/fields/perl-provides:
    + [CL] Refresh perl provides.
  * data/fields/virtual-packages:
    + [CL] Update data file from archive. This fixes a false positive for
      "bacula-director".  (Closes: #835120)
  * data/files/obsolete-paths:
    + [CL] Add note to /etc/bash_completion.d entry regarding stricter
      filename requirements.  (Closes: #814599)
  * data/files/privacy-breaker-websites:
    + [BR] Detect custom donation logos like apache.
    + [BR] Detect generic counter website.
  * data/standards-version/release-dates:
    + [CL] Add 4.0.1 and 4.1.0 as known standards versions.
      (Closes: #875509)
  * debian/control:
    + [CL] Mention Debian Policy v4.1.0 in the description.
    + [CL] Add myself to Uploaders.
    + [CL] Drop unnecessary "Testsuite: autopkgtest"; this is implied from
      debian/tests/control existing.
  * commands/info.pm:
    + [CL] Add a --list-tags option to print all tags Lintian knows about.
      Thanks to Rajendra Gokhale for the suggestion.  (Closes: #779675)
  * commands/lintian.pm:
    + [CL] Apply patch from Maia Everett to avoid British spelling when
      using en_US locale.  (Closes: #868897)
  * lib/Lintian/Check.pm:
    + [CL] Stop emitting  maintainer,uploader -address-causes-mail-loops
      for @packages.debian.org addresses.  (Closes: #871575)
  * lib/Lintian/Collect/Binary.pm:
    + [NT] Introduce an "auto-generated" argument for "is_pkg_class".
  * lib/Lintian/Data.pm:
    + [CL] Modify Lintian::Data's "all" to always return keys in insertion
      order, dropping dependency on libtie-ixhash-perl.
  * helpers/coll/objdump-info-helper:
    + [CL] Apply patch from Steve Langasek to accommodate binutils 2.29
      outputting symbols in a different format on ppc64el.
      (Closes: #869750)
  * t/tests/fields-perl-provides/tags:
    + [CL] Update expected output to match new Perl provides.
  * t/tests/files-privacybreach/*:
    + [CL] Add explicit test for packages including external fonts via
      the Google Font API. Thanks to Ian Jackson for the report.
      (Closes: #873434)
    + [CL] Add explicit test for packages including external fonts via
      the Typekit API via <script/> HTML tags.
  * t/tests/*/desc:
    + [CL] Add missing entries in "Test-For" fields to make
      development/testing workflow less error-prone.
  * private/generate-tag-summary:
    + [CL] git-describe(1) will usually emit 7 hexadecimal digits as the
      abbreviated object name,  However, as this can be user-dependent,
      pass --abbrev=0 to ensure it does not vary between systems.  This
      also means we do not need to strip it ourselves.
  * private/refresh-*:
    + [CL] Use deb.debian.org as the default mirror.
    + [CL] Update locations of Contents-<arch> files; they are now
      namespaced by distribution (eg. "main").
 -- Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>  Wed, 20 Sep 2017 09:25:06 +0100

• Advantages: People who like to build stuff (we really like people who maintain/contribute to open source projects) (Wizer Research)
• You will: Incubate and contribute to open source projects (iguazio)
• The X factor significant contribution to an open-source community (unnamed startup)
• An example open source project our team released is CoreML (Apple)
• Job Responsibilities: Write open-source tools and contribute to open-source projects. (unnamed startup)
• We d like to talk to people who: Appreciate open-source culture and philosophy. (Seeking Alpha)

• Type=simple: a program is started and runs forever, providing the servive. systemd takes care of daemonizing it properly in the background, creating a pidfile, stopping it and so on. The service is considered active as soon as it has started.
• Type=forking: a traditional daemons that forks itself, creates a pidfile and so on. The server is considered active as soon as the parent process ends.
• Type=oneshot: a program is run once, and the service is considered started after the program ends. This can be used, for example, to implement a service to do one-off configuration, like checking a file system.
• Type=dbus: like simple but for D-Bus services: the service is considered active as soon as it appears on the D-Bus bus.
• Type=notify: like simple, but the service tells sytemd when it has finished initialization and is ready. Notification can happen via the sd_notify C function, or the systemd-notify command.
• Type=idle: like simple, but it is run after all other services has been started on a transaction. You can use this, for example, to start a shell on a terminal after the boot, so that the prompt doesn't get flooded with boot messages, or to play a happy trumped sound after the system has finished booting.

1. Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka testing).
2. Run 'apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy python-scapy' as root to install required packages.
3. Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using 'git clone github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git'.
4. Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.
5. Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'python scan-and-livemon' to locate the frequency of nearby base stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.
6. Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to display the collected information.

• Systemd unit dependencies and order
• Understanding systemd units and unit files

Changes in version 0.2.7 (2017-09-22)

• Vignette updated to Rmd and use of pinp package
• File src/init.c added for dynamic registration

This post by Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.

• systemctl status [unitname [unitname..]] show status of one or more units, or of the whole system. Glob patterns also work: systemctl status "systemd-fsck@*"
• systemctl list-units or just systemctl show a table with all units, their status and their description
• systemctl list-sockets lists listening sockets managed by systemd and what they activate
• systemctl list-timers lists timer-activated units, with information about when they last ran and when they will run again
• systemctl is-active [pattern] checks if one or more units are in active state
• systemctl is-enabled [pattern] checks if one or more units are enabled
• systemctl is-failed [pattern] checks if one or more units are in failed state
• systemctl list-dependencies [unitname] lists the dependencies of a unit, or a system-wide dependency tree
• systemctl is-system-running check if the system is running correctly, or if some unit is in a failed state
• systemd-cgtop like top but processes are aggregated by unit
• systemd-analyze produces reports on boot time, per-unit boot time charts, dependency graphs, and more

• start: starts a unit if it is not already started
• stop: stops a unit
• restart: starts or restarts a unit
• reload: tell a unit to reload its configuration (if it supports it)
• try-restart: restarts a unit only if it is already active, otherwise do nothing, to prevent accidentally starting a service
• reload-or-restart: tell a unit to reload its configuration if supported, otherwise restart it
• try-reload-or-restart: tell a unit to reload its configuration if supported, otherwise restart it. If the unit is not already active, do nothing to prevent accidentally starting a service.

• systemctl enable unitname enables the unit to start at boot, by creating symlinks to it in the .wants directory of the units listed in its WantedBy= configuration
• systemctl disable unitname removes the symlinks created by enable
• systemctl reenable unitname removes and readds the symlinks for when you changed WantedBy=

[Unit]
Description=Beeps when in emergency or rescue mode
DefaultDependencies=false
StopWhenUnneeded=true
[Install]
WantedBy=emergency.target rescue.target
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/bin/sh -ec 'while true; do /usr/bin/aplay -q /tmp/beep.wav; sleep 2; done'

• .service: daemons
• .socket: communication sockets
• .device: hardware devices
• .mount: mount points
• .automount: automounting
• .swap: swap files or partitions
• .target: only dependencies, like Debian metapackages
• .path: inotify monitoring of paths
• .timer: cron-like activation
• .slice: group processes for common resource management
• .scope: group processes for common resource management

• /lib/systemd/system/: for units provided by packaged software
• /run/systemd/system/: runtime-generated units
• /etc/systemd/system/: for units provided by systemd administrators

• /lib/systemd/system/beep.service.d/foo.conf can be used to tweak the contents of /lib/systemd/system/beep.service, so it is possible for a package to distribute a tweak to the configuration of another package.
• /etc/systemd/system/beep.service.d/foo.conf can be used to tweak the contents of /lib/systemd/system/beep.service, so it is possible a system administrator to extend a packaged unit without needing to replace it entirely.

• Introduction to systemd.
• systemd on the Debian Wiki
• systemd on the Arch Wiki

Many voices arise now and then against risks linked to the Github use by Free Software projects. Yet the infatuation for the collaborative forge of the Octocat Californian start-ups doesn t seem to fade away.

These recent years, Github and its services take an important role in software engineering as they are seen as easy to use, efficient for a daily workload with interesting functions in enterprise collaborative workflow or amid a Free Software project. What are the arguments against using its services and are they valid? We will list them first, then we ll examine their validity.

1. Critical points

1.1 Centralization

The Github application belongs to a single entity, Github Inc, a US company which manage it alone. So, a unique company under US legislation manages the access to most of Free Software application code sources, which may be a problem with groups using it when a code source is no longer available, for political or technical reason.

The Octocat, the Github mascot

This centralization leads to another trouble: as it obtained critical mass, it becomes more and more difficult not having a Github account. People who don t use Github, by choice or not, are becoming a silent minority. It is now fashionable to use Github, and not doing so is seen as out of date . The same phenomenon is a classic, and even the norm, for proprietary social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

1.2 A Proprietary Software

When you interact with Github, you are using a proprietary software, with no access to its source code and which may not work the way you think it is. It is a problem at different levels. First, ideologically, but foremost in practice. In the Github case, we send them code we can control outside of their interface. We also send them personal information (profile, Github interactions). And mostly, Github forces any project which goes through the US platform to use a crucial proprietary tools: its bug tracking system.

Windows, the epitome of proprietary software, even if others took the same path

1.3 The Uniformization

Working with Github interface seems easy and intuitive to most. Lots of companies now use it as a source repository, and many developers leaving a company find the same Github working environment in the next one. This pervasive presence of Github in free software development environment is a part of the uniformization of said developers working space.

Uniforms always bring Army in my mind, here the Clone army

2 Critical points cross-examination

2.1 Regarding the centralization

2.1.1 Service availability rate

As said above, nowadays, Github is the main repository of Free Software source code. As such it is a favorite target for cyberattacks. DDOS hit it in March and August 2015. On December 15, 2015, an outage led to the inaccessibility of 5% of the repositories. The same occurred on November 15. And these are only the incident reported by Github itself. One can imagine that the mean outage rate of the platform is underestimated.

2.1.2 Chain reaction could block Free Software development

Today many dependency maintenance tools, as npm for javascript, Bundler for Ruby or even pip for Python can access an application source code directly from Github. Free Software projects getting more and more linked and codependents, if one component is down, all the developing process stop.

One of the best examples is the npmgate. Any company could legally demand that Github take down some source code from its repository, which could create a chain reaction and blocking the development of many Free Software projects, as suffered the Node.js community from the decisions of Npm, Inc, the company managing npm.

2.2 A historical precedent: SourceForge

Github didn t appear out of the blue. In his time, its predecessor, SourceForge, was also extremely popular.

Heavily centralized, based on strong interaction with the community, SourceForge is now seen as an aging SAAS (Software As A Service) and sees most of its customers fleeing to Github. Which creates lots of hurdles for those who stayed. The Gimp project suffered from spams and terrible advertising, which led to the departure of the VLC project, then from installers corrupted with adwares instead of the official Gimp installer for Windows. And finally, the Project Gimp s SourceForge account was hacked by SourceForge team itself!

These are very recent examples of what can do a commercial entity when it is under its stakeholders pressure. It is vital to really understand what it means to trust them with data and exchange centralization, where it could have tremendous repercussion on the day-to-day life and the habits of the Free Software and open source community.

2.3. Regarding proprietary software

2.3.1 One community, several opinions on proprietary software

Mostly based on ideology, this point deals with the definition every member of the community gives to Free Software and open source. Mostly about one thing: is it viral or not? Or GPL vs MIT/BSD.

Those on the side of the viral Free Software will have trouble to use a proprietary software as this last one shouldn t even exist. It must be assimilated, to quote Star Trek, as it is a connected black box, endangering privacy, corrupting for profit our uses and restrain our freedom to use as we re pleased what we own, etc.

Those on the side of complete freedom have no qualms using proprietary software as their very existence is a consequence of freedom without restriction. They even agree that code they developed may be a part of proprietary software, which is quite a common occurrence. This part of the Free Software community has no qualm using Github, which is well within their ideology parameters. Just take a look at the Janson amphitheater during Fosdem and check how many Apple laptops running on macOS are around.

FreeBSD, the main BSD project under the BSD license

2.3.2 Data loss and data restrictions linked to proprietary software use

Even without ideological consideration, and just focusing on Github infrastructure, the bug tracking system is a major problem by itself.

Bug report builds the memory of Free Software projects. It is the entrance point for new contributors, the place to find bug reporting, requests for new functions, etc. The project history can t be limited only to the code. It s very common to find bug reports when you copy and paste an error message in a search engine. Not their historical importance is precious for the project itself, but also for its present and future users.

Github gives the ability to extract bug reports through its API. What would happen if Github is down or if the platform doesn t support this feature anymore? In my opinion, not that many projects ever thought of this outcome. How could they move all the data generated by Github into a new bug tracking system? One old example now is Astrid, a TODO list bought by Yahoo a few years ago. Very popular, it grew fast until it was closed overnight, with only a few weeks for its users to extract their data. It was only a to-do list. The same situation with Github would be tremendously difficult to manage for several projects if they even have the ability to deal with it. Code would still be available and could still live somewhere else, but the project memory would be lost. A project like Debian has today more than 800,000 bug reports, which are a data treasure trove about problems solved, function requests and where the development stand on each. The developers of the Cpython project have anticipated the problem and decided not to use Github bug tracking systems.

Issues, the Github proprietary bug tracking system

Another thing we could lose if Github suddenly disappear: all the work currently done regarding the push requests (aka PRs). This Github function gives the ability to clone one project s Github repository, to modify it to fit your needs, then to offer your own modification to the original repository. The original repository s owner will then review said modification, and if he or she agrees with them will fuse them into the original repository. As such, it s one of the main advantages of Github, since it can be done easily through its graphic interface.

However reviewing all the PRs may be quite long, and most of the successful projects have several ongoing PRs. And this PRs and/or the proprietary bug tracking system are commonly used as a platform for comment and discussion between developers.

Code itself is not lost if Github is down (except one specific situation as seen below), but the peer review works materialized in the PRs and the bug tracking system is lost. Let s remember than the PR mechanism let you clone and modify projects and then generate PRs directly from its proprietary web interface without downloading a single code line on your computer. In this particular case, if Github is down, all the code and the work in progress is lost. Some also use Github as a bookmark place. They follow their favorite projects activity through the Watch function. This technological watch style of data collection would also be lost if Github is down.

Debian, one of the main Free Software projects with at least a thousand official contributors

2.4 Uniformization

The Free Software community is walking a thigh rope between normalization needed for an easier interoperability between its products and an attraction for novelty led by a strong need for differentiation from what is already there.

Github popularized the use of Git, a great tool now used through various sectors far away from its original programming field. Step by step, Git is now so prominent it s almost impossible to even think to another source control manager, even if awesome alternate solutions, unfortunately not as popular, exist as Mercurial.

A new Free Software project is now a Git repository on Github with README.md added as a quick description. All the other solutions are ostracized? How? None or very few potential contributors would notice said projects. It seems very difficult now to encourage potential contributors into learning a new source control manager AND a new forge for every project they want to contribute. Which was a basic requirement a few years ago. It s quite sad because Github, offering an original experience to its users, cut them out of a whole possibility realm. Maybe Github is one of the best web versioning control systems. But being the main one doesn t let room for a new competitor to grow. And it let Github initiate development newcomers into a narrow function set, totally unrelated to the strength of the Git tool itself.

3. Centralization, uniformization, proprietary software What s next? Laziness?

Fight against centralization is a main part of the Free Software ideology as centralization strengthens the power of those who manage it and who through it control those who are managed by it. Uniformization allergies born against main software companies and their wishes to impose a closed commercial software world was for a long time the main fuel for innovation thirst and intelligent alternative development. As we said above, part of the Free Software community was built as a reaction to proprietary software and their threat. The other part, without hoping for their disappearance, still chose a development model opposite to proprietary software, at least in the beginning, as now there s more and more bridges between the two.

The Github effect is a morbid one because of its consequences: at least centralization, uniformization, proprietary software usage as their bug tracking system. But some years ago the Dear Github buzz showed one more side effect, one I ve never thought about: laziness. For those who don t know what it is about, this letter is a complaint from several spokespersons from several Free Software projects which demand to Github team to finally implement, after years of polite asking, new functions. Since when Free Software project facing a roadblock request for clemency and don t build themselves the path they need? When Torvalds was involved in the Bitkeeper problem and the Linux kernel development team couldn t use anymore their revision control software, he developed Git. The mere fact of not being able to use one tool or functions lacking is the main motivation to seek alternative solutions and, as such, of the Free Software movement. Every Free Software community member able to code should have this reflex. You don t like what Github offers? Switch to Gitlab. You don t like it Gitlab? Improve it or make your own solution.

The Gitlab logo

Let s be crystal clear. I ve never said that every Free Software developers blocked should code his or her own alternative. We all have our own priorities, and some of us even like their beauty sleep, including me. But, to see that this open letter to Github has 1340 names attached to it, among them some spokespersons for major Free Software project showed me that need, willpower and strength to code a replacement are here. Maybe said replacement will be born from this letter, it would be the best outcome of this buzz.

In the end, Github usage is just another example of Internet usage massification. As Internet users are bound to go to massively centralized social network as Facebook or Twitter, developers are following the same path with Github. Even if a large fraction of developers realize the threat linked this centralized and proprietary organization, the whole community is following this centralization and uniformization trend. Github service is useful, free or with a reasonable price (depending on the functions you need) easy to use and up most of the time. Why would we try something else? Maybe because others are using us while we are savoring the convenience? The Free Software community seems to be quite sleepy to me.

The lion enjoying the hearth warm

About Me Carl Chenet, Free Software Indie Hacker, founder of the French-speaking Hacker News-like Journal du hacker. Follow me on social networks

• My Mastodon account : @carlchenet
• My Diaspora* account : @carlchenet
• My Twitter account : @carl_chenet

Translated from French by St phanie Chaptal. Original article written in 2015.

Debian I have updated txtorcon (a Twisted-based asynchronous Tor control protocol implementation used by ooniprobe, magic-wormhole and tahoe-lafs) to its latest upstream version. I ve also added two new binary packages that are built by the txtorcon source package: python3-txtorcon and python-txtorcon-doc for Python 3 support and generated HTML documentation respectively. I have gone through the scapy (Python module for the forging and dissection of network packets) bugs and closed a couple that seem to have been silently fixed by new upstream releases and not been caught in the BTS. I ve uploaded a minor revision to include a patch that fixes the version number reported by scapy. I have prepared and uploaded a new package for measurement-kit (a portable C++11 network measurement library) from the Open Observatory of Network Interference, which at time of writing is still in the NEW queue. I have also updated ooniprobe (probe for the Open Observatory of Network Interference) to its latest upstream version. I have updated the Swedish debconf strings in the xastir (X Amateur Station Tracking and Information Reporting) package, thanks to the translators. I have updated the direwolf (soundcard terminal node controller for APRS) package to its latest upstream version and fixed the creation of the system user to run direwolf with systemd to happen at the time the package is installed. Unfortunately, it has been necessary to drop the PDF documentation from the package as I was unable to contact the upstream author and acquire the Microsoft Word sources for this release. I have reviewed and sponsored the uploads of the new packages comptext (GUI based tool to compare two text streams), comptty (GUI based tool to compare two radio teletype streams) and flnet (amateur radio net control station software) in the hamradio team. Thanks to Ana Custura for preparing those packages, comptext and comptty are now available in unstable. I have updated the Debian Hamradio Blend metapackages to include cubicsdr (a software defined radio receiver). This build also refreshes the list of packages that can now be included as they had not been packaged at the time of the last build. I have produced and uploaded an initial package for python-azure-devtools (development tools for Azure SDK and CLI for Python) and have updated python-azure (the Azure SDK for Python) to a recent git snapshot. Due to some issues with python-vcr it is currently not possible to run the test suite as part of the build process and I m watching the situation. I have also fixed the auto dependency generation for python3-azure, which had previously been broken. Bugs closed (fixed/wontfix): #873036, #871940, #869566, #873083, #867420, #861753, #855385, #855497, #684727, #683711

Tor Project I have been working through tickets for Atlas (a tool for looking up details about Tor relays and bridges) and have merged and deployed a number of fixes. Some highlights include: bandwidth sorting in search results is now semantically correct (not just an alphanumeric sort ignoring units), added when a relay was first seen to the details page along with the host name if a reverse DNS record has been found for the IP address of the relay and added support for the NoEdConsensus flag (although happily no relays had this flag at the time this support was added). The metrics team has been working on merging projects into the metrics team website to give a unified view of information about the Tor network. This week I have been working towards a prototype of a port of Atlas to the metrics website s style and this work has been published in my personal Atlas git repository. If you d like to have a click around, you can do so. A relay operators meetup will be happening in Montreal on the 14th of October. I won t be present, but I have taken this opportunity to ask operators if there s anything that they would like from Atlas that they are not currently getting. Some feedback has already been received and turned into code and trac tickets. I also attended the weekly metrics team meeting in #tor-dev. Bugs closed (fixed/wontfix): #6787, #9814, #21958, #21636, #23296, #23160

Sustainability I believe it is important to be clear not only about the work I have already completed but also about the sustainability of this work into the future. I plan to include a short report on the current sustainability of my work in each weekly report. I continue to be happy to spend my time on this work, however I do find myself in a position where it may not be sustainable when it comes to hardware. My desktop, a Sun Ultra 24, is now 10 years old and I m starting to see random reboots which so far have not been explained. It is incredibly annoying to have this happen during a long build. Further, the hard drives in my NAS which are used for the local backups and for my local Debian mirror are starting to show SMART errors. It is not currently within my budget to replace any of this hardware. Please contact me if you believe you can help.

This week's energy was provided by Club Mate

• Antoine Beaupr did 16h.
• Ben Hutchings did 10 hours (out of 15h allocated + 1 extra hour, thus keeping 6 extra hour for September).
• Chris Lamb did 18 hours.
• Emilio Pozuelo Monfort did 20.5 hours (out of 20.25 hours allocated + 13 hours remaining, thus keeping 12.75 hours for September).
• Guido G nther did 10 hours.
• Hugo Lefeuvre did 14h (out of 2h allocated + 12 extra hours).
• Lucas Kanashiro did 20.25 hours.
• Markus Koschany did 20.25 hours.
• Ola Lundqvist did 9h (out of 14h allocated + 16 extra hours, he gave back 14 hours, thus keeping 7 extra hours for September).
• Rapha l Hertzog did 12 hours.
• Roberto C. Sanchez did 27.25 hours (out of 20.25 hours allocated + 16 hours remaining, thus keeping 9 extra hours for September).
• Thorsten Alteholz did 20.25 hours.

• Platinum sponsors:
• TOSHIBA (for 22 months)
• GitHub (for 13 months)
• Gold sponsors:
• The Positive Internet (for 38 months)
• Blablacar (for 37 months)
• Linode (for 27 months)
• Babiel GmbH (for 16 months)
• Plat Home (for 16 months)
• Silver sponsors:
• Domeneshop AS (for 37 months)
• Universit Lille 3 (for 37 months)
• Trollweb Solutions (for 35 months)
• Nantes M tropole (for 32 months)
• Dalenys (for 28 months)
• Univention GmbH (for 23 months)
• Universit Jean Monnet de St Etienne (for 23 months)
• Sonus Networks (for 17 months)
• UR Communications BV (for 12 months)
• maxcluster GmbH (for 11 months)
• Exonet B.V. (for 7 months)
• Leibniz Rechenzentrum
• Bronze sponsors:
• David Ayers IntarS Austria (for 38 months)
• Evolix (for 38 months)
• Offensive Security (for 38 months)
• Seznam.cz, a.s. (for 38 months)
• Freeside Internet Service (for 37 months)
• MyTux (for 37 months)
• Intevation GmbH (for 35 months)
• Linuxhotel GmbH (for 35 months)
• Daevel SARL (for 33 months)
• Bitfolk LTD (for 32 months)
• Megaspace Internet Services GmbH (for 32 months)
• NUMLOG (for 32 months)
• Greenbone Networks GmbH (for 31 months)
• WinGo AG (for 31 months)
• Ecole Centrale de Nantes LHEEA (for 27 months)
• Sig-I/O (for 24 months)
• Entr ouvert (for 22 months)
• Adfinis SyGroup AG (for 19 months)
• GNI MEDIA (for 14 months)
• Quarantainenet BV (for 14 months)
• RHX Srl (for 11 months)
• Bearstech (for 5 months)
• LiHAS (for 5 months)
• People Doc
• Catalyst IT Ltd

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Why is software created using taxpayers money not released as Free Software?
We want legislation requiring that publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it is public money, it should be public code as well. Code paid by the people should be available to the people!