After DebConf7, I started to work with the Debian Perl Group, which I think is an example of how good a packaging group can work. We maintain currently 400+ packages, with a log bug-count (0.11 active bugs per source package says asdfasdf, and it's not like we are a lot of people there.

To be honest, I haven't been too active on the packaging front, but I spent countless hours on tweaking and modifying what I think it's the most important tool for the group success: a script that generates a webpage where you can instantly see the status of every package in the SVN repository.

The great thing about this is that it gives you a visual idea of the status of everything in a moment: which packages have bugs, which one are ready to be uploaded, and —since we keep all watchfiles updated— also which have a new upstream version. Being a group with many non-DDs, it's great that there's no need for maintaining a list of to-be-sponsored packages; we just mark the package as ready to go, and when somebody can do it, reviews and uploads the package. I can hear the cries of people who think that sponsored packages are the incarnation of the devil, but our bugcount backs me :-).

I tell you all of this because, first of all, I'm really glad to be part of a healty group of great people, and secondly, because we are finishing a completely new version of the tool, which was thought from the beggining to be used by other groups. In fact, a lot of debugging has been done by checking that it could process correctly other groups' data (it only works with SVN by now, but that's easily fixable as the code is pretty modular).

You can see the (static) pages I've done while testing, showing the packages from the Collab-maint, Games, Java, KDE and Python-modules teams/groups. If you find a bug, I'd love to hear about it.

So, if you're interested, grab the sources from the repository, and drop in #debian-perl@OFTC if you need help.

Yesterday I bought a laptop for a friend, who also asked me to install Linux on it. Since she's not computer-savvy at all, I opted for an Ubuntu. I provide here a short description of the hardware and what to expect regarding compatibility for anyone about to buy one of these.

Hardware description

Problems

The only problems I had with the hardware were related to the sound card and the lid. The sound card had exactly the same problem as my Dell Inspiron 6400: it won't turn off the internal speakers when you plug something in the audio output jack. This is easily solved adding the following to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

options snd-hda-intel enable=yes model=laptop

The problem with the lid is that the screen didn't turn off when the lid closed. Just one time it did work, and stopped doing so after a reboot. Looking with acpi_listen, it seems that the acpi event isn't even generated. I don't know if this is a hardware or software problem.

Also, some not very nice things should be noted about it: it has no independent media buttons for volume, suspend, etc.; only the WiFi transmitter kill and the power button, the rest needed a key chord.

It has only two USB ports, which nowadays is incredibly few. No LEDs for hard dist, scroll lock or num lock. The audio jacks are on the front, which makes them very unsuitable for any straight plug. Although seldom used, it is nice to have the ability to turn the screen 180°, but this one can't do it.

Finally, the battery is tiny: only four cells amounting 2 Ah of capacity. The power consumption seems a little better than my Dell: running on batteries, with low brightness, an idle GNOME desktop gave a reading of 820mA. Watching a movie from optical media in full screen ranged from 1 A to 1.3 A depending on the spinning of the media and the codec. Burning a DVD at 2x took 1.15 A

The good

After installing a Ubuntu 7.10, almost everything Just Worked™. Of course it warned me about the non-free ipw3945 driver, but in seconds network-manager had connected to my home WLAN.

Network manager could be a little more smart and turn off the WiFi transmitter when it's disabled by the user, but I guess that's not only an Ubuntu problem :).

Most media keys worked out of the box, the WiFi kill switch worked OK, as did suspend to ram and to disk. Video acceleration and obligatory eye candy worked automatically. No problems either with burning a DVD, listening to music, watching a movie or connecting to my home network.

The external aspect is not bad, the screen looks good, and the touch pad is very nice: just a matrix of dots over a surface that doesn't show any other sign of being an input method.

In conclusion, it shows that it is a very cheap machine, but the drawbacks seem very few comparing to the good price.

I had lost interest in the DM thing. Since August, when I asked for advocacies, those were posted to the newmaint list, and then nothing happened. Also, since a few days ago my NM process is running again, and there was the questioning about people becoming DM when they're close to finishing NM.

Today, Gunnar sent a mail encouraging people in the Perl group to become DM, and I answered with those arguments. To my surprise, Joey Hess contacted me to tell me that my application ahd slipped under the radar for being too early and that I could be added now to the keyring. So I gathered all the required data and sent a bug report. A couple of hours later this message surprised me to no end: I am already a Debian Maintainer!!111one!!

I must say that I'm completely stunned, I'd have expected to wait a couple of weeks, or months... This feels so... un-debian!

I very happy for two reasons: obviously because now I can upload my own packages, but also because maybe this can finally make a difference for Debian. Thanks to everybody who has helped this to happen, and hope that more good changes are on our way!

Now, if you excuse me, I'll have a beer to celebrate. Tomorrow I will start pestering my sponsors for their last sponsored uploads