wiki/src/news/report_2012_11.mdwn

   1 [[!meta date="Mon Dec 10 21:00:00 2012 +0000"]]
   2 [[!meta title="Tails report for November, 2012"]]
   3
   4 November was pretty intense a month for Tails, including two major
   5 releases. It was not the happiest though, due to personal issues,
   6 unresolved conflicts within the team and server hard disks dying.
   7
   8 Anyhow, Tails' life does go on. Here is a report of what happened
   9 last month.
  10
  11 [[!toc levels=1]]
  12
  13 Releases
  14 ========
  15
  16 Tails 0.14 was [[released on November 13th|news/version_0.14]] and
  17 0.15 was [[released on November 28th|news/version_0.15]]. From now on,
  18 we should be in a position to stick to the [[6-weeks release
  19 cycle|contribute/release_schedule]] we have been aiming at for a while.
  20
  21 The Tails 0.16 release is scheduled for the first half of January.
  22
  23 People
  24 ======
  25
  26 Tails has been started and successfully connected to the Tor network
  27 around 83731 times in November. That makes a boot every 31 seconds on
  28 average. This number is an approximation from the requests made for the
  29 security announcements feed. The later is retrieved by Tails after being
  30 connected to Tor to eventually encourage users to update.
  31
  32 41 reports were received through WhisperBack.
  33
  34 The forum activity is still very high:
  35 903 messages, 151 signed by Tails.
  36
  37 Code
  38 ====
  39
  40 Some preliminary work to [[add VirtualBox host software|todo/add_virtualbox_host_software]] has [been done](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/virtualbox-host).
  41
  42 Useless cookies exceptions in iceweasel were [removed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/remove-cookies-exceptions).
  43
  44 Preliminary support for some [[OpenPGP SmartCards|todo/support_OpenPGP_smartcards]] was [added](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/OpenPGP-SmartCart).
  45
  46 LCD-optimized fonts settings were [implemented](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/nicer-fonts).
  47
  48 [Do not run setupcon on
  49 X](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/no-console-setup-on-X).
  50
  51 Better support for printers that us the IJS driver [was added](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/hpijs).
  52
  53 The Monkeysphere XUL extension and the I2P console bookmark, that were
  54 broken by the move to TorBrowser patches,
  55 [were](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/monkeysphere_post_torbrowser)
  56 [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/i2p_console_bookmark).
  57
  58 The Tails OpenPGP Applet was [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/gpgApplet_menu_in_bottom_panel) to be compatible with the Windows
  59 camouflage mode.
  60
  61 Custom APT sources handling was [fixed for release
  62 candidates](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/handle_apt_sources_for_rc).
  63
  64 Bridge mode was [[found to have problems with Tor
  65 restarts|todo/bridge_mode_vs_tor_restarts]] and
  66 [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/bridge_mode_vs_tor_restarts).
  67 While we were at it, some refactoring happened, and code was extracted
  68 into a shell library to avoid too much duplication in the source tree.
  69
  70 Iceweasel 10.0.11esr-1 + TorBrowser patches was build.
  71
  72 A font for Sinhala script (spoken by 15-20 millions of people, mainly
  73 in Sri Lanka) was [added](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/sinhala-font).
  74
  75 The Unsafe Browser window name was [set](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/unsafe_browser_name) to... *Unsafe Browser*.
  76
  77 Discrepancies between the various build setups used by Tails
  78 developers was discovered and
  79 [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/install-tasksel-standard-task).
  80
  81 APT pinning was [cleaned
  82 up](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/cleanup-apt-pinning).
  83
  84 Our fake FireGPG package was
  85 [removed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/remove-fake-firegpg),
  86 eventually. RIP.
  87
  88 The SCIM was [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/scim-in-autostarted-iceweasel) in the autostarted web browser.
  89
  90 Work [started](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/set-wireless-devices-state)
  91 to [[todo/set_wireless_devices_state]] to something sane at boot time.
  92
  93 The move to using a recent `live-boot` was almost
  94 [completed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/live-boot-3.x),
  95 but blocked due to a bug we found in upstream `live-boot`.
  96 A patch is in the works.
  97
  98 Work to [[install a password manager|todo/install_password_manager]]
  99 was [started](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/install-password-manager).
 100
 101 A poedit 1.5 backport that fixes a long-standing annoying bug was
 102 [prepared](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/poedit-1.5)
 103 and tested.
 104
 105 Preliminary steps towards [[installing the Minitube YouTube
 106 client|todo/minitube]] were
 107 [walked](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/minitube).
 108 Many thanks to Alessandro Grassi for starting this effort, and going
 109 on with it!
 110
 111 The `Persistent` directory is now [displayed in the Places
 112 menu](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/persistent-directory-in-places).
 113
 114 Work has
 115 [started](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/news-as-homepage)
 116 to [[todo/set_iceweasel_homepage_to_Tails_news]].
 117
 118 Shutdown messages were [fixed](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=commit;h=ef5d24c144976d3f0b1c0f64b6533c9d304a9b95) to talk of DVD, not of CD.
 119
 120 IPv6 was
 121 [disabled](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/bugfix/disable-IPv6)
 122 to workaround [[a recently discovered leak|todo/really_block_ipv6]].
 123
 124 Work towards a [[todo/better_power_off_button]] is
 125 [ongoing](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/better_power_off_button).
 126
 127 [[obfsproxy support|todo/obfsproxy]] was [added](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/feature/obfsproxy).
 128
 129 A number of candidate branches for 0.15 were [merged](http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/devel).
 130
 131 Documentation and website
 132 =========================
 133
 134 The Tails website now has a [[Press & media information|press]] page.
 135
 136 The [[News]] can now be [translated](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002136.html).
 137
 138 As [[planned|todo/locking_down_this_website]], the website was
 139 [locked-down](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002234.html)
 140 a bit more.
 141
 142 On-going discussions
 143 ====================
 144
 145 [Improve Polipo
 146 configuration](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002008.html),
 147 [switch to
 148 Privoxy](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002029.html),
 149 or drop it all?
 150
 151 [Progress report on the automated test
 152 suite](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002014.html)
 153 triggered some discussion.
 154
 155 Helping adrelanos to proper copyright and licensing practices when [forking Tails documentation pages](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002054.html).
 156
 157 [Testing incremental
 158 updates](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002108.html)
 159 and [tails-create-iuk](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002128.html).
 160
 161 [Benchmarking Redmine](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002157.html).
 162
 163 [How to implement remembering installed packages?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002160.html)
 164
 165 [Supporting
 166 EntropyKey](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002195.html).
 167
 168 [Promoting Persistence features](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002197.html).
 169
 170 [What to do with Liferea
 171 Cookies?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002209.html)
 172
 173 [If/How to ship the Minitube native YouTube
 174 client?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002257.html)
 175
 176 [What's the safest value to set the time from Tor consensus?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002228.html)
 177
 178 [Stop shipping bugs/* and todo/* in
 179 ISO?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2012-November/002235.html)