So yesterday we had a really nice meeting with few french Debian folks. Luk and Ralf were visiting us, so we went at Prosper's for some meat and wine (and Aberlour). We were a bit too much to be able to speak to everybody (so mainly there were two 6-packs of people), but it was fine anyway.

Though, the main point of the evening was that some (most?) teams in Debian are really (*really*) understaffed, and it might become problematic in the near future (like now).

For example, from what I understood:

• debian-x has one active contributor
• pkg-xfce has one active contributor
• evolution has one de factor contributor
• pkg-gnome is better since Josselin had some help, but it's still not perfect
• d-i has only one active contributor
• libc has only one active contributor

I don't know the state of other teams, but it doesn't really look fine for the incoming freeze. So if you want to give some help, even if you're not yet technical enough, feel free to offer it to the teams above. Usually, starting with just using the package is enough. If you use it, you want it well-maintained, and there _are_ stuff to do to which don't require large technical knowledge, and the (few) active contributor will be happy to have some help and point you to what you can do.

If you want to give some time to Debian, before filing some ITPs (even if you'd really like to have that package you use everyday), check if you can't do something for those above teams (and others which might need help too, like release team or kernel).

Oh, and don't be scared, working on Debian is fun. It's time consuming, but it's rewarding. Don't let it become not fun.

Massive Attack en concert, c'est un peu comme assister au décollage d'une fusée assis sur un booster, mais le son en plus. D'ailleurs, parlons en maintenant, comme ça ce sera fait : pourquoi aussi fort ? Certaines chansons sont vraiment à la limite du supportable (voire au delà pour certains).

Je sais que quand je vais les voir, je vais en prendre plein la vue et plein les oreilles, je m'y attends et c'est un peu pour ça que j'y vais. Mais certaines chansons c'est vraiment juste trop, et ça rajoute rien. Je sais pas au final le nombre de dB qu'on s'est mangés, mais très clairement, plus que de raison.

Après, très clairement, ça en jetait. Pas mal de chansons que je connaissais pas (donc du EP Splitting the Atom ou bien du futur LP5), donc certaines vraiment bien, ça donne vraiment envie. Un safe from harm à tomber par terre, qu'ils ont fait durer bien comme il faut, un deuxième rappel avec Karmacoma pour finir, non vraiment ils ont assuré. Après avoir trouvé la setlist (au passage je découvre setlist.fm), j'ai un faible pour splitting the atom et Marakesh.

La fameuse :

• Flat of the blade 
• Hartcliffe Star 
• Babel 
• Girl I love you 
• Risingson 
• Red Light 
• Future Proof 
• Teardrop 
• Psyche 
• Mezzanine 
• Angel 
• Safe From Harm 
• Inertia Creeps 

1 er rappel :

• Splitting The Atom 
• Unfinished Sympathy 
• Atlas Air 

2 ème rappel :

• Karmacoma 

Ok so there were some reactions to the “Call for help” post. I had three direct offers for help in pkg-xfce, not sure if other teams had such propositions.

Some people asked me to correct various number for the “active contributors”. Basically, the numbers are what the feeling I got from people working in those team.

Julien Cristau wants me to correct the number of debian-x active contributors to 0. (yes, zero, that means nobody, nadie, personne). Basically he doesn't have time anymore, and Brice Goglin can't really keep up. So, for those who care about shiny X effects, and stuff like that, you help would be gladly appreciated (and no, you don't have to own each and every chipset in the world to give some time). 

Aurelien Jarno wants me to add that at the moment there are 2 (two) active libc contributors, plus one on GNU/Hurd and one on kfreebsd.

Frans Pop wants me to add that there are ~85 people working on d-i and that the problems the team might face aren't only related to the lack of manpower (and I don't really want to enter politics)

Finally, it seems that some people (well, only one at the moment, but it's enough for to feel the need to precise) though the numbers previously given would dismiss contributions for the active contributors. That wasn't my intention, so I apologize if you are an active contributor in one of that team and thought I dismissed your contribution. If it wasn't clear enough, my point is to show that quite some teams are lacking manpower (some team miss other things too, like leadership, coordination or whatever) and users shouldn't be scared to contribute to them. Those are core teams, without them Debian wouldn't work at all (not to mention derivatives), so it's a good idea to join them.

Now, what if you do want to help, but don't know how. On the previous post I gave links to teams website, wiki page or QA page. You should be able to find a mailing list or contact mail you should be able to write to. Just write that you want to offer some help, that you don't know how and where to start. Add what you're interested in, what you find fun, and your technical knowledge. Don't be shy, and you don't need to be a Debian Developer (nor even a Debian Maintainer) to contribute.

Thanks!

Ok, so following the trend, I created some time ago a new GPG key, which I'm now transitioning too. I've set up a transition document, available at http://molly.corsac.net/~corsac/key-transition.txt. It's signed by both the old and the new keys and is reproduced below:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: RIPEMD160,SHA512

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:44:05 +0100

I've recently set up a new RSA-based GPG key, and will be transitioning away
from my old DSA-based one.  The old key will be revoked soon, so I prefer all
future correspondence to use the new one.  I would also like to ensure that
this new key is well-integrated into the web of trust.  This message is signed
by both keys to certify the transition.

The old DSA key was:
pub   1024D/C5C05BAE 2004-11-11
      Key fingerprint = DE26 2FC4 7097 FFC6 DE2C  D8C0 4D44 C020 C5C0 5BAE

The new RSA key is:
pub   4096R/71EF0BA8 2009-05-06
      Key fingerprint = 4510 DCB5 7ED4 7040 60C6  6476 3055 0F78 71EF 0BA8

If you already know my old key, you can verify that the new key is
signed by the old one:
  gpg --check-sigs 71EF0BA8

If you don't already know my old key, or if you're extra-paranoid, you
can check the fingerprint against the one given above:
  gpg --fingerprint 71EF0BA8

If you have previously signed my old DSA key, and if you're satisfied
that you've got the correct new RSA key, then I'd appreciate it if you
would sign my new key as well:
  caff 71EF0BA8

The caff program is in the signing-party package in Debian.  Please be careful
to generate signatures that don't rely on the weakening SHA-1 hash algorithm,
which requires some careful configuration even if you've already configured
gpg correctly.  See http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/Strong_Keys.html for
the gory details.

Thanks,
- --
Yves-Alexis Perez
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Bonne fête Delphine

(et puis ça devient un peu une tradition, à force)