1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Talk meister] Grab a seat please, there's lots of seats around here, or there. 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's my pleasure to introduce our current and new DPL, 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Neil McGovern for his annual bits from the DPL 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Applause] 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] Thanks very much, hi everyone. 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm aware that this talk is due to cut in to lunch so I'll try and keep it slightly 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ... in to dinner, so I'll keep it slightly more refined [laughter] 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so people can get their food early. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hopefully everyone's ok with that anyway. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm also kind of glad that it's in this slot when it was originally proposed 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I got my initial time slot it was going to be a 9am slot just after the 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cheese and wine party so I [laughter] 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 probably wouldn't expect quite so many people as we have here today. 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, welcome everyone, this final day of the open weekend. Anyone who isn't a 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 regular person, hi and welcome to Debian! 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Welcome to the huge Debian family which is certainly growing all the time and 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is something that's really good to see. 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's quite fantastic that there's just so many people involved, especially this year 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I last checked the stats I think we had 383 people who had so far checked in 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 slightly less than for DebConf 7, but I'm certain... [laughter] 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm certain over the next few days that'll go up and definitely surpass us. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I just want to remind everyone what the size of the project we are. 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's such a huge effort, one of the biggest open source and free software 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 projects in the world. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Combining around 1000 developers, a few thousand maintainers and contributors as 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 well, and also our users. 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's really a huge effort that we manage to still be here after 22 years and still 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be going strong. 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hopefully a DebConf in future will look a little bit like that 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think the orga team might be slightly more stressed if we end up with numbers 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but what a fantastic thing. 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Also over the last few years we've had 42 new project members have joined us. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is over the last year, we've had all these people. 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Huge welcome to everyone there. [Applause] 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Especially one or two on there which I decided to get back into doing application 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 management, especially for our non- uploading developers as well, which has 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 been a huge boost to really grow where we're going. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Also welcome back. I've noticed a few people this year who I haven't seen in a 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 few years, so stand up if you've been away for a few years and you're returning 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I know there's certainly some people, excellent, 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Tolimar? [laughter] There he is! [Applause] 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Kris Rose? Is he here? [points] Excellent. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Was active before I even joined Debian, and essentially has come back again, so 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's great to see everyone back and thanks very much for remembering us. 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's been a few new people as well. 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Very, very new people who I haven't kinda seen around before in previous DebConfs 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Where did all these children come from? I think there must have been something... 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughter] 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think the Switzerland DebConf, there might have been something in the water, 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because it's suddenly been a huge... it's absolutely fantastic to see not only 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 our usual developers around, but their families as well, and new people being 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 introduced to Debian and to technology. 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The TecKids workshops I think are absolutely fantastic initiative I think 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that really helps broaden Debian and what we do. 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, when I first became DPL, I always knew Debian was a big thing in free software, 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the communities and things we do. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I went along to my running club 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we went for a run, 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 went to the pub afterwards as you do in the UK, 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can't have sport without excessive alcohol consumption afterwards so it seems 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and about 7 or 8 people all came up to me 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and said "Hey, congratulations on being DPL, I'm going to buy you a pint!", which 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughter] 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is great 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So if anyone wants to run for DPL you get free beer, this is a good thing. 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But it did really impress on me that 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Debian's a big deal, it's a really huge deal. 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you have a look at some of the latest server stats for web servers, 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Debian's number one. 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's about 32% of Linux distributions, and and if you combine Ubuntu as well, and 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all our derivatives, we're about 62% of all linux servers out there 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Basically Debian really does run the world 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Not only that, but the amount of embedded devices that Debian's involved with 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from, as mentioned before, the HP talk, running huge teleco systems 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to assistive devices. I know Andy's around somewhere. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That product is essentially being based on Debian and it's a speak and spell type 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 device. 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's for people who can't talk. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You have a little keyboard, you type in what you want to say, it has predictive 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 technology in there, and then it gives people a voice. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Debian is literally being used to give people voices who can't speak. 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is the sort of impact that Debian have, and free software can have 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on the world. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A few things happened, certainly over the last year. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Apparently we released. 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was only DPL for about a week, but I'm going to take credit for this 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like any good politician, anyway. [laughter] 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've already had a stable release. 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This has hugely welcomed. 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know if anyone followed the DevOps Reactions tumblr page, but they were 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 following along and huge cheers from everyone when Debian releases. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It is a big deal. 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Strangely I also saw a press release that that said they're 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 having a party to celebrate the release of Debian 8 at Linux Fest North West, 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But this press release was from Microsoft [laughter] 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I thought it might be a spoof at first, but I diligently checked the certificates 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and domains and made sure it went back. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think people, certainly large organisations are realising now that this 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 open source, free software thing isn't going away 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This isn't something that they can just ignore, or they can fight against. 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is something that they have to embrace 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Certainly for someone like Microsoft to throw away a load of cake and do a press 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 release because Debian's released is something I never thought I'd see when I 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 first joined the Debian Project. 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We've had some new good things which have started recently as well 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Fantastic areas if anyone knows what this might be for a current initiative that's 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 going on? 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Picture of four similar potted plants] 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was trying to do reproducible builds. 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They all sort of look the same, so near enough [laughter] 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's the nearest I could find on Flickr to something being reproducible. 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 These are all CC by the way. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So this is perhaps a bit of a better slide to explain just how impressive it is 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where we've got. 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know if everyone here's aware of reproducible builds and what this is 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 trying to do, and the importance of it. 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When you get a source package 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and you produce a binary from that 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there hasn't traditionally been a way of knowing that what you've produced here 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 comes from this source package and it hasn't been tampered with. 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is incredibly important for the trust that people have in Debian 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and how we produce things 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So if we're able to say "Look, this thing here has definitely come from here, 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 look we've rebuilt it again, you can check for yourself, it comes from here.", 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then people can trust Debian as this platform for where we run everyone's 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 computers. 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm quite impressed with the remarkable progress we've seen here. 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 From zero to a huge share of things being reproducable and that work I'm sure will 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 continue, especially thanks to the Linux Foundation's grants as well in supporting 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this progress. 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I did a "ask me anything" recently and it was one of the things that came up as 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 being a hugely popular thing that Debian is doing and that we're driving forward. 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Not just for Debian itself but for all distributions and making sure we're 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 able to do that. 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Interestingly I was also asked what I'm most jealous of other distributions and 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think I said the Arch wiki because it is pretty good. [laughter] 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Often when I'm on #debian and answering questions then it comes up with the best 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 answers a lot of the time. 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But, hey, I'm rubbish at writing documentation so... 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Another effort we've come up with is ddebs 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Ability to automatically have debug symbols 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Something which a few other distributions have had for a while and it's really, 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 really good to see that this sort of effort is happening as well. 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If Niels is around.... well done! [applause] 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Not the only one but. 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, what's next? 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What's the next things that Debian can do? 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Where can we go from here and what sort of ideas can we have? 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's a whole range of things we can do 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but I'm just going to pick up two or three 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we want to kinda concentrate on and see where we're going. 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 First, PPAs. [picture of a parcel] 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's near enough a package, that'll do me. 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've got a BoF scheduled on Friday, to try and look at what we're doing with this and 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 trying to finish it off. 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was in my platform as something I want push and it's something I believe will 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 really help the development of Debian. 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, it's slightly different from Ubuntu PPAs as they're well known. 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's not going to be somewhere that you can just dump random software and people 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 install various quality packages. 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is going to be a very useful tool to aid Debian development itself. 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As far as I remember, most of the work is actually done now. 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Huge thanks to the FTP Masters and DSA etc for this. 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So the actual code is there in DAK. 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The only missing bits is the control functions, 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 how you create new PPAs and the wannabuild system and we build stuff and 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 touch releases. 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it is going to, hopefully, come any minute now 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and something that we will hopefully be able to use and will ease the, 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sometimes the pain of when we freeze. 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Sometimes the ability to easily create backports 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or even to ease library transitions. 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you can create a PPA where you stage your library, check everything works and 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can fix all your breakages then that should help unstable and testing as well. 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 One on outreach I guess is near enough. 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's kinda interesting, I've mentioned that Debian is in a huge position to touch 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 many people's lives and it was slightly worrying that compared to the amount of 178 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Jessie release parties we had all over the world, 179 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I video called into one in India for example and it was globally popular. 180 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But all of our sprints have been in Europe. 181 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So we haven't had some in North America. 182 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We haven't had any in South America. 183 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And there's huge areas here we can really try and push and bring free software 184 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and really help push Debian to be the go to place in various countries rather 185 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 thank keeping it a Europe or sometimes even North American market. 186 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Debian's in a great place because we are a community distribution. 187 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We try and aim to be the universal operating system. 188 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Someone that anyone can come along, join, help out in whatever way they want to, 189 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be it packaging, or doing wonderful press work for example. 190 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [pointed look to the side] Not mentioning that press work at all. 191 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She's not even looking at me. [Francesca] Hey! 192 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Laughter] 193 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] She's going to volunteer to do more press work in future again. 194 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's an area people can get involved in really easily and because we're 195 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 distributed, because we work online, it is natural that people can come and join us 196 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we should encourage that, and we should try and reach out and try and reach 197 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 more people. 198 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Third area, the final one here is around accessibility. 199 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's kind of a sad fact that free software is about 10 years behind proprietary and 200 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 commercial offerings. 201 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's a reason that iPhones are hugely popular with people who need accessibility 202 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 options - they are just fantastic compared with what you can get normally. 203 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't believe that it is right that people should have to use proprietary 204 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 software, which they pay for, to access computing, and to access the web, and to 205 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be able to explore what we all have. 206 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We should be able to put in effort, so there's certainly an area which we can 207 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 really make a difference to people and try and drive forward. 208 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To bring computing to everyone, rather than those who are fortunate enough to be 209 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 able to see a screen well, or be rich enough to be able to pay for a license or 210 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 buy a computer or system from a proprietary company. 211 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to do this. 212 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are able to speak and work directly with people who require accessibility 213 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 features, and let those people design it in a way that is much easier than any 214 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 proprietary company. 215 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's an area I think we can try and try and sort of push quite a bit. 216 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Finally, a bit of a huge thank you from me really. 217 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was about... So I've been involved with Debian since about 2001 or so, and doing 218 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 loads of different roles. 219 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Originally doing the web apps policy, which never really got beyond draft 220 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because web apps are terrible, terrible things that don't really work with 221 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 distributions that well. 222 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Then with Joey Hess, doing testing security team and setting up that, 223 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 eventually that led in to many, many years of release management. [shakes head] 224 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [heckling] 225 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then many years of being release manager as well. 226 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then after that Tolimar found me at DebConf in Banja Luka and found out I 227 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 could write a press release and roped me in to doing bits there 228 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but after that I was sort of feeling a bit, I don't know, burned out. 229 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I didn't really know what else to do with the project. 230 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think this happens to everyone. 231 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's a huge reminder each time when I come to DebConf and I meet people and how 232 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 fortunate I am, and we all are to be involved with such a fantastic project, 233 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 something that really is changing people's lives, 234 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 something that is breaking the traditional proprietary market 235 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and enabling people to have greater access to computing 236 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's really fortunate that I'm in a position to help lead this project 237 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and to do everything for you. 238 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Finally, I think I mentioned, I think Phil Hands - is he around? 239 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He probably has a small child trying to throw-up on him for anyone who saw the 240 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 morning announcements today. 241 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He did kind of joke about the next DPL hustings, 242 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 he can just write an auto-responder bot to any questions which is 243 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "That sounds interesting, I look forward to seeing the results" 244 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughter] 245 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Generally I think that we should be able to try things, 246 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so if anyone has any ideas, stuff they want to do, Debian has the money, 247 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let's go try some stuff. 248 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If we want a sprint to work on accessibility in say, Hong Hong 249 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as there's a huge issue there, or to improve our localisation, then let's 250 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 do that. 251 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We have the money to do it. 252 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We have, hopefully, the interest around, so let's go try things. 253 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As promised, I thought I'd keep things nice and short. 254 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As everyone seemed to be getting hungry. 255 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was going to leave a bit for Q&A, if anyone had any questions, 256 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or wanted to put me on the spot about anything or random thoughts anyone had, 257 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then I'd certainly be very happy to answer any of those. 258 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Someone has to be first. 259 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Otherwise my timing's really, really out. 260 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Oh good. [clappiung] 261 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Lucky me. 262 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hello! What's your name and where are you from? [laughter] 263 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Steve] Oh, you want me to say something? [Neil] Yeah, go on. 264 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Steve] What is your single highest priority thing that you think we should 265 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all be working on? 266 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] Getting the next stable release out, to be honest. 267 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is what we do, as a distribution. 268 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We release things. 269 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We make software. 270 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We give it to our users, Debian is famed for its stability. 271 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We backport our security fixes. 272 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 People can rely on Debian, they can trust us to produce a rock solid distribution. 273 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Something that people can, in some cases, yes, derive works from. 274 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If they don't like what we're doing they can tweak it. 275 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was the huge thing that came up when Devuan came up saying that 276 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Oh, we're going to fork Debian and it's going to be terrible" 277 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's like fine! There's over 120 forks of Debian out there already, that's fine! 278 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Please, come and do this, we're happy with that. 279 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Being able to produce this reliable, stable operating system that we only 280 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 release when we're ready, which happens to apparently be about every two years now 281 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is something that everyone relies on us being able to do, 282 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they can trust us to produce that for them. 283 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Essentially putting out releases is one of the main reasons we're here. 284 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To get that software into the hands of users. 285 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's loads of other stuff of course which we can do to try and improve and 286 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 push forward free software in general, but we are essentially a distribution. 287 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Our aim is to collect software, and then distribute it, 288 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and one of the best ways to do that is releases. 289 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Steve] Good answer. [Neil] Good! 290 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Joshua] What's your favourite thing about Debian? 291 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughter] 292 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Unknown] You're not allowed to say releases. 293 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] I'm apparently not allowed to say the kilt as well 294 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Bdale] You also already said free beer so 295 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] And free beer, yeah. 296 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It has to be the people that I'm involved with. 297 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The project has enabled me to meet so many awesome people and basically have 298 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the career I've had so far as well. 299 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There has always been a thing about being involved visibly with and open source 300 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 project that helps you professionally as well. 301 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I got my first job because I was involved with free software. 302 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I then got my next job because I was a Debian developer and could put together 303 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Linux systems easily, and knew how to munge these various crazy different 304 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 projects which are written in a hundred different libraries, 305 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 using different compatibilities together to make something whole. 306 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Then my current job I got because essentially I was involved in doing 307 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 management-y type functions in Debian. 308 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As I say to people when they ask 309 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Where's the money in free software? How can I create a career with it?" 310 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's basically fairly easy. Get stuck in. 311 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Go and do something. 312 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Find something interesting that interests you, 313 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and that you're able to be the world expert at, and you can do that. 314 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On an entirely personal view, some of my closest friends are the Debian people I've 315 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 worked with for many many years and I certainly wouldn't have moved to my 316 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 current city, or know half the people I do if it wasn't for that. 317 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Debian family is a large one, that occasionally gets together at DebConf 318 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and Christmas, and sometimes has huge blow up arguments, 319 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 possibly over the turkey or the init system, something like that [laughter] 320 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but we do all come together. 321 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We have huge contentious decisions 322 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but we're still here. 323 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We've had huge arguments with everyone trying to stab each other, but at the end 324 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of the day we're still here, we're still the Debian project. 325 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And sort of like that it's something we love to be associated with 326 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's everyone around that really makes that. 327 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Joshua] Thank you [Applause] 328 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Neil] Anyone else? No? 329 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Oh oh. 330 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'll just stop you there - backups are really really important, [laughter] 331 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so we should definitely concentrate on backups. 332 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Lars] So what's the biggest risk to Debian you see in the 5-10 year span? 333 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [[[25:48]]]