WEBVTT

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[Talk meister] Grab a seat please, there's
lots of seats around here, or there.

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It's my pleasure to introduce our current
and new DPL,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Neil McGovern for his annual bits from
the DPL

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[Applause]

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[Neil] Thanks very much, hi everyone.

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I'm aware that this talk is due to cut in
to lunch so I'll try and keep it slightly

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... in to dinner, so I'll keep it slightly
more refined [laughter]

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so people can get their food early.

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Hopefully everyone's ok with that anyway.

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I'm also kind of glad that it's in this
slot when it was originally proposed

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and I got my initial time slot it was
going to be a 9am slot just after the

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cheese and wine party so I [laughter]

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probably wouldn't expect quite so many
people as we have here today.

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So, welcome everyone, this final day of
the open weekend. Anyone who isn't a

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regular person, hi and welcome to Debian!

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Welcome to the huge Debian family which
is certainly growing all the time and

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is something that's really good to see.

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It's quite fantastic that there's just so
many people involved, especially this year

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When I last checked the stats I think we
had 383 people who had so far checked in

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slightly less than for DebConf 7, but I'm
certain... [laughter]

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I'm certain over the next few days that'll
go up and definitely surpass us.

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I just want to remind everyone what the
size of the project we are.

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It's such a huge effort, one of the
biggest open source and free software

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projects in the world.

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Combining around 1000 developers, a few
thousand maintainers and contributors as

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well, and also our users.

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It's really a huge effort that we manage
to still be here after 22 years and still

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be going strong.

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Hopefully a DebConf in future will look
a little bit like that

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I think the orga team might be slightly
more stressed if we end up with numbers

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but what a fantastic thing.

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Also over the last few years we've had 42
new project members have joined us.

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This is over the last year, we've had all
these people.

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Huge welcome to everyone there. [Applause]

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Especially one or two on there which I
decided to get back into doing application

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management, especially for our non-
uploading developers as well, which has

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been a huge boost to really grow where
we're going.

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Also welcome back. I've noticed a few
people this year who I haven't seen in a

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few years, so stand up if you've been away
for a few years and you're returning

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I know there's certainly some people,
excellent,

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Tolimar? [laughter] There he is!
[Applause]

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Kris Rose? Is he here? [points] Excellent.

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Was active before I even joined Debian,
and essentially has come back again, so

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it's great to see everyone back and thanks
very much for remembering us.

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There's been a few new people as well.

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Very, very new people who I haven't kinda
seen around before in previous DebConfs

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Where did all these children come from?
I think there must have been something...

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[laughter]

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I think the Switzerland DebConf, there
might have been something in the water,

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because it's suddenly been a huge... it's
absolutely fantastic to see not only

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our usual developers around, but their
families as well, and new people being

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introduced to Debian and to technology.

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The TecKids workshops I think are
absolutely fantastic initiative I think

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that really helps broaden Debian and what
we do.

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So, when I first became DPL, I always knew
Debian was a big thing in free software,

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in the communities and things we do.

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I went along to my running club

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and we went for a run,

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went to the pub afterwards as you do in
the UK,

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you can't have sport without excessive
alcohol consumption afterwards so it seems

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and about 7 or 8 people all came up to me

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and said "Hey, congratulations on being
DPL, I'm going to buy you a pint!", which

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[laughter]

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which is great

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So if anyone wants to run for DPL you get
free beer, this is a good thing.

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But it did really impress on me that

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Debian's a big deal, it's a really huge
deal.

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If you have a look at some of the latest
server stats for web servers,

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Debian's number one.

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It's about 32% of Linux distributions, and
and if you combine Ubuntu as well, and

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all our derivatives, we're about 62% of
all linux servers out there

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Basically Debian really does run the world

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Not only that, but the amount of embedded
devices that Debian's involved with

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from, as mentioned before, the HP talk,
running huge teleco systems

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to assistive devices. I know Andy's around
somewhere.

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That product is essentially being based on
Debian and it's a speak and spell type

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device.

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It's for people who can't talk.

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You have a little keyboard, you type in
what you want to say, it has predictive

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technology in there, and then it gives
people a voice.

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Debian is literally being used to give
people voices who can't speak.

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This is the sort of impact that Debian
have, and free software can have

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on the world.

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A few things happened, certainly over the
last year.

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Apparently we released.

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I was only DPL for about a week, but I'm
going to take credit for this

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like any good politician, anyway.
[laughter]

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I've already had a stable release.

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This has hugely welcomed.

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I don't know if anyone followed the DevOps
Reactions tumblr page, but they were

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following along and huge cheers from
everyone when Debian releases.

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It is a big deal.

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Strangely I also saw a press release that
that said they're

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having a party to celebrate the release
of Debian 8 at Linux Fest North West,

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But this press release was from Microsoft
[laughter]

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I thought it might be a spoof at first,
but I diligently checked the certificates

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and domains and made sure it went back.

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I think people, certainly large
organisations are realising now that this

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open source, free software thing isn't
going away

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This isn't something that they can just
ignore, or they can fight against.

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This is something that they have to
embrace

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Certainly for someone like Microsoft to
throw away a load of cake and do a press

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release because Debian's released is
something I never thought I'd see when I

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first joined the Debian Project.

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We've had some new good things which have
started recently as well

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Fantastic areas if anyone knows what this
might be for a current initiative that's

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going on?

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[Picture of four similar potted plants]

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I was trying to do reproducible builds.

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They all sort of look the same, so near
enough [laughter]

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It's the nearest I could find on Flickr to
something being reproducible.

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These are all CC by the way.

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So this is perhaps a bit of a better slide
to explain just how impressive it is

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where we've got.

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I don't know if everyone here's aware of
reproducible builds and what this is

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trying to do, and the importance of it.

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When you get a source package

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and you produce a binary from that

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there hasn't traditionally been a way of
knowing that what you've produced here

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comes from this source package and it
hasn't been tampered with.

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This is incredibly important for the trust
that people have in Debian

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and how we produce things

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So if we're able to say "Look, this thing
here has definitely come from here,

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look we've rebuilt it again, you can check
for yourself, it comes from here.",

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then people can trust Debian as this
platform for where we run everyone's

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computers.

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I'm quite impressed with the remarkable
progress we've seen here.

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From zero to a huge share of things being
reproducable and that work I'm sure will

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continue, especially thanks to the Linux
Foundation's grants as well in supporting

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this progress.

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I did a "ask me anything" recently and it
was one of the things that came up as

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being a hugely popular thing that Debian
is doing and that we're driving forward.

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Not just for Debian itself but for all
distributions and making sure we're

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able to do that.

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Interestingly I was also asked what I'm
most jealous of other distributions and

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I think I said the Arch wiki because it is
pretty good. [laughter]

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Often when I'm on #debian and answering
questions then it comes up with the best

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answers a lot of the time.

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But, hey, I'm rubbish at writing
documentation so...

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Another effort we've come up with is ddebs

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Ability to automatically have debug
symbols

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Something which a few other distributions
have had for a while and it's really,

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really good to see that this sort of
effort is happening as well.

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If Niels is around.... well done!
[applause]

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Not the only one but.

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So, what's next?

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What's the next things that Debian can do?

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Where can we go from here and what sort of
ideas can we have?

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There's a whole range of things we can do

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but I'm just going to pick up two or three

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that we want to kinda concentrate on and
see where we're going.

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First, PPAs. [picture of a parcel]

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It's near enough a package, that'll do me.

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I've got a BoF scheduled on Friday, to try
and look at what we're doing with this and

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trying to finish it off.

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It was in my platform as something I want
push and it's something I believe will

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really help the development of Debian.

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Now, it's slightly different from Ubuntu
PPAs as they're well known.

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It's not going to be somewhere that you
can just dump random software and people

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install various quality packages.

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This is going to be a very useful tool to
aid Debian development itself.

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As far as I remember, most of the work is
actually done now.

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Huge thanks to the FTP Masters and DSA
etc for this.

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So the actual code is there in DAK.

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The only missing bits is the control
functions,

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how you create new PPAs and the wannabuild
system and we build stuff and

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touch releases.

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So it is going to, hopefully, come any
minute now

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and something that we will hopefully be
able to use and will ease the,

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sometimes the pain of when we freeze.

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Sometimes the ability to easily create
backports

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or even to ease library transitions.

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If you can create a PPA where you stage
your library, check everything works and

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you can fix all your breakages then that
should help unstable and testing as well.

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One on outreach I guess is near enough.

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It's kinda interesting, I've mentioned
that Debian is in a huge position to touch

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many people's lives and it was slightly
worrying that compared to the amount of

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Jessie release parties we had all over the
world,

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I video called into one in India for
example and it was globally popular.

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But all of our sprints have been in
Europe.

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So we haven't had some in North America.

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We haven't had any in South America.

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And there's huge areas here we can really
try and push and bring free software

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and really help push Debian to be the go
to place in various countries rather

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thank keeping it a Europe or sometimes
even North American market.

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And Debian's in a great place because we
are a community distribution.

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We try and aim to be the universal
operating system.

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Someone that anyone can come along, join,
help out in whatever way they want to,

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be it packaging, or doing wonderful press
work for example.

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[pointed look to the side] Not mentioning
that press work at all.

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She's not even looking at me.
[Francesca] Hey!

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[Laughter]

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[Neil] She's going to volunteer to do more
press work in future again.

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So it's an area people can get involved in
really easily and because we're

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distributed, because we work online, it is
natural that people can come and join us

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and we should encourage that, and we
should try and reach out and try and reach

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more people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Third area, the final one here is around
accessibility.

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It's kind of a sad fact that free software
is about 10 years behind proprietary and

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commercial offerings.

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There's a reason that iPhones are hugely
popular with people who need accessibility

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options - they are just fantastic compared
with what you can get normally.

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I don't believe that it is right that
people should have to use proprietary

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
software, which they pay for, to access
computing, and to access the web, and to

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be able to explore what we all have.

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We should be able to put in effort, so
there's certainly an area which we can

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
really make a difference to people and try
and drive forward.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To bring computing to everyone, rather
than those who are fortunate enough to be

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able to see a screen well, or be rich
enough to be able to pay for a license or

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
buy a computer or system from a
proprietary company.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There is no reason why we shouldn't be
able to do this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We are able to speak and work directly
with people who require accessibility

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
features, and let those people design it
in a way that is much easier than any

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
proprietary company.

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.

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Finally, a bit of a huge thank you from me
really.

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

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
loads of different roles.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Originally doing the web apps policy,
which never really got beyond draft

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because web apps are terrible, terrible
things that don't really work with

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
distributions that well.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Then with Joey Hess, doing testing
security team and setting up that,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
eventually that led in to many, many years
of release management. [shakes head]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[heckling]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then many years of being release
manager as well.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then after that Tolimar found me at
DebConf in Banja Luka and found out I

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
could write a press release and roped me
in to doing bits there

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but after that I was sort of feeling a
bit, I don't know, burned out.

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I didn't really know what else to do with
the project.

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I think this happens to everyone.

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

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
fortunate I am, and we all are to be
involved with such a fantastic project,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
something that really is changing people's
lives,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
something that is breaking the
traditional proprietary market

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and enabling people to have greater access
to computing

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and it's really fortunate that I'm in a
position to help lead this project

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and to do everything for you.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Finally, I think I mentioned, I think Phil
Hands - is he around?

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

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
morning announcements today.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He did kind of joke about the next DPL
hustings,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he can just write an auto-responder bot to
any questions which is

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"That sounds interesting, I look forward
to seeing the results"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[laughter]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Generally I think that we should be able
to try things,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so if anyone has any ideas, stuff they
want to do, Debian has the money,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
let's go try some stuff.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If we want a sprint to work on
accessibility in say, Hong Hong

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as there's a huge issue there, or to
improve our localisation, then let's

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
do that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have the money to do it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have, hopefully, the interest around,
so let's go try things.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As promised, I thought I'd keep things
nice and short.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As everyone seemed to be getting hungry.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I was going to leave a bit for Q&A, if
anyone had any questions,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or wanted to put me on the spot about
anything or random thoughts anyone had,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then I'd certainly be very happy to answer
any of those.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Someone has to be first.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Otherwise my timing's really, really out.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Oh good. [clappiung]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Lucky me.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Hello! What's your name and where are you
from? [laughter]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Steve] Oh, you want me to say something?
[Neil] Yeah, go on.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Steve] What is your single highest
priority thing that you think we should

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
all be working on?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Neil] Getting the next stable release
out, to be honest.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is what we do, as a distribution.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We release things.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We make software.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We give it to our users, Debian is famed
for its stability.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We backport our security fixes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
People can rely on Debian, they can trust
us to produce a rock solid distribution.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Something that people can, in some cases,
yes, derive works from.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If they don't like what we're doing they
can tweak it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was the huge thing that came up when
Devuan came up saying that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Oh, we're going to fork Debian and it's
going to be terrible"

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!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Please, come and do this, we're happy with
that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Being able to produce this reliable,
stable operating system that we only

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
release when we're ready, which happens to
apparently be about every two years now

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is something that everyone relies on us
being able to do,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and they can trust us to produce that for
them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Essentially putting out releases is one of
the main reasons we're here.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
To get that software into the hands of
users.

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

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
push forward free software in general, but
we are essentially a distribution.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our aim is to collect software, and then
distribute it,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and one of the best ways to do that is
releases.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Steve] Good answer.
[Neil] Good!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Joshua] What's your favourite thing about
Debian?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[laughter]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Unknown] You're not allowed to say
releases.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Neil] I'm apparently not allowed to say
the kilt as well

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Bdale] You also already said free beer so

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Neil] And free beer, yeah.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It has to be the people that I'm involved
with.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The project has enabled me to meet so
many awesome people and basically have

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the career I've had so far as well.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There has always been a thing about being
involved visibly with and open source

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
project that helps you professionally as
well.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I got my first job because I was involved
with free software.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I then got my next job because I was a
Debian developer and could put together

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Linux systems easily, and knew how to
munge these various crazy different

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
projects which are written in a hundred
different libraries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
using different compatibilities together
to make something whole.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Then my current job I got because
essentially I was involved in doing

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
management-y type functions in Debian.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As I say to people when they ask

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Where's the money in free software? How
can I create a career with it?"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's basically fairly easy. Get stuck in.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Go and do something.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Find something interesting that interests
you,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and that you're able to be the world
expert at, and you can do that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
On an entirely personal view, some of my
closest friends are the Debian people I've

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
worked with for many many years and I
certainly wouldn't have moved to my

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
current city, or know half the people I do
if it wasn't for that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The Debian family is a large one, that
occasionally gets together at DebConf

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and Christmas, and sometimes has huge blow
up arguments,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
possibly over the turkey or the init
system, something like that [laughter]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but we do all come together.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We have huge contentious decisions

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but we're still here.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We've had huge arguments with everyone
trying to stab each other, but at the end

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the day we're still here, we're still
the Debian project.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And sort of like that it's something we
love to be associated with

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and it's everyone around that really makes
that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Joshua] Thank you
[Applause]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[Neil] Anyone else? No?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Oh oh.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'll just stop you there - backups are
really really important, [laughter]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so we should definitely concentrate on
backups.

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?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
[[[25:48]]]