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Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#221

Post by ZenoArrow »

heftysync wrote: post #120

HEADLINE: Day(s) old sid as a rolling distro DESCRIPTION: I think I represent a number of users. We want to use unstable as a rolling distribution, but we don't want to run into every edge case. Testing doesn't update fast enough and doesn't have as good of security. There's no middle ground between absolute bleeding edge and the too conservative testing. I used to use unstable but there's that annoying race conditio…

https://www.slant.co/topics/6289/viewpoints/13/~rolling-rele...

>"Debian is available in three releases (stable, testing or unstable which can all be installed as a rolling release(by replacing the releases name(eg: stretch) with the code name(eg: testing)."

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#222

Post by hultner »

- HEADLINE: Run testing or unstable containers with ease on stable

- DESCRIPTION: I would absolutely love a well supported container system for running testing/unstable in a container. I feel that docker requires a lot upfront work with mixed results.

We often develop software using packages of the next debian version (such as Python 3.6) and these packages aren't always available in backports or otherwise outside of testing, in these cases it would be really nice to easily boot up this software in a container.

- DISTRIBUTION: stable

- ROLE/AFFILIATION: Lead Product Developer at Cetrez

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#223

Post by ptman »

rahiel wrote: post #68

HEADLINE: enable AppArmor by default DESCRIPTION: AppArmor improves security by limiting the capabilities of programs. Ubuntu has done this years ago [1]. I'd like to see profiles for web browsers enabled by default. I think AppArmor is the right choice of default Mandatory Access Control for Debian because Ubuntu and security focused Debian derivatives like Tails [2] and SubgraphOS [3] have already committed to it.…

Why not SELinux?

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#224

Post by justin_vanw »

- HEADLINE: Proper support for installations on GPT partitions

- DESCRIPTION: I have tried installing debian many times on various machines and have had huge trouble getting the install usb stick to boot properly (or in the end for the bootloader to install) with Debian. Ubuntu installs flawlessly on these machines.

- DISTRIBUTION: (Optional) [stable, testing, unstable, or even a Debian deriviative]

- ROLE/AFFILIATION: (Optional, your job role and affiliation)

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#225

Post by pja »

hultner wrote: post #222

- HEADLINE: Run testing or unstable containers with ease on stable - DESCRIPTION: I would absolutely love a well supported container system for running testing/unstable in a container. I feel that docker requires a lot upfront work with mixed results. We often develop software using packages of the next debian version (such as Python 3.6) and these packages aren't always available in backports or otherwise outside of…

I know it’s not as lightweight as a container system, but I’ve had quite good experiences on this front with virt-manager (and it’s associated command-line tools virsh, virt-install et al).

It’s straightforward to spin up fresh local virtual machines, and you get access to the full KVM infrastructure if you need it.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#226

Post by pja »

captainmuon wrote: post #218

HEADLINE: Keep selected packages up-to-date on stable DESCRIPTION: If you are using Debian, especially stable, you have to put up with outdated packages. This is especially a problem with browsers, although you do include security updates and track Firefox ESR, if I understand correctly. But things like Webkitgtk do not recieve updates, and lack feature and security wise after a while. I think keeping up-to-date vers…

This is supposed to be what backports is for, but it’s very much a volunteer effort. It would definitely be good to see the Debian project commit to supporting a set of leaf packages on a rolling basis in stable. Fragmenting the project in this way might just be too much work for the maintainers though. How many different Debian installs can you realistically support?

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#227

Post by coma_ »

HEADLINE: improve website/doc to ease install process

DESCRIPTION: installing Debian should be a straightforward process for average Joes and Jannes, that's not the case currently. The process to acquire the proper ISO and have it on a bootable USB stick/SD card is overly complicated (because the information is hidden, missing or incomplete).

As an average Joe, when you visit debian.org there is no obvious place to click to get the latest stable ISO. The default (in a tiny box in the upper right corner on the homepage) is a net-install ISO. net-install are sub-optimal for users who require special firmware for their network card (dvd-1 amd64 should be the default).

You should consider that the default install process for most desktop users will consist of installing Debian from a USB stick on an amd64 system. Once the the right ISO is properly put forward, you should provide clear and detailed info on how to properly transfer the ISO to the USB stick and make it bootable.

Etcher is a free/libre, cross-platform, user-friendly, straightforward GUI (over "dd" iirc) that takes care of the process of making a bootable drive. It should be promoted and made part of the install doc.

Same goes for SD-card installs, many single-board computer enthusiasts (who are not necessarily tech savvy) renounce trying to make a bootable SD card themselves and simply buy a pre-installed one. Simply because the information isn't provided in a straightforward fashion on Debian website and they are not offered with a relatively simple process .

no, using "dd" from the CLI isn't simple: as a Joe you must care about many concepts that are un-obvious (wait what does it mean "the volume is mounted" ? how do I unmount it ? how do I identify the proper volume ? fuck I unmounted the drive, it won't auto-mount anymore ! file-system ? what are you talking about ? MBR ? DOS-compat...)

ROLE/AFFILIATION: electronics engineer, based in Europe, involved in local initiatives to promote free software (LuGs, crypto parties, hacker spaces,...)

Thank you for your awesome work, I wouldn't be involved in promoting free/libre operating systems if it wasn't for Debian (a great community project that cares for users rights/freedoms and provides an overall simple desktop experience).

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#228

Post by coma_ »

gub09 wrote: post #148

HEADLINE: Consolidation of Documentation; Removal of Outdated Documentation DESCRIPTION: Any time you do a web search for anything regarding Debian, the search results include a huge amount of official but outdated information. Normally for Linux-related questions I refer to the amazing Arch wiki, but there are topics that are Debian-specific, and then sifting through all the detritus is a huge waste of time. There's…

Seconded.

One often has to rely on stackoverflow (and the likes) to get info because the doc/wiki is outdated.

That being said, the info provided on theses websites aren't necessarily correct.

There is for instance no clear, up-to-date, doc on how to install some packages from testing and keep them updated (pinning ? no pinning ? what values ? what sources ?)

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#229

Post by pbhjpbhj »

falcolas wrote: post #110
raverbashing wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python 2.7 being EOL at a future date means switching to Python 3 is needed

Perhaps then a better solution is just to remove the `/usr/bin/python` symlink, and make scripts be explicit in their dependency list. It would be a small change (that could be automated) in packages, and removes any confusion about what /usr/bin/python means.

Sounds like a dangerous precedent to start removing symlinks or otherwise not linking to the latest version? Is that just a foil to stand in for proper updates to other scripts and such.

Shouldn't instead scripts be updated either to be compatible with latest python or to specify the version they demand?

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to see in Debian 10 (“buster”)?

#230

Post by coma_ »

HEADLINE: better keychain integration/mechanism for handling PGP/SSH

DESCRIPTION: It would be great to have a central keychain where keys (SSH, PGP) could be unlocked on a sessions basis (think of a merge between gpg-agent [who wouldn't scream about being hijacked every other day] and ssh-agent [who wouldn't be shell-specific and able to handle multiple keys without having to manually :

> eval $(ssh-agent -s) > ssh-add /path/to/key1 > ssh-add /path/to/key2 > ...

])

As a desktop user, what I would like is, on a session basis, when I first provide the passphrase for a given key (when I ssh into a server from the CLI or decrypt a PGP encrypted email from Thunderbird [with enigmail] for instance) have a keychain securely unlock these keys for the duration of the session (that is, until I lock the screen, close the lid or log out).

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