Debian Package of the Day

flok writes "The Debian project has started a new webpage: the 'Debian package of the day.' It does what it says — every day another package from the Debian repository is posted with an elaborate description and some nice screenshots. As Debian (and all the other distributions as well) contains way too many packages for it to be feasible to inspect all of them yourself, this is then a nice way of learning about all kinds interesting software packages."

Not really official

Just to make things clear, this isn't an official Debian project webpage. The debian.net subdomains are available to Debian Developers to do their own thing, and occasionally sites will migrate from debian.net to debian.org, if they get accepted by the community as "official". Debian Planet [debian.org] started out this way, at least.

I'd better prefer package comparations

My "problem" with debian packages is not to find them (apt-cache makes quite a good job on it) but comparing "competing" packages, and I don't know about any resource on Debian on this.

Just an example: I don't mind about an explanation on how good apt-cacher is (a Debian package to cache access to Debian repositories), but it would be much better a side-to-side comparation among apt-cacher, apt-proxy and squid on repository-caching functions so I can use it to make my opinion for my environment.

package comparations - with debtags

Use debtags for that, e.g. you have vim:
$ apt-cache show vim | grep '^Tag:'
Tag: devel::editor, interface::text-mode, role::program, scope::application, uitoolkit::ncurses, use::editing, works-with::text

then you can search for packages with similar tags
$ debtags search '(works-with::text && use::editing && interface::text-mode)'

and, whoa, you get quite a lot of stuff, and the first entry, abiword-plugins, seems to be mistagged too :) - But the concept seems sound. IIRC debian also allows wiki-like editing of the tag-db somewhere.

HTH

P.S.: Yes, emacs is among the results:
emacs21 - The GNU Emacs editor
[..]
emacs21-nox - The GNU Emacs editor (without X support)
qemacs - Small emacs clone editor with HTML and DocBook editing support
xemacs21-bin - highly customizable text editor -- support binaries
zile - very small emacs-like editor

Try PopCon

Give the Debian Popularity Contest a shot. It's an opt-in thing that reports what packages you have installed back up to a central server, which then produces stats on the popularity of packages. This won't necessarily tell you what package is *better*, but it will tell you which one is more widely used (and hence probably more supported).

http://popcon.debian.org/ [debian.org]

Slasdotted ?

The "Debian package of the day" seems to be the "Slashdotted of the day"!

or...

You could bookmark the debian package-of-the-day page, or you could bookmark this freshmeat page, which takes you to a random project [freshmeat.net]. If you use other OSes in addition to Linux, the freshmeat one might be more useful. Freshmeat also has ratings, user comments, etc.

3..2...1...

Cue "my package is bigger than yours" jokes.

Oops!

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top o' the day

Bored? Looking to kill five minutes? Nothing new on the newsfeeds? Start here...:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/a*

I bet you don't know what half of those do. Go hit the man pages (or google up docs on anything your system for which you don't have the manual.) Rinse & repeat for b,c,.. I've been doing this for years & still find plenty of new stuff.

Re:top o' the day

This must be why so few people know about the xargs command...

Re:top o' the day

Okay, I'll give this a go... (Disclamer: I did this to learn unix a bit over a decade ago, so some stuff I'll have simply remembered).

a2p: Awk to perl. Converts an awk script to a perl script that does the same. Creates a poor script really.
a2ps used to be ascii2postscript, now anything to postscript. Generic converter.
aclocal Part of autoconf, handles checking where things are on the local machine (.pkginfo IIRC)
aclocal-1.9 Ditto for 1.9 (the latest version)
aconnect Dunno
acpi_fakekey Not sure :(
acpi_listen Monitor for ACPI events (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, which I know far too much due to owning a crap MB)
acpitool Send ACPI commands, query ACPI state
acroread Yeah, I still have acrobat - kpdf doesn't have rotate yet
activation-client Dunno
adddebug Dunno
addftinfo Dunno
addr2line Dunno
adept Nice gui for apt.
adept_batch Backend adept uses to do the commands
adept_installer Backend adept uses to install packages, has a gui
adept_notifier The little widget that goes on your kicker
adept_updater Runs aptitude update
afmdiff.awk Adobe Fount Manager no doubt, but dunno
afmtodit Used by TeX somewhere, font conversion no doubt
akode-config Replacement for ARTS I think
akodeplay See above, does the playing
akregator Really Simple Syndication for KDE
alistat Dunno
alsamixer Does both HW and SW mixing, can be compiled to have a GUI but normally curses
amarok Great music interface
amarokapp The actual binary (don't run gdb against amark, use amarkapp instead...)
amarok_daapserver.rb provides data for itunes clients
amarok_proxy.rb Dunno, though the name gives a strong hint...
amidi From the alsa toolsuite, never needed to use it but no doubt is alsa's interface to MIDI devices
amixer See above, I prefer alsamixer
amor An Amusing Misuse Of Resources. Hadn't realised this was still installed. Puts a silly smiley on windows
animate Dunno
annotate-output Dunno
ant Apache/Jakata. Build system. Supposed to be quite good
anytopnm Convert any image to pnm, uses imagemagick
aplay Alsa player
aplaymidi See above, for .mid
apm Old version of ACPI, this command much like acpitool
apm_available As above, check features MB supports.
apmount Not sure
apmsleep can be sent using apm, but some people might forget the difference between S1 and S3 I suppose
apogee_ppi Dunno
appletproxy Dunno, probably java
appletviewer Ancient java program, not used much since doesn't get used for apps any more.
appres Not sure
apr-config Apache Portable Runtime?
apropos One of the misunderstood and misprounced english words. In this context, much like in LISP, it searches help by keword.
apt A Packaging Tool.
apt-cache Caches dpkgs and Package.gz
apt-cdrom APT method for reading off CDroms (as opposed to normal people, who read off HTTP)
apt-config Query apt from a script for how it is installed
apt-extracttemplates One of apt's internal tools, puls out the 'what this package does'
apt-ftparchive Not sure, probably for reading ftp:// [ftp]
apt-get Get the stuff
aptitude Nice replacement for APT
apt-key GPG key management for APT.
apt-sortpkgs Internal apt tool, I've only seen it used to present lists in alphabetical order but I'm sure it has more features.
apu-config Dunno, sounds familiar.
ar Arrrrr, tar hasn't taken over the world yet... We still have ranlib!
archpath Dunno
arecord alsa recording features
arecordmidi See above
ark KDE archiver. Uses tar rather than ar (I think).
arm2hpdl Dunno
arping Address resolution protocol, look up a host and check it is online/available
artsbuilder clearly ARTS related, but I can't remember exactly what this one does.
artscat See above
artsc-config For checking arts' install state from a script
artscontrol Mute, vol, etc.
artsd The main Adaptive Real Time Synthesiser Daemon

I know what this is....

This is an attempt to make the most boring distro on earth slightly less boring! ;)

(I kid, I kid! I like Debian.)

Screenshots for all packages? ;-)

I mean, how would one make a screenshot from the commandline program "screen" ? Its an invaluable tool, tucked away in its own package, and the only way to know that you're using it is using the magical ^AW keycombination. I'd like to seem them making a screenshot out of that :-)

Just a thought...

This may go a long way to help people finding those little applications (or large applications :) ) that you don't know exist and don't know you need until you stumble across them. You know, the ones you find out about from someone in IRC or on a random blog or forum, usually out of context and often without knowing how the application name is spelled or what package would provide it... yakuake anyone? - or am I just slow on the uptake...).

Now if someone where to be really clever then they would integrate this site into a nice gui package manager and make it available with Ubuntu, or any of the other distro's aimed at new Linux users. It would be nice to get some additional info (screen shots etc..) above and beyond the descriptions that are normally availale when using apt. -- if its already been done then excuse me for not having come across it yet.

I hope this isn't totally random

Otherwise you'll be getting something like:

liborbit-dev

ORBit is a lightweight CORBA ORB designed for use with the Gnome project. (Nothing about it requires Gnome, though.)
This package contains the headers and static libraries used for developing ORBit-based applications. It also contains the IDL compiler needed to import object definitions into your C programs.

Whoa, sexy!

idea for enhancement

Along with the package of the day, put a "similar packages" list of links.

-fragbait

Not quite new

May this "new" project be a reincarnation of this site: http://debaday.livejournal.com/ [livejournal.com] ? [I've stumbled across this when i wanted to add the feed and wondered that my liferea examples already contained a "Debian Package a Day" feed :)]

If it is, the question will be: Why did it die back in 2004 (the last article is dated Nov. 15, 2004)? I guess it suffered from not enough people actually adding reviews of packages. As this article http://debaday.debian.net/2007/02/15/we-need-your- help-now/ [debian.net] suggest, the new (old?) maintainers are still worried about this problem.

Let's see how long it'll be alive this time.

My Recommendation for Today

My recommendation for today is tzdata [debian.org] - I upgraded/installed this on several servers today to address the DST issue. Apparently it used to be part of the libc package in sarge, so you might look at updating that instead if you're a die-hard sarge user.

Another, analogous effort

Disclamer: I made the following, so this post is technically self-promotion.

(Another Unofficial) Debian Package of The Day (updated hourly) [redsymbol.net]

This verion ("POTH" - Package of the Hour) differs from the article feature ("DEBADAY"), in that it is fully automated (subject to some filters for interestingness; libraries, -dev packages, etc. are filtered out.) DEBADAY produces deeper and more interesting descriptions, since they are written by humans. POTH is done by a software agent, so it has greater breadth. It covers more packages, and also crosslinks them to popularity contest data, etc.

idea for distributions

What distributions should do is add a "software of the day" screen which automatically when you login show you, well, what this webpage does.
But then served from local disk or so.

gentoo-portage

Although I applaud their effort to showcase less prominent linux software, they could have worked off of an existing linux software database: gentoo-portage.com [gentoo-portage.com]. It doesn't have the "package-a-day" feature, but it does have short descriptions for each package and uses a wiki-style CMS in that it allows users to upload screenshots related to a given application. Also, the gentoo package repository is more diverse than that of debian's (owing to its package management system being source-based), so I'm sure most of the debian packages are already there.

Ultimately, I feel this serves its function well as a feature that sheds light on the more obscure, but not necessarily less useful, programs.

same problem w/ a godaddy site

I've been having ongoing problems all day trying to access engrade.com - which is hosted by godaddy.com. I initially thought it was an my DNS server's problem (opendns.com) but now that I read this I guess it's godaddy. Can this really be related to DLS? I live in Colombia now and we don't change our clock ever ;)

Quake terminal!

Yakuake, I think it's called, maybe the third one down.

This looks decidedly cool. All those people who are used to hitting tilde to get under the hood of their FPS and cheat, or just tweak stuff (admin_slap even)... Well, now they understand. Commandline is cheats for Linux!

Re:OMG

Bug reports are actually sent to bugs.debian.org [debian.org]
ATM there's only 72 rc-bugs to be squashed before Etch will be ready (Debian-installer rc2 will be out soon too). Soon enough the most stable Linux distribution ever is released. Thanks to all debian developers around the world.