From: tille@debian.org   
      
   Dear Debian community,   
      
   This is bits from the DPL for August.   
      
   Debian Birthday parties and new release cycle   
   =============================================   
      
   Although I'm almost completely disconnected from my city's local user   
   group (which is rather small, just like the city itself), I was   
   invited to a nice barbecue. I joined the party together with Debian   
   enthusiasts from Taiwan who were staying at my place, which turned the   
   gathering into an international one. Meeting Debian people always   
   means encountering interesting individuals with fascinating user   
   experiences. I hope you all enjoyed the parties - not only celebrating   
   the birthday, but also the release.   
      
   The start of the new release cycle is clearly visible in the activity of   
   our contributors. In a mail to the debian-devel list in January [d01],   
   we counted 2930 packages not maintained on Salsa. By the end of August,   
   that number had dropped to 1994. Uploading packages after the freeze has   
   brought back all the fun, and many teams have now completed their   
   migration from Alioth to Salsa, even announcing it in the Vcs fields.   
      
   [d01] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2025/01/msg00128.html   
      
      
   Open Source Summit Europe in Amsterdam   
   ======================================   
      
   At the end of August, I had a business trip to the Open Source Summit   
   Europe[a01], one of the major gatherings where companies, foundations,   
   and communities involved with Free and Open Source Software meet. The   
   event brought together a wide range of participants, with topics   
   spanning from kernel development to emerging application domains.   
      
   One observation I took away is the central role that Yocto Linux plays   
   in many industrial and embedded setups. Yocto is widely used as a base   
   to build tailored systems, while Debian is more often the choice for   
   general-purpose environments. Still, there is room for Debian to deepen   
   its involvement in adjacent fields - for example by ensuring smooth   
   integration paths, or by providing more ready-to-use building blocks for   
   these use cases.   
      
   Another area that received visible attention was robotics. A number of   
   sessions and discussions highlighted robotics as a growing field with   
   high relevance for open source. I also realized that the work of the   
   Debian Science team, who maintain many of the packages used in robotics,   
   is still widely unknown. I'd like to use this chance to point to the   
   robotics task[a02] and the robotics development task[a03]. With the   
   new feature in the installer that allows selecting Blends, these tasks   
   may hopefully become more visible to newcomers.   
      
   In short, Debian already provides important tools from the software   
   stack that robotics projects rely on. Investing more in this   
   direction - whether through packaging, integration, or outreach - could   
   strengthen Debian's position and visibility in a field that is both   
   technically exciting and socially relevant.   
      
   A central role in the robotics ecosystem is played by the Robot   
   Operating System (ROS). ROS has become a de facto standard for research   
   and development in robotics, and Debian already provides many of the   
   core packages and dependencies that ROS builds upon. Continued packaging   
   work and collaboration with the ROS community can further reinforce   
   Debian as a natural platform for robotics projects, bridging the gap   
   between research prototypes and production systems.   
      
   [a01] https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe/   
   [a02] https://blends.debian.org/science/tasks/robotics   
   [a03] https://blends.debian.org/science/tasks/robotics-dev   
      
      
   Kind regards   
       Andreas.   
      
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