[[!meta date="Thu Mar 7 11:12:49 2013"]]
[[!meta title="Tails report for February, 2013"]]

[[!toc levels=1]]

Releases
========

[[Tails 0.17|news/version_0.17]] was released on February 25th.

Metrics
=======

  - 99 275 connections of Tails to the Tor network. This makes a boot
    every 24 seconds on average (this number is an approximation from
    the requests made to the security announcements feed. The later is
    retrieved by Tails after being connected to Tor to eventually
    encourage users to update.)

  - 63 reports were received through WhisperBack.

  - 924 comments were posted on the forum, with 161 signed by Tails.

Code
====

  - Some progress has been done on a [[!tails_gitweb_branch
    feature/remember_installed_packages desc="persistence feature to
    packages installed with APT"]].

  - A workaround has been proposed to temper a [[!tails_gitweb_branch
    bugfix/less-aggressive-hard-disk-APM-on-AC desc="bug on APM handling
    of some hard disks"]] that could damage them. See [[!debbug
    684241]].

  - Two features that are known to be [[!tails_gitweb_branch
    bugfix/disable-flawed-Pidgin-features desc="flawed in Pidin, MXit
    and Sametime"]], have been disabled. See CVE-2013-0273,
    CVE-2013-0272 and CVE-2013-0271.

  - Shutdown and reboot launchers have been added to the menu to
    [[!tails_gitweb_branch bugfix/shutdown_with_camouflage desc="fix the
    lack of a shutdown helper applet in camouflage mode"]].

  - Some progress was made on [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/wheezy
    desc="Tails based on Wheezy"]].

  - The firmware loader for [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/gobi-loader
    desc="Qualcomm Gobi USB chipsets"]] was added to Tails 0.17.

  - Some work has been done on getting the [[!tails_gitweb_branch
    feature/torbrowser desc="Tails web browser"]] (now based on
    Iceweasel 17 ESR + Torbrowser patches) ready for Tails 0.17.

  - I2P was updated to [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/i2p-0.9.4
    desc="0.9.4"]].

  - We have tested [[Yama and AppArmor LSB
    stacking|todo/restrict_access_to_ptrace]] on Linux 3.7.8, and now
    plan to have Yama enabled by default in the Debian kernel.

Documentation and Website
=========================

  - The documentation on administration password was improved to be
    [[!tails_gitweb_branch doc/administration_password desc="clearer
    about opening a root terminal"]].

  - A branch was started to [[!tails_gitweb_branch doc/sort_the_forum
    desc="clean up the content of the forum"]].

  - The /bugs and /todo sections of the website [[!tails_gitweb_commit
    4332f98d370dfa2ca9e9e312823a56009e2ab0ca desc="will no longer be
    shipped"]] in the ISO images.

  - A link to check.torproject.org was added to the [[new default
    browser homepage|/news]], to reassure users landing on it.

  - The documentation on MAC Changer [[!tails_gitweb_commit
    0d9718dad2f9ef577015b26194e81053402a459e desc="has been corrected"]]
    to mention the fact that MAC addresses are sometimes sent over the
    Internet.

  - Some more browser [[!tails_gitweb_commit
    3e13999b6923ebfb3b25d7329ce0ce3d495ae63b desc="fingerprinting
    issues" where documented]].

  - Our [[income statement for 2012|doc/about/finances#index3h1]] was
    published.

  - The browser [[homepage|news]] was lightened a bit.

  - The [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/set-wireless-devices-state
    desc="design documentation"]] for
    [[todo/set_wireless_devices_state]] was written.


On-going discussions
====================

  - We have been debating on a [keyboard shortcut
    overlap](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-February/002610.html)
    between ALT+SHIFT+TAB that should change the window backward and
    ALT+SHIFT which is the usual shortcut for switching between keyboard
    layouts. That's particularly important for people switching between
    Latin and non-Latin keyboards.

  - There is now a [dedicated mailing
    list](https://mailman.boum.org/listinfo/mat-dev) for the development
    of the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit (MAT).

  - Runa's report on "Training Journalists in Istanbul" resulted in a
    few discussion threads regarding, among others:

    - [Autostarting
      Iceweasel](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-February/002652.html)
    - [The browser
      homepage](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-February/002651.html)
    - [Having an applet that informs about the version number of Tails
      and hiding the download button on the News
      page](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-February/002653.html)
    - [Disabling all Pidgin accounts by
      default](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-February/002654.html)

Infrastructure
==============

Quite some work was done on a new dedicated server of ours, called
lizard:

- Various stuff that's customary for a virtualization host, like
  a local APT proxy and a Puppet master, was setup.
- Our APT repository was [[migrated to
  lizard|todo/migrate_APT_repository_to_lizard]]. Our primary
  (private) rsync server,
  [[too|todo/migrate_primary_rsync_server_to_lizard]].
- We now [[todo/run_a_BitTorrent_seed_on_lizard]].
- We now [[todo/run_another_WhisperBack_relay_on_lizard]].
- We now run [[!debpkg bitcoind]] on lizard.
- Our Puppet modules are now hosted on lizard. Some are [[already
  publicly available|contribute/git]], but there's a bit of boring
  work left to [[publish the others|todo/publish_our_Puppet_modules]].
  We're happy to [share with nice
  people](https://labs.riseup.net/code/projects/sharedpuppetmodules)
  the development and maintenance of most of the modules we use.
- A VM was setup to run Jenkins, that should some day be an important
  part of [[todo/automated_builds_and_tests]].

Funding
=======

We have been working on starting our bounties program.
