[[!meta date="Thu Apr 4 11:12:49 2013"]]
[[!meta title="Tails report for March, 2013"]]

[[!toc levels=1]]

Releases
========

Tails 0.17.1 [[was released|news/version_0.17.1]] on March 23rd.

Metrics
=======

  - 115 798 connections of Tails to the Tor network. This makes a boot
    every 23 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.)

  - 75 reports were received through WhisperBack.

  - 756 comments were posted on the forum, with 185 signed by Tails.

Code
====

- Some progress has been done on a feature to
  [[todo/remember_installed_packages]] ([[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/remember_installed_packages desc="Git branch"]]).

- A [[todo/about_Tails_launcher]] was [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/about_tails desc="drafted"]], following-up on some feedback
  from Runa's "Training Journalists in Istanbul report.

- The Indymedia IRC account [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/disable-indymedia-irc-account desc="was removed"]].

- Bugs and todo pages are not shipped any more in ISO images.

- Some work [[!tails_gitweb_branch bugfix/writable_boot_media
  desc="was started"]] to [[make the system disk
  read-only|todo/make_system_disk_read-only]] (which was supposedly
  fixed months ago, but apparently it either was not, or there was
  a regression).

- Awesome progress [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/automated_tests/cucumber desc="was made"]] to [[automate
  our test suite|todo/automated_builds_and_tests]] with
  [[Cucumber|todo/automated_builds_and_tests/cucumber]].

- We [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/workaround-non-installable-xorg-backport desc="worked
  around"]] an unfortunate regression caused by the [integration of
  Debian backports into the main
  archive](http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130320).

- NoScript's HTML5 media click-to-play [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/no-html5-click-to-play desc="was disabled"]].

- udisks users (GNOME Disk Utility, tails-persistence-setup, etc.)
  won't reset the system partition's attributes when manipulating the
  partition table [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/udisks-do-not-make-Tails-USB-unbootable desc="anymore"]].

- More reliable OpenPGP keyservers [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/use-more-reliable-keyserver desc="were configured"]].

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

- A *Tor check* link [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/are_you_using_tor_link desc="was added"]] to the [[web
  browser homepage|news]]. This link hides the "Download Tails 0.17.1"
  one, so it should both help people who want to do this check every
  time they boot Tails, and clear up some confusion reported by Runa
  about "oh, is this a new version available, should I update?"

- The reintroduction of hybrid ISO images to simplify Mac USB boot was
  [worked on](https://github.com/kolohe/amnesia/tree/manual_usb_installation/mac).

- The AutoType feature of KeePassX [[has been
  documented|/doc/encryption_and_privacy/manage_passwords#index4h1]] to
  allow pasting complex passwords into Pinentry.

Translation
===========

- Tails USB installer: update translations for French, German, Spanish,
  Finnish, Greek, Italian, Latvian, Dutch, Polish and Chinese.

- Tails Greeter: update translations for Farsi, Chinese, French;
  new translations: Finnish, Norwegian Bokmål, Galician.

- tails-persistence-setup: update Farsi and Chinese translations;
  import new translations for Finnish and Swedish.

- WhisperBack: update translations for Arabic, French, German, Greek,
  Spanish, Korean, Polish, Russian. New translations: Finnish, Chinese.

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

- Some discussions triggered by Runa's "Training Journalists in
  Istanbul" report [went
  on](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/thread.html).

- Some discussion [was
  triggered](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002709.html)
  by a proposed branch that fixes how some buggy hard drives don't
  well the Tails APM settings.

- We [have
  discussed](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002716.html)
  if and how to better deal, at Tails upgrade time, with the situation
  when the user has added random files on the Tails system partition
  (which is not supported).

- Some discussions about
  [potentially](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002747.html)
  supported
  [hardware](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002748.html) happened.

- A [discussion about the process to contribute to the
  documentation](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002751.html)
  clarified why the current process works the way it does, and
  resulted in a good compromise to be found.

- We [started
  discussing](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002813.html)
  with GDM developers if and how they intend to support the custom
  greeter usecase that we depend on.

- We
  [decided](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-March/002794.html)
  not to include a text web browser in Tails.

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

- Some work was put into foundations we need to set up Jenkins for our
  needs, mainly on the Puppet modules side (e.g. code for safely
  installing Jenkins plugins from the web, an improved Puppet module
  to manage Jenkins).

- A VM to automatically build Tails was created, and the Puppet code
  that describes its initial setup was written.

- We have setup a Debian package builder based on
  [debomatic](https://launchpad.net/debomatic). It still has some
  rough edges, but seems to basically do its job.

- The nice folks at [immerda](https://www.immerda.ch/) have setup most
  of what's needed to host all our Git repositories in the same place,
  in a way that makes it convenient for us to create new repositories,
  manage access to it, and reintroduce IRC commit notifications.
  Thanks!

Funding
=======

- Tails now [[accepts Bitcoin donations|donate]].

- We will soon close the budget for our bounties program. Teaser:
  a handful of great programs, that are useful to Tails, will see some
  bonus activity in the next few months!

- We have filed a grant application that answers Sponsor Echo's call
  for proposals.
