[[!meta date="Fri Sep 6 09:09:39 2013"]]
[[!meta title="Tails report for August, 2013"]]

[[!toc levels=1]]

Releases
========

Tails 0.20 [[was released|news/version_0.20]] on the 9th of August.
Tails 0.20.1 release is
[scheduled](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003502.html)
for September 19.

Metrics
=======

- 190 521 connections of Tails to the Tor network. This makes a boot
  every 14 seconds on average. This is an approximation from the
  requests made to the security announcements feed when Tails is
  connected to Tor.

- 93 non-empty bug reports were received through WhisperBack.

- 57 222 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO from
  our website.

Code
====

- A new contributor (a.kuckartz) has started to debug what appears to
  be incompatibilities between our Vagrant setup and the current state
  of Debian unstable ([[!tails_ticket 6221]]).

- Some initial steps [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/fix_virtualbox_dkms_build desc="were taken"]] to get
  VirtualBox guest modules back ([[!tails_ticket 5972]]).

- A branch to [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/unmount-persistent-volume-on-shutdown desc="properly umount
  the persistent volume on shutdown"]] was prepared. Thanks to Steven
  J. Murdoch for the [[!tails_ticket 6228 desc="useful bug report"]].

- The additional software upgrade notification failure message
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/additional-software-upgrade-failed-message desc="now points
  the user to the system log"]] so that they have a chance to debug it
  ([[!tails_ticket 6211]]).

- The I2P IRC network preset in Pidgin [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/i2p-irc-in-pidgin desc="was corrected"]].

- Some initial work to [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/consistent-peristence-path desc="have a consistent
  persistence path"]] was done ([[!tails_ticket 5854]]).

- Some sanity checks in our test suite [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  test/fix-iso-reporting desc="were fixed"]].
  Another [[!tails_gitweb_branch test/firewall-check-tag desc="set of
  test suite improvements"]] has seen progress.

- Starting with Tails 0.20.1, bug reports sent with WhisperBack will
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/tails-bugs desc="be sent to
  a dedicated (encrypted) mailing list"]].

- GnuPG now [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/GnuPG-no-emit-version
  desc="uses --no-emit-version"]].

- Switch to [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/linux-3.10-2 desc="Linux
  3.10-2"]] from Debian unstable.

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

- A new contributor (Vigdis) posted drafts to [document why Tor is
  slow](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003421.html)
  and [update the persistence path in the
  documentation](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/vigdis/tails/log/?h=doc/update-persistence-path).
  Congrats! ([[!tails_ticket 5641]])

- A new contributor (carmie) proposed [logo
  ideas](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003382.html)
  ([[!tails_ticket 5797]]). Thanks!

- The installation documentation [[!tails_gitweb_commit
  91b796c9180b26cc22460c62e2fe3dfbafce4d95 desc="was improved"]] to
  mention USB sticks and SD card adapters with read-only switches.
  Some [[!tails_gitweb_commit 5fb52dfaed1fcd2dd40b4b93bcb5dd38bba32573
  desc="style improvements"]] were done too.

- The website now [[advertises|about]] the use of Tails as
  a censorship circumvention tool, too.

- A workaround to verify ISO integrity on other operating systems
  [[!tails_gitweb_commit 91efa6597619e156fc764caece9a52c7f5c5624a
  desc="was documented"]].

- The manual USB installation documentation [[!tails_gitweb_commit
  58c80f43dc48c610bc847d12400b610e8fb0adfc desc="now recommends"]]
  using `dd` instead of `cat` (so that those who need it can easily
  prefix it with `sudo`).

- A revised cold-boot attack documentation [was
  drafted](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/mercedes508/tails/log/?h=doc/cold-boot-attack)
  and [proposed for
  review](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003427.html).

- The shiny new tails-support mailing list [[was documented|support]].

- The [[news]] page now has a form to subscribe to amnesia-news and
  mentions Twitter.

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

- We [further
  discussed](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003367.html)
  carmie's
  [proposals](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-July/003339.html)
  to [[!tails_ticket 6165 desc="improve the visibility of links"]] on
  top of the contribute page.

- Jacob Appelbaum [started
  a discussion](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003393.html)
  about Tahoe-LAFS, Tor and Tails. It should now be clear what kind of
  work is needed to make some integration possible.

- It was
  [suggested](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003468.html)
  to tweak the GnuPG configuration in various ways.

- We
  [discussed](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003492.html)
  how to handle divergence of bundled packages due to point-releases.

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

- To make our infrastructure more reliable, we are still
  [[!tails_ticket 6185 desc="organizing to get a system"]] that will
  act as a fail-over for our main server.

- We better shared access to the round-robin DNS that gathers our HTTP
  mirrors. (Many thanks to those who host the mirrors, by the way!)

- We created a bunch of [sysadmin
  tickets](https://labs.riseup.net/code/projects/tails/issues?query_id=113)
  as a step towards being able to ask for help in this area first, and
  towards being able to actually share the work with the volunteers
  that will show up once we have sent our call for help. Stay tuned!

Funding
=======

- The short-term funding project we have with sponsor Bravo is still
  slowly going through the paperwork stage.

- The bounties program is moving forward (slower than we may have
  hoped, but still).

- We keep working on a funding proposal to be sent to sponsor Foxtrot.
