samba - Mar 2008 - ctdb now in Debian lenny - samba-related packages in Debian

Thanks to the efforts of Mathieu Parent, ctdb is now available in
the testing branch of Debian, which represents the future version of
Debian, codename "lenny", due out "at the end of the year"
(you know
the drill about Debian releases, right?).


This is a good opportunity to mention the efforts of the Debian Samba
packaging team who does not only package samba in Debian (and Ubuntu).

Packages we currently have in Debian testing and unstable:
- samba 3.0.28 (3.0.28a RSN) : maintained by Steve Langasek and /me
                               with help by No?l K?the, Peter
                               Eisentraut and Eloy Paris
- ldb 0.9.2~git20080122    ? : maintained by Jelmer Vernooij
- talloc 1.1.0~svn26291-1  ? :         "
- tdb 1.1.1~svn26294-1     ? :         "
- ctdb 1.0.28+git200802191444: maitnained by Mathieu Parent


Packages we currently have in Debian experimental:
- samba 3.2.0-pre1         ?: same maintainers than 3.0.28

Packages being prepared:
- openchange               ?: work by Jelmer Vernooij
- samba4                   ?: work by Jelmer vernooij

Packages stalled:
- samba4wins               ?: from discussions I had last year at SambaXP

Please note that, contrary to a very popular belief, one does not need
to be an official Debian Developer, granted after months|years of
suffering in the New Maintainer Queue, to maintain Debian
packages. Jelmer is not a DD (yet, IIRC) and Mathieu is not either.

Also note that any (good) work done on packaging software for Debian
also ends up in Ubuntu, which may decide some potential contributors,
in these days where the hype seems to lie there..:-)...And, again,
contrary to a very popular belief, collaboration is smart and
efficient. Having the Ubuntu Hardy release manager in the team
probably helps...

I hope this mail bringed some useful information to some of you and I
secretely hope it will bring us mor econtributors..:-)