news/2011-q3: Make a pass over it and finalize.

1 files changed, 94 insertions, 106 deletions

diff --git a/news/2011-q3.mdwn b/news/2011-q3.mdwn
index de7b869b..c1a78319 100644
--- a/news/2011-q3.mdwn
+++ b/news/2011-q3.mdwn
@@ -8,14 +8,10 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
 License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-<!-- Date when the news item is (to be) pulished (important for RSS feeds).
-Will be set by tschwinge when publishing.
-[[!meta date="YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC"]]
--->
+[[!meta date="2011-11-17 14:15 UTC"]]
 
-<!-- This is just a skeleton.  Use it to create a new MotH.  -->
-
-A quarter of the Hurd: *Arch with DDE*, *Debian boxes*, *GHM talk*, *GNU Mach fixes* and *GSoC: Java*.
+A quarter of the Hurd: *Arch Hurd with DDE*, *Debian boxes*, *GHM talk* and
+*GSoC: Java*.
 [[!if test="included()" then="""[[!toggle id=full_news
 text="Details."]][[!toggleable id=full_news text="[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]"""
 else="
@@ -23,106 +19,98 @@ else="
 
 [[!cut id="full_news" text="""
 
-<!--basic structure of a MotH entry. Adapt, reduce and add points as needed. At the end, try to make the text flow as a unified whole.-->
-
-In the third quarter of 2011, the Arch Hurd Hackers [packaged DDE](http://www.archhurd.org/news/22/),
-so a subset of Linux 2.6 drivers can now be compiled on Arch Hurd to
-run in userspace. At the time of writing it supports network cards,
-while other driver-types still need their interfaces ported. Also they
-had
-[a booth at FrOSCon](http://www.froscon.de/en/exhibitors/projekte.html)
-and
-[released a new Arch Hurd LiveCD](http://www.archhurd.org/news/24/),
-so new users can easily test the current state of the Arch flavor of
-the Hurd.
-
-Also Richard Braun contributed new Debian and KVM-based
-[[buildd,_porterbox_and_public_box|public_hurd_boxen]], making it
-easier to test the Hurd without much setup as well as improving debian
-packaging.
-
-Samuel Thibault wrote a new
-[Bits from the Debian GNU/Hurd porters](http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/07/msg00002.html)
-to keep the Debian Folks up to date with the results of our work. And
-these are quite good: Thanks to the relentless work of our porters,
-you can now use
-[70% of debian packages with the Hurd](https://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph-big.png),
-so we’re coming closer towards
-[getting Hurd into Debian as a release arch](http://wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/Hurd). If
-you can port debian packages and want to help the Hurd, this is the
-perfect time to get in contact and
-[port your favorite missing package](http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-devel-debian)
-to the Hurd.
-
-A different type of status update was delivered by Samuel Thibault on
-the GNU Hacker Meeting (GHM). Since the videos and slides from the GNU
-Hacker Meeting 2011 in Paris are
-[online](http://www.gnu.org/ghm/2011/paris/), now, we hope you enjoy
-his talk on
-[GNU/Hurd, aka. Extensibility from the Ground (video)](http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/ghm2011/Samuel_Thibault-GNU_Hurd.ogv)
-([slides](http://www.gnu.org/ghm/2011/paris/slides/samuel-thibault-hurd.pdf)). He
-explains nicely how the simple concept of translators gives power to
-non-priviledged and casual users (once we get some of these :) )
-without security implications, and how Sub-Hurds and Neighbor-Hurds
-compare to Linux containers.
-
-    “It’s all about freedom #0”
-
-On the technical side, Thomas Schwinge improved the technical
-documentation of the [[hurd/io_path]] in translators to make it easier
-for new developers to start hacking and Guillem Jover, Fridolin
-Pokorny and Jonathan Neuschäfer
+In the third quarter of 2011, the Arch Hurd hackers [packaged DDE (Device
+Driver Environment)](http://www.archhurd.org/news/22/), so a subset of the
+Linux 2.6 device drivers can now easily be run as user-space processes on Arch
+Hurd, replacing GNU Mach's in-kernel device drivers.  (This has been possible
+before, too, but involved several [[manual steps|hurd/dde/guide]].)  At the
+time of writing, our DDE port supports several network cards, while for other
+driver types we will need to add further generic infrastructure.  Also, Arch
+Hurd had [a booth at
+FrOSCon](http://www.froscon.de/en/exhibitors/projekte.html#c1413) and [released
+a new Arch Hurd LiveCD](http://www.archhurd.org/news/24/), so new users can
+easily test the current state of the Arch flavor of the Hurd.
+
+Richard Braun contributed additional GNU Hurd instances: [[a *Debian buildd*, a
+*Debian porterbox*, and a *public Hurd box*|public_hurd_boxen]].  Especially
+the last one is important for *you*: after requesting an account, you can use
+it to test the Hurd without any own setup.
+
+Samuel Thibault sent a new [Bits from the Debian GNU/Hurd
+porters](http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/07/msg00002.html)
+to keep the Debian folks up to date with our progres.  And it is quite good:
+thanks to the relentless work of our porters, you can now use [70 % of all
+Debian packages with the Hurd](https://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph-big.png),
+so we're getting closer to [the goal of finishing a Release Canditate in time
+for Debian Wheezy](http://wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/Hurd).  If you can, for
+example, port Debian packages and want to help the Hurd, this is the perfect
+time to get in contact and [port your favorite missing
+package](http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-devel-debian) to the Hurd.
+
+A different kind of status update was delivered by Samuel Thibault on the [[GNU
+Hacker Meeting (GHM) in Paris|community/meetings/ghm2011]].  We hope you enjoy
+watching the video of the {{$community/meetings/ghm2011#thibault_hurd}}.  He
+nicely explains how the simple yet powerful concept of a [[hurd/translator]]
+gives power to a system's less-priviledged users (that is, without `root`
+access), without any security implications, and how [[hurd/subhurd]]s and
+[[hurd/neighborhurd]]s compare to Linux containers.  *It's all about [freedom
+0](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)*.
+
+On the technical side, Thomas Schwinge improved the technical documentation of
+the [[I/O path|hurd/io_path]] when translators are involved, to make it easier
+for new developers to understand how all the different system components
+interact.  Amongst others, Guillem Jover, Fridolín Pokorný and Jonathan
+Neuschäfer
 [sent](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-08/msg00184.html)
 [many](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-08/msg00093.html)
-[patches](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-08/msg00030.html)
-for GNU Mach, improving stability, fixing memory leaks and cleaning up
-code.
-
-Additionally Maksym Planeta replaced GNU Mach’s old zone memory
-allocator with the new slab allocator from Richard Braun
-([integration commit](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/gnumach.git/commit/?id=50d073c5ef0feb1676606d0068abf626e8297cd7)),
-which should waste less memory than the zone allocator. Also it has a
-cpu cache level, so it should work faster on SMP systems, once we get
-up do date SMP CPU drivers for GNU Mach. It is now being integrated.
-
-And last but definitely not least, Jeremie Koenig finished his Google
-Summer of Code project to
-[Improve Java on Hurd](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/user/jkoenig/java.html). He
-[improved the Hurd signalling](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-06/msg00073.html),
-ported OpenJDK and created a
-[Java Hurd-Library](https://github.com/jeremie-koenig/hurd-java) which
-already allows writing a
-[Hello World translator in Java](https://github.com/jeremie-koenig/hurd-java/blob/master/HelloMach.java). It
-is still pretty low-level, but it paves the way for extending the core
-of the Hurd with Java, which gets the count of supported languages to
-3:
-[C(++)](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.html#An-Example-using-trivfs),
-[[common_lisp|user/flaviocruz]] and Java.
-
-So if you want to help get the Hurd into Debian as a full release arch,
-so the power to the Hurd gives to casual users can actually get into
-the Hands of these, or dig dig deep into DDE to have more Linux
-drivers running in Userspace, please [[get_in_contact|contact_us]] -
-and maybe grab [[our_source_repos|source_repositories]].
-
-------
-
-The **GNU Hurd** is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel.
-It is a collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to
-implement file systems, network protocols, file access control, and
-other features that are implemented by the Unix kernel or similar
-kernels (such as Linux).  
-[[More_detailed|hurd/documentation]].
-
-**GNU Mach** is the microkernel upon which GNU Hurd is based. It
-offers Inter Process Communication (IPC) which the Hurd uses to define
-interfaces for implementing the services an operating system needs
-from a full-featured kernel.  
-[[Read_more|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]
-
-<!--see [[contributing/web_pages/news/writing_the_moth]] for additional information on writing the MotH.-->
-
-<!--  * [[toolchain/ELFOSABI_GNU]]-->
-
+[patches](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-08/msg00030.html) for
+GNU Mach, improving stability, fixing memory leaks and generally cleaning up
+the code.
+
+Maksym Planeta finished a project he has been doing as a university task:
+replace GNU Mach's old zone memory allocator with a new [[!wikipedia
+slab_allocation desc="slab allocator"]] written by Richard Braun, who also
+mentored Maksym during the project.  [This
+allocator](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/gnumach.git/commit/?h=mplaneta/libbraunr/master&id=59c9da87375ad3c8401890ecd4f7f101093f2463),
+apart from being overally cleaner than the zone allocator, is meant to waste
+less memory than the zone allocator (less fragmentation and more memory can be
+reclaimed by the VM system), there are debugging/inspection features, and it's
+SPM-ready, thus readily usable once we get up-do-date SMP support in GNU Mach.
+It is now being tested and integrated.
+
+And last but definitely not least, Jérémie Koenig finished his Google Summer of
+Code project to [[improve Java support on GNU Hurd|user/jkoenig/java]].  All in
+all, he also [improved the Hurd signalling
+code](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2011-06/msg00073.html), ported
+OpenJDK and began designing and creating a [library for Java bindings for Mach
+and Hurd](https://github.com/jeremie-koenig/hurd-java) which already allows
+writing a [Hello World translator in
+Java](https://github.com/jeremie-koenig/hurd-java/blob/master/HelloMach.java).
+It is still pretty low-level, but it paves the way for extending the core of
+the Hurd with Java, which is one of the benefits of the Hurd's distributed
+multi-server architecture: different components of the operating system can be
+written in different programming languages; not just
+[C](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.html#An-Example-using-trivfs),
+but also C++, [[Common Lisp|user/flaviocruz]], and now Java -- and more to
+come.
+
+So if you want to help getting the Debian GNU/Hurd Release Candidate done, or
+want to dig deep into DDE to have more device drivers running as user-space
+processes, please [[get in contact|contact_us]] -- and maybe already grab the
+[[source code|source_repositories]].
+
+---
+
+The **GNU Hurd** is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel.  It is a
+collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file
+systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are
+implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux).  [[More
+detailed|hurd/documentation]].
+
+**GNU Mach** is the microkernel upon which a GNU Hurd system is based.  It
+provides an Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism that the Hurd uses to
+define interfaces for implementing in a distributed multi-server fashion the
+services a traditional operating system kernel provides.  [[More
+detailed|microkernel/mach/gnumach]].
 
 """]]