[tor-reports] Tails report for November, 2013

[Tails folks]

Metrics
=======

- Tails has been started more than 205 802 times in November.
  This make 6 860 boots a day in average.
- 6 270 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO.
- 80 reports were received through WhisperBack.

Code
====

Some of the newest contributors were particularly active this month:

- We have a new and active maintainer for I2P in Tails. Big up to Kytv!
So I2P was updated to 0.9.8.1, and the I2P configuration and integration
was improved in several ways.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature%2Fi2p%2D0%2E9%2E8%2E1

- SCIM was replaced by IBus as input method to fix internationalization
issues in Tails Greeter (Closes 6206). Thanks to WinterFairy!

http://git.tails.boum.org/winterfairy/tails/log/?h=bugfix/ibus
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6206

- Kevin C. Krinke has been actively working on a replacement of the
clock with configurable timezone. Many thanks!

http://kevin.c.krinke.ca/builds/tailsclock

- A script has been written to automate the importation process of
completed translations from Transifex. Thanks to WinterFairy!

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature%2Fimport%2Dtranslations

- The keyboard selection for some languages in Tails Greeter was fixed.
Closes 5741. Again thanks to WinterFairy!

http://git.tails.boum.org/greeter/log/?h=bugfix/5469-default-country-and-translation
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5741

We kept on working on some major features, some are about to be released:

- The real-world deployment of incremental updates has been made ready
for beta testing and will be the default way to upgrade Tails, on
point-releases at least.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature%2Fincremental%2Dupgrades

- The second round of upgrade towards a safer persistence was prepared.

- A lot of work has been done towards MAC spoofing. See the latest of
our design.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature%2Fspoof%2Dmac
https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/macchanger/

- The migration to Firefox 24 and Torbutton 1.6 was completed (Closes
6370 and 6371).

https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6370
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6371

Regarding security:

- The serious security upgrade to NSS 3.15.3 was prepared but we
unfortunately didn't have time to make a point release just for that.
See CVE-2013-1741, CVE-2013-5605 and CVE-2013-5606.

- More IP and MAC addresses are sanitized in WhisperBack reports (Closes
6391).

https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6391

Regarding user experience:

- DPMS screen blanking has been disabled (Closes 5617).

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix%2Fdisable%2Ddpms
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5617

- The default system partition size is now 2.5GB.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature%2Fbigger%2Dsystem%2Dpartition

- The bug that prevented Vidalia to show up sometimes was fixed.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix%2Fvidalia%5Ffails%5Fto%5Fstart

And also:

- Tails now have its own shell and perl libraries where we factorize
some of our code.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/plain/config%2Fchroot%5Flocal%2Dincludes%2Fusr%2Flocal%2Flib%2Ftails%2Dshell%2Dlibrary
https://git-tails.immerda.ch/perl5lib

- Upgrade to Linux 3.11 and got back to Linux 3.10 because 3.11 breaks
the shutdown process on some hardware.

- Uploaded a few packages and backports we need into Debian.

- Tails Installer does not fail anymore if the `tmp` directory exists on
the destination filesystem.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix%2Fdont%2Dfail%2Dupgrade%2Dif%2Dtmp%2Ddir%2Dexists%2Don%2Ddestination

Documentation and website
=========================

- A draft FAQ was create to answer some questions asked on our previous
forum.

https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/faq/
https://tails.boum.org/forum/

- A calendar was created to centralize all the important dates for the
community.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/calendar/

- A glossary was created on the website to define terms specific to our
process.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/glossary/

- The roles on the Contribute page were described.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/index.en.html

- Two new contribution pages were added: graphics and user_interface.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/graphics/
https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/user_interface/

- Instructions to change the persistence passphrase were drafted.

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=doc%2Fchange%5Fpersistence%5Fpassphrase

- The release schedule was updated to match current practice more closely.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/release_schedule/

- The documentation for translators now points to Git tutorials.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/translate/

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

- We have organized donations of UEFI hardware, and purchased some more.

- Recovered from disk breakage on our main server.

- Surveyed operators of HTTP mirrors for SNI availability. The results
look good, next step is to get a certificate for `dl.amnesia.boum.org`.

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

- 2.0 milestone += supporting USB devices exposed as non-removable?

https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-November/003999.html

- Tor Launcher extension

https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-November/004011.html

- WhisperBack launcher should give a hint on its use

https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-November/004295.html

- Glossary for contributors

https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-November/004353.html

Funding
=======

- ThinkPenguin.com donated hardware for us to investigate on UEFI
support. Many thanks!

- We have been working on a proposal with sponsor Golf.

Outreach
========

- We submitted a talk for 30C3 but it was rejected.

- 2013-11-28: Helping Human Rights Defenders to Communicate Securely:
  TAILS, National Democratic Institute, USA at the World Forum for
  Democracy

http://www.coe.int/en/web/world-forum-democracy/lab4_

Press and testimonials
======================

- 2013-11: The German-speaking ADMIN magazine reviews Tails.

http://www.admin-magazin.de/Das-Heft/2013/11/Tails-0.20

-- 
Tails folks