Today I branched the (LaTeX) source of my Debian book in preparation of the second edition, targetted for the forthcoming Debian 6.0 “squeeze”. I am very excited to come back to this project after deprioritising it in favour of my research for too long. Thanks to my publishers Open Source Press and No Starch Press for their patience.

If you want to be the first to receive announcements about the book, such as release dates, previews, or other information, please sign up to the announcement mailing list.

The second edition has two goals:

• Bring all existing content up-to-date with what has changed in Debian in the last four years.

• Add additional material, such as (but not limited to): SecureApt, backporting, using version control for packaging, IPv6, dm-crypt, Unicode, and virtualisation.

  If you have any suggestions or wishes for topics I should write about, let me know at feedback ät debiansystem dôt info.

I want to re-establish the book as the standard Debian reference, but also to give my existing readers a good reason to buy the book again.

While we’re on the topic of buying: yes, the book is pay-ware, and yes, in some ways that goes against the spirit of open-source, and Debian in particular. However, this is a choice I made. If this book didn’t have a commercial basis, then I could not put as much time into it, and I would not be able to profit from the outstanding help from the folks at Open Source Press and No Starch Press — it is thanks to their advice and experience that the book turned out to be as it is.

The book will be available as PDF from the start, so if you care as much about the environment as I do, you’ll prefer to get that over the Dead Tree Version. And if you’re as haptic as I am, then you still have the option to buy the book so you can hold something real in your hands.

I am looking forward to working on this project, to working intensely with the Debian community throughout, and to your input.

At 14:45 CEST, today, 1 October 2009, I submitted my thesis to the print shop. Sarah has kindly agreed to pick it up tomorrow and drop it off at Brian’s office, from where it will go to the three examiners. On 30 October at 9:30 IST, I will stand to publicly defend my work at the University of Limerick.

I expect to receive a list of changes to be made from the examiners, hopefully minor, such that there won’t be much in the way before I submit the final version to the University Board by 3 December. Once they give their green light, I will make it available on my research website, along with the data. I expect this to happen in January 2010.

I have many many people to thank and will do so in due time. Right now I just want to thank Brian Fitzgerald and Kieran Conboy for their flexibility. I was supposed to have the thesis done by the end of August to given them a month to read it over, but by then, I only had the first six (of eight) chapters done. We hence spent all of September sending back and forth PDFs and paper comments, working iteratively so that today, I could put the finishing touch on the work and keep the schedule.

The next thing on my agenda is the second edition of my book, which we are targetting for Debian “squeeze”. If you would like to be the first to receive more details, sign up to the announcement mailing list.

Hey Meike, a new edition is planned, but first I need to finish my research and submit my thesis. Then I will immediately turn to the book, which I will update for “lenny”, and to which I will add a lot of content. My goal is to provide enough of a reason for everyone to buy the new edition, I do not want to disappoint those who have bought the first edition.

Stay tuned over at the book’s website or the book’s announcement list.

NP: The Penguin Cafe Orchestra: The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Raphaël Hertzog and Roland Mas, both well-known Debian developers (and Raphaël is also a Debian book author, which Roland has proof-read), have done it: my book is now also disponible en la langue de l’amour! Thanks a lot to both of you for all your work (and sweat (and blood (and, well, there weren’t any tears i hope…) — nor blood)). I cannot wait to get my own copy!

As with the Japanese translation, it feels weird to hold a text in your hand with your name on it but without a chance to actually read it. My French actually isn’t that bad, so I am looking forward to browsing it, but as with Junichi and Kenshi, the Japanese translators, I feel quite comfortable about the translation, having met Raphaël and Roland in person and having witnessed their dedication to Debian and thoroughness of their work.

So again: thanks a lot, guys!

In addition to German and Japanese, as well as the original English, this is now the forth language, and there are more to come.

PS: you wouldn’t believe it, but the French edition with its 674 pages tops all other editions in terms of length: it’s 25 pages longer than the German one.

Update: I forgot to mention that all of the aforementioned translators, Junichi, Kenshi, Roland, and Raphaël have taken their time to send feedback and corrections to me. That deserves another round of thank yous!

My book is now available in Japanese (ISBN 4-8399-1897-X), thanks to the great work by our (Debian’s) very own Kenshi Muto and Junichi Uekawa! It even comes with its very own Obi — a ribbon wound around the book with commercial messages designed to draw the attention of the (potential) reader. The word derives from the sash worn with a kimono.

It’s weird to hold a text in your hands that has your own name on it, but which you cannot read, especially when you’re such a pedantic perfectionist as I am. This dilemma I picked up in the Japanese translation’s preface, which I include in full for your reading pleasure. And I’ll do so both in Japanese as well as English, just because I don’t know when I’ll ever get the chance again to post some authentic Japanese on my blog!

日本を訪れる機会はこれまで一度きりでしたが、忘れがたい思い出の残る旅でした。その記憶もあって、こうして自分の著作が日本語版として世に出ることになった喜びはひとしおです。本書で取り上げているオペレーティングシステムDebianは、日本でも急速に支持を集めつつあります。今、本書を手にしているあなたがDebianの発展に貢献してくれることを願ってやみません。

ここで、日本語版の実現に協力してくれたKenshi MutoとJunichi Uekawaに感謝の気持ちを伝えておきたいと思います。自らもDebianの著書を記しているKenshiと、本書の執筆に不可欠だったpbuilderの生みの親であるJunichiは、共に高名なDebian開発者です。ご両名からは、この日本語版の出版にあたって力強い支援を頂きました。

読み進めるとおわかりになるかもしれませんが、優れた参考書として完成させるために私は途方もない労力を本書に注ぎ込みました。したがって、日本語も含めて、私自身が理解できない言語で書かれた本に自分の名が記されることには非常に強い抵抗がありました。しかし、才気に溢れるKenshiとJunichiの手によって日本語に訳されることを知って、すっかり安心しました。今では、時代の流れに敏感で刷新的な文化を持つ日本の言葉に翻訳されたことを大変誇らしく思っています。

honsho ga minasama no ochikara ni narereba saiwai desu.

And here for all those who cannot understand the signs from the land of the rising sun:

I have only had the chance to visit Japan once to date, but the trip left some unforgettable memories, which make it all the more an honour for me to see a Japanese translation of my book on the market. The Debian operating system is gaining popularity fast in Japan, and it is my hope that the book you are holding in your hands will help to accelerate this growth.

Please allow me at this point to express my gratitude towards Kenshi Muto, a Debian book author himself, and Junichi Uekawa, author of pbuilder, a vital component in the making of my book! Kenshi and Junichi are both renowned Debian developers and have been instrumental in the coordination of this Japanese translation.

As you will notice while reading my book, I invested a lot of energy into making it a quality reference. It was thus very difficult for me to accept a text with my name on it that I could not read, as is the case with the Japanese version you are holding in your hands. However, knowing the translation in the capable hands of Kenshi and Junichi quickly put my mind to rest and I am now incredibly proud to see my work translated into the language of the fast-moving and innovative culture of Japan.

honsho ga minasama no ochikara ni narereba saiwai desu.

That last sentence means “I hope the book will be helpful to you,” and was translated by Shuhei, a friend who’s working on his Ph.D. at Zurich’s AILab. Apparently Kenshi and Junichi thought it was so cute that they simply left it as is and did not translate it.

In other news, my book’s also available in German (and has been since late February), the French edition is on the verge of being released by Eyrolles (no link yet), and the Chinese translation is still work in progress (also, no link yet).

The book’s website needs a rework to integrate the other languages, and to fix up all the shortcomings I’ve encountered during one year of uptime with an average of around 200 unique visits per day. It’s also still using Plone 2.0.5, but I just have not had the time yet to fix it all up in a migration to Plone 2.5, mainly because I’ve lost synchronisation with the Plone development team over the past year.

Oh well. That ToDo list just keeps getting longer…

There was more than one reason I wrote my book in English (despite German being my native tongue). Two of them are:

• IT stuff is mostly English anyway. While translation efforts are necessary to let people come closer and learn, too many terms just carry over from English to the respective languages. German especially sucks and bends over for anglistification, or whatever I should call that.
• German just sucks. Inordertosay somethingverysimple youmayneedtoputtogetherhugewords and formtheseridiculouslylong, sentenceswithcommas, inplacesthatjust hurt.

So we just received the first chapter from an English-German translator we hired to fulfill the market need for a German edition of the text, and I nearly barfed.

• If my publisher “spoils” me, that does not mean that I am rotten afterwards!
• Translating the titles of books I reference which have not been translated to German just sucks.
• German has a tendency to make everything sound negative.
• Please do not translate “you may want to consider reading random posts or posts of interest on debian-user” with “read all posts on debian-user!” (including the punctuation!)
• It’s not okay to fuse paragraphs here and insert breaks there, just like that.
• The set of Debian supporters is not the same as the set of people offering support for Debian.
• Either subscribe to the fucked up German language reform (.de only) or don’t, but do not change your mind every paragraph! Actually, just don’t. It hurts.

So we have a long path ahead until we can offer this book in a German translation according to our quality standards.

PS: blogging is a great way to let off steam.

Despite getting my middle initial wrong (the ‘F’ is for Felix, which I always wanted to be my first name), No Starch Press has finally announced the international availability of my book. I am really proud about this because I am getting up to ten requests per day from people all over the world, and because No Starch has a rather good reputation for high-quality computer books.

It’s only 7 o’clock in the morning, and my day has already been made. :)