Hello ballooners,

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT

  After stable release 1.0 has been released,
  < svn checkout svn://balloonboard.org/balloon/tags/1.0-stable >

  Release 2.0 is in the way, so based on Nick Bane's menuconfig2 branch,
  < svn checkout svn://balloonboard.org/balloon/branches/menuconfig2 >

  there is work in progress to stabilize that branch, so Nick Davidson
decided to code name it 'barmy'
  < svn checkout svn://balloonboard.org/balloon/branches/barmy >

  Work in progress items for release 2.0 are:

  * Adding production and expert modes
    - production mode shall be a locked mode which tights the system
to use particular configurations. For example, linux kernel 2.6.37
series which it is long term support kernel from Linux Kernel.org, so
we should update it with security fixes in the long run.
    - expert mode shall open up all the configuration options, so
balloon developers can have fun with other versions as linux kernel,
android kernel, bootloaders, newer platforms, cross toolchain builds,
more rootfs, etc.. but those versions will not be extensively tested
and likely to be broken in some cases, so please send us a patch we'll
be happy to fix it.

  * Modular builds can now be performed, so kernel, bootloader and
rootfs does not need to be built all at once.

  * New packages: u-boot, x-loader, cross-toolchains, openocd,
buildroot, yocto userland, android kernels, ...

  * Support for new platforms: Balloon Board 4

  While 'barmy' release is not ready yet, I'll be moving barmy to
svn://balloonboard.org/balloon/trunk/ and I'll work making it a bit
more stable on production mode as well as merging later development on
'menuconfig2' branch. This way, we can have a stable 'barmy' release
while "wild" developers can break, fix and test on 'menuconfig2'
branch.

  I would really appreciate help from you to set 'barmy' defaults, for
example, as CJ pointed out enabling ssh server (dropbear) or netcat by
default.

WEBSITE

  http://www.balloonboard.org is under major review and it is now
pointing directly to the wiki site. Old site is still rechable at
http://balloonboard.org/index.0.html
  Please, help improve wiki documentation as well as organization.

BUG TRACKING SYSTEM

  http://balloonboard.org/trac is a bug tracking system, so feel free
to join and leave your "useful" bug reports on the ticketing system so
we can improve balloon board distributions.

  If all of it sounds right to you, I'll proceed with changes starting tomorrow.

Best regards,
-- 
 Héctor Orón


"Our Sun unleashes tremendous flares expelling hot gas into the Solar
System, which one day will disconnect us."

-- Day DVB-T stop working nicely
Video flare: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100510.html