17. What kind of changes should I expect to see in the next major release of Debian Linux?

17.1 Increased security

Debian now has Shadow password.

In addition, the Linux library of Pluggable Authentication Modules ( http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/; a.k.a. libpam) that allow sysadmins to choose authorization modes on an application-specific basis will be available, and initially set to authenticate via shadow password.

17.2 More Support for non-English users

Debian already has some support for non-English users. We hope to find people who provide support for even more languages.

Some programs already support internationalization, so we need message catalogs. Many programs still must be internationalized.

The GNU Translation Project ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ABOUT-NLS works on internationalizing the GNU programs.

17.3 More architectures

Currently a complete Debian release is available for the i386 and m68k architectures. Complete Debian system on other architectures are expected soon.

17.4 Linux 2.2

Debian 2.1 will be the last release based on Linux 2.0.x. The Debian release after it, codenamed potato will probably include the latest stable Linux kernel, version 2.2.x.

17.5 glibc 2.1

Debian 2.1 will be the last Debian release based on GNU libc version 2.0.x. potato will probably include the latest stable GNU libc library, versión 2.1.x (which is already being used in slink by some of the non-Intel architectures).