branch master updated: website: Add draft 1.2.0 release announcement.

[Ludovic Court�s]

This is an automated email from the git hooks/post-receive script.

civodul pushed a commit to branch master
in repository guix-artwork.

The following commit(s) were added to refs/heads/master by this push:
     new 8973594  website: Add draft 1.2.0 release announcement.
8973594 is described below

commit 8973594e1fe95540e987df07da1e20872d16ebfe
Author: Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
AuthorDate: Mon Nov 9 22:23:41 2020 +0100

    website: Add draft 1.2.0 release announcement.
    
    * website/drafts/gnu-guix-1.2.0-released.md: New file.
---
 website/drafts/gnu-guix-1.2.0-released.md | 185 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 185 insertions(+)

diff --git a/website/drafts/gnu-guix-1.2.0-released.md 
b/website/drafts/gnu-guix-1.2.0-released.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92bcad7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/website/drafts/gnu-guix-1.2.0-released.md
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+title: DRAFT GNU Guix 1.2.0 released
+date: 2020-11-11 15:00:00
+author: Ludovic Courtès
+slug: gnu-guix-1.2.0-released
+tags: Releases, Security
+---
+We are pleased to announce the release of GNU Guix version 1.2.0!
+
+The release comes with [ISO-9660 installation
+images](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/System-Installation.html),
+a [virtual machine
+image](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Running-Guix-in-a-VM.html),
+and with tarballs to install the package manager on top of your
+GNU/Linux distro, either [from
+source](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html) or
+[from
+binaries](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Binary-Installation.html).
+Guix users can update by running `guix pull`.
+
+It’s been 6 months since the last release, during which 200 people
+contributed code and packages, and a number of people obviously
+contributed to other important tasks—code review, system administration,
+translations, web site updates, Outreachy mentoring, you name it!
+
+There’s been more than 10,000 commits in that time frame and it is the
+challenge of these release notes to summarize all that activity.
+
+### Security
+
+A significant highlight in this release is the ability to *authenticate
+channels*, which probably makes Guix one of the safest ways to deliver
+complete operating systems today.  This was the missing link in our
+“software supply chain” and we’re glad it’s now fixed.  The end result
+is that `guix pull` and related commands now cryptographically
+authenticate channel code that they fetch; you cannot, for instance,
+retrieve unauthorized commits to the official Guix repository.  We
+[detailed the design and
+implementation](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2020/securing-updates/)
+back in July.  The manual explains [what you need to know as a
+user](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Channel-Authentication.html)
+and [as a channel
+author](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Specifying-Channel-Authorizations.html).
+
+![Example commit graph.](https://guix.gnu.org/static/blog/img/commit-graph.svg)
+
+Coupled to that, `guix pull` and `guix system reconfigure` now *detect
+potential system downgrades or Guix downgrades* and raise an error.
+This ensures you cannot be tricked into downgrading the software in your
+system, which could potentially reintroduce exploitable vulnerabilities
+in the software you run.
+
+With these safeguards in place, we have added an [*unattended upgrade
+service*](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Unattended-Upgrades.html)
+that, in a nutshell, runs `guix pull && guix system reconfigure`
+periodically.  Unattended upgrades _and_ peace of mind.
+
+Another important change from a security perspective that we’re proud of
+is [*the reduction of binary seeds to
+60 
MiB*](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2020/guix-further-reduces-bootstrap-seed-to-25/)
+on x86_64 and i686, thanks to tireless work on
+[GNU Mes](https://www.gnu.org/software/mes),
+[Gash](https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/gash), and related software.
+
+On the same security theme, our build daemon and the [`origin`
+programming
+interface](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/origin-Reference.html)
+now accept *new cryptographic hash functions* (in particular SHA-3 and
+BLAKE2s) for [“fixed-output
+derivations”](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Derivations.html)—so
+far we were unconditionally using SHA256 hashes for source code.
+
+### User experience
+
+We want Guix to be accessible and useful to a broad audience and that
+has again been a guiding principle for this release.  The [graphical
+system
+installer](https://guix.gnu.org/en/videos/system-graphical-installer/)
+and the [script to install Guix on another
+distro](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Binary-Installation.html)
+have both received bug fixes and usability improvements.  First-time
+users will appreciate the fact that `guix help` now gives a clear
+overview of the available commands, that `guix` commands are less
+verbose by default (they no longer display a lengthy list of things that
+they’ll download), and that `guix pull` displays a progress bar as it
+updates its Git checkout.
+
+*Performance improved in several places*.  Use of the new [“baseline
+compiler” that landed in
+Guile 
3.0.4](https://wingolog.org/archives/2020/06/03/a-baseline-compiler-for-guile)
+leads to reduced build times for Guix itself, which in turn means that
+`guix pull` is much less resource-hungry.  Performance got better in
+[several](https://issues.guix.gnu.org/44053#9)
+[other](https://issues.guix.gnu.org/41702#2)
+[areas](https://issues.guix.gnu.org/43340), and more work is yet to
+come.
+
+We’re giving users more flexibility on the command line, with the
+addition of three [*package transformation
+options*](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Package-Transformation-Options.html):
+`--with-debug-info` ([always debug in good
+conditions](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Rebuilding-Debug-Info.html)!),
+`--with-c-toolchain`, and `--without-tests`.
+
+The *reference manual* has been expounded: there’s a new [“Getting
+Started”
+section](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Getting-Started.html),
+the [“Programming Interface”
+section](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Programming-Interface.html)
+contains more info for packagers.  We added code examples in many
+places; in the on-line copy of the manual, identifiers in those code
+snippets are clickable, linking to the right place in the Guix or Guile
+manuals.
+
+Last but not least, *the manual is fully translated* to
+[French](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/fr/html_node/),
+[German](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/de/html_node/), and
+[Spanish](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/es/html_node/), with partial
+translations in [Russian](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/ru/html_node/) and
+[Chinese](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/zh-cn/html_node/).
+
+### More goodies
+
+But there’s more!  Support for *whole-system cross-compilation*—as in
+`guix system build --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf config.scm`—has been
+improved.  That, together with a lot of porting work both for packages
+and for the Guix System machinery, brings [the `hurd-vm`
+service](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Virtualization-Services.html#index-hurd_002dvm_002dservice_002dtype)—a
+cross-compiled Guix GNU/Hurd system [running as a virtual machine under
+GNU/Linux](https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2020/childhurds-and-substitutes/).
+This in turn has let us start work on native GNU/Hurd support.
+
+Related to this, the new `(gnu image)` module implements a flexible
+interface to operating system images; from the command line, it is
+accessible _via_ [`guix system disk-image
+--image-type=TYPE`](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-system.html).
+Several _image types_ are supported: compressed ISO-9660, qcow2
+containing ext4 partitions, ext2 with Hurd options, and so on.  This is
+currently implemented using
+[`genimage`](https://github.com/pengutronix/genimage).
+
+In addition to those already mentioned, a dozen of new system services
+are available, including services for
+[Ganeti](https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2020/running-a-ganeti-cluster-on-guix/),
+[LXQt](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Desktop-Services.html#index-lxqt_002ddesktop_002dservice_002dtype),
+[Gemini](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Web-Services.html#index-gmnisrv),
+and [Guix Build
+Coordinator](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Guix-Services.html).
+
+XXX packages have been added, for a total of [more than 15K
+packages](https://guix.gnu.org/en/packages); XXX were upgraded.  The
+distribution comes with GNU libc 2.31, GCC 10.2, GNOME 3.34,
+Xfce 4.14.2, Linux-libre 5.9.3, and LibreOffice 6.4.6.2 to name a few.
+There’s also a new [build system for packages built with
+Maven](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Build-Systems.html#index-maven_002dbuild_002dsystem).
+
+The [`NEWS` file](XXX) lists additional noteworthy changes and bug fixes
+you may be interested in.
+
+### Try it!
+
+You can go ahead and [download this new
+version](https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/)—we’ve been told [you may
+soon be able to `apt install guix`](https://packages.debian.org/guix) if
+you’re on Debian or a derivative distro!—and [get in touch with
+us](https://guix.gnu.org/en/contact/).
+
+Enjoy!
+
+#### About GNU Guix
+
+[GNU Guix](https://guix.gnu.org) is a transactional package manager and
+an advanced distribution of the GNU system that [respects user
+freedom](https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html).
+Guix can be used on top of any system running the Hurd or the Linux
+kernel, or it can be used as a standalone operating system distribution
+for i686, x86_64, ARMv7, and AArch64 machines.
+
+In addition to standard package management features, Guix supports
+transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management,
+per-user profiles, and garbage collection.  When used as a standalone
+GNU/Linux distribution, Guix offers a declarative, stateless approach to
+operating system configuration management.  Guix is highly customizable
+and hackable through [Guile](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile)
+programming interfaces and extensions to the
+[Scheme](http://schemers.org) language.