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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Temp: January 2023 Release Announcements'

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# Temp: January 2023 Release Announcements

Note: This is a working document.  Once any announcements have been made, it can be deleted. 

# Posted to Discourse on 2023/02/02

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## Editors

* DPC - Dave Clements



There have been a boatload of software release announcements this month.  How do we get the word out?

## Q: Unified or Individual announcements?

(DPC) I argue for one big unified announcement.  This communicates unity.  The downside is that cool feature X in software Y is more likely to get lost in a unified announcement.

(JRG) Unified too, for the same reasons. Individual announcements are in the GH Releases for each repo (which I guess will be linked) if users want extra details.


## Q: Is this more advertisement of new features, or just that all this software is there?

(DPC) How well know is the breadth of different tools in the conda ecosystem?  If it is well known, then this should be mostly about the new features in the releases.  Otherwise, I argue for making it mostly about the tools themselves (see [Draft #1](#Draft-1)).

(JRG) It might be the first time some readers know about a particular tool, so a short sentence with a succinct description won't hurt. I really like the current approach, Dave. Description, number of contributors, and a couple details to get people interested in checking the change log.

# What's been released?

Here's a dump of the raw data on what could be included.

## conda-mirror 0.9.0 

* 2023-01-13
* An incubator project
* Mirrors an upstream conda channel to a local directory.
* [Release page](https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-mirror/releases/tag/0.9.0)
    * Five contributors (could list GitHub ids here)
    * Added `.conda` support; migrated to GitHub workflow; improved download speed; plus 6 other updates
* [Readme](https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-mirror/blob/0.9.0/README.md)
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Uwe Korn

## conda-lock 1.4.0

* 2023-01-16
* An incubator project (but not for much longer)
* Lightweight library that can be used to generate fully reproducible lock files for conda environments.
* [Release page](https://github.com/conda/conda-lock/releases/tag/v1.4.0)
    * 3 contributors
    * Added support for potry dependency groups; gitpython dependency is now optional; better typing; add filelock dependency.
* [Readme](https://github.com/conda/conda-lock/blob/main/README.md)
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Marius von Niekerk

## constructor 3.4.0, 3.4.1 & 3.4.2

* 2023-01-17, 2023-01-18
* constructs an installer for a collection of conda packages.
* [Release pages](https://github.com/conda/constructor/releases)
    * 15 contributors
    * Several *pages* of enhancements and bug fixes, including platform-specific changes for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
* [Readme](https://github.com/conda/constructor/blob/main/README.md)
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Daniel Bast, Jaime

## conda 23.1.0

* 2023-01-18 (sort of, still waiting on availability in defaults and conda-forge channels)
* a cross-platform, language-agnostic binary package manager. 
* [Release Page](https://github.com/conda/conda/releases/tag/23.1.0)
    * 12 contributors
    * [Release notes](https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/stable/release-notes.html#id1)
* [README](https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/main/README.md)
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Ken Odegard, Jannis Leidel

## mamba 1.2

* 2023-01-19 
* This already has a [full release announcement](https://prefix.dev/blog/mamba_release_1.2) that we can link to.
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Wolf Vollprecht


## Grayskull 2.0.0

* 2023-01-22
* Grayskull is an automatic conda recipe generator.
* [Release page](https://github.com/conda-incubator/grayskull/releases/tag/v2.0.0)
    * 6 contributors
    * Now generates R recipes and CRAN support; lots more
    * Results of Mahe's internship
* [README](https://github.com/conda-incubator/grayskull/blob/main/README.md)
* Who to ask about how to advertise this: Marcelo Trevisani

## Anything else been released?

- (JRG) conda-libmamba-solver will follow soon, but I don't know if in time for this announcement.

# Draft #1

Emphasizes the tools themselves instead of the features in these releases

**Subject/Title:**

* **January 2023 releases--lots of them**
* your idea here


Hello all,

The last three weeks have seen a flurry of tool updates in the conda ecosystem, highlighting several things about conda. First, that there are a lot of tools in the ecosystem.  It's not just conda and mamba.  There are many other things to help you navigate your package and environment needs.  Second, the conda community is *active*.

Here is what's happening:

### [conda-mirror](https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-mirror/blob/0.9.0/README.md) release [0.9.0](https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-mirror/releases/tag/0.9.0)

This conda-incubator project mirrors an upstream conda channel to a local directory.  This release has 5 contributors and adds `.conda` support; migrated to GitHub workflow; improved download speed; plus 6 other updates.

### [conda-lock](https://github.com/conda/conda-lock/blob/main/README.md) release [1.4.0](https://github.com/conda/conda-lock/releases/tag/v1.4.0)

This project is a lightweight library for generating fully reproducible lock files for conda environments. This release has 3 contributors, and added support for poetry dependency groups and several other features.

### [constructor](https://github.com/conda/constructor/blob/main/README.md) releases [3.4.0 - 3.4.2](https://github.com/conda/constructor/releases)

This tool constructs an installer for a collection of conda packages.  These releases had 15 contributors and several *pages* of enhancements and bug fixes, including platform-specific changes for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

### [conda](https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/main/README.md) release [23.1.0](https://github.com/conda/conda/releases/tag/23.1.0)

Conda is a cross-platform, language-agnostic binary package manager. This release has 12 contributors, and is the third release since we started bi-monthly releases last year.  Recent releases have featured big speed improvements and the addition of plugin support to make conda extensible.

### [mamba and micromamba](https://prefix.dev/docs/mamba/introduction) release [1.2](https://prefix.dev/blog/mamba_release_1.2)

mamba and micromamba are general software package managers for *any* kind of software and all operating systems.  micromamba now has faster download speeds, better optimization of `.conda` format compression and decompression, and is closer to fully "reproducible" archives.  See the full [release blog post](https://prefix.dev/blog/mamba_release_1.2) for more.

### [Grayskull](https://github.com/conda-incubator/grayskull/blob/main/README.md) releases [2.0.0 - 2.2.2](https://github.com/conda-incubator/grayskull/releases)

Grayskull is an automatic conda recipe generator.  These releases have 6 contributors and several new features, including CRAN support and the ability to generate R recipes, and initial support for [pyproject.toml](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/build-system/pyproject-toml/) files and for [Poetry](https://python-poetry.org/).

### [conda-libmamba-solver](https://github.com/conda/conda-libmamba-solver/blob/main/README.md) release [23.1.0](https://github.com/conda/conda-libmamba-solver/releases/tag/23.1.0)

`conda-libmamba-solver` is a conda plugin that incorporates mamba's lightening fast solver into conda.  This is the 5th release of this plugin and it features bug fixes, documentation improvements, and CI improvements.

---

This announcement is a precursor to what will (hopefully) become a periodic newsletter covering what's happening in the conda community. Look for more in the coming months. 

2023 is off to a great start!

XXXXX on behalf of the conda community

# Draft #2 

Your idea here!

