Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #112 for the week January 4, January 10, 2010.

• Arizona Loco Newsletter
• One Hundred Twelfth Edition
• Powered by Ubuntu
• Wednesday-January 13, 2010

• Arizona Loco Team Wiki: ["ArizonaTeam"]

• Next meeting: Sunday January 17, 2010 9:00 PM
• Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us-az

Newsletter

Summary of the January 10, 2010 meeting

scott_ev called the meeting to order at 9:00 PM

Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/Meetings/10January3

scott_ev began the meeting by reminding everyone that he is only filling in temporarily until johnc4510 can get back.

scott_ev then gave some announcements:

• Ever wonder why we have LoCo teams? My opinion is that one of our main functions is to promote the use of an OS that allows people to be freed from confines of the closed, unstable,inflexible, expensive, and often times pushy and tyrannical Operating Systems that they may think they are stuck with - and we want to have fun doing it. So we get together on IRC and set up Installfests, Release Parties, etc. Here's part of what Ubuntu has to say: Ever since the birth of computers, enthusiasts and fans around the world have collected together in garages, universities and pubs to talk about their interest, learn from each other and help promote their interest. Combine this with the huge popularity of Ubuntu, and you have the Ubuntu LoCo project. There are a huge number of Ubuntu LoCo teams spread out across the world including Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Kurdistan, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and Latin America, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States and many, many more places. With the incredible success of Ubuntu around the world, the LoCo project is here to help groups of Ubuntu fans and enthusiasts work together in regional teams to help advocate, promote, translate, develop and otherwise improve Ubuntu. Our worldwide network of LoCo teams is providing a strong backbone to our already vast and extensive Ubuntu community.

• There will be a 10.04 Lucid Lynx release party at Boulders on Broadway in Tempe (http://www.bouldersonbroadway.net/) on the 24th of April. Boulders on Broadway has a room upstairs that we will have all to ourselves. We'll have wifi access too. It's going to be a good chance to eat some good grub, have a few drinks or brewski's and meet some of the other UbuGeeks that you have only met online. You're not going to want to miss this. Ok, that brings up another point: We need volunteers for a couple of things: we'll need a few extension cords and power strips. Also, it's been suggested that we have a few presentations. Please be thinking about something you can do along these lines and let me know. Someone can pick out new features in 10.04 and present them or concentrate on one for example. Anything to do with Ubuntu will be OK. Things like how to navigate Launchpad and report bugs... Actually, if you have a favorite piece of software that you use you can present that even if it's not in Ubuntu's repos. Please be thinking about this. It will only make the Release Party more of a success. We will be heading there from the monthly installfest at UAT. http://tinyurl.com/yemru26 If you've never been to an installfest at UAT, you may want to consider checking it out. Our LoCo co-sponsors it with PLUG but we are poorly represented. It's a chance to help another Linux user or, better yet, possible install Linux an a computer that currently is running that other OS.

• I finally made contact with a friend in Tucson that has the contacts we need for planning future Installfests at the University. He will be getting me in contact with the people on campus in the CS department that we coordinated with last time. So, it's time to start thinking about how we want to organize this event. I'll need feedback from those of you that attended last time. And I'm open to input. We'll need to do a lot of planning so we can put on a good show for all attendees. Remember that the University called it a Windows Removal Event. That's because the CS dept has migrated to Ubuntu Linux! Id imagine they are wondering where we've been since they wanted us to schedule regular installfests. This would be a great opportunity to promote Ubuntu Linux to students and the general public in Tucson. We'll need fliers, etc. etc. We'll need volunteers for a variety of duties so please please spread the word in channel and via email that we are calling for help. If no one else steps up and offers to be the main contact point and organizer I'll do it. Is there anyone living in Tucson that will volunteer to be the person to make face to face contact with our contacts on campus? Also, I need someone to compose an email and mass mail everyone in our mailing list an announcement about this and the upcoming Release Party. Anyone that's willing to do this this week? tyche mentioned that, "I use the mailing list to send out the team newsletters. If you want to send me copy, I'll send it out for you." He also mentioned that there is a Team Calendar: http://www.azloco.com/?q=node/28

• The coolest thing at CES? http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3715

• The Ubuntu Manual Project could use your help. The overview of this project is to compile a complete beginners manual for Ubuntu, featuring comprehensive guides, How Tos and information on anything you need to know after first installing Ubuntu. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual

• I'm proud to announce an Ubucon at SCaLE8X on Friday, February 19th, 2010. An Ubucon is an organised event for Ubuntu users that's halfway between an unconference and a convention. The main focus is for Ubuntu users to get together and meet others, share ideas, and improve their skills. If you have a topic you'd like to present, please email your proposal at nhaines@ubuntu.com. Include your full name, a contact email, and a description of what your proposed talk would cover. The deadline for submissions is Friday, January 15th, 2010. http://nhaines.livejournal.com/52619.html . Oh, if you don't know what SCaLE is, it's the Southern California Linux Exposition. And Ubucon is part of it. The Expo is heald at the Westin LAX. http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/

• In the previous release of Kubuntu the documentation was pretty terrible, awful in fact. For those interested in the current status of Kubuntu Documentation, visit the TODO page on the wiki: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Documentation/Lucid

http://jjesse.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/kubuntu-documentation-todo/

• The Official Ubuntu Book: http://www.amazon.com/Official-Ubuntu-Book-Benjamin-Mako/dp/0137021208/ . (Information found at http://matthewhelmke.net/2009/12/29/ubuntu-unleashed-2010-edition/ )

• If any of you were having problems joining the new deviantArt group, the issues have been fixed now. What they've done is made sure that everyone who joins is automatically approved as a Contributor. So you should be able to post art, favourites and blog entries to the group without asking or voting. Go here to join: http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/

• 15 game-changing Linux moments of the decade - http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/15-game-changing-linux-moments-of-the-decade-659030

• For those of you who have read the recent Slashdot article announcing Ubuntu’s new membership program, this is clearly a mistake. http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/01/06/1420209/Ubuntu-Memberships-Introduced . Ubuntu has had the concept of membership for many years, helping us to identify those who have made a significant and sustained contribution. This is nothing new and nothing is changing. More information on Ubuntu Membership can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership

• Netbook Speculation: Lenovo, Dell, HP and Linux - The VAR Guy's Dave Courbanou notes that the Netbook, once considered a toy, now seems like the preferred device for many productivity-driven workhorse travelers. Even if you’re not a mobile workaholic, there’s something simplistically perfect about sofa-browsing while watching TV and catching up on some e-mail. With a small form factor, there comes caveats at the expense of size and portability, but recent moves by Lenovo and others show some promising trends — several of which involve Linux. While there are many netbooks to choose from, Dell is still shipping their Mini 10V’s with Ubuntu Linux, and that’s good news for the Linux world. Since netbook hardware can be hit-or-miss with big name Linux distros, it’s nice to see Dell officially supporting the product. http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/01/06/netbook-speculation-lenovo-dell-hp-and-linux/

• Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs Moblin - TuxRadar recognises that over the last 12 months, netbook and mobile Linux has made massive advances in features and install base. This is primarily thanks to two netbook distributions - Moblin and Canonical's Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Canonical put a great deal of effort into developing Ubuntu Netbook Remix, pulling massive boot speed improvements, power management code and a new window manager into the standard Ubuntu distribution. It also makes good use of recent additions to Ubuntu, including the Ubuntu One cloud storage system and the Empathy instant messenger, which makes good use of the limited screen sizes on these devices. The best thing about UNR is the breadth of packages available. You can install anything that any other Ubuntu user can, which is a massive advantage if you look at the tiny selection available for Moblin. It's likely that Canonical will be able to forge stronger relationships with companies like Dell, which is already shipping a specific version of UNR on its Mini 9 platform. As Windows XP is phased out and the cost of bundling Windows 7 rises, manufacturers will be looking for a cheap and easily maintainable netbook OS, and UNR fits the bill admirably. http://www.tuxradar.com/content/ubuntu-netbook-remix-vs-moblin

• J.A. Watson, ZDNet UK, reviews with screen shots some of the most popular Netbook-centric Linux distributions. Watson in regard to Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix states, "I find this to be significantly more pleasant than the previous UNR releases, simply because they have removed the large "Places" column from the right side of the screen, which makes it look much less cluttered and confusing." In his review of Kubuntu 9.10 with the preliminary KDE Netbook Desktop he notes, "Next up is Kubuntu 9.10, with the preliminary KDE Netbook desktop, which is still very much under development. But I think it still provides a good look at the direction they are going, so I'm including it here." Last up in his review is Moblin 2.1 desktop, "Now, if this desktop looks nice to you, or makes sense to you, or looks like something you might want to use... well... more power to you. After numerous attempts, I still can't make heads or tails of it, and I find it to be not only confusing, but also virtually impossible to customize or even adjust in any significant way." Watson hopes that readers find this information "useful and the associated pictures enlightening. http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10014719o-2000498448b,00.htm

• Most of the info above came straight out of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter that Johnc4510 and tyche both work on. You can subscribe to the Ubuntu Weekly News via RSS at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

scott_ev then asked xHans for any PLUG and class announcements:

• PLUG Security Hackfest Tuesday night. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/security

• PLUG East Side meeting Thursday night. Probably a presentation on remind, which is a really cool calendaring command line app. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/157

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:28 PM.

Credits

• CraigAEddy
• scott_ev

Parent pages: ["ArizonaTeam"] ["ArizonaTeam"]

CategoryLoCoTeams CategoryArizonaTeam