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   1 [15:02] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/05/02/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.
   2 [15:07] <jcastro> Good morning!
   3 [15:07] <jcastro> ok sorry everyone I got my wires crossed this morning
   4 [15:07]  * jcastro taps on the mic
   5 [15:07] <jcastro> Ok welcome to Ubuntu Open Week
   6 [15:08] <jcastro> this week we'll be doing a set of IRC workshops for Ubuntu Users
   7 [15:08] <jcastro> every cycle we do a developer week, an application developer week, and then right after release when we've got a fresh release out we do this week
   8 [15:08] <jcastro> which is User Week
   9 [15:08] <jcastro> first let's start off with the schedule
  10 [15:09] <jcastro> and then I'll show you how it works
  11 [15:09] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek
  12 [15:09] <jcastro> These are the sessions that we'll be having this week
  13 [15:09] <jcastro> Instructors will show up at their given time
  14 [15:09] <jcastro> (unless they are late!) >_<
  15 [15:09] <jcastro> and then for that hour you can watch their class and ask questions
  16 [15:10] <jcastro> the way you ask questions is by also hanging out in #ubuntu-classroom-chat
  17 [15:10] <jcastro> and then in there when you want to ask a question you'll go like this:
  18 [15:10] <jcastro> QUESTION: Why can't Jorge figure out UTC conversions?
  19 [15:10] <jcastro> and then a bot will scrape together all the questions
  20 [15:10] <jcastro> and then paste them in here
  21 [15:10] <jcastro> and then the presenter will answer them in here
  22 [15:11] <jcastro> Note that we do have Mark coming in on Thursday morning
  23 [15:11] <jcastro> so make sure you show up for that.
  24 [15:11] <jcastro> So today we'll start off with an intro (this is it right here)
  25 [15:11] <jcastro> where you can ask me anything about Ubuntu
  26 [15:11] <jcastro> then we'll have a cloud intro session from Ahmed
  27 [15:12] <jcastro> and then Bhavani is going to give an intro session on how to get started improving Ubuntu
  28 [15:12] <jcastro> and then we'll cap it off with my introduction to Unity; where I'll go over some power user tips and tricks that you don't want to miss.
  29 [15:12] <jcastro> ok so with that
  30 [15:12] <jcastro> you can start kicking off your questions on #ubuntu-classroom-chat
  31 [15:13] <jcastro> remember to preface your question with QUESTION:
  32 [15:14] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: Why do you work for Canonical, and what do you tend to do?
  33 [15:14] <jcastro> Why would be because it's an awesome place to work
  34 [15:15] <jcastro> what I do for my job this past cycle was to help people get started with Unity development
  35 [15:15] <jcastro> so things like "I want to fix unity how can I help?"
  36 [15:15] <jcastro> or "I want to write a Unity lens", where can I find the documentation
  37 [15:15] <jcastro> I also talk to upstream projects like thunderbird, shotwell, chromium, etc. on how we can better improve working with them and Ubuntu
  38 [15:16] <ClassBot> candtalan asked: the schedule I see says Mark is coming on Wednesday 4 May, not thursday as jcastro just said - confirm please?
  39 [15:16] <jcastro> oh yep, you're right, that is a Wednesday
  40 [15:16] <jcastro> Wednesday at 1400 UTC will be Ask Mark
  41 [15:16] <ClassBot> lengoanhcat asked: why choosing Unity as default interface instead of GNOME ? What pros and cons of that approach ?
  42 [15:16] <jcastro> Unity is a shell for GNOME
  43 [15:17] <jcastro> so right now we use lots of GNOME underneath Unity
  44 [15:17] <jcastro> like GTK, the applications, etc.
  45 [15:17] <jcastro> right now it's all GNOME 2.x
  46 [15:17] <jcastro> for 11.10 we'll be moving the distro over to GNOME 3.x technology
  47 [15:17] <jcastro> Unity is mostly GNOME 3.x ready
  48 [15:17] <jcastro> so the desktop team has already started moving parts of GNOME3 and GTK3 into the distro
  49 [15:18] <jcastro> and then the desktop experience (DX) team will put Unity on top of that
  50 [15:18] <jcastro> As to the why, that's been covered a bunch of places before: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/shuttleworth-unity-shell-will-be-default-desktop-in-ubuntu-1104.ars
  51 [15:18] <jcastro> that mostly covers the why
  52 [15:18] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: Some people are speculating that Ubuntu might eventually move away from GNOME, can you confirm or deny Ubuntu's dedication to keeping GNOME a feature?
  53 [15:19] <jcastro> Ubuntu isn't moving away from GNOME
  54 [15:19] <jcastro> we use a bunch of GNOME technology
  55 [15:19] <jcastro> a bunch of people in Ubuntu are GNOME people
  56 [15:19] <jcastro> we still love and use GNOME
  57 [15:19] <jcastro> Canonical itself is a member of the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board and continues to fund GNOME activities
  58 [15:19] <jcastro> we just use a different shell on top of GNOME.
  59 [15:20] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: Adding to lengoanhcat, Unity seems a total change to the desktop experience almost as much as GNOME3, but both seem to be kind of immature right now, not as customizable or fully functional as the classic GNOME. So a lot of us including me, feel that Ubuntu jumped the gun. Any information regarding that?
  60 [15:20] <jcastro> that really depends on how you feel about Unity
  61 [15:20] <jcastro> if your goal is to get work done then Unity does that
  62 [15:21] <jcastro> if your goal is to customize everything to a pixel then Unity isn't designed for that
  63 [15:21] <jcastro> Unity is designed to launch your apps, let you manage your apps, and get out of your way
  64 [15:21] <jcastro> now that being said there are still some areas of Unity we can improve
  65 [15:22] <jcastro> I wouldn't say "jumped the gun", but it is a radical change for users, which is what makes 11.04 the most important release we've ever done
  66 [15:22] <jcastro> this is mostly the beginning of a new chapter in Ubuntu development.
  67 [15:22] <ClassBot> bullgard4 asked: What is the IRC communication channel of the Desktop Team?
  68 [15:22] <jcastro> you can find the desktop team in #ubuntu-desktop on freenode
  69 [15:22] <jcastro> if you're looking for unity related topics, then #ayatana on freenode is the channel to discuss that
  70 [15:23] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: Adding to lgp171188's question.  Why did Canonical opt to go with Unity instead of adjusting GNOME 3 and waiting for 11.10 to do this?
  71 [15:24] <jcastro> We feel that Unity is more aligned with what we want the user experience to be for Ubuntu users
  72 [15:24] <jcastro> (also remember that at the time GNOME 3 was running a bit late and had been postponed for 2 cycles already)
  73 [15:24] <jcastro> where as we had Unity mostly complete, it just needed the view to be rewritten for compiz
  74 [15:25] <ClassBot> lengoanhcat asked: when designing Unity shell, a lot of designing ideas are added into. Can you specify what are those and how are they benefit users which simply wants to get the job done ?
  75 [15:25] <jcastro> I can go into this more in my Unity session
  76 [15:25] <jcastro> but I am not on the design team
  77 [15:25] <jcastro> so let me just point you to some articles I've written about Unity
  78 [15:26] <jcastro> http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795149014/the-power-users-guide-to-unity
  79 [15:26] <jcastro> http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4787251665/giving-space-back-to-applications
  80 [15:26] <jcastro> http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4494867256/how-i-use-the-unity-dash
  81 [15:26] <jcastro> http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4472015615/how-i-multitask-in-unity
  82 [15:26] <jcastro> (that last one is my favorite, I show you how I use Unity to multitask)
  83 [15:26] <jcastro> and that's basically why I like it
  84 [15:27] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: You mentioned that Unity is already almost GNOME 3.x ready and the porting to GNOME 3.x is already on the way. My question here is, GNOME3 offers almost everything that Unity does on top of classic GNOME. So are there any exciting things that are in the pipeline for Unity that will run on top of GNOME 3.x? Any value adds?
  85 [15:27] <jcastro> ok so first off
  86 [15:27] <jcastro> "classic GNOME" as we know it aka. GNOME 2.x is gone
  87 [15:27] <jcastro> that means no old panel, and no more applets
  88 [15:28] <jcastro> what is coming in Unity for 11.10 I won't have an answer for until next week
  89 [15:28] <jcastro> as we haven't had the Ubuntu Developer Summit yet
  90 [15:28] <jcastro> so keep an eye out for the plans for 11.10 here: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/sprints/uds-o
  91 [15:29] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: What about the default Gnome 3 fallback that is like Gnome 2,  that won't be available at all for 11.10? Or will it some how?  Also maybe some how, distro's can provide both anyway Gnome 2 and Gnome 3?  In fact wasn't that an idea for Ubuntu before, but then didn't happen for technical reasons?
  92 [15:29] <jcastro> right
  93 [15:29] <jcastro> so you can't technically do that
  94 [15:29] <jcastro> you can't offer GNOME 3 and 2 on the same disc
  95 [15:29] <jcastro> so for example
  96 [15:29] <jcastro> right now in 11.04 we have GNOME 2.32
  97 [15:30] <jcastro> if we want GNOME 3 then you need the libraries to be GNOME and GTK3
  98 [15:30] <jcastro> so right now it's either one or the other
  99 [15:30] <jcastro> this is why the upgrade to Unity and GNOME3/GTK3 takes two cycles
 100 [15:30] <jcastro> we had to get Unity in first
 101 [15:31] <jcastro> and then once GNOME3 is out take a cycle to move everything up to GNOME3/GTK3.
 102 [15:31] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: Are there plans to allow us to further customise Unity.  For example: I use multiple monitors, more than the average person and I prefer to work from right to left with my mouse, moving the icon menu from the left to the right would be far more ergonomic for me.
 103 [15:32] <jcastro> there will definately be more work on multimonitor stuff
 104 [15:32] <jcastro> Unity's multimonitor support right now is basically "a little bit better than GNOME2"
 105 [15:32] <jcastro> there are still some areas we can improve there
 106 [15:32] <jcastro> http://askubuntu.com/questions/9886/how-does-unity-work-in-multi-monitor-configurations
 107 [15:33] <jcastro> as far as further customizations, you'll have to wait until UDS so we can figure out what the plan is going to be
 108 [15:33] <jcastro> right now we're basically getting ready to cycle over into feature development
 109 [15:33] <jcastro> so we're kind of in the middle of figuring that out
 110 [15:33] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: Upstream Gnome has a fall back that is similar to Gnome 2, I was wondering if this may be available in 11.10 for people who want it, for example from the repos?
 111 === DrKenobi is now known as DrKenobi_
 112 [15:33] <jcastro> yeah
 113 [15:33] <jcastro> the nice thing is once all of GNOME3 is in the archive
 114 === DrKenobi_ is now known as DrKenobi2
 115 [15:34] <jcastro> we can do things like that
 116 [15:34] <jcastro> I am sure that the team who is working on the GNOME3 PPA will work on giving people an awesome pure-upstream GNOME experience in 11.10, however I'm not on that team so I won't make any promises for them. :)
 117 [15:34] <jcastro> but now that 11.04 is out of the way there's nothing stopping us from doing a nice pure GNOME on 11.10 in universe
 118 [15:35] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: Is Unity only for people who want to just get things done? GNOME 3 seems to be toeing a similar line? So what options does Ubuntu offer for those who want to customize and be in control of their desktops in addition to getting things done?
 119 [15:35] <jcastro> there's tons of options that we've always had
 120 [15:35] <jcastro> we have xubuntu
 121 [15:35] <jcastro> kubuntu
 122 [15:35] <jcastro> and (now getting close to more official support) lubuntu
 123 [15:35] <jcastro> there are also plenty of other window managers in the archive
 124 [15:35] <jcastro> I hear xmonad is popular if you're into tiling window managers
 125 [15:36] <ClassBot> bullgard4 asked: When is UDS for 11.10 scheduled to be?
 126 [15:36] <jcastro> Next week!
 127 [15:36] <jcastro> http://uds.ubuntu.com/
 128 [15:36] <jcastro> you can look at the schedule here: http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-o/
 129 [15:37] <jcastro> more questions please!
 130 [15:38] <jcastro> I have a full 20 minutes, more questions?
 131 [15:38] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: Can you highlight some of the future plans for Unity, how it will stay ahead of GNOME3 which is such close "internal competition"?
 132 [15:38] <jcastro> hmmm, I still won't know our plans into next week
 133 [15:38] <jcastro> but I can tell you some things I'd like to see us work on
 134 [15:39] <jcastro> I'd like to see us expand lenses more so people can write cooler ones
 135 [15:39] <jcastro> and I'd like to see the applications lens to be made simpler and easier to browse
 136 [15:39] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: I know that starting with 11.10 Unity 2D will probably be offered as the fall back and so also Qt in the Ubuntu ISO, so do you think that Ubuntu will start having more Qt/KDE apps in the ISO?
 137 [15:39] <jcastro> on the ISO? tough to tell
 138 [15:40] <jcastro> we're basically saying "Qt apps are welcome by default"
 139 [15:40] <jcastro> by offering Qt
 140 [15:40] <jcastro> but it will be up to application developers to make the apps awesome
 141 [15:40] <jcastro> so there probably won't be an explicit caring of wether it's Qt or GTK
 142 [15:41] <jcastro> "app developers want Qt, and we make an OS that needs app developers, so we give app developers what they way" is the basic reason there
 143 [15:41] <jcastro> !q
 144 [15:41] <ClassBot> lengoanhcat asked: what is your most feature feature of Unity ?
 145 [15:42] <jcastro> you probably mean my most favorite
 146 [15:42] <jcastro> I would say the 'gnome do like workflow"
 147 [15:42] <jcastro> I can just hit the super key
 148 [15:42] <jcastro> (that's the windows key on most keyboards)
 149 [15:42] <jcastro> and just start typing
 150 [15:42] <jcastro> and it finds what I want
 151 [15:42] <jcastro> so super+"ter" finds my terminal
 152 [15:42] <jcastro> so it basically let's me find what I need without hunting and pecking
 153 [15:43] <jcastro> it's like moving to google from using an old search engine that had categories for everything
 154 [15:43] <jcastro> and you had to click around and you couldn't find anything
 155 [15:43] <jcastro> now I can just type what I want to do
 156 [15:43] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: I understand that 'lenses' is Unity jargon that will explained in Unity session, but can you give us a brief overview about it?
 157 [15:43] <jcastro> sure
 158 [15:43] <jcastro> ok so when you hit the super key we do this overlay thing
 159 [15:43] <jcastro> it looks like a Quake terminal
 160 [15:44] <jcastro> we call that the dash. We let people write little search things for that dash via a lens
 161 [15:44] <jcastro> http://askubuntu.com/questions/38772/what-lenses-for-unity-are-available
 162 [15:44] <jcastro> so for example
 163 [15:44] <jcastro> a google books lens would search google books
 164 [15:44] <jcastro> http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/install-unity-reddit-lens-in-ubuntu-deb.html
 165 [15:45] <jcastro> a reddit lens would let you search from reddit right from the dash
 166 [15:45] <jcastro> so the idea there is to let people integrate unity with whatever web services or applications they want
 167 [15:45] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses/ has the documentation
 168 [15:45] <jcastro> and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses/Ideas has a collection of ideas of lenses people would like to see
 169 [15:45] <jcastro> (add your own to that list if you can think of something awesome)
 170 [15:46] <jcastro> lenses are small, they're vala or python
 171 [15:46] <jcastro> a python lens is about ~350 lines of code, so people can just start making tons of these things
 172 [15:46] <ClassBot> candtalan asked: what would gnome 3 have to have been, to have avoided need for unity? Is it  re the User experience?
 173 [15:46] <jcastro> sorry I can't speak hypothetically and in hindsight at the same time
 174 [15:46] <jcastro> good question for Mark though
 175 [15:46] <ClassBot> DrKenobi2 asked: have you ever think of doing a SDK like the ones Apple has?
 176 [15:47] <jcastro> http://developer.ubuntu.com/
 177 [15:47] <jcastro> we have a whole set of APIs and developer documentation that we're working on now
 178 [15:47] <jcastro> I wouldn't call it an "SDK"
 179 [15:47] <jcastro> but it's better than what we had last cycle (nothing)
 180 [15:47] <jcastro> as we mature as a platform I'm sure we'll start to see something like that
 181 [15:47] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: When building Unity, do you guys think from all perspectives? Some of us give Ubuntu computers to our family.  I would like to know if you guys sit back and think: "If I give this to my grandmother, can she use it" when building UI's.  Motive: My mother found unity quite complicated and wanted Classic Ubuntu back.
 182 [15:48] <jcastro> ah nice question
 183 [15:48] <jcastro> yes, we do extensive user testing on Unity
 184 [15:48] <jcastro> http://design.canonical.com/2011/04/unity-benchmark-usability-april-2011/
 185 [15:48] <jcastro> here is a huge report on one of our findings
 186 [15:49] <jcastro> we will continuously do user testing and use that feedback to improve unity
 187 [15:49] <ClassBot> bullgard4 asked: I heard that there will be held a GNOME Desktop summit in Berlin, Germany, on August 6-12, 2011. Who are the official Ubuntu delegates to this summit?
 188 [15:49] <jcastro> well we don't have "official delegates"
 189 [15:49] <jcastro> a bunch of just go
 190 [15:49] <jcastro> we had like ~25 people at the last GCDS
 191 [15:49] <jcastro> there will be representatives from the desktop, design, and DX teams
 192 [15:50] <jcastro> I usually go but I'll be moving this time
 193 [15:50] <jcastro> and Mark usually attends GCDS and/or GUADEC
 194 [15:50] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: What do you think about distro's such as Linux Mint, who have a version based on Ubuntu?
 195 [15:50] <jcastro> no opinion really, too busy working on ubuntu. More Free Software is always good.
 196 [15:51] <ClassBot> bullgard4 asked: Most Thinkpads do not have a "Super" key. What will be its substitute?
 197 [15:51] <jcastro> yes you can configure the key
 198 [15:51] <jcastro> and thinkpads also have a bios option that lets you set a key to super iirc
 199 [15:52] <jcastro> but yeah, in Unity let's you change that key to whatever you'd like
 200 [15:52] <jcastro> My new Thinkpad X120e came with a windows key
 201 [15:52] <ClassBot> There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
 202 [15:52] <ClassBot> candtalan asked: super key - thinkpads - just use cursor click at icon top left hand side?
 203 [15:53] <jcastro> http://askubuntu.com/questions/34145/can-i-define-keyboard-shortcuts-using-the-super-key
 204 [15:53] <jcastro> here are the instructions for that if you have a thinkpad without a super key
 205 [15:53] <ClassBot> envygeeks asked: (by way of raju) are you planning any summit in india ?
 206 [15:53] <jcastro> there was just a huge Ubuntu event in India
 207 [15:53] <jcastro> but UDS itself is usually in Europe or North America (centralized areas)
 208 [15:53] <jcastro> though I would love to go to India
 209 [15:53] <jcastro> and Brazil!
 210 [15:54] <ClassBot> sebsebseb asked: I don't really know much about the teams at Canonical, but can you explain why your on Jono's community team?
 211 [15:54] <jcastro> yes so he's the community manager
 212 [15:54] <jcastro> and the 4 of us build communities around ubuntu
 213 [15:54] <jcastro> I do external developer relations
 214 [15:54] <jcastro> daniel focuses on growing internal developers
 215 [15:54] <jcastro> like making things easier to fix, etc.
 216 [15:55] <jcastro> david grows translations and application developers
 217 [15:55] <jcastro> and kim0 (who has a session coming up after this) focuses on growing the cloud and server communities
 218 [15:55] <ClassBot> raju asked: where i can get the details of the summit in india
 219 [15:55] <jcastro> nigelb attended the summit in india, ping him on IRC
 220 [15:56] <jcastro> (you just missed it!)
 221 [15:56] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: When Ubuntu introduced upstart a few releases back to improve start-up, it was a great step in that direction. But now with alternatives like systemd coming up, will Ubuntu consider them? Is there any info regarding that?
 222 [15:56] <jcastro> we won't be looking at systemd until at least /after/ the next LTS release (12.04)
 223 [15:57] <jcastro> http://undacuvabrutha.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/why-ubuntu-should-continue-with-upstart-for-11-10/
 224 [15:57] <jcastro> this blog post should answer your questions on upstart/systemd
 225 [15:57] <ClassBot> There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
 226 [15:57] <jcastro> I have time for one more!
 227 [15:58] <ClassBot> lgp171188 asked: Fedora has pioneered something called 'Consistent Network Device naming'. Is ubuntu going to adopt that?
 228 [15:58] <jcastro> I saw that, it looks pretty awesome
 229 [15:58] <jcastro> I haven't followed server/plumbing as much as I should  have this cycle
 230 [15:58] <jcastro> you can ask someone on #ubuntu-server though
 231 [15:59] <jcastro> ok well that about wraps it up
 232 [15:59] <jcastro> thanks for all the questions, we got through a  bunch!
 233 [15:59] <jcastro> and now kim0's going to wow you with cloud.
 234 [15:59] <jcastro> so take a minute break!
 235 [16:00] <jcastro> kim0: all set?