Issue100

Revision 69 as of 2008-07-20 18:55:35

Clear message

attachment:newspaper-icon.jpg 

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #100 for the week July 13th - July 19th, 2008. In this issue we cover: UWN 100th Issue, Mark Shuttleworth podcast, UWN Past & Present Staff Podcast, Comments from Past & Present Editors, Joining the UWN staff, New Ubuntu QA team, Call for nominations for Tech Board, Alpha 3 soft freeze, Next UDS, Peru LoCo gives Ubuntu presentation at San Marcos University, Ubuntu Ireland gets local press coverage, Ubuntu Nicaragua Continues with TV shows, New Leader for Ubunt-fr, Ubuntu-UK podcast #10, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

  • Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information you need.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

In This Issue

  • Ubuntu 100th Issue
  • Mark Shuttleworth podcast

  • UWN Past & Present editors

  • Joining the UWN staff
  • New Ubuntu QA team
  • Call for nominations for Tech Board
  • Alpha 3 soft freeze
  • Next Ubuntu UDS
  • Ubuntu stats

  • LoCo news

  • Ubuntu Forums news

  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • Ubuntu-UK podcast #10
  • UWN podcast transcriptions

  • Upcoming Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

UWN 100th issue

Welcome to the 100th issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter!

The purpose of this newsletter is to let everyone know what is happening in all the different corners of the vast Ubuntu community. The first issue was unleashed 04 June 2006, a few days after the release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Since then, four releases have come out and community has grown by leaps and bounds. We, at the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, have tried to let readers know the the going-ons in the vast and growing community, including information from the different teams, LoCos, forums, mailing lists, IRC universe, and newsworthy press coverage and blogs.

It has undoubtedly been a fun and rewarding experience for all involved!

We would like to thank all our readers for all their comments and corrections (yes, we do make mistakes!) .

As always, the UWN staff welcomes any feedback.

History

Before the UWN, there were several other publications that kept the community up to date. Benjamin Mako Hill published the first Ubuntu Traffic 27 August 2004. Ubuntu Traffic was modeled after Kernel Traffic, and even used the same software. It was focused on summaries of major wiki pages, IRC, and mailing list. Mako published it weekly by himself, usually taking about a day to do. Every message sent to every Ubuntu list was read, but soon became very difficult as the community grew. The last issue of Ubuntu Traffic was released 04 February 2005.

Soon, different teams took it on themselves to improve communication internally and to communicate better with the rest of the project and followed the newsletter model to do that. Vincent Untz published the first Ubuntu Desktop Newsletter in December 2005, followed by the Ubuntu Documentation Newsletter, Kubuntu Newsletter, and Edubuntu Newsletter.

Creating separate newsletters became unwieldy quickly. All the newsletters were brought back under one roof when Matt Galvin released the first issue of the UWN on 04 June 2006.

Retrospect

Issue #1 high points:

  • New look for www.ubuntucom
  • Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu 6.06 Released
  • Paris Summit to be held at the Charles de Gaulle, Paris hotel from Monday 19th to Friday 23rd June 2006

Issue #25 high points: Contributors- Cody Somerville, Jenda Vancura, Corey Burger, Toby Smithe, Martin Albisetti, Freddy Martinez, Melissa Draper

  • Feisty Herd 1 released
  • Ubuntu-devel mailing list split into core developers, and MOTU
  • Ubuntu Canada and Ubuntu Nebraska and UbuntuAZ(South Africa)holds first meeting
  • Call for installer developers
  • Ubuntu named "King Distro for 2006" Distrowatch and Google Trends
  • Mark Shuttleworth sends an open letter to openSuse developers asking for those concerned with Novell's recent pact with Microsoft to "come join the Ubuntu project."

Issue #50 high points: Contributors - Martin Albisetti, Dawid van Wyngaard, Nick Ali, John Crawford, Corey Burger

  • Canonical working on Desktop Training courses, and ask for help from the community to develop

  • US LoCo Teams "Call to Arms!-An effort to get LoCo teams in every US state by the end of 2008

  • New in Gutsy Gibbon-Drag and Drop Gnome application tabs now featured in Gutsy Gibbon
  • Launchpad 1.1.7 released-Answer Tracker for FAQ, Personal Package Archives(PPA)
  • Canonical announces Landscape, a Web-based systems mgt. program for servers and desktops at Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, OR

Issue #75 highpoints: contributors-Nick Ali, John Crawford, Craig Eddy

  • Hardy Heron Alpha 4 Freeze announced
  • Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS Release
  • Voting open on MOTU Council Election
  • Launchpad 1.2.1 released-No more sysadmin request need to delete a PPA package
  • Dell releases XPS 1330n Ubuntu preinstalled laptops to the European Markets
  • Full Circle Magazine issue #9 available

  • Community Council decides on the concept of a LoCo Council to streamline membership approval

Mark Shuttleworth podcast

The transcript of this podcast can be found below.

UWN Past and Present Staff Podcast

Several of the past and present contributors of the UWN came together to share their experiences with the UWN in a podcast. Martin Albisetti, Cody Somerville, Joey Stanford, John Crawford, Craig Eddy, and Nick Ali discuss how they got involved, the process of creating each issue, what technologies were used, and their impressions of the UWN.

Download the podcast at <insert link here>.

A transcript of this podcast can be found below.

Special thanks to Joey Stanford for organizing the podcasts and Alan Pope for hosting and providing a glorious introduction.

Comments from the UWN Editors(Past & Present)

Cody Somerville

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is one of the few items in my mailbox that I look forward to reading each week and I'm proud to have served as the Chief Editor (Special thanks to Corey Burger for initially mentoring me into the role) for over 40 issues. It has been a huge pleasure to be able to work with some awesome folks like Corey, Nick, Martin, and Joey and equally exciting to see new faces such as Craig.

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter was my gateway drug in terms of being a Ubuntu contributor. I wouldn't be a MOTU or involved in leading Xubuntu now if it wasn't for this awesomely informative and often educational community treasure. I encourage everyone to get more involved in the UWN - its your duty as a community member Smile :)

Nick Ali

John Crawford

I began my work on the newsletter beginning with issue #48, and it's been a fun, exciting, and educational year. Ubuntu continues to grow, the community continues to excel, and we have more to report each week than ever before. Creating a finished product on a weekly basis is a challenge in itself, but thanks to the solid foundation put in place by former staff and editors, the UWN has been able to grow as Ubuntu has grown. Our thanks to all of them for their continue support and contributions, and for making our job easier.

The current staff is a fantastic group, and I'm proud to call them my friends. Each of us earned our Ubuntu memberships while working on the UWN, and now that I think about it, I don't know of any past staffer that isn't a Ubuntu member. That's pretty impressive.

Special thanks to Nick and Craig.

Martin Albisetti

UWN was the first place I got to help out in the community, thanks to Corey Burger and Cody Sommerville who where the main editors at the time, and it proved to be an entrance gate into other more complex places in the community. Having worked on the newsletter for over a year, I can truly say that it's an experience worth going through, especially if you're in your first steps in the community. It gives you a very good idea of the depth and size of the Ubuntu community, and helps you later on in any path you decide to continue on, already knowing who the key people are, and what the main processes look like.

Additionally, you also get to work with many cool people like Nick, John, Cody, Craig and Joey, and the feedback from the readers on each release is amazing.

Congratulations to all the people that made the 100 editions possible.

Craig A. Eddy

Being a part of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter has been an experience and a half. When I first joined the Arizona LoCo, I had no idea that I'd be involved in as much as I am, nor get to meet the people that I have. I have had opportunities in the past to be a part of communities, but none of them have had the camaraderie or focus that this one has. And that is amplified and concentrated in my experiences with John and Nick. A lot of work gets done, very often live in the wiki, with people jokingly kidding about hogging the wiki or mistakes and mis-types they may have made. Then I look outside the Newsletter, at some of the articles and links that the newsletter provides, and see that there's a whole community that has this easy-going, get the job done type of attitude. There's no other word I can find to express that except GREAT! Thanks, friends. And Happy One Hundredth.

Joining the UWN staff

As Ubuntu has grown, so have the number of related articles, blogs, teams, mailing lists, podcasts, etc., that the UWN staff reports on. These are exciting times for Ubuntu and our community, and you can help contribute by joining the Ubuntu Newsletter Team. Some ways to join or contribute are listed below.

  • UWN mailing list: One way to get started is to join the mailing list and post an introduction. We can then help to guide you on how to get started working for our publication. https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team

  • UWN IRC channel: Anyone can drop by the UWN news channel and ask how they can help. Just join #ubuntu-news on freenode and introduce yourself.

  • Translations: Anyone can help by translating our editions into another language. We would especially like to see our worldwide network of LoCo teams get involved with translations as a way of contributing back to the community. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

General Community News

New Ubuntu QA team

A new community-driven Ubuntu QA team has formally been created [1] and is rocking already! The Ubuntu QA team is focused on developing tools, policies, and practices for ensuring Ubuntu's quality as a distribution as well as providing general advice, oversight, and leadership of QA activities within the Ubuntu project. [2]

The idea is to enhance the awareness and contributions to QA around Ubuntu, as well as helping people interested in serious QA work find a common, collaborative, and open environment. If you are interesting in contributing or joining the Ubuntu QA team please read the team wiki page. [2]

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-July/000452.html

Call for nominations for Tech Board

The Technical Board is the custodian of technical architecture, engineering processes and technology strategy in Ubuntu. They like to make sure it represents the best combination of experience and innovation from the Ubuntu desktop, server and mobile teams, and they are welcoming nominations for additional members of the Board. Tech Board meetings happen on Tuesday every two weeks, at 14:00 UTC, though the schedule has been adjusted to accommodate the membership at times. You can find more information at the link including who to contact. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2008-July/025804.html

Alpha 3 Soft Freeze

Intrepid Alpha 3 will again use a "soft freeze" for main. This means that developers are asked to refrain from uploading packages between Tuesday and Thursday which don't bring us closer to releasing the alpha, so that these days can be used for settling the archive and fixing any remaining show stoppers. The expected release date of Intrepid Alpha 3 is next Thursday, July 24.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-July/000456.html

Next Ubuntu Developer Summit

The next Ubuntu Developer Summit will be for the 9.04 release, and will take place Monday 8th - Friday 12th, of December 2008. It will be held at the Google Campus, Mountain View, California, USA. The last time it was held at this venue we had an excellent and productive UDS, with strong participation. The date is out a little early so you can mark it in your calendars. Very soon the process will be opening up for you to register for UDS. More details can be found at wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-July/000447.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (47090) -13 # over last week
  • Critical (24) -6 # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (23622) +62 # over last week
  • Unassigned (38107) +242 # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (196101) +1322 # over last week

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translation Stats Hardy

This is the top 5, not specific languages, so the languages might change week to week.

  • Spanish (12095)
  • French (39115)
  • English (United Kingdom) (49609)
  • Swedish (52859)
  • Brazilian Portuguese (54448)

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/

LoCo News

Peru LoCo gives Ubuntu presentation at San Marcos University

July 12th - Ubuntu Peru was invited to direct talks about Ubuntu in the System and Informatic Engeniering Faculty of San Marcos University. Nicolas Valcarcel (nxvl) talked about Ubuntu’s Release process and learning from FLOSS. Michael Garrido (xander21c) talked about Ubuntu Peru, the community, and Ubuntu and the commnad line. Pictures are available at the link. http://xander21c.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/san-marcos-university-ubuntu-talks/

Ubuntu Ireland gets local press coverage

Ireland's Technology news service, Siliconrepublic: The upcoming Software Freedom Day 2008 event, organised and run by Ubuntu Ireland, will gather together all Ubuntu users from around the country and aims to educate the wider public about the benefits of free open source software (FOSS). The main event will be held at Camara’s offices in the Digital Hub in Dublin. Camara is a small charity organisation that together with volunteers takes old computers and refurbishes them with open source software before shipping these on to developing countries. Ubuntu Ireland already has its sights set on bigger plans. In the near future, they want to organise monthly events like: workshops, presentations and tutorials. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11032/cio/ubuntu-ireland-goes-for-open-source-success

Ubuntu Nicaragua Continues with Television Shows

In issue #98 we reported on Ubuntu Nicaragua working with the Nicaraguan LUG to produce their own TV show. This is a once in a lifetime chance to advocate on Nicaragua's largest television network for FOSS. Two shows are completed now, and can be found by following the links:

http://leogg.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/going-mainstream/

New leader for Ubuntu-fr

Christophe Sauthier is now the official team leader of the Ubuntu France LoCo. The team has lots of ongoing work, they had already started the transition some months earlier : new website (the transition to drupal should be done within weeks..), new projects, rework of some existing procedures with the permanent will to include more and more people in the decision process. http://www.reponses.net/blog/2008/07/18/529-new-leader-in-ubuntu-fr

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Forums News

Tutorial of the Week

This week's selection is a nifty trick for anyone who may want to access an FTP site from within a directory structure -- "[HOWTO] mount an FTP host as a filesystem using CurlFtpFS", by geco. The guide includes help for versions all the way back to Edgy, so anyone still using an earlier version of Ubuntu can give this a spin too. And recent replies suggest the instructions work on version 8.04 as well. If it sounds like something you might be interested in, geco's instructions are clear and well presented, and easy to follow. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=441126

See you in a week!

Ubuntu Forums Interview

Mark Shuttleworth has agreed to answer the "Nine Simple Questions" for the 100th issue of UWN. The questions have not been changed for him, and the funniest one is #7! This interview is quite different from the ones usually published, and as Matthew writes it "Mark Shuttleworth, in addition to being an all-around nice guy, is also a true geek at heart". Please read the whole interview here: http://matthewhelmke.net/wordpress/2008/07/13/an-interview-with-the-sabdfl/

In The Press

  • Dell is serious about Ubuntu - Dell has announced it is now officially offering consumer desktop and notebook PCs with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed. Two notebooks and one desktop join two desktop systems in Dell’s open-source product portfolio. Choices among Dell’s Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) PCs are limited, but if you want such a PC, you can order one now without having to go through the process of installing it yourself. The two available notebooks are the XPS 1330 and the Inspiron 1525 for $949 and $549, respectively. There is also an Ubuntu desktop PC – the Inspiron 530N, which is priced at $449. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38473/135

  • Proprietary software? Counsel objects - Nathan Zale Dowlen objects to proprietary software, so when he opened his new law office, he outfitted it with Ubuntu Linux and open source software. Cost was the main factor in his decision at first, but he has since come to appreciate the security found in FOSS and the ease of use found with Ubuntu. The main reason he prefers Ubuntu is the distribution's business mindset. They have a goal of market penetration and they want to be pre-loaded on manufactured machines. Many other distros just want to configure the operating system as they want, when they want, but that is not helpful for small business or the advancement of Linux. http://www.linux.com/feature/140930

  • Best Buys' $20 Ubuntu: Good or Bad for Linux? - What does the sale of the Ubuntu Hardy Heron LTS package for $20 at Best Buy mean for the Linux community? The linuxinsider gives us some of the reactions of the open source community, which includes: Mainstream legitimacy, nice to see, not a bad deal, price concerns, misses the mark, a loss for Linux, and even the idea of Canonical introducing it's own Ubuntu PC. Get all the reactions at the link. http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63777.html

  • Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS vs. 8.10 Alpha 2 Performance - Phoronix recently conducted benchmark testing between Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS and 8.10 Alpha 2. Comparing 32 different test results can be challenging, but in the end there was simply no clear winner. It was a very competitive race between these two Ubuntu releases, and in many of the real-world tests the differences would go unnoticed, but in 20 of these tests Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS was the leader. However, there is still over three months to go until Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" will be released. Look for additional Ubuntu benchmarks with an expanded selection of hardware as its final release nears. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_804_810a2&num=9

  • Ubuntu hits new high in Linux boredom(Robin 'Roblimo' Miller) - Last weekend a friend of Robin's was moaning about endless problems with Windows XP on his desktop PC. They decided to install Ubuntu 7.04 on it, and the problems went away. That started Robin thinking about his own "daily driver" computer, a Dell Latitude that also runs Ubuntu 7.04, and it made him realize that he hadn't thought about my laptop or its operating system in many months. Linux -- especially Ubuntu -- has become so reliable and simple that for most end users it's simply not worth thinking about, any more than we think about tools like wrenches and screwdrivers. Right now 8.04 is the latest Ubuntu version. Robin has stuck with 7.04 because he feels no great need to update a reliable system that does everything he asks of it. http://www.linux.com/feature/141546

  • Shuttleworth has some nice words for KDE - Given the amount of flak that the recent KDE release - 4.0 - has taken from the pro-GNOME pundits at sites like linux.com, you would think that the worst possible thing any supporter of GNOME - as Shuttleworth is perceived to be - could do is to speak out in support of anything associated with KDE. But you would be wrong. Shuttleworth is now floating the idea that there can be a QT-based GNOME. Does he then favour a switch away from GTK to QT? No, he merely thinks it would be perfectly possible to deliver the values of GNOME on top of QT. See a further explanation of Mark's stance below, In Other News. http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19456/1148/

  • Linus Torvalds, Geek of the Week - Linus Torvalds, an acknowledged godfather of the open-source movement, was just 21 when he changed the world by writing Linux. Today, 17 years later, Linux powers everything from supercomputers to mobile phones. In fact ask yourself this: if Linux didn't exist, would Google, Facebook, PHP, Apache, or MySQL? Linus uses different operating systems, but he actually doesn't care too much about the distribution, as long as it is easy to install and keep up-to-date. "I like Ubuntu." http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week/

In The Blogosphere

  • Canonical, Openbravo Set to Demo ERP for Ubuntu Linux - Ubuntu Linux isn’t just for desktop users anymore. That will be the key message when Canonical and Openbravo demonstrate open source ERP software on Ubuntu servers at Linuxworld in August. Openbravo is an open source company that focuses on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and point-of-sale (POS) software. This is a smart move by Canonical and Openbravo. It’s all about the applications for CIO's, midmarket IT managers, and solution providers. http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/07/17/canonical-openbravo-set-to-demo-erp-for-ubuntu-linux/

  • My new netbook with Ubuntu 8.04 - WatirMelon went out a picked up a new Asus Eee PC 900 with a 20 GB HD. Since his wife has already been "Ubuntized", he quickly decided to install Ubuntu. The installation process is fairly easy using a flash drive, and there are plenty of helpful howtos to tweak the system. He figures his new netbook running Ubuntu is way cooler than a Macbook Air, plus it was about 20% cheaper. http://watirmelon.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/my-new-netbook-with-ubuntu-804/

In Other News

Ubuntu-UK podcast: episode #10

Ciemon Dunville, Alan Pope, Dave Walker and Tony Whitmore bring you the 10th episode of the Ubuntu UK Podcast. "Easy come, easy go"

In this episode:

  • Discussion:
    • Watching video content on Ubuntu
    • Podcast now available in transcribed form!
    • Sarcastic News
    • Selling Ubuntu without using ‘Freedom’ in the sales pitch
  • Competition:
    • We announce the winner of the Canonical Store Voucher this month
    • We start a new competition where we give the Wraith PC from Efficient PC!

Just answer the question set out in this weeks show, and you could be the proud owner of this PC! Picture of PC at the link. http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=3413801, there seems to be some confusion on slashdot and blogosphere about this. Some interpret it as Mark wants GNOME to be able to sit on top of QT. Others think Mark meant adding GNOME-like qualities on top of QT. By email, he replied

"I was saying that, *if* GNOME decided to embrace Qt, it would be perfectly possible to deliver the user experience that we associate with GNOME, on top of Qt.

GNOME is built on a commitment to user experience (the HIG [Human Interface Guidelines, http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/]), and a desire to have LGPL libraries, which gives a great deal of flexbility to ISV's. The latter precludes Qt, but if it were to change, then GNOME could, and should, *consider* embracing Qt. I think it's reasonable to consider all the options."

Transcript of Mark Shuttleworth Podcast

Transcript of UWN Staff Podcast

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, July 21, 2008

Asia and Oceania Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting

Server Team Meeting

LoCo Council Meeting

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

QA Team Meeting

Platform Team Meeting

  • Start: 22:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Desktop Team Meeting

Java Team Meeting

  • Start: 14:00 UTC
  • End: 15:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication

Ubuntu Mobile Meeting

  • Start: 16:00 UTC
  • End: 17:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication

Thursday, July 24, 2008

MOTU Meeting

  • Start: 20:00 UTC
  • End: 21:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication

Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Archives and RSS Feed

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

You can subscribe to the Ubuntu Weekly News via RSS at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

and

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Nick Ali
  • John Crawford
  • Martin Albisetti
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • Isabelle Duchatelle
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Ideas. If you'd like to contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical support questions, please send them to ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.