Issue103

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=== Intrepid Alpha-4 ahead ===

The expected release date of Intrepid Alpha 4 is this Thursday, August 14. Intrepid Alpha 4 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,

The list of bugs targeted for alpha-4 can be found at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1322

For a full review of what's still needed, please visit the link. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000464.html
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The number of stable release updates sitting in -proposed is getting larger[1]. Thank you to all of you who worked on getting SRU bug fixes prepared and uploaded! The number of stable release updates sitting in -proposed is getting larger[1]. Thank you to everyone who has worked on getting SRU bug fixes prepared and uploaded!
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Paul Tagliamonte is Creator of Sabre (a Bluetooth plugin for amaroK) eesigned and tested for Ubuntu. He is also the creator of Qube (a CLI into libnotify) allowing shell scripters to use the attractive notification daemon. He is a Member of the Ubuntu Forum's Beginner's Team. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~paultag Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Paultag Paul Tagliamonte is the creator of Sabre (a Bluetooth plugin for amaroK) designed and tested for Ubuntu. He is also the creator of Qube (a CLI into libnotify) allowing shell scripters to use the attractive notification daemon. Paul is also a Member of the Ubuntu Forum's Beginner's Team. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~paultag Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Paultag
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Charles Davis is a Forum staff member and active member of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team / Unanswered Posts Team. He is also active in the Launchpad Beginner Team for Ubuntu. He is a member of the Ubuntu Documentation Students Team. He is currently working to improve the quality of Ubuntu's help system and Community Wiki Pages. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~charles.davis Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Old_soldier

Joe Barker has been a member of the Ubuntu Forums since the end of August 2007 and is now a Member of the Beginners Team, and the Unanswered Posts team, and just recently he became a Forum Moderator. He has also participated in the Sabre project (http://launchpad.net/sabre). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~Joeb454 Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Joeb454

Bryan Quigley is a long standing volunteer for the New Jersey LoCo team and has been to almost every event. He has helped triage bugs, answered many support questions (more off than on launchpad), and made several blueprints. He is a very active advocate of free software (check
reference of participation in events). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~gQuigs Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gquigs

Ted Gould has participated in the Desktop team, He has given promotion talks on Ubuntu at several FOSS orientes events (SCaLE, Ubuntu Open Week, OSCON). he has also participated in packaging and maintenance for GNOME Power Manager and GNOME Screensaver in ubuntu. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~ted-gould Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TedGould

Emma Jane Hogbin is a very active member of the FOSS community. Her participation ranges from being a member of the Ubuntu Women team, conference speaker (Drupal``Con, Lug``Radio Live, amongst others), she has chaired conferences and participates in Hardware recycling programs. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~emmajane Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmmaJane
Charles Davis is a Forum staff member and active member of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team/Unanswered Posts Team. He is also active in the Launchpad Beginner Team for Ubuntu, and a member of the Ubuntu Documentation Students Team. Paul is currently working to improve the quality of Ubuntu's help system and Community Wiki Pages. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~charles.davis Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Old_soldier

Joe Barker has been a member of the Ubuntu Forums since the end of August 2007. He is now a Member of the Beginners Team/Unanswered Posts team, and just recently he became a Forum Moderator. Paul has also participated in the Sabre project (http://launchpad.net/sabre). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~Joeb454 Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Joeb454

Bryan Quigley is a long standing volunteer for the New Jersey Lo``Co team and has been to almost every event. He has helped triage bugs, answered many support questions, and made several blueprints. Bryan is a very active advocate of free software (check reference of participation in events). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~gQuigs Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gquigs

Ted Gould has participated in the Desktop team. He has given promotional talks on Ubuntu at several FOSS orientes events (SCaLE, Ubuntu Open Week, OSCON). Ted has also participated in packaging and maintenance for GNOME Power Manager and GNOME Screensaver in ubuntu. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~ted-gould Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TedGould

Emma Jane Hogbin is a very active member of the FOSS community. Her participation ranges from being a member of the Ubuntu Women team, conference speaker (Drupal``Con, Lug``Radio Live, amongst others), chairing conferences and participation in Hardware recycling programs. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~emmajane Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmmaJane
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James Westby (james_w) is now an Ubuntu Universe Contributor. Please join us in welcoming our very own MOTU School Dean, to the Ubuntu Universe Contributors team. James has been James Westby (james_w) is now an Ubuntu Universe Contributor. Please join us in welcoming our very own MOTU School Dean to the Ubuntu Universe Contributors team. James has been
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The team will not spending a lot of time adding features to this tree. It is basically a rebase of all of the patches on top of the latest kernel in linux-2.6 upstream git. Our patches are consolidated and given some consistency (and a few pushed upstream). At regular intervals, binary packages of this tree will be made available (usually at -rc milestones from upstream). In fact, the first installment of these are now available at: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/pub/next/2.6.27-rc2/ The team will not be spending a lot of time adding features to this tree. It is basically a rebase of all of the patches on top of the latest kernel in linux-2.6 upstream git. Our patches are consolidated and given some consistency (and a few pushed upstream). At regular intervals, binary packages of this tree will be made available (usually at -rc milestones from upstream). In fact, the first installment of these are now available at: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/pub/next/2.6.27-rc2/
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## Bug stats only take a second to do.
## Data can be found at: http://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs
## See last week's UWN to calculate change over last week.
## NOTE: To be done ONLY on the release date of the UWN (or latter if late).

    * Open (#) +/- # over last week
    * Critical (#) +/- # over last week
    * Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
    * Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
    * All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # over last week
 * Open (46760) -416 # over last week
 * Critical (26) +1 # over last week
 * Unconfirmed (22266) -680 # over last week
 * Unassigned (37622) -464 # over last week
 * All bugs ever reported (200126) +1986 # over last week
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## Translation stats only take a second to do.
## Data can be found at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy (or current release)
## See last week's UWN to calculate change over last week.
## NOTE: To be done ONLY on the release date of the UWN (or latter if late).
## List the top 5 untranslated languages.

 1. Language (#) +/- # over last week
 2. Language (#) +/- # over last week
 3. Language (#) +/- # over last week
 4. Language (#) +/- # over last week
 5. Language (#) +/- # over last week
 * Spanish (11958)
 * English-UK (32228)
 * French (39151)
 * Brazilian Portuguese (50113)
 * Swedish (52880)
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=== 5-a-day bug stats ===

This is the top 5 for the past 7 days

 * odd-rationale (250)
 * nick.ellery (108)
 * kennym-safe-mail (101)
 * jibel (101)
 * mcisternas (82)

This is the top 5 teams for the past 7 days

 * club-ubuntu (152)
 * ubuntu-michigan (108)
 * indian-team (15)
 * motuscience (13)
 * ubuntu-us-or (12)

=== Global Bug Jam stats ===

This is the top 5 for the past 7 days

 * club-ubuntu.org-GBJ08 (464)
 * global-august-08-chile (176)
 * global-august-08-pdx (53)
 * global-august-08-michigan (49)
 * GBJ-Aug08-India (38)

5 A Day and Global Bug Jam stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/ for a more complete breakdown.
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 * Giving new life to old computers - C.M. Boots-Faubert raises the age-old question: what do you do with a computer that no longer suits your needs? The answer, of course, is to give it to a child that has none, loaded with a secure operating system like Xubuntu which makes it appear to run faster than it ever did before. Not only that, but it comes with email and web browser, Abiword for doing homework and, oh yes, games. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/BIZ/808050303  * Giving new life to old computers - C.M. Boots-Faubert raises the age-old question: What do you do with a computer that no longer suits your needs? The answer, of course, is to give it to a child that has none, loaded with a secure operating system like Xubuntu which makes it appear to run faster than it ever did before. Not only that, but it comes with email and web browser, Abiword for doing homework and, oh yes, games. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/BIZ/808050303
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## Any news from any Ubuntu Team listed here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/January2008 be sure to udate to current month.

== Upcoming Meetings and Events ==

## Data pulled from mailing lists and http://fridge.ubuntu.com
## Either use bullets or sub-headings to organize content.
## Format:
##
## === Friday, March 16, 2007 ===
##
## ==== MOTU Meeting ====
## * Start: 10:00
## * End: 12:00
## * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
## * Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Meetings
=== Tuesday, August 12, 2008 ===

==== Server Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 15:00 UTC
 * End: 16:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

=== Wednesday, August 13, 2008 ===

==== QA Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 17:00 UTC
 * End: 18:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== Platform Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 22:00 UTC
 * End: 23:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

=== Thursday, August 14, 2008 ===

==== Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 12:00 UTC
 * End: 13:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== Desktop Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 13:00 UTC
 * End: 14:00 UTC
 * IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== Ubuntu Java Team Meeting ====

 * Start: 14:00 UTC
 * End: 15:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== Ubuntu Classroom Session ====

 * Start: 22:00 UTC
 * End: 23:00 UTC
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom
 * Agenda: How to merge from Debian - Hosted by Nathan Handler
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 * Your Name Here  * Arlan Vennefron
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 1. PBX - Private branch exchange: a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office.

newspaper-icon.jpg

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #103 for the week August 3rd - August 9th, 2008. In this issue we cover ...

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

General Community News

Intrepid Alpha-4 ahead

The expected release date of Intrepid Alpha 4 is this Thursday, August 14. Intrepid Alpha 4 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,

The list of bugs targeted for alpha-4 can be found at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1322

For a full review of what's still needed, please visit the link. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000464.html

Ubuntu Studio is looking for help.

If you have an interest in multimedia applications, such as Inkscape, Ardour, Blender, Audacity, GIMP, etc., then Ubuntu Studio would like to hear from you. They are looking for people who can package, or would like to learn packaging, people who can help design the look of the website and people who have documentation skills. Join the team at #ubuntustudio-devel, or introduce yourself on the mailing list:https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-devel/2008-August/000749.html

SRU needs you!

The number of stable release updates sitting in -proposed is getting larger[1]. Thank you to everyone who has worked on getting SRU bug fixes prepared and uploaded!

Packages in -proposed are ready to be moved to -updates after one week in -proposed and 2 positive verifications (as comments in the bug report) and no negatives. This means verification is often the bottleneck and why we're asking for help. A short howto is:

  • read the SRU bug report and verify that you can reproduce the bug. Many reports should have explicit test cases you can follow.
  • install the package(s) from -proposed
  • repeat step 1 and verify that the bug is fixed
  • add both positive and negative results on the SRU bug report

If you have any questions on SRU verifications please ask in #ubuntu-testing. Steve Beattie (sbeattie) is the teams SRU rock star and would love to help you get started.

[1] http://people.ubuntu.com/~ubuntu-archive/pending-sru.html

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000463.html

New Ubuntu Members

Americas Board

Paul Tagliamonte is the creator of Sabre (a Bluetooth plugin for amaroK) designed and tested for Ubuntu. He is also the creator of Qube (a CLI into libnotify) allowing shell scripters to use the attractive notification daemon. Paul is also a Member of the Ubuntu Forum's Beginner's Team. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~paultag Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Paultag

Michael Rooney is an active participant in the Bugsquad and Bugcontrol teams, he also manages the irc bot Eeebotu, which resides in #ubuntu-bugs-announce and announces bugs in Ubuntu as they come in. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~michael Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MikeRooney

Charles Davis is a Forum staff member and active member of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team/Unanswered Posts Team. He is also active in the Launchpad Beginner Team for Ubuntu, and a member of the Ubuntu Documentation Students Team. Paul is currently working to improve the quality of Ubuntu's help system and Community Wiki Pages. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~charles.davis Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Old_soldier

Joe Barker has been a member of the Ubuntu Forums since the end of August 2007. He is now a Member of the Beginners Team/Unanswered Posts team, and just recently he became a Forum Moderator. Paul has also participated in the Sabre project (http://launchpad.net/sabre). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~Joeb454 Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Joeb454

Bryan Quigley is a long standing volunteer for the New Jersey LoCo team and has been to almost every event. He has helped triage bugs, answered many support questions, and made several blueprints. Bryan is a very active advocate of free software (check reference of participation in events). Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~gQuigs Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gquigs

Ted Gould has participated in the Desktop team. He has given promotional talks on Ubuntu at several FOSS orientes events (SCaLE, Ubuntu Open Week, OSCON). Ted has also participated in packaging and maintenance for GNOME Power Manager and GNOME Screensaver in ubuntu. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~ted-gould Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TedGould

Emma Jane Hogbin is a very active member of the FOSS community. Her participation ranges from being a member of the Ubuntu Women team, conference speaker (DrupalCon, LugRadio Live, amongst others), chairing conferences and participation in Hardware recycling programs. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~emmajane Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmmaJane

The Americas board is delighted to present these new Ubuntu Members!

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000144.html

MOTU News

James Westby (james_w) is now an Ubuntu Universe Contributor. Please join us in welcoming our very own MOTU School Dean to the Ubuntu Universe Contributors team. James has been active in development for some time, has restored MOTU School to an institution of learning, and much, much more. Launchpad: https://edge.launchpad.net/~james-w Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JamesWestby

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-motu/2008-August/004382.html

Kernel Team

Ubuntu Kernel Next

Normally in Ubuntu's development cycle, work on the kernel doesn't begin for a release until that release opens for development. This time around however, the kernel team is starting something new. Now that 2.6.26 is released, and the kernel in Intrepid/8.10 (our current development cycle) is pretty stable, we have opened up a new git tree called ubuntu-next. Do not confuse this with linux-next, they are different concepts.

The team will not be spending a lot of time adding features to this tree. It is basically a rebase of all of the patches on top of the latest kernel in linux-2.6 upstream git. Our patches are consolidated and given some consistency (and a few pushed upstream). At regular intervals, binary packages of this tree will be made available (usually at -rc milestones from upstream). In fact, the first installment of these are now available at: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/pub/next/2.6.27-rc2/

There are some things to remember when using this kernel, and they can be found here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2008-August/002868.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (46760) -416 # over last week
  • Critical (26) +1 # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (22266) -680 # over last week
  • Unassigned (37622) -464 # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (200126) +1986 # over last week

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

Infamous Bugs

Translation Stats Hardy

  • Spanish (11958)
  • English-UK (32228)
  • French (39151)
  • Brazilian Portuguese (50113)
  • Swedish (52880)

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

5-a-day bug stats

This is the top 5 for the past 7 days

  • odd-rationale (250)
  • nick.ellery (108)
  • kennym-safe-mail (101)
  • jibel (101)
  • mcisternas (82)

This is the top 5 teams for the past 7 days

  • club-ubuntu (152)
  • ubuntu-michigan (108)
  • indian-team (15)
  • motuscience (13)
  • ubuntu-us-or (12)

Global Bug Jam stats

This is the top 5 for the past 7 days

  • club-ubuntu.org-GBJ08 (464)
  • global-august-08-chile (176)
  • global-august-08-pdx (53)
  • global-august-08-michigan (49)
  • GBJ-Aug08-India (38)

5 A Day and Global Bug Jam stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/ for a more complete breakdown.

LoCo News

Ubuntu Love Day Manila 2008

The Ubuntu Philippines Local Community Team (Ubuntu-PH), and the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Computer Science are holding an Ubuntu sharing event on August 23, 2008. Geared toward Ubuntu enthusiasts, it's an opportunity for people to share their experiences in using Ubuntu in everyday computing. Six resource people are slated to present talks:

  1. The Ubuntu 30 day challenge - Aileen Apolo (Google)
  2. Ubuntu on virtualization and integrating to a Windows Network - Wallen Tan
  3. Ubuntu: Saving lives (and then some) - Charo Nuguid
  4. Choice is Good! Welcome to the Exciting, Productive and Wacky World of Ubuntu Derivatives - members of UP Linux Users' Group (UnPLUG)
  5. Ubuntu and the OLPC XO-1 - Rowen Remis Iral (OLPCPH)
  6. Kubuntu & KDE: Contributing to an International Software Project - Juan Carlos Torres (KDE Project)

Due to the limited space, tickets for the event have already been fully allocated. http://ubuntuloveday2008.eventbrite.com/

New in Intrepid Ibex

Encrypted Private Directories

Do you have sensitive data on your computer? Perhaps a file containing all of your passwords? Financial spreadsheets or GPG/SSH keys? Are you concerned about someone reading these files should your PC or laptop be stolen? In Ubuntu’s Intrepid Ibex development cycle, the Ubuntu Server Team is implementing support for an encrypted private directory in each user’s home. The underlying technology is a cryptographic virtual filesystem in the Linux kernel called eCryptfs.

Testers wanted! Most of the integration of Encrypted Private Directories has been completed in Intrepid, and now we’re looking for some proactive Ubuntu users to test this functionality before the legions of Ubuntu users begin trusting this technology with their personal data. With your help, hopefully we can shake out any remaining functionality or usability issues.

Please follow the complete, step-by-step, up-to-date instructions in the wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EncryptedPrivateDirectory#head-4a2aa7460fdca18bfe78bb1283becff406bbc13c

For a more in depth discussion and information on where to file bugs, visit this link: http://dustinkirkland.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/encrypted-private-directories-in-ubuntu-intrepid/

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Forums News

In The Press

  • Linux World Expo Awards (Best Desktop Solution: Ubuntu Desktop Edition 8.04 LTS) - Judged by a group of respected industry experts, the LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards recognize product and service innovations by LinuxWorld® and Next-Generation Data Center™ (NGDC™) Conference & Expo exhibitors. The winners were recognized during a ceremony at the event on Tuesday, August 5. http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/media//news/CC969855

  • Ubuntu attracts the lion's share of LinuxWorld's smaller crowds - Michael Hatamoto noted that the Ubuntu booth seemed to attract more people than other booths. Their presentations and training sessions were heavily attended in a year when overall attendance was sparse. See a pic of the Canonica/Ubuntu booth at the link. http://www.betanews.com/article/Ubuntu_attracts_the_lions_share_of_LinuxWorlds_smaller_crowds/1218146689

  • Ubuntu Goes Enterprise - Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols explains that Ubuntu is about to release business software stacks for Small-to-Medium sized Businesses (SMB) and enterprises. Some of the preloaded software intended to be released by 2009 is the IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) which includes Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony and Lotus Sametime. Another offering will be the Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.5. And still a third will be Unison, which is a combination desktop and server package. http://www.cio.com/article/441702/

  • A Penguin with an Egg: Growing the Open-Source Community - Esther Schindler relates some of her experiences at the Open Source Convention (OSCON). She discusses how to include more than just developers in the community, and getting people to contribute in other ways than by just coding. This included talking to Mark Shuttleworth about attracting participants and interacting and integrating with upstream software providers. Other discussions included the role of women in Open Source, and community management. Also mentioned in the article is the Open Web Foundation, and how it tries to encourage data as well as open source code to be available everywhere. Some of this involves untangling licensing definitions. Read more at http://www.cio.com/article/441165/

  • Leadership Lessons: Passion, Smarts and What Open Source Can Learn About Management - Esther Schindler spoke to Mark Shuttleworth from Ubuntu, Jon Sobel (SourceForge group president) and Ross Turk (community manager for SourceForge.net) about management and the open source community. One of the things that Ms. Schindler discovered is that there doesn't appear to be any training for managers in open source projects. And now it's time for open source to step up and innovate new methods of managing and training managers. http://advice.cio.com/esther_schindler/leadership_lessons

  • Giving new life to old computers - C.M. Boots-Faubert raises the age-old question: What do you do with a computer that no longer suits your needs? The answer, of course, is to give it to a child that has none, loaded with a secure operating system like Xubuntu which makes it appear to run faster than it ever did before. Not only that, but it comes with email and web browser, Abiword for doing homework and, oh yes, games. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/BIZ/808050303

In The Blogosphere

  • Canonical Preparing Virtual Ubuntu Server Appliances - The Var Guy briefly explains how Ubuntu is simplifying the installation of server applications in virtual server appliances. The application stacks ride on top of the virtualization software without the need of special hardware beyond that traditionally used. Read more at http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/08/07/canonical-preparing-virtual-ubuntu-server-appliances/

  • Installfest: Untangle, Ubuntu Linux Saves 750 PCs From Landfills - Joe Panettieri has the final numbers from the Installfest at LinuxWorld Expo. In an effort backed by Untangle and its partners, Ubuntu was installed on 750 used computers, resulting in an estimated savings of $375,000 over buying new PC's with Windows Vista installed. This helps kids and the environment. http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/08/07/untangle-ubuntu-linux-save-750-pcs-from-landfills/

  • A practical experience: Fedora vs Ubuntu - The author of the blog site Journihilism compares Fedora and Ubuntu based on some personal preferences but without giving a definitive choice. His purpose appears to be more toward showing the strengths of each distribution. In his opinion, Ubuntu is easy to use, whereas Fedora is more stable and secure, however Ubuntu has a means of getting the codecs one needs where Fedora doesn't. http://journihilism.net/2008/08/a-practical-experience-fedora-vs-ubuntu/

  • How Dell and System76’s Ubuntu Machines Stack Up to Their Mac Counterparts - Andrew Min compares prices and features of similarly equipped Mac, System76 and Dell(loaded with Ubuntu) computers in 4 different categories. Prices were somewhat comparable in the mini and low-end laptop categories. But the System76 Serval took the high-end category and the Dell Inspiron 530N with Ubuntu installed took the desktop category. See the breakdown at: http://www.dawningvalley.com/2008/08/how-dell-and-system76s-ubuntu-machines-stack-up-to-their-mac-counterparts/

In Other News

Announcements

Canonical to Offer Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop through Ubuntu Partner Repository

Zimbra has announced that Canonical, will give users direct access to Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop through the Ubuntu Partner Repository. The inclusion of Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop in the Ubuntu Partner Repository provides Ubuntu users with best-of-breed collaboration technology that is built natively for the Linux platform. With Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop, Ubuntu users will have access to Yahoo! Mail, Gmail™, AOL Mail and any IMAP or POP enabled e-mail account, such as work, personal and school accounts, from the same place, even when they are not connected to the Internet. Additionally, Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop allows people to use the iCal standard to take their calendar offline. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/zimbra-desktop

Unison™ released for Ubuntu: bringing unified communications to Linux

Unison is a Small to Midsized Business (SMB) server and desktop solution for unifying communications. It integrates all major communications onto a single – Unison Server – which powers e-mail, instant messaging, a PBX, contacts and calendaring. Users access the server via Unison Desktop, a native application for Ubuntu or Windows, which gives them all communications in one place. With Unison Desktop, business workers are more productive because they waste less time managing and searching for messages and instead focus on their work. Running on a single Ubuntu server, Unison is more reliable and cost-effective, and because it includes an integrated PBX, e-mail and instant messaging system, companies do not need to purchase and maintain multiple expensive servers in order to communicate. The software is initially targeted at small and midsized businesses (SMBs) with 20 to 1000 staff and will be available through the partners repositories. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/unison-unified-communications

Canonical To Offer Alfresco Labs Pre-Packaged through Ubuntu Partner Repository

Alfresco Software, Inc. and Canonical are teaming up to offer Alfresco Labs 3 within a pre-built software download as part of its partner repository. Using the simple apt-get command, end-users can execute a full installation, with all drivers and relevant dependencies pre-packaged. This move provides Alfresco with a new platform from which to reach a rapidly expanding Ubuntu user-base. Alfresco has seen major adoption of its open source ECM system throughout the world. With this partnership, users will have a great opportunity to assess Alfresco on Ubuntu, and see the benefits these two great Open Source solutions can bring to organizations. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/alfresco-enterprise-content-management

IBM, Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell, Red Hat to Deliver Microsoft-Free Desktops Worldwide

IBM, Canonical/Ubuntu, RedHat and Novell are teaming up to deliver Microsoft-free desk-top computing to the world by 2009. Citing shifting market forces and the growing demand for economical alternatives to costly Windows and Office-based computers, the four leaders sense an ideal set of circumstances allowing Linux-based desktops to proliferate in the coming year. The four leaders are working with their local business partners in markets around the world to build and distribute a pre-loaded PC offerings that features IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution, including Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony and Lotus Sametime; the Linux operating system of each distributor; and software applications and installation services from the local partners in each market. These solutions would be tailored to the needs of customers in specific industries and sectors http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ibm-canonicalubuntu-novell-red-hat/story.aspx?guid={F6BECEDE-0833-4FA6-83D7-4EBA7A79337E}&dist=hppr

Internet Labs opened by Ecuador President Rafael Correa

In a display of cooperation between LoCos, Jorge Alvarez from the Ubuntu Nevada LoCo team provided some pictures to the Ecuador LoCo of Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, opening some internet labs in the Guasmo Area of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The Computers are running the best OS available, Uubntu, thus showing the commitment to Software Libre that the government of Ecuador has. Pictures at the link show some of the lab and President Correa. http://ecubuntu.com/?p=1347

Linux Foundation launches killer development tool

AppChecker, now in Beta 3, gives you the opportunity to test an application for compatibility with different versions of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) and against all the Linux distributions in the LSB Database. The results are presented in a report showing the compatibility of the application with the various distributions, and what libraries and interfaces it uses. It will even allow you to put your program in for LSB certification straight from the test program. Amanda McPherson warns, "This is a beta program and there's no guarantee, but yes, if AppChecker says your program should work with, say, Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04, then your application should work on these distributions. The results can get very granular. It will tell you this library or this interface isn't available in this distribution. It can also recommend some replacements." AppChecker is not a debugger, but it does provide the programmer with information that could make the application more portable. http://www.linux.com/feature/144170

Ubuntu and RepRap

As reported in the UWN #95, RepRap 1.0 "Darwin" is a rapid prototyping machine that is capable of making the majority of its own component parts. As a follow up of that article, here is a link to UWN #95, and some pictures showing RepRap running the Ubuntu OS.

http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Meeting Summaries

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Server Team Meeting

  • Start: 15:00 UTC
  • End: 16:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

QA Team Meeting

  • Start: 17:00 UTC
  • End: 18:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Platform Team Meeting

  • Start: 22:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

  • Start: 12:00 UTC
  • End: 13:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Desktop Team Meeting

  • Start: 13:00 UTC
  • End: 14:00 UTC
  • IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Ubuntu Java Team Meeting

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

Ubuntu Classroom Session

  • Start: 22:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom
  • Agenda: How to merge from Debian - Hosted by Nathan Handler

Community Spotlight

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

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

UWN #: A sneak peek

Archives and RSS Feed

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Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

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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
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • Dave Bush
  • Arlan Vennefron
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

  1. PBX - Private branch exchange: a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office.

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.

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue103 (last edited 2008-08-10 22:44:08 by 78)