Issue106
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue ## for the week MONTH DAY - DAY, YEAR. In this issue we cover ...
UWN Translations
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In This Issue
General Community News
Xfce 4.6-beta is now available for Intrepid users
Ubuntu new Xubuntu developer, Michael Casadevall, has been working to package Xfce 4.6-beta (4.5.80) for Intrepid. He feels it has reached the point where its worth announcing an open beta test for Xfce 4.6-beta, both to find Xubuntu bugs, and any Xfce release issues. It has been a fairly massive rewrite of some major sections of Xfce, so it is now a good time for a shakedown cruise to find any issues with this release, and work towards filing the bugs upstream. In addition, the team has used this opportunity to port some of the Xubuntu specifc patches such as the unified logout screen.
It should be stressed that these packages are still extremely experimental, and are not recommended for day-to-day use yet, or by non-developers. If you are running Intrepid, you can install Xfce 4.6-beta by adding the following line to your sources.list: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/ubuntu intrepid main You can learn more about how to help on this new project by visiting the link. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2008-August/006494.html
Second Ubuntu Developer Week!
The second Ubuntu Developer Week will be held from Sept. 1st to Sept. 5th in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net. There are Wiki docs, MOTU Videos, MOTU Interviews, and the developers are seeing more and more contributors each day. This is all great, but there’s nothing like talking to real people, and asking real questions in a real-time environment. The Ubuntu Developer Week is designed to give you an overview of what’s going on in the Ubuntu Developer world. Speak to the developers, learn, ask questions and finally realise: “It’s true, I can make a difference by helping out here."
A partial listing of some of the fantastic sessions are: Packaging 101, Upstream bug linkages, Introduction to MOTU, How do I fix and Ubuntu bug, Using Launchpad web service API, Updating a package properly, Introduction to PPAs, Ask Matt Zimmerman, and many, many more!
Ubuntu Developer Week Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek
How to join in on the fun: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek/JoiningIn
Ubuntu Developer Guidelines: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek/Rules
http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1629
Intrepid Feature Freeze
On August 28th, Intrepid entered feature freeze. Requests for freeze exceptions for main should be filed as bugs in Launchpad against the relevant package (or just "Ubuntu" if the package is not available yet). Once the bug is filed and the necessary information is available, please subscribe the ubuntu-release team. For universe, the motu-release team will approve new packages and upstream version freeze exceptions between now and the Beta. Please see this wiki page for full details: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000474.html
New Ubuntu Member
Asia Oceania Board
Aanjhan from Chennai, India has been a regular contributor for Ubuntu India Team and has conducted various awareness sessions across Universities/Events, the notable being Ubuntu/Debian Day at foss in 2007. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~aanjhan Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Aanjhan
The Asia Oceania board is happy to welcome this new Ubuntu Member!
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000165.html
MOTU News
Iain Lane has been involved in bug triage for the past six months, and active in development for the past two. He has been helping out with all sorts of MOTU work, and MOTU Council has determined he meets the requirements for Contributing Developer. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~laney Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IainLane
MOTU application: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-August/001400.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000167.html
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (#) +/- # over last week
- Critical (#) +/- # over last week
- Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
- Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
- All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # 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
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/
LoCo News
El Salvador Ubuntu LoCo Team announces Ubucon El Salvador
Saturday September 6th the Ubuntu El Salvador LoCo team will be hosting an Ubucon at Universidad Evangelica de El Salvador from 9:00 AM to 2:15 PM local time. An Ubucon is a community driven, community organised event that is all about Ubuntu. These events often include a number of speakers, BOF sessions, demos, social events and more, and they are excellent ways to grow the Ubuntu community in your area, and to build an interesting and fun event. Ubucons are different to large Linux expos and conferences in that they are uniquely community focused and driven, and uniquely Ubuntu. http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/archives/2008/08/27/ubucon-san-salvador-on-saturday-sept-6th-save-the-date/
New in Hardy Heron
Launchpad News
Ubuntu Forums News
In The Press
Learn more at Ubuntu Developer Week - Starting Monday, September 1, and running through Friday, September 5, there will be a second Ubuntu Developer Week. You are invited to join #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net. A timetable is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek, along with further instructions. How to join in can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek/JoiningIn including how to ask questions. http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2872
Dell's new low-end strategy for emerging markets includes Linux - Jacqueline Emigh of BetaNews reports that emerging markets are about to get some help. Dell has come up with 2 new desktops and 2 new laptops, loaded with Ubuntu, to meet the needs of governmental and educational organizations, and small businesses. These products will be available world-wide. According to Kirk Schell of Dell's commercial products division, Dell's new Vostros for emerging markets have been specifically designed in accordance with customer requests for affordability and easy operability. http://www.betanews.com/article/Dells_new_lowend_strategy_for_emerging_markets_includes_Linux/1219962684
Really free Linux takes hold - Bill Snyder, of InfoWorld, describes how a German television and radio station have switched to a community driven Linux distribution, rather than a commercially supported one for it's servers. Cutting costs was one factor, but a rise in internal expertise was just as important. From the other side, distributions like Ubuntu are gaining ground on the desktop and could edge into the server market, too. Snyder feels that this could be the beginning of a move toward community supported distributions. http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/08/really_free_lin.html
Ubuntu gets major security fix - A security vulnerability was discovered which primarily affects computers that can be directly accessed, such as through SSH. A kernel patch has been issued by Ubuntu for releases 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04 of Ubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu. This patch also addresses other, less critical security issues. Ubuntu users are urged to update their systems. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2224707/ubuntu-gets-major-security-fix
In The Blogosphere
http://jameswestby.net/weblog/ubuntu/02-making-intrepid-solid.html
http://syntux.net/blog/2008/08/28/boosting-the-translation-process/
http://www.workswithu.com/2008/08/27/calling-all-ubuntu-linux-users-and-administrators/
http://www.workswithu.com/2008/08/25/5-factors-making-ubuntu-server-business-ready/#more-222
In Other News
Full Circle Magazine - Issue #16 - out now!
Full Circle Magazine Issue #16 is now available from their web site. Articles include:
- Command and Conquer - Creating And Moving Files.
- How-To : Create Your Own Ubuntu, Create Your Own Server Part 8, Using GIMP Part 5 and GNOME-Look Guide.
- My Story - Out With The New, In With The Old
- My Opinion - GNOME And KDE Themes
- MOTU Interview - Jamie Strandboge
- Top 5 - Twitter Clients
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000172.html
New Distribution Release: Ubuntu Christian Edition 4.0
Ubuntu Christian Edition is back, with BibleTime and a bunch of resources for BibleTime and GnomeSword. Also, it's replaced OpenOffice.org with GNOME Office to keep the ISO size down. A new, cleaner website has also been created. The distribution can be downloaded from http://mirror.oc.edu/lfc/Ubuntu_8.04_i386_Christian_Edition_v4.0.iso. More information can be found at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05053
While there are many sites devoted to news about Gnome and KDE, there's almost no way to get news about Xfce short of subscribing to the mailing list. The Xubuntu Blog hasn't posted a new article in a month. The Xfce Dev Blog hasn't posted in five months. And there's no Planet Xfce like there is a Planet Gnome or Planet KDE. At least, there wasn't. Now, however, there's an Xfce Reddit devoted to all news Xfce/Xubuntu. Of course, aggregators like Xfce Reddit only work if users submit news to them. So start submitting! http://www.reddit.com/r/xfce/
Meeting Summaries
http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/server-team-20080826-meeting-minutes/
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Community Spotlight
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
UWN #: A sneak peek
Archives and RSS Feed
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Additional Ubuntu News
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Conclusion
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Credits
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Glossary of Terms
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