Issue133

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## Make each article a subsection, via ===
## These are big articles that don't fit within another section
=== Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6 released ===

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-March/000551.html

=== Ubuntu Testing Day: Notify-OSD ===

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/37

=== Ubuntu Education ===

http://matthewhelmke.net/2009/03/11/ubuntu-education/

=== News from the MOTU Council ===
[[FabriceCoutadeur|Fabrice Coutadeur]] joined the ranks of the Ubuntu Contributing Developers. He has done a great job overall and we're happy he is part of the team. One of his primary interests is video editing.

[[rgreening|Roderick Greening]] joined the MOTU team. His great work in the Kubuntu community did not go unnoticed and we're happy to have a new MOTU on board.

[[AndreasWenning|Andreas Wenning]] did amazing work in the Kubuntu team and we're very happy he joined the MOTU team.
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=== gmail filters for bug email ===

http://blog.launchpad.net/bug-tracking/gmail-filters-for-launchpad-bug-email

=== Inside Launchpad AJAX sprint ===

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/inside-the-launchpad-ajax-sprint-a-week-with-widgets-and-yui-3
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## This section is provided to include any interesting updates from the Ubuntu Forums.
=== Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team (UFBT) ===

UFBT has taken a step forward, with guidance from BodhiZazen, and collaborates with Ubuntu Classroom. They offer IRC events and courses, held in #ubuntu-classroom. Events are less formal, based on a Q&A format or a one day topic. A course is more formal, including series of sessions all related to the same topic (Python 101, Python 201, etc). Upcoming topics are Security, Packaging, How to use LP, How to triage bug reports, How to stay current with Ubuntu Events/Community, How to IRC (clients, registration, channels, etc). Not all potential topics have been scheduled yet. The first two events will be on Security (March 19th and March 26th, see the Events link below for an actual schedule). See you there !

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom

Events: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Events

Courses: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Schedule

Proposed topics (feel free to add): https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Proposals

UF discussion thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1093535

== The Planet ===

=== Canonical QA Desktop Automation Sprint ===

http://ubuntu-mobile-edition.blogspot.com/2009/03/desktop-automation.html

=== Ubuntu Women project status ===

http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1489

=== Ubuntu Drupal 6.2.0 released ===

http://profarius.com/content/ubuntu-drupal-620-released

=== Patches, patches, patches ===

http://castrojo.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/patches-patches-patches-mushrooms/
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## Things Ubuntu-specific are great, but general Linux goings-on are good to, to an extent.
## We don't need to replicate Digg & Slashdot, but certain things are of special interest.
## Just pulling one example from my memory, the story about Indiana schools piloting
## a classroom Linux deployment, a portion of which was Ubuntu, are good. Ubuntu
## release reviews are also common items in this section.
=== Ubuntu 9.10 sees the cloud above the trees ===

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23719/1141/

=== Ubuntu/Kubuntu Jaunty Alpha 6 screen shot tour ===

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-9-04-Alpha-6-Screenshot-Tour-106631.shtml

=== System76 Serval Professional Notebook ===

Michael Larabel of phoronix says that finding a laptop that can run Linux is no longer much of a challenge. A majority off the shelf PCs shipping with Windows can easily have their operating system replaced with Linux and chances are most, if not all, of the components will "just work" on this open-source operating system, while ill-supported parts can usually be configured to work in just a few steps. For those looking to save time or avoid a potential headache, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and other major vendors have been offering Linux notebooks for some time now. One of the smaller vendors that has been offering Ubuntu Linux notebooks (along with desktops and servers) is System76 Inc. System76 recently released their Serval Professional notebook with a 15.4" screen which is available with a 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1200 display, and can be configured along with a NVIDIA Ge``Force or NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics processor. Some of the other components include Gigabit LAN, 802.11 a/g/n Wi``Fi, Bluetooth, Express Card, a built-in 2.0 mega-pixel web camera, and a fingerprint reader. System76 currently loads their products up with Ubuntu 8.10 (x86_64) with the Linux 2.6.27 kernel, GNOME 2.24.1, X Server 1.5.2, GCC 4.3.2, and the proprietary NVIDIA driver. This is phoronix's first time reviewing a System76 product, and they report that they are pleased with this notebook. The Serval Professional notebook was designed well, has a great build quality, there is a nice selection of hardware around which this notebook can be configured, and it ships with Ubuntu! http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=system76_serval_pro&num=1

=== Possible data loss in Ext4 ===

H-Online tells us of a bug report posted in the bug tracker for the next version of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) that describes a massive data loss problem when using Ext4, which is the future standard file system for Linux, and which is available as an option when installing Ubuntu 9.04. The report describes a crash occurring shortly after the KDE 4 desktop files had been loaded, resulting in the loss of all of the data that had been created, including many KDE configuration files. Ext4 Developer Ted Ts'o advises that "this is really more of an application design problem more than anything else." Programmers had become accustomed to and dependent on, the behaviour of Ext3, which has a commit interval of 5 seconds and a default journalling mode of "data=ordered." Ts'o describes a workaround, but points out that other modern file systems, such as XFS and the new Btrfs, are also affected by this problem. Patches for this issue will not be included in the coming release of 2.6.29, but are queued for the 2.6.30 kernel. http://www.h-online.com/open/Possible-data-loss-in-Ext4--/news/112821

=== Testing Ubuntu Jaunty and Ext4 WITHOUT Trashing Your Data ===

Scott Wegner of automaticable reports that Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackelope” is set for release in less than two months, and is currently in the “Alpha 6″ testing stage. Arguably the hottest new feature is stable support for Linux’s new filesystem, ext4. The new filesystem has been shown to have significant performance gains over any other Linux filesystem to date. But think twice before you upgrade to ext4–many users have been reporting considerable data loss. This has been a wide-spread problem, particularly for Ubuntu users testing the new Jaunty alpha releases. It manifests itself after a system crash, where open files will simply be emptied and erased. It is particularly prevalent in users’ settings files, such as those used for GNOME or KDE. Fortunately, there cause of the bug is relatively well-known. Regardless of what a permanent solution should include, there are a series of patches which are set to be included in the final Jaunty kernel to address this issue. The patches are set to handle the crash situation similar to ext3– keeping the original version in-tact. However, it comes at a price of performance. Ext4 won’t be any slower than ext3, but the patch will negate many of the performance gains that ext4 previously achieved. Ext4 will likely be patched and fixed by the official Ubuntu Jaunty release. However, it isn’t present in Jaunty Alpha 6, and hasn’t been pushed as an update yet (as of 3/12/09). There is lengthy and ongoing discussion in the original bug report about possible long-term solutions. http://www.automaticable.com/2009-03-12/testing-ubuntu-jaunty-and-ext4-without-trashing-your-data/

=== 12 Ubuntu Server Appliances Meet the Cloud ===

Joe Panettieri of Works``With``U says that Ubuntu is converging quickly with cloud services. A prime example: Turnkey Linux is launching 12 Ubuntu Server Edition software appliances that users can deploy in various cloud services. The news comes only a few weeks after Canonical said Ubuntu 9.10 will leap into Amazon.com’s cloud. Initial server appliances from Turnkey Linux support the LAMP stack, Ruby on Rails, Drupal CMS, Joomla CMS, Media``Wiki, Django framework, MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines, and LAPP. Turnkey Linux's the press release also stated that appliances for Apache Tomcat, Wordpress, Moodle, Movable Type and phpBB are currently under-going private testing before a public release. Panettieri says he's certainly intrigued by Ubuntu and software appliances heading into the cloud. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/12-ubuntu-server-appliances-meet-the-cloud/

=== RightScale Puts Ubuntu Server In the Cloud, Too ===

Joe Panettieri of Works``With``U reports that the Ubuntu Server revolution is starting but it doesn’t involve traditional on-premise systems. Right``Scale, a well-known cloud computing company, today announced “full support” for Ubuntu as part of the Right``Scale Cloud Management platform. It’s big news, and here's why: "The Ubuntu software development community can now use Right``Scale to easily deploy and manage cloud applications on cloud infrastructures such as Amazon EC2 with complete control and portability." About six months ago, Panettieri assumed Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux would dominate Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud. But moves by Right``Scale, Turnkey Linux and Canonical itself suggest that Ubuntu Server Edition has a strong chance to become a dominant application server on multiple cloud platforms. Think of it this way: Canonical is working very hard to get Ubuntu Server Edition certified and pre-installed by major server vendors. That’s a difficult task. But cloud computing provides a new doorway for Canonical to infiltrate the application server market. The Ubuntu Server revolution is starting — in the clouds. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/rightscale-puts-ubuntu-server-in-the-cloud-too/

=== Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6 Released ===

Michael Larabel of phoronix tells us that we are just a little more than a month away until Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) will be released. With the release getting near, Canonical has today put forth the final alpha release of Jaunty. Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6 carries a few updated packages (particularly with the imminent release of GNOME 2.26) and various bug-fixing. The Ubuntu 9.04 beta release is coming in just two weeks (the 26th of March) while the release candidate is scheduled to arrive on the 16th of April. The final release of Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" is set for April 23, 2009. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzEzOA

=== French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu ===

ars technica's Ryan Paul tells us that France's Gendarmerie Nationale, the country's national police force, says it has saved millions of dollars by migrating its desktop software infrastructure away from Microsoft Windows and replacing it with the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The Gendarmerie began its transition to open source software in 2005 when it replaced Microsoft Office with Open``Office.org across the entire organization. It gradually adopted other open source software applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird. After the launch of Windows Vista in 2006, it decided to phase out Windows and incrementally migrate to Ubuntu. At the current stage of the migration, it has adopted Ubuntu on 5,000 workstations and based on the success of this pilot migration, it plans to move forward and switch a total of 15,000 workstations to Ubuntu by the end of the year. It aims to have the entire organization, and all 90,000 of its workstations, running the Linux distribution by 2015. Gendarmerie Lieutenant-Colonel Xavier Guimard says that the Gendarmerie has been able to reduced its annual IT budget by 70 percent without having to reduce its capabilities, and he says that since 2004 they have saved up to €50 million on licensing and maintenance costs as a result of the migration strategy. He believes that the move from Windows to Ubuntu posed fewer challenges than the organization would have faced if it had updated to Windows Vista. The Gendarmerie migration demonstrates the significant cost savings that governments can get from adopting open source software. As the global financial downturn continues to put pressure on budgets, governments are going to increasingly look to open source software as a way to cut IT costs. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars

=== 15 free downloads to pep up your old PC ===

Preston Gralla of Computerworld lists 15 free downloads that can breathe new life into an old PC, and one of his suggestions is Ubuntu. "Frustrated with your old operating system but don't want to spend the money to get a new one? No problem. The following file installs Linux as a dual-boot option on your PC for free." Gralla goes on to say that if you haven't installed Linux before, you'll be quite surprised at how peppy it is. It requires much less hardware overhead than Windows, and so is quite fast, even on an older PC. There's also plenty of free software to try out, and it ships with a good deal of free software as well, including the office suite Open``Office.org. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software&articleId=9129351&taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=7
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## In this section we want to highlight the blogs that are exceptionally well-written and in-depth.
## Blogs tend to make it easy for low-quality content, so be extra careful on what goes here.
## We should encourage bloggers to spread the word, so this section might be a good way to do so.
=== RightScale put Ubuntu Server in the Cloud ===

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/rightscale-puts-ubuntu-server-in-the-cloud-too/

=== Dvorak makes the switch to Ubuntu ===

"Almost all the newest hardware coming out has Linux support. The critical mass has been reached, and it's time everyone tried Ubuntu." -- '''John Dvorak'''
<<BR>>http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8559496096.html
<<BR>>original article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342703,00.asp

=== 9 features Ubuntu should implement ===

http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2009/03/9-features-ubuntu-should-implement_07.html

=== Ubuntu server appliances meet the cloud ===

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/12-ubuntu-server-appliances-meet-the-cloud/

=== Ubuntu for Business: The Missing Pieces ===

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/08/ubuntu-for-business-the-missing-pieces/

=== Five things Ubuntu really needs ===

http://darrenyates.com.au/?p=918
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## Any news or links that don't fit neatly into other sections. === Ubuntu Podcast #21 ===

http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/03/12/ubuntu-podcast-episode-21/
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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. === Server Team Meeting: March 10th ===

http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/server-team-20090310-meeting-minutes/
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 * Dave Bush

Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6 released
    2. Ubuntu Testing Day: Notify-OSD
    3. Ubuntu Education
    4. News from the MOTU Council
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Infamous Bugs
    3. Translation Stats Jaunty
    4. Translation Stats Intrepid
    5. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
  6. New in Intrepid Ibex
  7. Launchpad News
    1. gmail filters for bug email
    2. Inside Launchpad AJAX sprint
  8. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team (UFBT)
    2. Canonical QA Desktop Automation Sprint
    3. Ubuntu Women project status
    4. Ubuntu Drupal 6.2.0 released
    5. Patches, patches, patches
  9. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu 9.10 sees the cloud above the trees
    2. Ubuntu/Kubuntu Jaunty Alpha 6 screen shot tour
    3. System76 Serval Professional Notebook
    4. Possible data loss in Ext4
    5. Testing Ubuntu Jaunty and Ext4 WITHOUT Trashing Your Data
    6. 12 Ubuntu Server Appliances Meet the Cloud
    7. RightScale Puts Ubuntu Server In the Cloud, Too
    8. Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6 Released
    9. French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu
    10. 15 free downloads to pep up your old PC
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. RightScale put Ubuntu Server in the Cloud
    2. Dvorak makes the switch to Ubuntu
    3. 9 features Ubuntu should implement
    4. Ubuntu server appliances meet the cloud
    5. Ubuntu for Business: The Missing Pieces
    6. Five things Ubuntu really needs
  11. In Other News
    1. Ubuntu Podcast #21
  12. Meeting Summaries
    1. Server Team Meeting: March 10th
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  14. Community Spotlight
  15. Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.10, 8.04, and 8.10
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 7.10 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
  16. UWN #: A sneak peek
  17. Archives and RSS Feed
  18. Additional Ubuntu News
  19. Conclusion
  20. Credits
  21. Glossary of Terms
  22. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  23. Feedback

newspaper-icon.jpg

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #133 for the week March 8th - March 14th, 2009. 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

Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6 released

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-March/000551.html

Ubuntu Testing Day: Notify-OSD

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/37

Ubuntu Education

http://matthewhelmke.net/2009/03/11/ubuntu-education/

News from the MOTU Council

Fabrice Coutadeur joined the ranks of the Ubuntu Contributing Developers. He has done a great job overall and we're happy he is part of the team. One of his primary interests is video editing.

Roderick Greening joined the MOTU team. His great work in the Kubuntu community did not go unnoticed and we're happy to have a new MOTU on board.

Andreas Wenning did amazing work in the Kubuntu team and we're very happy he joined the MOTU team.

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 Jaunty

  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

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/

Translation Stats Intrepid

  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

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/

# NEEDS UPDATING. # #=== 5-a-day bug stats === # #==== Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days ==== # # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # #==== Top 5 teams for the past 7 days ==== # # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # #5-A-Day stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

  • heading
  • heading
  • heading
  • heading
  • heading

Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

LoCo News

New in Intrepid Ibex

Launchpad News

gmail filters for bug email

http://blog.launchpad.net/bug-tracking/gmail-filters-for-launchpad-bug-email

Inside Launchpad AJAX sprint

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/inside-the-launchpad-ajax-sprint-a-week-with-widgets-and-yui-3

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team (UFBT)

UFBT has taken a step forward, with guidance from BodhiZazen, and collaborates with Ubuntu Classroom. They offer IRC events and courses, held in #ubuntu-classroom. Events are less formal, based on a Q&A format or a one day topic. A course is more formal, including series of sessions all related to the same topic (Python 101, Python 201, etc). Upcoming topics are Security, Packaging, How to use LP, How to triage bug reports, How to stay current with Ubuntu Events/Community, How to IRC (clients, registration, channels, etc). Not all potential topics have been scheduled yet. The first two events will be on Security (March 19th and March 26th, see the Events link below for an actual schedule). See you there !

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom

Events: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Events

Courses: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Schedule

Proposed topics (feel free to add): https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Education/Proposals

UF discussion thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1093535

== The Planet ===

Canonical QA Desktop Automation Sprint

http://ubuntu-mobile-edition.blogspot.com/2009/03/desktop-automation.html

Ubuntu Women project status

http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1489

Ubuntu Drupal 6.2.0 released

http://profarius.com/content/ubuntu-drupal-620-released

Patches, patches, patches

http://castrojo.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/patches-patches-patches-mushrooms/

In The Press

Ubuntu 9.10 sees the cloud above the trees

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23719/1141/

Ubuntu/Kubuntu Jaunty Alpha 6 screen shot tour

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-9-04-Alpha-6-Screenshot-Tour-106631.shtml

System76 Serval Professional Notebook

Michael Larabel of phoronix says that finding a laptop that can run Linux is no longer much of a challenge. A majority off the shelf PCs shipping with Windows can easily have their operating system replaced with Linux and chances are most, if not all, of the components will "just work" on this open-source operating system, while ill-supported parts can usually be configured to work in just a few steps. For those looking to save time or avoid a potential headache, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and other major vendors have been offering Linux notebooks for some time now. One of the smaller vendors that has been offering Ubuntu Linux notebooks (along with desktops and servers) is System76 Inc. System76 recently released their Serval Professional notebook with a 15.4" screen which is available with a 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1200 display, and can be configured along with a NVIDIA GeForce or NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics processor. Some of the other components include Gigabit LAN, 802.11 a/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, Express Card, a built-in 2.0 mega-pixel web camera, and a fingerprint reader. System76 currently loads their products up with Ubuntu 8.10 (x86_64) with the Linux 2.6.27 kernel, GNOME 2.24.1, X Server 1.5.2, GCC 4.3.2, and the proprietary NVIDIA driver. This is phoronix's first time reviewing a System76 product, and they report that they are pleased with this notebook. The Serval Professional notebook was designed well, has a great build quality, there is a nice selection of hardware around which this notebook can be configured, and it ships with Ubuntu! http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=system76_serval_pro&num=1

Possible data loss in Ext4

H-Online tells us of a bug report posted in the bug tracker for the next version of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) that describes a massive data loss problem when using Ext4, which is the future standard file system for Linux, and which is available as an option when installing Ubuntu 9.04. The report describes a crash occurring shortly after the KDE 4 desktop files had been loaded, resulting in the loss of all of the data that had been created, including many KDE configuration files. Ext4 Developer Ted Ts'o advises that "this is really more of an application design problem more than anything else." Programmers had become accustomed to and dependent on, the behaviour of Ext3, which has a commit interval of 5 seconds and a default journalling mode of "data=ordered." Ts'o describes a workaround, but points out that other modern file systems, such as XFS and the new Btrfs, are also affected by this problem. Patches for this issue will not be included in the coming release of 2.6.29, but are queued for the 2.6.30 kernel. http://www.h-online.com/open/Possible-data-loss-in-Ext4--/news/112821

Testing Ubuntu Jaunty and Ext4 WITHOUT Trashing Your Data

Scott Wegner of automaticable reports that Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackelope” is set for release in less than two months, and is currently in the “Alpha 6″ testing stage. Arguably the hottest new feature is stable support for Linux’s new filesystem, ext4. The new filesystem has been shown to have significant performance gains over any other Linux filesystem to date. But think twice before you upgrade to ext4–many users have been reporting considerable data loss. This has been a wide-spread problem, particularly for Ubuntu users testing the new Jaunty alpha releases. It manifests itself after a system crash, where open files will simply be emptied and erased. It is particularly prevalent in users’ settings files, such as those used for GNOME or KDE. Fortunately, there cause of the bug is relatively well-known. Regardless of what a permanent solution should include, there are a series of patches which are set to be included in the final Jaunty kernel to address this issue. The patches are set to handle the crash situation similar to ext3– keeping the original version in-tact. However, it comes at a price of performance. Ext4 won’t be any slower than ext3, but the patch will negate many of the performance gains that ext4 previously achieved. Ext4 will likely be patched and fixed by the official Ubuntu Jaunty release. However, it isn’t present in Jaunty Alpha 6, and hasn’t been pushed as an update yet (as of 3/12/09). There is lengthy and ongoing discussion in the original bug report about possible long-term solutions. http://www.automaticable.com/2009-03-12/testing-ubuntu-jaunty-and-ext4-without-trashing-your-data/

12 Ubuntu Server Appliances Meet the Cloud

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU says that Ubuntu is converging quickly with cloud services. A prime example: Turnkey Linux is launching 12 Ubuntu Server Edition software appliances that users can deploy in various cloud services. The news comes only a few weeks after Canonical said Ubuntu 9.10 will leap into Amazon.com’s cloud. Initial server appliances from Turnkey Linux support the LAMP stack, Ruby on Rails, Drupal CMS, Joomla CMS, MediaWiki, Django framework, MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines, and LAPP. Turnkey Linux's the press release also stated that appliances for Apache Tomcat, Wordpress, Moodle, Movable Type and phpBB are currently under-going private testing before a public release. Panettieri says he's certainly intrigued by Ubuntu and software appliances heading into the cloud. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/12-ubuntu-server-appliances-meet-the-cloud/

RightScale Puts Ubuntu Server In the Cloud, Too

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU reports that the Ubuntu Server revolution is starting but it doesn’t involve traditional on-premise systems. RightScale, a well-known cloud computing company, today announced “full support” for Ubuntu as part of the RightScale Cloud Management platform. It’s big news, and here's why: "The Ubuntu software development community can now use RightScale to easily deploy and manage cloud applications on cloud infrastructures such as Amazon EC2 with complete control and portability." About six months ago, Panettieri assumed Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux would dominate Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud. But moves by RightScale, Turnkey Linux and Canonical itself suggest that Ubuntu Server Edition has a strong chance to become a dominant application server on multiple cloud platforms. Think of it this way: Canonical is working very hard to get Ubuntu Server Edition certified and pre-installed by major server vendors. That’s a difficult task. But cloud computing provides a new doorway for Canonical to infiltrate the application server market. The Ubuntu Server revolution is starting — in the clouds. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/rightscale-puts-ubuntu-server-in-the-cloud-too/

Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6 Released

Michael Larabel of phoronix tells us that we are just a little more than a month away until Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) will be released. With the release getting near, Canonical has today put forth the final alpha release of Jaunty. Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6 carries a few updated packages (particularly with the imminent release of GNOME 2.26) and various bug-fixing. The Ubuntu 9.04 beta release is coming in just two weeks (the 26th of March) while the release candidate is scheduled to arrive on the 16th of April. The final release of Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" is set for April 23, 2009. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzEzOA

French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu

ars technica's Ryan Paul tells us that France's Gendarmerie Nationale, the country's national police force, says it has saved millions of dollars by migrating its desktop software infrastructure away from Microsoft Windows and replacing it with the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The Gendarmerie began its transition to open source software in 2005 when it replaced Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org across the entire organization. It gradually adopted other open source software applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird. After the launch of Windows Vista in 2006, it decided to phase out Windows and incrementally migrate to Ubuntu. At the current stage of the migration, it has adopted Ubuntu on 5,000 workstations and based on the success of this pilot migration, it plans to move forward and switch a total of 15,000 workstations to Ubuntu by the end of the year. It aims to have the entire organization, and all 90,000 of its workstations, running the Linux distribution by 2015. Gendarmerie Lieutenant-Colonel Xavier Guimard says that the Gendarmerie has been able to reduced its annual IT budget by 70 percent without having to reduce its capabilities, and he says that since 2004 they have saved up to €50 million on licensing and maintenance costs as a result of the migration strategy. He believes that the move from Windows to Ubuntu posed fewer challenges than the organization would have faced if it had updated to Windows Vista. The Gendarmerie migration demonstrates the significant cost savings that governments can get from adopting open source software. As the global financial downturn continues to put pressure on budgets, governments are going to increasingly look to open source software as a way to cut IT costs. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars

15 free downloads to pep up your old PC

Preston Gralla of Computerworld lists 15 free downloads that can breathe new life into an old PC, and one of his suggestions is Ubuntu. "Frustrated with your old operating system but don't want to spend the money to get a new one? No problem. The following file installs Linux as a dual-boot option on your PC for free." Gralla goes on to say that if you haven't installed Linux before, you'll be quite surprised at how peppy it is. It requires much less hardware overhead than Windows, and so is quite fast, even on an older PC. There's also plenty of free software to try out, and it ships with a good deal of free software as well, including the office suite OpenOffice.org. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software&articleId=9129351&taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=7

In The Blogosphere

RightScale put Ubuntu Server in the Cloud

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/rightscale-puts-ubuntu-server-in-the-cloud-too/

Dvorak makes the switch to Ubuntu

"Almost all the newest hardware coming out has Linux support. The critical mass has been reached, and it's time everyone tried Ubuntu." -- John Dvorak
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8559496096.html
original article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342703,00.asp

9 features Ubuntu should implement

http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2009/03/9-features-ubuntu-should-implement_07.html

Ubuntu server appliances meet the cloud

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/12/12-ubuntu-server-appliances-meet-the-cloud/

Ubuntu for Business: The Missing Pieces

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/08/ubuntu-for-business-the-missing-pieces/

Five things Ubuntu really needs

http://darrenyates.com.au/?p=918

In Other News

Ubuntu Podcast #21

http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/03/12/ubuntu-podcast-episode-21/

Meeting Summaries

Server Team Meeting: March 10th

http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/server-team-20090310-meeting-minutes/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Community Spotlight

Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.10, 8.04, and 8.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

UWN #: A sneak peek

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue133 (last edited 2009-03-15 21:26:52 by ip68-0-181-84)