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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #134 for the week March 15th - March 21st, 2009. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Freeze in effect, LoCo Team information request, Ubuntu Server: KVM call for testing, MOTU Release Charter, QA Team next testing day, Ubuntu Drupal 6.3.0 released, Ubuntu India re-launches User Forums, Ubuntu Honduras begins to work, FossConf 2009 - Madurai and Ubuntu Tamil Team, Announcing Eucalyptus, Ubuntu Forums nuts and bolts, Daniel Holbach: Time to Party, Soren Hansen: gtk-vnc and virt-viewer mozilla plug-in, Thierry Carrez: What I want Ubuntu Server to be, What is Qimo?, Ubuntu Podcast #22, Server Team Minutes: March 17th, QA Team Minutes: March 18th, Behind MOTU Interview: Roderick Greening, 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 9.04 Beta Freeze in effect

• LoCo Team information request

• Ubuntu Server: KVM call for testing
• MOTU Release Charter
• QA Team next testing day
• Ubuntu Drupal 6.3.0 released
• Ubuntu Stats
• Ubuntu India re-launches User Forums
• Ubuntu Honduras begins to work

• FossConf 2009, Madurai and Ubuntu Tamil Team

• Announcing Eucalyptus
• Ubuntu Forums nuts and bolts
• Daniel Holbach: Time to Party
• Soren Hansen: gtk-vnc and virt-viewer mozilla plug-in
• Thierry Carrez: What I want Ubuntu Server to be

• In the Press & Blogosphere

• What is Qimo?
• Ubuntu Podcast #22
• Team Meeting Summaries
• Behind MOTU Interview: Roderick Greening

• Upcoming Meetings & Events

• Updates & Security

General Community News

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta freeze in effect

Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 is in Beta freeze now. The Beta release will be on March 26th.

During the freeze, all uploads to main must be approved by a member of the release team: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release If you have fixes which are important to get in, please do get in touch as soon as possible. Uploads to universe require a manual push through the queue, but are not subject to release management approval.

Important issues for the beta release will be tracked by the release team here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+bugs?field.milestone=2203

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-March/000555.html

LoCo Team information request

Richard A. Johnson(nixternal) has been working on a LoCo Team Directory solution to replace the wiki teams list. He has grabbed the data from the wiki page and created a CSV file from it. He's discovered that a lot of the data is outdated, or incorrect. In order to get this information updated, he has requested that all LoCo Teams send him the information using the following format:

• LP ID:
• Country:
• State|Province|Region:
• City:
• Wiki:
• Website:
• Mailing List:
• Forums:
• Email:
• IRC Channel:
• Provides Support:
• Approved:
• Approved Date:

Please send the information to nixternal@ubuntu.com. An example can also be found at the link.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2009-March/002919.html

Ubuntu Server: KVM call for testing

Because of a number of issues with the version of KVM userspace shipped in 8.04.2 LTS and the 2.6.24 kernel module, Dustin Kirkland has been working on backporting Jaunty's kvm-84 to Hardy, and made it available in the ubuntu-virt Launchpad PPA. This PPA is for testing purposes, only, and should not be used in production environments. If you have a test environment where you could provide some feedback on this package, the Ubuntu Server Team would greatly appreciate your contributions. Please add https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-virt/+archive/ppa to your /etc/apt/sources.list, update, and install kvm and kvm-source. This will upgrade your KVM (QEMU) userspace as well as the kvm kernel module, and find or file the results against the relevant bug in Launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kvm . Dustin hopes to push the update through the Backports and SRU processes in time for the 8.04.3 update.

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/03/ubuntu-server-kvm-call-for-testing.html

MOTU Release Charter

During the Intrepid cycle the MOTU release team members were asked to come up with a charter for the team. It's taken us some time to get a draft: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/MOTUReleaseCharter but it seems that all current members of the MOTU Release Team are happy with it. It is still draft because it's up to MOTU to decide what it is we are to do. The draft just captures our understanding of the (previously undocumented) role the MOTU release team is supposed to play. All MOTU Team Members are encouraged to read, consider, and then make comments about it on the MOTU mailing list.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-motu/2009-March/005590.html

QA Team next testing day

The next testing day will be Monday, March 23, 2009. The goal of the day will be to test the "buntu" desktop of your choice with regard to the installer and applications on the CD, as well as those you download from repositories and use regularly. They will be looking for any regressions or breakages in these packages, and reporting faults to launchpad. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/UbuntuTestingDay/20090323 to find out more and get involved, then join them on #ubuntu-testing on the freenode network. Everyone has fun during "Testing Days."

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/40

Ubuntu Drupal 6.3.0 released

The Ubuntu Drupal team has officially released their 6.3.0 package. For those of you already using this package, the directory structure has changed. After changing the structure, you need to run update.php. Things covered in this release include:

• Fixes for every reported issue
• Cleaned up and organized theme

• Improved OpenID modules

• The Alpha release of the Planet module
• Fully working IE6/7 patches

The latest package can be found at: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-drupal-releases/6.x.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1841

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (48584) +436 over last week
• Critical (17) -3 over last week
• Unconfirmed (20038) +264 over last week
• Unassigned (41030) +462 over last week
• All bugs ever reported (260711) +2127 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 Jaunty

• Spanish (24915) -519 over last week
• French (51989) -2156 over last week
• Swedish (55104) +321 over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (58310) -426 over last week
• English (Uk) (87259) +704 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

• Spanish (15253) -7 over last week
• French (59024) -1 over last week
• Swedish (63241) +/-0 over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (66221) +/-0 over last week
• English (UK) (78012) +/-0 over last week

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

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

• Tastes are different
• Allow for individual installation of programs in gnome-games
• Animated Icons
• Flexibility with desktop background
• Folder Hierarchy

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

Ubuntu India re-launches User Forums

Back in 2006, the India LoCo team started their forums. Due to some serious hosting issues, the forum had to be discontinued. Yesterday, a brand new forum was set-up and it is now open for registrations. You can find it at forum.ubuntu-in.info. The Ubuntu Indian team was founded in February 2006 and celebrated its 3rd anniversary last month with over 1000 members. Some of their accomplishments include participating in the Global Bug Jam, Debian/Ubuntu Project day, promoting Ubuntu and distributing Ubuntu CDs/DVDs, and representing Ubuntu-India at FOSS conferences, schools and colleges.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1840

Ubuntu Honduras begins to work

At the beginning of the year, the Ubuntu-Honduras team was doubtful if one day there was going to be the start of a Ubuntu Community there. Now, with the help of their neighbors of the GNU/Linux Community of Nicaragua, they have their first official event called "Linux Tour Honduras San Pedro Sula." If you wish to know more about the event, see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HondurasTeam/LinuxTourSanPedroSula (Note: This is in Spanish, but pictures are shown too.)

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2009-March/002991.html

FossConf 2009, Madurai and Ubuntu Tamil Team

The Ubuntu-Tamil Team held a demonstration at the FossConf that occurred from February 27 to March 1, 2009. This was held at the Thiagarajar Engineering college in Madurai. The event was divided into 3 categories: Stalls, FOSS Project Demos, and Talks. Almost all of the stalls were powered by Ubuntu. The conference was organized by TCE[1], ILUGC[2], and NRCFOSS[3]

• [1] http://tce.edu/ [2] http://chennailug.org/ [3] http://nrcfoss.org.in/

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-March/000449.html

New in Jaunty Jackalope

Announcing Eucalyptus

Søren Hansen has announced the availability of eucalyptus in Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. From the package description:

• EUCALYPTUS is an open source service overlay that implements elastic computing using existing resources. The goal of EUCALYPTUS is to allow sites with existing clusters and server infrastructure to co-host an elastic computing service that is interface-compatible with Amazon's EC2. Being interface-compatible with EC2 means that anything you might already be doing with EC2 you can now do with your local Eucalyptus instance.

There are three notable packages:

• eucalyptus-cloud: The cloud controller. You will generally only have one of these. It provides Walrus (Eucalyptus' S3 implementation) and is the part of Eucalyptus that users will talk to using the EC2 API.
• eucalyptus-cc: The cluster controller. If you're familiar with EC2, you can think of this as the master server for an availability zone. Most people will only have one of these.
• eucalyptus-nc: The node controller. This is the component that instantiates your virtual machines (instances, in EC2 speak). You will install this on each of your servers that will be running virtual machines for Eucalyptus.

A few notable differences between our packages and what you'll see mentioned on the Eucalyptus website are that our version uses KVM as the default hypervisor, and it also supports EBS. I expect the upstream documentation will be updated soon to reflect these cool new features. A quick start guide is at the link.

http://warma.dk/blog/article/97/

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums nuts and bolts

The Ubuntu Forums has become the largest GNU/Linux forums worldwide. With the expanding community, the crew taking care of the forums and the forums categories/features has grown with time. It is easy for new people to get lost within such an active message board. We currently have 793,387 members and 65,554 active members (members who have posted at least once in the last month), 995,019 threads and 6,367,064 posts after a heavy Spring cleaning. Here is a little summary of the important links to keep at hand:

• The UF Code of Conduct, the link is located under the "Forum Help" menu, in the banner: http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy

• The Staff crew: http://ubuntuforums.org/showgroups.php. Names in black or green show specific sub-forums moderators (typically, moderators from LoCos sub-forums where English is not the main language, or specific projects moderators). Names in red are global UF moderators and dark red administrators. Global mods and admins are members of the Launchpad UF Staff Team: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuforums-staff

• The Forums Council: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncil is composed of the 5 Forums administrators. Mike Basinger is also a Community Council member.

• The Resolution Center: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=123 is here to help resolve moderation issues on the Forums. Only the Forum Council members are allowed to answer, to keep the discussion focused on resolving the issue. If no agreement is reached, it can be discussed during a Forum Council meeting (agenda here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda) after the item has been added. The meetings take place in #ubuntu-meeting on irc.freenode.net.

• The Forum Feedback and Help: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=48 where topics regarding the forums themselves (questions or issues, bugs etc.) should be posted. One important sticky in this area is the guide to Forums features: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1006656 that will help new comers to get started with the forums options and available features. Bugs can also be filed here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuforums.org.

• Reporting a thread or a post sends a message in the "Reported Posts" area, only visible by global mods and admins. We usually get from 40 to 60 reported posts per 24 hours, each one of them is taken care of. Addressing the Reported Posts is at the Staff discretion. We have a set of codes among ourselves to inform others a report has been dealt with. In any case, discussion regarding the actions we deploy are frequent and we usually wait everyone has had a chance to see the report and add input before acting. Of course, taking care of spam does not fall under this umbrella and is usually immediate.

The Ubuntu Forums is a large house, but we try to keep it pleasant and helpful. See you there!

The Planet

Daniel Holbach: Time to Party!

Daniel Holbach makes the point that Jaunty Jackalope will be the 10th release of Ubuntu (and includes the list in his blog, just to be sure). Since any excuse is a good excuse to party, the release party for Jaunty should be an exceptional one, because now you have 2 reasons to party. Information is available on how to organize a release party[1], and what teams are already signing up on the list[2].

• [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/RunningReleaseParty
  [2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JauntyReleaseParties

So come join in and spread the fun.

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=391

Soren Hansen: gtk-vnc and virt-viewer mozilla plug-in

Søren Hansen tells us of 2 new Mozilla plug-ins: gtk-vnc and virt-viewer. These plug-ins now make it possible to access virtual machines or VNC servers directly from a web page. Noted in a comment, these are strictly client-side. However, it's a beginning. A brief explanation of how to insert these in a web page is included in the post.

http://warma.dk/blog/article/95/

Thierry Carrez: What I want Ubuntu Server to be

Thierry wants Ubuntu Server to be different. Ubuntu Desktop was successful by releasing a product that delivers a cool, integrated, user-friendly desktop experience. Ubuntu Server should be a product that delivers a cool, integrated, sysadmin-friendly server experience. He wants us to be innovative, and to boldly go where nobody has gone before.

Ubuntu Server should be a product that implements the industries best practices, rather than just making them possible. Having configuration files under a revision control system, users always defined in a local or distant LDAP directory, screen on network shells, LVM always configured… and should deliver and integrate the right software solutions rather than just making all options available.

http://fnords.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/what-i-want-ubuntu-server-to-be/

In The Press

Ubuntu Refreshes Art for Jaunty Jackalope

The Linux Loop tells us that Ubuntu keeps promising a completely new theme in every release, but it has been delayed time and time again. The wait is over, though, since the artwork in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope daily builds is rapidly being refreshed. Softpedia has already posted screenshots of the new login screen, themes, and USplash theme. Though no new background has been selected yet, there are already some great ones. Linux Loop's opinion is that no matter if you like the current theme or not, it is getting old and is ready to be replaced. What do you think of the current proposed artwork? http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/03/18/ubuntu-refreshes-art-for-jaunty-jackalope/

Ubuntu 9.04's New Boot Splash

Marius Nestor, Linux Editor of Softpedia, reports that new themes for Ubuntu 9.04 were introduced on March 17th, and Canonical decided to update the boot splash screen (USplash) theme with a very nice one. The Ubuntu logo is the same as it was in Ubuntu 8.10, but it's smaller and the loading bar was replaced with a thinner and nicer one. How does it look? Nestor tested it on a 17" and 19" LCD, and he says that it looks more professional than the previous one, and the new loading bar has a gradient effect. Kubuntu's USplash was also updated with the new theme! No word from Xubuntu, yet. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-9-04-039-s-New-Boot-Splash-107165.shtml

The quiet Ubuntu Netbook revolution

Mark Asay of Cnet News says, "Revolutions don't always roil and boil toward a noisy, violent fracas. Sometimes they don't even ripple the surface. Such is the Ubuntu Netbook revolution." In the Netbook market, Ubuntu is the clear winner, with Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and the other major hardware OEMs shipping Ubuntu-based Netbooks. Ubuntu claims the bulk of Netbook installations and there are indications that this could accelerate. Manufacturers continue to ship Windows XP and pay Microsoft virtually nothing for the privilege due to discounts, rebates, and other incentives. With Ubuntu exerting downward pricing pressure, Microsoft doesn't stand to gain much in the growing Netbook market. Netbooks are disruptive, in part, because they define productivity in terms of the Web, not Microsoft Office. The more users want to spend time in a browser, or instant messaging, or e-mail, the less Microsoft Windows is required. The less Windows is a requirement, the less that OEMs are going to be willing to pay for Windows licenses. Microsoft suffers, OEMs gain, and customers gain. And, of course, Canonical gains. There's a revolution going on. It's quiet, but it's happening. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10198879-16.html

Interview with Jono Bacon - Ubuntu Community Manager

LinuxQuestions.org conducts the first in their LQ Community Manager Interview Series with with Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon. Reflecting on his community manager role Bacon says that the most important role in great community management is to listen. "One of the problems many communities have faced, particularly when they scale up, is that the leaders lost the ability to listen to the opportunities and concerns of the wider community. I think its incredibly important that community leaders always retain the ability to listen, and to seek to listen to every facet of their community." http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/interviews-28/interview-with-jono-bacon-ubuntu-community-manager-712635/

Top 10 Reasons I’ll Never Use Ubuntu

The web site Ubuntu Productivity gives a tongue in cheek(spoof/parody) listing of the top 10 reasons they'll never use Ubuntu.

1. It’s too inexpensive: It’s just not as fun owning an operating system I don’t have to pay for.
2. It’s too pretty: The ability to apply any theme, or build my own, ruins my sense of camaraderie with my fellow OS users. Where’s the sense in complete personalization?
3. It’s too fun: Computers were never meant to be fun. When they become fun they become dangerous.
4. It’s updated too frequently: All those updates are just pesky. Do we really need the bleeding edge all the time?
5. The community is too active: They’re just too helpful. I miss that sweet, subtle music while I’m on hold with tech support in India.
6. There’s too much software to choose from: Who needs choices when I can just buy the stuff recommended, and pre-installed by the OEM?
7. The hardware it supports is too modern: It creates that uncontrollable urge to upgrade my hardware!
8. It does too much: If only my operating system allowed me to do less, I’d feel less inclined to be productive with it.
9. It’s too friendly with other operating systems: I want my operating system to play in its own sandbox with like minded kids. None of this sharing and mingling.
10. It’s too productive: Can’t I just have an excuse to play games?

http://www.ubuntuproductivity.com/journal/uncategorized/03/2009/top-10-reasons-ill-never-use-ubuntu/

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu 9.04 Excitement

A blogger from Easy Linux CDs goes over some of the new features that he has seen in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6. His installation was uneventful, and as normal as any other Ubuntu installation. The first new thing he noticed was the new login screen. He liked the dark color with the Ubuntu logo. Also covered, were the new notifications that pop up to display a short message in a notification box, and fade out automatically. A few more changes that he noticed were the Brasero interface, and Ekiga's long awaited face lift. OpenOffice 3.0 is also included with this release, as well as the option for EXT4. http://easylinuxcds.com/blog/?p=3233

SmartQ 5 MID Runs Ubuntu at $132

Blogger Moses from smartdevices.com.cn introduces us to the new SmartQ 5. It is a new MID that is on sale for 899 yuan or $132 USD. It uses Ubuntu, and is a terminal to get on the internet anywhere, along with many other fully functional features. The SmartQ 5 uses the ARM architecture and Ubuntu, and will support the ARMv7 architecture processors. Pictures are available at the link. http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartdevices.com.cn%2Finformation%2Fnews%2F200903%2F13-199.html&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&history_state0=

Ubuntu: From Cell Phones to Game Consoles?

A blogger from WorksWithU talks about where we will be seeing Ubuntu in the future. With its support of the ARM processor coming up, it will be able to run on a phone, game console, or anything else that is powered by the ARM processor. This blogger speculates that with the official availability of ARM support starting in April of 2009, this support will be available in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. He has also done some research and found that most of the programs have been ported to the ARM processor. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/18/ubuntu-from-cell-phones-to-game-consoles/

Ubuntu For Non-Geeks, 3rd Edition: A Big Thumbs Up

Blogger Carla Schroder from Linux Today gives her recommendation for "Ubuntu For Non-Geeks, 3rd Edition: A Pain-Free, Project-Based, Get-Things-Done Guidebook". She likes it, because unlike most manuals or how-tos it is direct and project-oriented. She likes to see screen shots, and pertinent information, that helps people do what they are trying to do. The humor is also another aspect that she gave it good marks for. For example, one of the chapter titles is, "Couch Penguins: Video and DVD Playback in Ubuntu." This blogger also likes that it's tightly focused on the Desktop, and doesn't go off on tangents about network or system administration. It just covers topics that many non-geeks are wondering how to do. She also says that it's a good book for geeks to recommend to their non-geek friends. http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/03/ubuntu-for-nong.html

Where Ubuntu Fits Between Apple, Microsoft

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU suffered 48 hours of drama when his MacBook Pro died on March 15, forcing him to shift all of his blogging and business efforts over to a System76 Pangolin Performance laptop running Ubuntu. The experience reminded him that Ubuntu fills a growing niche where Apple won’t compete on price and Microsoft hasn’t competed on quality. While Apple plays at the higher end of the market, Apple products carry a premium price tag. Panettieri says he can’t imagine buying a bunch of MacBook Pros for general business users. Moreover, he can’t recommend Windows systems at the moment because the industry is stuck in purgatory — between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Ubuntu remains a solid, predictable, reliable choice on a growing number of desktops, notebooks and netbooks. With Ubuntu 9.04 being released in April, this should be a banner year for Ubuntu's continued desktop growth. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/17/where-ubuntu-fits-between-apple-microsoft/

Will half-baked Ubuntu Linux netbooks ruin the OS for consumers?

Andrew Nusca of ZDNet tells us that PC World’s Keir Thomas recently caved in and bought a Dell Mini 9 netbook, which sells for just $249 with Ubuntu Linux. He loves the little netbook: “I’ll be damned if the little thing hasn’t stolen my heart.” What he doesn’t like, however, is Dell’s in-house version of Ubuntu that came installed on the machine. "There was no final polish before the car left the showroom." Thomas notes various irritations, and said he has received lots of e-mail from Ubuntu users either pointing out how to fix the problems, urging him to switch to a different distro, or telling him to put up with open source the way it was meant to be. The problem is that Ubuntu is no longer a geek’s OS. Now it comes preinstalled on consumer netbooks and must face a group of users that don’t have a vocabulary that includes “Jaunty Jackalope” and “Hardy Heron.” In Ubuntu, the end-user is king. So what happened here? Is Dell shipping an unpolished machine to jump on the netbook bandwagon? Will the decision roll out half-baked Linux-based netbooks ruin the average consumer’s first experience with the OS? http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=2165

WorksWithU Readers Bullish About HP Ubuntu Server Certification

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU says now that they’ve had a month to digest the news, most WorksWithU readers expect Canonical’s emerging relationship with Hewlett-Packard to accelerate Ubuntu Server Edition’s momentum. To be clear, HP hasn’t necessarily agreed to pre-install Ubuntu Server Edition on the company’s ProLiant servers. Rather, HP has agreed to certify its servers to run Ubuntu. Over time, the move should empower resellers and solutions providers to more easily recommend, sell and deploy HP servers with Ubuntu. Meanwhile, cloud services may ultimately give Ubuntu Server Edition a lift. Canonical says Ubuntu 9.10 will have close ties to Amazon Web services. Plus, RightScale and Turnkey Linux are pushing Ubuntu and Ubuntu software appliances into cloud services. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/19/workswithu-readers-bullish-about-hp-ubuntu-server-certification/

Zmanda Prepares Ubuntu 9.04 Open Source Backup Support

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU reports that when Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) launches in April, the open source backup company Zmanda will stand next to Canonical in full support of the Linux distribution. Zmanda CEO Chander Kant affirmed Zmanda’s ongoing commitment to numerous Linux distributions. Zmanda already offers a software agent for Ubuntu, but the company will take that support “to the next level” by offering a console for Ubuntu 9.04, according to Kant. “As we watched the Ubuntu Server Edition market, we saw a spike in demand last year,” said Kant. Kant was also quoted as saying that Ubuntu is among the top four or five agent downloads for Zmanda. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/19/zmanda-prepares-open-source-backup-console-for-ubuntu-904/

In Other News

What is Qimo?

Qimo is a desktop operating system designed for kids. Based on the open source Ubuntu Linux desktop, Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for children aged 3 and up.

Qimo's interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, providing large icons for all installed games, so that even the youngest users have no trouble selecting the activity they want. http://qimo4kids.com/page/What-is-Qimo.aspx

Ubuntu Podcast #22

In this installment, Nick and Josh discuss:

• Fun at Florida Linux Show
• Jaunty Alpha 6 released
• Ubuntu Case badges
• Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team and Ubuntu Classroom Team offering sessions on securing Ubuntu
• John Dvorak plugs Ubuntu

• Interview with David Thomas, of the New Mexico LoCo, discussing New Mexico Linux Fest and Endorphin Power Company.

http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/03/20/ubuntu-podcast-episode-22/

Meeting Summaries

Server Team Minutes: March 17th

Here are the minutes of the meeting. They can also be found online with the irc logs here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Server/20090317

• KVM backport in hardy

  • kirkland asked for some assistance testing a kvm-84 package that he prepared for hardy. It’s available in ubuntu-virt PPA. The goal is to prepare an SRU for hardy. There was some discussions about the best way to conduct testing as the new version contains security fixes. It was suggested to go through the following workflow: ~ubuntu-virt PPA -> hardy-backports -> hardy-{proposed|security} -> hardy-updates.

ACTION: kirkland to write a blog post asking for testing of kvm 84 backport to hardy with specific instructions on how-to setup kvm 84 from the ubuntu-virt PPA

• likewise-open 5 in jaunty
  • ttx reported that a FF Exception had been granted to likewise-open-5 and he had uploaded the package. He added that this was a new separate package from the likewise-open 4.1 packages as the upgrade from 4.1 to 5.0 required to leave the domain and rejoin it. So Likewise Open 5 will coexist with Likewise Open 4.1 in Jaunty. For the Karmic cycle we’ll work with upstream to propose a seamless upgrade for all users to the latest version and phase out 4.1. There was some discussion about the best way to document that behavior: the Ubuntu Server Guide and the Debian.News file seemed to be the most appropriate locations.
• screen-profiles by default
  • kirkland brought up the question of installing screen-profiles by default on EC2 instances and thus running screen by default when logging into an EC2 system. zul, soren and ehammond1 already discussed it and were against. There were some concerns about overlapping key bindings. The discussion was deferred to the next release cycle.
• Agree on next meeting date and time
  • Next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 24th at 15:00 UTC in #ubuntu-server.

http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/server-team-20090317-meeting-minutes/

QA Team Minutes: March 18th

Here are the minutes of the meeting. IRC logs can also be found at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/03/18/%23ubuntu-meeting.html

• UbuntuBugDay Highlights

  • Last Thursday we had the Samba package bug day. There was a good participation from the community and the server team. The QA team would like to thank the community and specially paulduf, jgoguen and bigal50 who did a lot of work during that hug day and ttx and mathiaz on the Server Team who helped a lot answering questions and promoting the Bug Day.
• New Bug Control Members
  • The QA team would like to congratulate Andres Mujica, the latest Bug Control Member. Andres is particularly interested in kernel bug reports.
  • We also have one application, Joel Goguen, currently under review.
• Ubuntu Testing Day Highlights

  • In the last Testing day we were testing notify-osd. There was a good communication in the #ubuntu-testing channel during European times. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd

  • The next testing day is scheduled for next Monday, March 23rd, focusing on Smoke Testing for Jaunty Beta.
• Bug Gravity

  • Brian created a new bug report, Bug Gravity, aimed to help to set the importance of a bug when triaging. http://people.ubuntu.com/~brian/tmp/gravity/

  • The report adds gravity for tags, bug privacy, then duplicates, subscribers and users affected.

It was discussed to move the report to the QA server, to be run in a daily basis.

• Patch Testing Workflow
  • Brian documented how he tests patches that are attached to bug reports.

  • The document is available in the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/PatchTesting

• Mozilla Landing Page
  • Based on Mozilla QA Landing page, we discussed that the Ubuntu QA landing page should be a more eye-candy simple land page to attract new members. Dave Murphy "volunteered" in writing it down.
• Checkbox 0.7

  • The new Checkbox relase has been uploaded to Jaunty with new nice features and including the suspend/resume test script. https://launchpad.net/checkbox

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/39

Community Spotlight

Behind MOTU Interview: Roderick Greening(rgreening)

Roderick Greening is from St. John's Newfoundland and has been using Linux since 1993. He got started using Kubuntu in 2006 and has helped his family and friends to make the switch too. His MOTU adventure got it's start when his knetworkmanager stopped working and he asked the developers in IRC if he could help. With sponsor help and a lot of reading, he was hooked. His favorite part of MOTU work is his contact with all the knowledgeable people. Even though Roderick devotes most of his free time to Ubuntu, he likes to read, take pictures, and spend time with his wife and dog. Read the full interview at the link.

http://behindmotu.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/roderick-greening-rgreening/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, March 23, 2009

Beta Smoke Testing Day

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Asia Oceania Membership Board Meeting

• Start: 10:00 UTC
• End: 11:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/AsiaOceania

Technical Board Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None as of publication

Server Team Meeting

• Start: 16:00 UTC
• End: 17:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

Desktop Team Meeting

• Start: 16:30 UTC
• End: 17:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-desktop

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

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

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

PyCon

• Description: http://us.pycon.org

Foundation Team Meeting

• Start: 16:00 UTC
• End: 17:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

QA Team Meeting

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Meetings/

Thursday, March 26, 2009

PyCon

• Description: http://us.pycon.org

DocumentationStringFreeze

• Location: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationStringFreeze

Jaunty BetaRelease

• Location: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BetaRelease

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

• Start: 12:00 UTC
• End: 13:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Ubuntu Java Meeting

• Start: 14:00 UTC
• End: 15:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

MC Meeting

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC

Friday, March 27, 2009

PyCon

• Description: http://us.pycon.org

MOTU Council Meeting

• Start: 04:00 UTC
• End: 05:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Jaunty Weekly Release Meeting

• Start: 14:00 UTC
• End: 15:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseTeam/Meeting/2009-03-27

Saturday, March 28, 2009

PyCon

• Description: http://us.pycon.org

Sunday, March 29, 2009

PyCon

• Description: http://us.pycon.org

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

Security Updates

• USN-733-1: evolution-data-server vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-733-1

• USN-736-1: GStreamer Good Plugins vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-736-1

• USN-735-1: GStreamer Base Plugins vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-735-1

• USN-737-1: libsoup vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-737-1

• USN-738-1: GLib vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-738-1

• USN-734-1: FFmpeg vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-734-1

• USN-739-1: Amarok vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-739-1

• USN-740-1: NSS vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-740-1

• USN-742-1: JasPer vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-742-1

• USN-741-1: Thunderbird vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-741-1

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

• None Reported

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

• None Reported

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

• None Reported

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

• linux-meta 2.6.27.14.17 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2009-March/009709.html

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:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/news

and

• http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• John Crawford
• Craig A. Eddy
• Jeff Martin
• Dave Bush

• Kenny McHenry

• Liraz Siri
• Scott Gwin
• Isabelle Duchatelle
• And many others

Glossary of Terms

1. FOSS - Free Open Source Software.
2. IRC - Internet Relay Chat.
3. KVM - Kernel based Virtual Machine.
4. LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
5. LVM - Logical Volume Manager.
6. MOTU - Master Of The Universe - Developers responsible for the Universe and Multiverse repositories.
7. OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer.
8. OS - Operating System.
9. PPA - Personal Project Archive.
10. QA - Quality Assurance.
11. SRU - Stable release updates.
12. UF - Ubuntu Forums.
13. VNC - Virtual Network Computing.

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate

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.

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