Issue135

Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Released
    2. Jaunty Countdown Banners
    3. Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL, April 18,2009
    4. Ubuntu Server-dedicated course: Deploying Ubuntu in the Enterprise Environment
    5. QA Team Testing Day: Ubuntu Installers
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Jaunty
    3. Translation Stats Intrepid
    4. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. Ubuntu Makassar
    2. Ubuntu Tunisian LoCo Team Events
    3. Educational Technology Day in New York State
    4. Ubuntu New York: Awareness and Release Fest
    5. Ubuntu LoCo Drupal 6.3.1 released
  6. Launchpad News
    1. Launchpad down for maintenance April 1st
    2. Linking project releases in Launchpad to Milestones
  7. The Planet
    1. LinkedIn for Ubuntu Members
  8. The Fridge
    1. Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase Winners
    2. The Fridge needs a new theme
    3. Linux Weekly News Subscription for Ubuntu Members
  9. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu planning move to the cloud
    2. Ubuntu promises DIY Amazon cloud
    3. Giving Linux That 'XP' Factor
    4. As Jaunty Nears, Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Released
    5. What You Should Expect from Ubuntu 9.04
    6. Everything You Need to Know About Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
    7. Canonical To Not Enable UXA, Too Problematic
    8. Goodbye Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon reaches end of life on April 18th, 2009
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. Ubuntu Server Edition Training from Mark Shuttleworth
    2. Top 10 Tools for a Free Online Education
    3. First Look at Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" Beta
    4. Ubuntu Keeps Getting Better - Is There A Limit?
    5. The Zen of Ubuntu
  11. In Other News
    1. Ubuntu Podcast #23
    2. Ubuntu Podcast: John Pugh Interview(Technical Partner Mgr. Canonical)
    3. Full Circle Magazine #23
  12. Meeting Summaries
    1. March 2009 Team Reports
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Sunday, March 29, 2009
      1. PyCon
    2. Monday, March 30, 2009
      1. PyCon
    3. Tuesday, March 31, 2009
      1. PyCon
      2. Server Team Meeting
      3. Desktop Team Meeting
      4. Kernel Team Meeting
      5. LoCo Council Meeting
    4. Wednesday, April 1, 2009
      1. PyCon
      2. Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo Team Meeting
      3. Foundation Team Meeting
      4. QA Team Meeting
    5. Thursday, April 2, 2009
      1. PyCon
      2. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      3. Ubuntu Java Meeting
      4. Mobile Team Weekly Meeting
    6. Friday, April 3, 2009
  14. 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
    6. Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
  15. Archives and RSS Feed
  16. Additional Ubuntu News
  17. Conclusion
  18. Credits
  19. Glossary of Terms
  20. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  21. Feedback

newspaper-icon3.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #135 for the week March 22nd - March 28th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Released, Jaunty Countdown Banners, Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL April 18th, Ubuntu Server dedicated course, QA Team Testing Day: Ubuntu Installers, Ubuntu Makassar, Ubuntu Tunisia, Ubuntu New York, Ubuntu LoCo Drupal 6.3.1 released, Launchpad Maintenance April 1st, Linking project releases in Launchpad to Milestones, LinkedIn for Ubuntu Members, Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase Winners, The Fridge needs a new theme, LWN subscription for Ubuntu Members, Ubuntu Podcast #23 and an interview with John Pugh(Canonical Technical Partner Mgr.), Full Circle Magazine #23, March 2009 Team Reports, 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 Released
  • Jaunty Countdown Banners
  • Ubuntu 7.10 EOL April 18th
  • Ubuntu Server dedicated course
  • QA Team Testing Day: Ubuntu Installers
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Ubuntu Makassar
  • Ubuntu Tunisian LoCo Team

  • Ubuntu New York: Education Tech. Day & Awareness and Release Fest

  • Ubuntu LoCo Drupal 6.3.1 Released

  • Launchpad Maintenance April 1st
  • Linking project releases in Launchpad to Milestones
  • LinkedIn for Ubuntu Members

  • LWN Subscription for Ubuntu Members
  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • Ubuntu Podcast #23 & John Pugh Interview

  • Full Circle Magazine #23
  • Upcoming Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

General Community News

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Released

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop and Server editions. Codenamed "Jaunty Jackalope", 9.04 continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

  • Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition brings faster boot speeds and a new notification system to your everyday computing experience.
  • Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition makes it easy to experiment with cloud computing using Eucalyptus on your own servers, and sports an improved mail server integration stack based on postfix and dovecot.
  • The Ubuntu 9.04 family of variants, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Mythbuntu, also reach beta status today.

This is a Beta, so there may be some bugs. If you find one, please report it to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs rather than using the traditional Launchpad method.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2009-March/000119.html

Jaunty Countdown Banners

Help spread the word about Ubuntu. There are 4 banners available for your website or blog: The Ring, The Calendar, and a New Animated banner as well as a simple image for those who can't use javascript. A special thanks goes to the community members who created the graphics, concept and animation:

  • Thorsten Wilms (thorwil) for the ring and animation artwork
  • Markus Grönholm for the animation javascript
  • Mads Rosendahl (MadsRH) for the calendar artwork
  • Pierre Buyle for initial animation and concept

For best results: use the exact code listed. It will change as release day approaches so if you copy the file to a different location you won't get the full benefit. The code and examples are at the link below.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown

Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL, April 18,2009

Ubuntu announced the release of 7.10 almost 18 months ago, on October 18, 2007. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 7.10 will reach end of life on Saturday, April 18, 2009. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 7.10. Note that upgrades to version 8.10 and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 8.04 LTS, then to 8.10.

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-7.10-eol

Ubuntu Server-dedicated course: Deploying Ubuntu in the Enterprise Environment

Canonical has now launched an Ubuntu Server-dedicated course, called "Deploying Ubuntu in the Enterprise Environment". This is a 5 day course for intermediate-to-advanced system administrators. Participants will acquire the skills they need to deploy, configure and maintain Ubuntu Server Edition within an enterprise infrastructure. Canonical is offering a trial run with an online ‘virtual classroom’ version of the course for two weeks from Monday 4 May 2009. The seating is limit and sold through the Canonical store. The trial is offered at a special price and includes a special guest speaker, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project.

http://blog.canonical.com/?p=149

QA Team Testing Day: Ubuntu Installers

The next Ubuntu Testing Day will be next Monday, March 30th. The QA team will be testing the two main installers in Ubuntu: debian-installer (the installer featured in alternate images) and ubiquity (the installer featured in Live CDs). They are going to test Ubuntu Jaunty Beta ISOs. You don't need to be a developer to test for bugs, everyone is welcome. For help with problems or testing questions, join #ubuntu-testing on irc.freenode.net. You can ping cjwatson for help on testing day.

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/43

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (49269) +685 over last week
  • Critical (22) +5 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (20247) +209 over last week
  • Unassigned (41659) +629 over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (263419) +2708 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 (23946) -969 over last week
  • French (50483) -1506 over last week
  • Swedish (54817) -287 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (57648) -662 over last week
  • English (Uk) (86558) -701 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) +/-0 over last week
  • French (59024) +/-0 over last week
  • Swedish (63241) +/-0 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (63729) -2492 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

  • Pidgin -- Message disappears if too large
  • Support exFAT in Ubuntu
  • Run applications only once
  • hidden configuration mess in user's home
  • GreenPrint like feature in Ubuntu print dialogue

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 Makassar

The Ubuntu Makassar community has started up. They are a part of the Ubuntu-ID (Indonesia) LoCo, and located in Makassar, one of the big cities in the Province of Sulawesi Selatan. Support for Ubuntu is provided through milist[1], forum[2] and facebook[3]. Meetings are held every 2 weeks.

  1. http://groups.google.com/group/ubuntu_makassar

  2. http://ubuntu-makassar.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=26

  3. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makasar-Indonesia/Ubuntu-Makassar/49289838220

http://kipas.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/ubuntu-makassar-community/

Ubuntu Tunisian LoCo Team Events

The Tunisian LoCo has recently participated in 2 events. The first was at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax on March 14, 2009. Four presentations and an install fest were held that day. The second event was held march 21, 2009 in the Youth Club of Ras El Jebel. There they gave 2 presentations and a workshop. This was an opportunity to meet a lot of secondary school students and explain the benefits of Ubuntu.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-March/000467.html

Educational Technology Day in New York State

The Ubuntu-NY (New York State) LoCo participated in an Educational Technology day, held in Ithaca, New York on March 26, 2009. This is a regional event with major vendors such as Adobe, Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and others. Their booth was right near the entrance, where they had lots of traffic. LoCo members gave presentations on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) and saving money with Free Software. Included at the link are lots of pictures of the event.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam/Events/20090326

Ubuntu New York: Awareness and Release Fest

The teams Public Awareness and Release Party is being planned for April 25th, 2009. It is being held at the Waterloo Holiday Inn. A public awareness time is being planned from 2-4 pm. The release party with a small cover donation and rsvp will be from 4-6 pm. Check out our event page for more details. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam/Events/20090425

If the community has any suggestions or successes with public awareness of FOSS and Ubuntu, please let ausimage know. The plans right now include talks and demos, but the exact details have not yet been decided. ausimage has also drafted a new pamphlet that is awaiting trademarks approval and is aimed at basic and casual computer users. http://www.ausimage.us/Blog/20090327

Ubuntu LoCo Drupal 6.3.1 released

With the coming of Ubuntu 9.04, it was time for a change to this package. Our latest release now has a countdown timer.

You can see available options for countdown images at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown. Unfortunately, this third option being an iframe means that we're unable to include it as an option.

The options available:

  • Pick from 3 for the 4 images
  • Set position
  • Set size
  • Set opacity
  • Set visibility
  • Even IE tested

You can grab the latest package at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-drupal-releases/6.x.

Once installed, all the available options are listed in /admin/build/themes/settings/ubuntu-drupal. You can of course see a working example at http://sd.ubuntu-us.org/.

http://profarius.com/content/ubuntu-drupal-631-released

Launchpad News

Launchpad down for maintenance April 1st

The Launchpad Team has some planned maintenance, and the release of a new version of Launchpad coming up, both of which will mean a short period of down-time. Launchpad will be offline for one hour on April 1st. With this new release, Launchpad 2.2.3, all of Launchpad will be offline for around an hour while they roll-out the new code to their servers.

Going offline: 22.00 UTC April 1st Expected back: 23.00 UTC April 1st

http://blog.launchpad.net/notifications/launchpad-maintenance-26th-march-and-1st-april

Linking project releases in Launchpad to Milestones

With the 2.2.3 release of Launchpad — due 1st of April — the team will strengthening the relationship between milestones and releases. https://launchpad.net/launchpad-project/+milestone/2.2.3

  • What are Releases, Milestones, and Series: Launchpad hosted projects can arrange their development into Series, which contain Milestones to which bugs can be targeted, and Releases which hold download tarballs and have release notes. Although Milestones and Releases go together, they were previously managed separately in Launchpad. Now they’re more unified.
  • Why are they doing this: Many people already use releases and milestones in this way. Milestones aid release planning, and help people understand a project’s goals. Creating a release directly from a milestone implies that the milestone was reached. The goal is to better present the history and future of a project, as well as to improve the workflow for planners.
  • What you can do: You do not need to take any action regarding releases. The Launchpad Team will migrating existing releases by linking them to a milestone, or if there isn’t an appropriate milestone, creating a new one. You can use Launchpad’s staging environment — https://staging.launchpad.net/ — right now to check what your releases and milestones will look like under the new system.

The team would value your feedback so they can improve the data migration script. If you come across a problem, please report a bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad For other comments, send them an email at feedback@launchpad.net

http://blog.launchpad.net/coming-features/linking-project-releases-in-launchpad-to-milestones

The Planet

LinkedIn for Ubuntu Members

Ubuntu Planet blogger Michael has been using LinkedIn, and he's seen great potential in it for career networking.

Admittedly he saw the "Groups" available and his first instinct was "oh... is this going to be another Facebook with a little Launchpad in it?" He quickly realized that this isn't the case at all. It turns out that the groups are what drives the networking process, and the applications available are just to add to your profile.

Since there was no group for Ubuntu Members, he created one. This will be for Official Ubuntu Members only. If you are a member and have your @ubuntu.com email address setup as your LinkedIn account, you can sign up without being approved. Otherwise you will have to meet with him on IRC to verify your status.

If you are an Ubuntu member and are using, or are curious about using LinkedIn, take a trip over to the team and see if perhaps you would be interested in joining.http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1867717&trk=anet_ug_grppro

http://profarius.com/content/linkedin-ubuntu-members

The Fridge

Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase Winners

This was a competition in which creative types could submit their work for inclusion in the /Examples folder of the next edition of Ubuntu. In this competition there was an expansion of the Audio and Video categories to also include a Graphic/Photo category. The net result was a fantastic range of entries, and many great submissions!

Here are the winners:

Thanks also to Keith Worrell and Endolith for some of the patches and branches involved in the Example Content package. You can read more about each submitter at the link.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1844

The Fridge needs a new theme

The Fridge is going to under go some much needed changes, and they are calling on the Ubuntu Community for help creating a new theme. The goal is to go live in time for the Jaunty Jackalope release.

Mock ups will be due Thursday, April 2nd. The Ubuntu News team will select from the submissions, and provide the feedback needed for final polish. You do NOT need to create a full-blown design here, just enough to sell your idea. This is purely a graphic design job, submit your mockups by posting them as attachments in the Phase 1 section of: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/FridgeTheme

Here are the requirements:

  • Design
    • A new visual appearance, harmonious with the ubuntu website but not just another ubuntu knock off
    • Stick with the colours and fonts of the ubuntu site but not feel constrained to using the rounded borders with the top right drop down nav
    • Attractive, people will feel the site is credible
    • A layout that looks like a news website
    • Possibly include a special layout for Ubuntu Weekly News, since it is a regular item and has a different format than the other news stories
  • Content Types
    • News stories
    • UWN
    • Events
  • Blocks - side-bar items
    • Popular content
    • Syndication/rss
    • Events
    • Search

Ensuing phases will create HTML/CSS, and a Drupal theme. Some people who are great at making designs may not know how to make drupal themes, and those who can do drupal coding may not be great at design. Lets make this a team effort since there is lots of talent in all the necessary areas.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1847

Linux Weekly News Subscription for Ubuntu Members

Canonical has announced that it is contributing a new benefit to Ubuntu Membership: a complimentary subscription to Linux Weekly News. Our friends at Debian have been doing this extra for a while now, and Canonical thought this could be an excellent gesture for its Ubuntu Members.

There are currently 459 Ubuntu Members. https://launchpad.net/~ubuntumembers

To enjoy this benefit you need to be a member of the Ubuntu project. You can then switch on your free subscription like this:

  • Apply for an account at LWN here: https://lwn.net/newaccount

  • Send an email to Rachael at rachael.tripp (at) canonical dot com (preferably using your ubuntu.com address) asking for a subscription sponsorship. This email MUST contain:
    • Your LWN username
    • Your Launchpad username.
  • Rachael will then go and double check you are a member and not telling porkies.
  • You will receive an email when the subscription has been accepted and is ready to roll (or read).

Ubuntu Members are the group of people who vote to confirm new appointments to the Ubuntu Community Council. Membership is open to anybody who has made a substantial contribution - of any form - to Ubuntu. For more details about Ubuntu Members, and how to become one, please visit: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership. Our thanks to Canonical and Mark Shuttleworth for adding this extra perk for Ubuntu Membership.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1845

In The Press

Ubuntu planning move to the cloud

CNet's Charles Cooper says we should add Canonical to the roster of companies offering technology to help enterprise customers build their own cloud-computing setups. But unlike most of the better-known players in this nascent market, the twist here is that the technology will be supplied by an open-source shop. Next month the company will offer the first details on plans to roll out cloud-computing services to its customers. At this point, details remain scarce but management isn't planning to reinvent the wheel. Instead, the company is going to adopt the same approach it used to promote Ubuntu as an open-source operating system. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10203590-60.html

Ubuntu promises DIY Amazon cloud

Gavin Clarke of The Register tells us that next month should see the first steps from the Canonical camp that will let you run an Amazon-style cloud behind the firewall on Ubuntu. The Jaunty Jackalope edition of Ubuntu, version 9.04, due in April, will let you take existing Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and run them on your own Ubuntu servers. The plan with Ubuntu is to target serious business users who like the idea of the cloud, with its virtualized computing resources, but who want to retain control over the servers, the computing cycles, their applications, and their data. Steve George, Canonical's director of support and services, speaking to The Reg at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco called Jaunty Jackalope's cloud capability an initial technology release. Full features are planned for Ubuntu 9.10 - called Karmic Koala and expected in October. http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/03/25/ubuntu_amazon_cloud/

Giving Linux That 'XP' Factor

Keir Thomas of PC World says that everybody has a version of Windows that's their favorite. What version it is depends a lot on your age. For most people, XP is their favorite Windows. But pretty soon XP will be a vague memory to most users. "I have a solution for your XP woes.", Thomas says, "I recommend Ubuntu." Thomas thinks that Ubuntu is like a warm pub on a cold night -- inviting and welcoming to everybody. But Ubuntu also has that magical "Windows XP factor" -- it's as functional as you need it to be, yet is still accessible. It 'just works' too -- there's usually no need to install drivers, or add-on software. You install, and go. Everything comes together very nicely. http://www.pcworld.com/article/161958/ubuntu_windows_xp.html

As Jaunty Nears, Ubuntu 9.04 Beta Released

Michael Larabel of phoronix tells us that while there is about a month to go until the release of Ubuntu 9.04, on March 26th Canonical released the only beta release for this next Ubuntu release known as the Jaunty Jackalope. Among the features in Ubuntu 9.04 are the GNOME 2.26 desktop, Linux 2.6.28 kernel, X Server 1.6, KDE 4.2, and various other updated packages. Ubuntu 9.04 also has a new desktop notification system, improved boot performance, and various other features. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzE3Mg

What You Should Expect from Ubuntu 9.04

Daniel Pop-Silaghi of softpedia is sure most of you noticed the abundance of Ubuntu-related news that filled the Linux section last week. It's no surprise though, as Canonical renewed most artwork elements for the upcoming Jaunty Jackalope in that small interval. But new artwork is not even close to everything Ubuntu 9.04 will have to offer. Software-wise, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu 9.04 will come with the latest major releases: GNOME 2.26, KDE 4.2 and Xfce 4.6 desktop environments. OpenOffice 3.0.1 will be the default office productivity suite and a system-cleaning tool will be available in the form of Computer Janitor. Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) will definitely invade many computers all over the world and further strengthen its loyal community. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Softpedia-Linux-Weekly-Issue-38-107484.shtml#0

Everything You Need to Know About Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

Will Kraft of MaximumPC reports that the newest version of Ubuntu (9.04, codenamed “Jaunty Jackalope”) is set to be released on April 23, 2009. While there are some noticeable differences, much of the improvement in 9.10 can be found under the hood. Jaunty comes with GNOME 2.25.92 (in Alpha 5) and many other packages like OpenOffice.org 3.0, GIMP 2.6.5, and much more. Jaunty will also include X server 1.6, which includes new features like X input 1.5, predictable pointer acceleration, and RandR 1.3. Also, Jaunty introduces the “Computer Janitor”, a new administration utility meant to help clean up orphaned packages. Kraft also notes improvements in appearance, the inclusion of EXT4, kernel updates, and speed increase as just some of the many highlights of Ubuntu 9.04. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/everything_you_need_know_about_ubuntu_904_jaunty_jackalope

Canonical To Not Enable UXA, Too Problematic

Michael Larabel of phoronix reports that in August of last year Intel had introduced the UMA Acceleration Architecture (commonly referred to as UXA). UXA is based upon the very common EXA acceleration API but it handles the pixmap management using GEM objects. With its use of the Graphics Execution Manager it's more optimal as more open-source graphics drivers turn to kernel memory management. Bryce Harrington, the lead X.Org engineer at Canonical, has decided these performance improvements do not outweigh Intel's UXA bugs and as a result it will not be enabled by default in Ubuntu 9.04. Bryce shares that some Ubuntu users are able to use UXA without any problems, while others with the same Intel IGPs report serious regressions. He hopes, however, to enable UXA by default on Intel hardware in Ubuntu 9.10. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzE3MQ

Goodbye Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon reaches end of life on April 18th, 2009

Daniel Pop-Silaghi of softpedia looks back to almost eighteen months ago, on the 18th of October 2007, when Canonical announced the release of Ubuntu 7.10, codename Gutsy Gibbon. It was undoubtedly an awesome release, allowing many to make the switch from other operating systems and plunge into the Linux experience without any regret. But as we all know, all good things eventually come to an end, and Ubuntu 7.10 will reach its end of life on April 18th, 2009. This means that starting with April 18th, Canonical will stop "feeding" its Ubuntu 7.10 operating system with security/critical fixes and software updates! Those of you who still use Gutsy and want to upgrade will have to do that incrementally, from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to Ubuntu 8.10. Or wait for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and do a clean install with the new EXT4 filesystem. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Goodbye-Ubuntu-7-10-107519.shtml

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu Server Edition Training from Mark Shuttleworth

Blogger Joe Panettieri from Works With U tells us about Canonical's plan to launch an online training course for Ubuntu Server Edition on May 4th. "The virtual classroom will include a special guest speaker: Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth." Face-to-face training sessions will also be starting in June. Joe adds that this is another of the pushes that the Ubuntu server Edition has made recently, including: RightScale and Turnkey Linux, promoting Ubuntu server applications in various clouds. Canonical is piecing together a directory services strategy to help Ubuntu Server Edition compete more effectively against Windows Server and Active Directory. With Unison Technologies launching a unified communications system on Ubuntu, Plans for HP to certify Ubuntu on ProLiant servers, and a Canonical user survey highlighting Ubuntu Server Edition's continued momentum. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/03/24/ubuntu-server-edition-training-from-mark-shuttleworth/

Top 10 Tools for a Free Online Education

Kevin Purdy of lifehacker says it's easy to forget these days that the internet started out as a place for academics and researchers to trade data and knowledge. Recapture the web's brain-expanding potential with these free resources for educating yourself online. One of the things Purdy thinks people should do is learn to actually use Ubuntu. With a brand-new installation sitting on your computer, few resources are as straight-forward and comprehensive as the Ubuntu Guide, which is packed with common stuff like installing VLC and getting VLC playback, but spans across topics including Samba and remote printing configuration. Author Keir Thomas also offered Lifehacker readers a little preview of his Ubuntu Kung Fu in two excerpts that tweak one's system into a faster, more efficient data flinger. http://lifehacker.com/5188342/top-10-tools-for-a-free-online-education

First Look at Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" Beta

Kevin Purdy of lifehacker thinks the name's ridiculous, but notes that "Jaunty Jackalope," the next release of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, is seriously focused on the user experience. lifehacker has covered bits and pieces of what's coming up for Ubuntu 9.04 in the past few months, but one feature they couldn't show with screenshots was the improved boot time in Jaunty. Purdy says, "Having lived in it for about a week and installed a few apps, it took 24.9 seconds from choosing my OS to boot in Grub to a login window, and about 19 seconds more to get to a fully-loaded desktop (about 43 total)." http://lifehacker.com/5180833/first-look-at-ubuntu-904-jaunty-jackalope-beta

Ubuntu Keeps Getting Better - Is There A Limit?

Every six months without fail, a new release of Ubuntu arrives, carrying a number of new features. How long can this last, though? Certainly there are a lot of great features that could be implemented, but projects of Ubuntu’s size have to start worrying about feature creep, or the tendency to introduce too many features, making the product less useful and too complex. While this may not be an issue that Ubuntu runs into for at least a few more years, it is something that almost every piece of software must eventually deal with. Hopefully Ubuntu will continue to introduce only useful, important features and not stray into bloat land. http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/03/26/ubuntu-keeps-getting-better-is-there-a-limit/

The Zen of Ubuntu

Blogger Jason Perlow from ZDNet talks about his interview with David Scott Clawson, the administrator to the Ubuntu Linux computing infrastructure of White Wind Zen Community. This community is located in Ottawa, Canada. The interview can be found here: http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/the_zen_of_ubuntu.mp3

http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9704

In Other News

Ubuntu Podcast #23

In this podcast Nick and Josh bring you an interview with Leslie Hawthorn, Google's Open Source program manager. The discuss:

  • The history of Google Summer of Code
  • What participants get out of the program
  • And most importantly, whether or not she uses Ubuntu

http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/03/28/ubuntu-podcast-episode-23-leslie-hawthorn/

Ubuntu Podcast: John Pugh Interview(Technical Partner Mgr. Canonical)

In this podcast Nick and Josh bring you and interview with John Pugh, Technology Partner Manager for Canonical. Topics discussed are:

  • Cloud computing features in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 release.

http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/03/25/ubuntu-podcast-john-pugh-interview/

Full Circle Magazine #23

Full Circle - the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community is proud to announce the release of their twenty-third issue.

This month:

  • Command and Conquer - Troubleshooting.
  • How-To: Program in C - Part 7, Web Development - Part 4, and Spreading Ubuntu - Part2.
  • My Story - Becoming An Ubuntu User
  • Book Review - How To Be A Geek Goddess
  • MOTU Interview - Steve Stalcup
  • Top 5 - Task Managers
  • PLUS: all the usual goodness...

Get it while it's hot! http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-23/

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-March/000466.html

Meeting Summaries

March 2009 Team Reports

The March 2009 Ubuntu Team Reports are in and include reports from the following teams:

  • Community Council Meetings
  • Ubuntu Development Teams
    • Xubuntu Team
    • Artwork
    • Bug Triage
    • Community
    • Documentation
    • Marketing
    • Packaging, Development and Testing
  • Mobile Team
  • Server Team
  • Ubuntu LoCo Teams

    • Honduras Team
    • Japanese Team
    • Venezuela Team
    • Philippine Team
    • Florida Team
    • Chicago Team
    • New Mexico Team
    • Pennsylvania Team
    • Welsh Team
    • Irish Team
    • Romanian Team
    • Taiwan Team
    • Swiss Team
    • Tamil Team
    • Tunisian Team
  • Ubuntu Women

Read all the individual team reports at the link.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/March2009

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Sunday, March 29, 2009

PyCon

Description: http://us.pycon.org

Monday, March 30, 2009

PyCon

Description: http://us.pycon.org

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

PyCon

Description: http://us.pycon.org

Server Team 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

LoCo Council Meeting

  • Start: 20:00 UTC
  • End: 21:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncilAgenda

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

PyCon

Description: http://us.pycon.org

Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo Team Meeting

  • Start: 12:30 UTC
  • End: 13:30 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-pa
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

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

Thursday, April 2, 2009

PyCon

Description: http://us.pycon.org

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

Mobile Team Weekly Meeting

  • Start: 21:00 UTC
  • End: 22:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Friday, April 3, 2009

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

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

  • None Reported

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

Archives and RSS Feed

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

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

Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

and

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

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

  • J. Scott Gwin
  • Liraz Siri
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

  1. EOL - End Of Life.
  2. LTS - Long Term Support.
  3. QA - Quality Assurance.

Other acronyms can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/glossary

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.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License CCL.png Creative Commons License 3.0 BY SA

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue135 (last edited 2009-03-29 20:00:54 by ip68-0-181-84)