Issue140

Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Karmic Open for Development
    2. Notify OSD to be discussed at Ubuntu UDS Karmic
    3. Ubuntu Open Week Summary
    4. New Ubuntu Member
    5. Ubuntu Hug Day: May 7th
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Jaunty
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. Jaunty Launch Party: Waterloo
    2. Jaunty Release Party: Kentucky
    3. Jaunty Release Party at "The Jackalope" in Austin, TX
    4. Ubuntu-ZA-jhb had a cake
    5. Ubuntu Berlin Jaunty Release Party
    6. Philippine Team Release Party
    7. Ubuntu-FL Release Party
    8. Manchester Ubuntu Release Party Success
    9. Ubuntu Chicago Jaunty Release Party
  6. Launchpad News
    1. Launchpad 2.2.4
      1. Import translations from Bazaar branches
      2. Introducing AJAX in the Launchpad web interface
      3. Two years since 1.0
    2. Launchpad’s web service code released as stand alone libraries
  7. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. New prefixes in the help sub-forums
    2. Hiding post (beans) count
  8. The Planet
    1. RoAkSoAx: Announcing the Ubuntu High Availability Team
    2. doctormo: Ubuntu Brains
    3. Matt Zimmerman: Ubuntu 9.04 does not use ext4 by default
  9. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu 9.04
    2. An open letter to Mark Shuttleworth
    3. Has Ubuntu Reached the End Of the Line?
    4. Which Vendors were mentioned with Ubuntu Linux last week?
    5. Ubuntu Jaunty Tries to Set the Usability Agenda
    6. Ubuntu: keyword is more popular than Windows XP in Google Trend
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. Cloud computing with Ubuntu Server Edition 9.x
    2. Jaunty Jackalope: Are Alarm Bells Ringing in Redmond?
    3. System76 Launches Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook
    4. Ubuntu 9.04: Wow
    5. 10 reasons you'll want to install Ubuntu 9.04
  11. In Other News
    1. Ubuntu-UK podcast: Partners in Crime
    2. Canonical Engaging Ubuntu Software Partners
  12. Meeting Summaries: April 2009
    1. Ubuntu Governance
      1. Community Council
      2. MOTU Council
      3. Forums Council
      4. Americas Membership Board
    2. Ubuntu Development Teams
      1. Xubuntu Team
        1. Documentation Team
    3. Ubuntu LoCo Teams
      1. Berlin
      2. Kiel
    4. Irish Team
    5. Philippine Team
    6. US Teams Project
      1. Pennsylvania Team
    7. Florida Team
    8. Czech Team
    9. Honduras Team
    10. Swiss Team
    11. Ubuntu Women
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Sunday, May 3, 2009
      1. Ubuntu-us-az LoCo Team Meeting
    2. Monday, May 4, 2009
    3. Tuesday, May 5, 2009
      1. Technical Board Meeting
      2. Server Team Meeting
      3. Desktop Team Meeting
      4. Kernel Team Meeting
      5. Community Council Meeting
      6. Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team Meeting
    4. Wednesday, May 6, 2009
      1. Ubuntu-us-pa Meeting
      2. Foundation Team Meeting
      3. QA Team Meeting
    5. Thursday, May 7, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Bug Day
      2. Packaging Training: Personal Package
      3. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      4. Ubuntu Java Meeting
    6. Friday, May 8, 2009
      1. MC Meeting
      2. MOTU Council
      3. Catalan Ubuntu Release Party
    7. Saturday, May 9, 2009
      1. Catalan Ubuntu Release
      2. Ubuntu Community Learning Team Meeting
  14. Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
    5. 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 #140 for the week April 26th - May 2nd, 2009. In this issue we cover: Karmic Open for Development, Notify OSD to be discussed at Ubuntu UDS Karmic, Ubuntu Open Week Summary, New Ubuntu Member, Ubuntu Hug Day: May 7th, LoCo News: Jaunty Release Parties, Launchpad 2.2.4, Launchpad's web service code released as stand alone libraries, New prefixes in the help sub-forums, Hiding post (bean) counts, Announcing the Ubuntu High Availability Team, Ubuntu Brains, Ubuntu 9.04 does not use ext4 by default, Ubuntu-UK podcast: Partners in Crime, Canonical engaging Ubuntu Software Partners, Team Meeting Summaries for April 2009, 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

  • Karmic Open for Development
  • Notify OSD to be discussed at Ubuntu UDS Karmic
  • Ubuntu Open Week Summary
  • New Ubuntu Member
  • Ubuntu Hug Day: May 7th
  • Ubuntu Stats

  • LoCo News: Jaunty Release Parties

  • Launchpad 2.2.4
  • Launchpad's web service code released as stand alone libraries
  • New prefixes in the help sub-forums
  • Hiding post (beans) count
  • Announcing the Ubuntu High Availibility Team
  • Ubuntu Brains
  • Ubuntu 9.04 does not use ext4 by default

  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • Ubuntu-UK podcast: Partners in Crime
  • Canonical Engaging Ubunt Software Partners
  • Team Meeting Summaries for April 2009

  • Upcoming Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

General Community News

Karmic Open for Development

On Tuesday, April 28th, following the setting up of the toolchain, Karmic Koala began it's general development stage. Automatic syncing with Debian will begin shortly. The release schedule for Karmic is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicReleaseSchedule. The first milestone is expected to take place mid-May, and cessation of automatic syncs with Debian around the end of August. It is suggested that developers getting involved with Karmic during the initial state of flux be prepared to recover from anything up to complete system failure. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-April/000564.html

Notify OSD to be discussed at Ubuntu UDS Karmic

At UDS Karmic later this month, there will be a session for discussing improvements to the Notify OSD notification server. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/dx-karmic-notify-osd

Topics for discussion will include:

  • experimenting with better positioning for the notification bubbles
  • improving the appearance and behavior (making composited bubbles more obviously unclickable, and non-composited bubbles classier)
  • implementing the duration rules, so that notifications with longer text are shown for longer
  • better handling of long backlogs of notifications
  • investigating whether we can use non-critical priorities for anything useful

  • helping to get the FreeDesktop.org notifications specification to 1.0

  • a Qt implementation
  • investigating a "do-not-disturb" mode
  • accessibility, e.g. sound theme compliance and maybe alt text for icons
  • media key confirmation bubbles (Play, Pause, Previous, Next)
  • suppressing bubbles when any window is full-screen
  • a test suite for the rendering layer.

If you want to take part in the discussion, keep an eye on the schedule here: http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-karmic/ to find out when the session will be. If you can't attend(either physically or virtually) but have suggestions you'd like considered, please add them to the Notify OSD comments page. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotifyOSD/Comments

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2009-May/008022.html

Ubuntu Open Week Summary

Ubuntu Open Week finished up last Friday, and as usual, it was a great 5 days of sessions geared toward helping the community get involved. Open Week kicks off the start of each new Ubuntu release in development. With Jaunty Jackalope released, and the announcement of Karmic Koala in development, it was the perfect time to get the community together. Ubuntu Open Week gives the community an introduction to many of the Ubuntu Teams that help make Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Community what they are.

One of the most looked forward to, and highly attended sessions was of course, the Q&A session with the leader of Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth(sabdfl), but the list of prominent Ubuntu community members hosting sessions was, as always, impressive. You can find the logs of all the Ubuntu Open Week Sessions here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek just scroll down the page to "The Timetable" header and click on any session title to read the logs.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-May/000531.html

New Ubuntu Member

From The Asia Oceania Membership Board Meeting April 28th, 2009

Harisfazillah Jamel from Ubuntu Malaysian LoCo Team is now a new Ubuntu Member. He has been promoting Ubuntu at various conferences and has conducted several seminars on Ubuntu together with his Malaysian counterparts. More about him and his contributions at: Wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com/linuxmalaysia Launchpad https://launchpad.net/~linuxmalaysia

The Asia Oceanic Membership Board is happy to welcome this new Ubuntu Member!

The next meeting of the Asia Oceanic Board will be held on 12 May 09 at 10.00 UTC

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-May/000529.html

Ubuntu Hug Day: May 7th

Martin Mai has announced the next Ubuntu Hug Day:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-May/000528.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (54430) +1075 over last week
  • Critical (16) -1 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (24407) +722 over last week
  • Unassigned (46513) +1063 over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (277693) +2696 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 (14704) -242 over last week
  • French (43385) +134 over last week
  • Swedish (54350) +115 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (55719) -112 over last week
  • English (Uk) (58986) -6 over last week

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

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

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

Jaunty Launch Party: Waterloo

The Jaunty Launch Party, held in Waterloo, New York, was planned by Jeremy (ausimage) and Landen (slick666) as both a release party and a public information session. There were roughly 30 people in attendance with about 65% of the audience already using Linux. The event was the first multi-region, multi-LUG event planned and executed by the New York State Ubuntu local team. Among other things, a presentation, focused on potential new users, was given. "The Ubuntu Experience" covered the meaning of Ubuntu and why that focus makes the ubuntu community a good choice for end users. There was also a lengthy question and answer session, food, drink, and entertainment. More, including pictures can be seen at the link. http://ftbeowulf.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/jaunty-launch-party-waterloo/

Jaunty Release Party: Kentucky

The Ubuntu Kentucky LoCo will be holding a Jaunty Release party on May 9th from 4PM-7PM(EST)in conjunction with the Blue Grass Linux User Group[1]. The event will be held at Tates Creek Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, and is open to the public. A copy of their flyer and a map of the location can be found at their link. A facebook event is available to help them plan on the number of people attending.

  1. http://www.bglug.net/

http://etank.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/jaunty-release-party/

Jaunty Release Party at "The Jackalope" in Austin, TX

Dustin Kirkland notes that the Jaunty Release Party in Austin, Texas, may have been the only one held in a bar named for the 9.04 namesake: The Jackalope (a picture of the sign is included at the link, as well as other pictures of the party). About 30 people showed up to join in the festivities, beer and demonstrations. http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/04/pictures-from-jaunty-release-party-at.html

Ubuntu-ZA-jhb had a cake

A member of the Ubuntu-za community prevailed on his wife and daughter to bake a cake for their release party. A picture is included at the link. http://blog.smartcube.co.za/2009/04/30/ubuntu-za-jhb-had-a-cake/

Ubuntu Berlin Jaunty Release Party

The Ubuntu Berlin Jaunty Release Party was once again held in c-base (their conference center). Once again, there were advertisements for the party on Berlin's metro TV system, which resulted in a lot of new people who had never heard of Ubuntu and were curious. More than 200 people showed up for barbecue and CDs, talks (that were streamed live on the internet), and a general good time. See pictures of the event at the link. http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=415

Philippine Team Release Party

The Filipino Linux and Ubuntu enthusiasts gathered together for three hours and discussed different topics about Ubuntu and Linux!

The Philippine Team held their release party on April 25th. The Filipino Linux and Ubuntu enthusiasts gathered together for three hours and discussed different topics about Ubuntu and Linux! A list of attendees, links to blogs, and picture albums is available at the link. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PhilippineTeam/ReleaseParty

Ubuntu-FL Release Party

The Florida team held release parties in 3 locations: Pensacola, Jacksonville and Gainesville. Pictures from the events are available at the following links:

Manchester Ubuntu Release Party Success

Manchester, United Kingdom, held their first ever event and were pleased with the turnout. They had 60+ people invade the bar at the BBC building on Oxford Road, and really enjoyed themselves. Advertising for the event was assisted by BBC Backstage Blog[1], and a full write up of the event was posted to the WorksWithU site[2]. More than 60 people had the opportunity to attend and be introduced to the Ubuntu community.

  1. http://welcomebackstage.com/2009/04/ubuntu-904-release-party/

  2. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/05/01/ubuntu-904-a-social-event/

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-May/000530.html

Ubuntu Chicago Jaunty Release Party

nixternal gave us a look at the Chicago Jaunty Release party. The event was organized by Jim Campbell, Kevin Harriss, and Ilan who is Kevin’s boss, and it took place at the Institute of Design. Talks were given on what was new in Ubuntu, Xubuntu, the Server and Kubuntu for 9.04, Pictures of the event can be seen at the link, as well as at the following 2 links:

http://blog.nixternal.com/2009.04.25/chicago-style-release-party/

Launchpad News

Launchpad 2.2.4

Launchpad 2.2.4 introduces several new features such as the ability to import translations from bazaar branches and more AJAX in the web interface.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-announce/2009-April/000036.html

Import translations from Bazaar branches

In the last release, the ability to import translation templates from Bazaar branches was added. Now, you can now import the actual translations.

The most common scenario that this feature will likely be used for is the initial import of translations when you start using Launchpad Translations for a project that already has translations. To make this easy to accomplish, a "Request Bazaar import” option has been added in the menu bar of your project's release series right next to "Settings". You need to have an official branch linked to this release series in order to see this button. You can go to the "Settings" page and choose "Import templates and translation files" to have Launchpad continuously import both translation templates and actual translations from your branch. The approval of translation files after they are uploaded works just as if they were uploaded through the upload form.

http://blog.launchpad.net/translations/import-translations-from-bazaar-branches

Introducing AJAX in the Launchpad web interface

Launchpad has started moving towards a JavaScript-driven interface to streamline how Launchpad is used. Green links are being added to various pages in order to make it clear to users that they can click on the link without navigating away from the page that they are currently working on. Launchpad 2.2.4 also includes a new milestone picker as well as a redesigned way to set the privacy of a bug, both of which use AJAX.

Two years since 1.0

Here are some of the ways Launchpad has grown since releasing the beta of Launchpad 1.0 two years ago.

  • People registered: 898,261 April 2007, 2,728,657 today
  • Projects registered: 2,323 April 2007, 11,475 projects today
  • Bug reports: 125,310 April 2007, 367,178 today
  • Code branches: 2,459 April 2007, 29,380 today

Launchpad has also introduced Personal Package Archives, a web services API, mailing list hosting, code review, plugins for two-way communication between Launchpad and external trackers, and many other features.

Launchpad’s web service code released as stand alone libraries

After several weeks of work and sprint in Montreal, you can now create your own web service using the same techniques used in Launchpad.

The library is lazr.restful, and there's a companion client library called lazr.restfulclient. They're also on PyPl(restful, restfulclient). The place to discuss these libraries is on the lazr-users-mailing list.

The goal is to remove almost all code from launchpadlib, leaving only the OAuth handling and some launchpad-specific information. They are also working on making it easier to use lazr.restful with standard WSGI applications, so you do not have to know as much Zope.

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/launchpads-web-service-code-released-as-standalone-libraries

Ubuntu Forums News

New prefixes in the help sub-forums

Two new prefixes were added this week, wubi and unr (Ubuntu Network Remix). They are available to threads in the support area. Following our previous rationale not to increase the number of categories, it is now preferred to use either prefixes (adding new ones is only available to admins) or tags (any member can add a tag to any thread).

Hiding post (beans) count

Hiding post counts is available again from userCP. Number of posts in the support area can still be seen when visiting the user profile. Beans only add up when posting in help areas, not in the general community chat areas. When users reach 3,500 beans, they can customize their title.

The Planet

RoAkSoAx: Announcing the Ubuntu High Availability Team

In the latest Server Team meeting, RoAkSoAx presented the idea that HA Cluster packages should be important for the Server Team and that the team should also concentrate on this packets and be a bug contact for them. Why, because companies nowadays work with clusters or want to start using them, which makes Ubuntu a possible choose. He had had this idea for a long time, but never presented it to the Server Team. In the meeting it was decided to create the Ubuntu High Availability Team. This team will work with packages related to HA Clustering in Ubuntu, as a bug contact for them. A mailing list has been created. So, if you like HA clustering, and you want to collaborate triaging bugs related to this packages, everyone is welcome to join!

http://www.roaksoax.com/2009/04/announcing-the-ubuntu-high-availability-team

doctormo: Ubuntu Brains

Ubuntu Community Learning Project(Ubuntu Brains): https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning

This project is to create an interactive learning environment based on Moodle to support new users becoming more engaged in the Ubuntu community. The goal is to take new motivated users and turn them into contributing members of the community. The intend is to do this by working with existing teams such as the classroom team, as well as trying to leverage the work and ongoing training already being done by the MOTU Team, Bug Squad, Doc Team, Desktop Training, and LoCo's to develop an integrated training solution, In turn, that will allow the community to undertake self paced and instructor lead training in conjunction with IRC based training and question times. This is similar to what most teams already are doing individually but gives more flexibility in providing quality training materials that will assist in learning without requiring as much IRC time.

http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/ubuntu-brains/

Matt Zimmerman: Ubuntu 9.04 does not use ext4 by default

There seems to be a significant misconception around Ubuntu 9.04, that it uses the (comparatively new) ext4 filesystem by default. It doesn’t. Ubuntu 9.04 still uses the tried-and-true ext3 filesystem by default. If you install Ubuntu 9.04 and use automatic partitioning, you will get ext3, which we consider to be the most stable option at this time. ext4 is available as an option in the manual partitioning screen for people who wish to try out the latest stuff. There are some known bugs which affect this configuration, though, and filesystem bugs generally carry the risk of lost data, so this is not for the faint of heart.

http://mdzlog.alcor.net/2009/05/01/ubuntu-904-does-not-use-ext4-by-default/

In The Press

Ubuntu 9.04

Kevin Anderson of The Guardian reports that Canonical has unleashed the Jackalope, or Ubuntu 9.04, code-named the Jaunty Jackalope. It's the latest release of an operating system that has become one of the most popular Linux distributions, and it manages to balance adding new features (including cloud computing), a netbook release and an improved interface with performance. That's a balance that Microsoft and Apple don't always make with major updates to their operating systems. Anderson has been using Ubuntu since 6.10, and he feels that with each release that Ubuntu has become a little more polished. To him everything just feels smoother and more responsive in Ubuntu 9.04. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/canonical-ubuntu

An open letter to Mark Shuttleworth

Tux Radar says to Mark Shuttleworth, "Thanks for creating Ubuntu! Jaunty is the best release yet - stable, fast and full of features, just the way we like it." Not everything is the way they like though, "There's one thing we don't like, and that thing is Update Manager's new-found pop-under behaviour. We understand the need to encourage people to install security updates, but getting on their nerves just doesn't seem like the smart solution." They propose an idea to use the new notification system to point out what critical updates are available, but point out that the the Updates Available balloon may not be the best option. They do feel that it's a better better option than the pop under window though. Tux Radar finishes with, "Let's work together to make the Linux desktop smarter, smoother, and as irritation-free as possible." http://www.tuxradar.com/content/open-letter-mark-shuttleworth

Has Ubuntu Reached the End Of the Line?

IT World's Keir Thomas says, "I admit it. I'm impressed. I might have written a wishy-washy review of the beta of Ubuntu 9.04, but now I've had a chance to play with the final release, I like what I'm seeing. I like it a lot. Well done, Ubuntu guys!" There can be no doubt that the Ubuntu guys have finally caught up with Windows and Mac OS X, but Thomas would argue that Ubuntu actually crossed the finish line this time last year, when 8.04 was released. Ubuntu 8.04 was a genuine swap-in replacement for Windows or Mac OS X. It really was Linux for the ordinary human. No hype. No bullhonkey. All of this leaves the Ubuntu guys with a very real problem: Where do they go next? http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2009/042709-has-ubuntu-reached-the-end.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news

Which Vendors were mentioned with Ubuntu Linux last week?

With Microsoft posting its first quarterly loss last week, lots of people are looking for reasons. One of the reasons that some people point to is the rise of Linux. This past week was a big one for many in the Linux community with a major release of Ubuntu Linux. The interesting thing about Ubuntu is that it is trying to be a mainstream operating system as opposed to just appealing to the core Linux community itself, but how does the media see Ubuntu? Running a search for Ubuntu, it is possible to determine which other vendors were mentioned in stories alongside it. Stats show that Microsoft is the most mentioned vendor (and perhaps competitor?) to Ubuntu Linux. Further review reveals an interesting data set that provides some insight into how the media perceives and writes about Ubuntu. http://www.itdatabase.com/blog/archives/262

Ubuntu Jaunty Tries to Set the Usability Agenda

Bruce Byfield notes that with the first release in 2004, Ubuntu established itself as one of the most user-friendly GNU/Linux distributions available. Since then, each release has reaffirmed this reputation. However, with the supposedly improved notifications system in the recently-released Jaunty Jackalope, Ubuntu unintentionally raises a new issue in usability, which is whether a distribution can or should set the usability agenda by itself. The fact that Ubuntu should be the distribution where this issue arises seems inevitable. Some other distributions like Fedora and Mandriva also have an interest in usability, but few have such a long and extensive history of desktop improvements, nor such an apparent hurry to improve the user experience as Ubuntu. http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3817576/Ubuntu-Debates-Usability-Changes-Passionately.htm

TechWorlds.net reports that Ubuntu has finally eclipsed Windows XP in terms of popularity according to the most recent data from Google Trends. It could be argued that Windows XP is too old that’s why it’s losing its appeal and is going downhill. Compare Ubuntu with the fresh Windows Vista or with the upcoming Windows 7 shows Ubuntu still out pacing its Microsoft competitors. These statistics from Google Trends are another solid proof that Ubuntu is key to Linux mainstream adoption. http://www.techworlds.net/technology/ubuntu-keyword-is-more-popular-than-windows-xp-in-google-trend/

In The Blogosphere

Cloud computing with Ubuntu Server Edition 9.x

Blogger Voyager8 gives us a look at some of the new features in cloud computing introduced in Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. First he points out the 2 types of clouds that are offered: Ubuntu on Amazon EC2, and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. Voyager8 says, "Cloud computing transforms traditional server infrastructure into a dynamic environment that expands and reduces capacity depending on requirements." Voyager8 then speaks of the flexibility and efficiency, and greater utilization that cloud computing can provide. He then points out the Canonical announcement that the next version of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is planned to be very cloud oriented. http://voyager8.blogspot.com/2009/04/cloud-computing-with-ubuntu-server.html

Jaunty Jackalope: Are Alarm Bells Ringing in Redmond?

Ubuntu's Jaunty Jackalope has bounded onto desktops, and reaction in the Linux blogosphere is mostly thumbs up. With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 last week, it's not too surprising that few other topics got much attention on the Linux blogs in the ensuing days. When it came right down to it, though, it seemed people mostly just wanted to talk about Ubuntu 9.04 -- Jaunty Jackalope, that is, the successor to Intrepid Ibex. It soon became clear that the release was a very, very exciting one, if the discussions were anything to go by. Titles such as: Not bad at all, All Ubuntu all the time, Gigantic Improvements, I want to upgrade so badly, and I prefer Debian were just a few. Read several of the articles or get the link to them at the site. http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/66905.html?wlc=1241367307

System76 Launches Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook

Joe Panettieri, of WorksWithU, looks at the new offering from System76 - the Starling NetBook that's loaded with Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix. Without actually having his hands on one yet, he goes over the specifications and pricing for this new device. He's had good experience with a System76 laptop, and is impressed by the increase in their revenues due to the match-up with Ubuntu. His only concern is whether netbooks will continue to do as well in the marketplace, and whether both System76 and Ubuntu can maintain quality in the face of trying to build even lower-cost systems. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/04/27/system76-launches-ubuntu-904-netbook/

Ubuntu 9.04: Wow

Jack Wallen, reporting for TechRepublic, hasn't been terrifically impressed with Ubuntu since about 7.04. It seamed to him that the distribution was getting progressively more sluggish. Couple that with an ageing laptop with quirky graphics, and he didn't hold much hope for Ubuntu 9.04. But he was in for a pleasant surprise. It not only installed and loaded, but ran faster than anything he'd had on it recently. It's his opinion that all the claims that Mark Shuttleworth made for the release were true, and all he could say was "WOW". http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=565

10 reasons you'll want to install Ubuntu 9.04

Ubuntu has brought Linux to the masses better than any other Linux distribution. And with its recent 9.04 release, Ubuntu has not only continued to create one of the most user-friendly operating systems available, it has made it faster and more reliable. Let’s take a look to see if there is one (or 10) reasons to entice you to install Ubuntu 9.04. The following are in no certain order: Ext4, GNOME 2.26.1, Speed, Cleanup Janitor, Nautilus Encryption, Xorg 1.6, Notifications and system messages, Native ARM support, Better menu layout, and Better wireless support. Those are 10 solid reasons to give Ubuntu 9.04 a try. Is it perfect? No, but what operating system is? I can happily say, however, that 9.04 might be the strongest overall release of a Linux distribution I have seen to date. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=707

In Other News

Ubuntu-UK podcast: Partners in Crime

Ciemon Dunville, Alan Pope, Tony Whitmore, Dave Walker and Producer Laura Cowen are back with a brand new episode of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK Local Community Support Team.

In this episode:

  • We completely mess up the introductions. So good luck figuring out who did what since the last episode!
  • We briefly talk about Ubuntu derivatives and talk about some potential new ones
  • A discussion about what’s good and bad about the latest release of Ubuntu - Jaunty (9.04)
  • The News

  • In light of bug 332945 we discuss the interaction between Ubuntu developers and users https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945?comments=all

  • We announce some upcoming events:
    • April 27th - May 1st - Ubuntu Open Week in the #ubuntu-classroom channel on the Freenode IRC network.
    • June 13th - Clemson, South Carolina, South East Linux Fest
  • We announce the winner of episode one’s competition to win some Ubuntu goodies - but this time, we left it in during the edit unlike in episode 2. Oops

  • We have a new competition to win an exclusive Ubuntu T-shirt from the most recent Ubuntu Developer Summit. Email competition@ubuntu-uk.org with your answer before Sunday 10th May 2009

  • We delve into the Ubuntu Ecosphere
    • Firmware in Ubuntu with questionable licences
    • Joseph Shields recommends replacing Rhythmbox with Banshee
    • Solaris Manzur recommends replacing XSane with gnome-scan
    • Rubén Romero y Cordero announces updates to the Spread Ubuntu initiative
    • Chris Rowson rants about the state of ATI video drivers
    • Full Circle Magazine issue 24 is out
    • Chromium now available in a PPA
    • Matt Zimmerman talks about his experience migrating to ext4
    • Stephen J Vaughn-Nichols ponders on the slowest machines able to run Linux - we mention Hugo’s Random Benchmark
  • And finally we cover your emails, tweets and dents since our last show

Comments and suggestions are welcomed to: podcast@ubuntu-uk.org Up to 30 seconds of voicemail can be left at +44 (0) 845 508 1986 Follow our twitter feed http://twitter.com/uupc Follow us on Identi.ca http://identi.ca/uupc Discuss this episode in the Forums http://uk.ubuntuforums.org/

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2009/04/29/s02e03-partners-in-crime/

Canonical Engaging Ubuntu Software Partners

Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU discusses what he's seen of the relationship between Canonical and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). Overall, he feels that response from ISVs for Ubuntu 9.04 was somewhat lacking. However, he also sees that Canonical and its partners are working to coordinate their efforts through various means, including conferences and working closely with Canonical. He feels that what Canonical and Ubuntu need right now is ISVs that are passionate about working together. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/04/30/canonical-engaging-ubuntu-software-partnerships/

Meeting Summaries: April 2009

Ubuntu Governance

Community Council

  • Meeting 2009-04-21:
    • Yann Hamon asked for the 3 month review of Oxford Archaeology's blog on Planet Ubuntu. Everybody was happy with it.

MOTU Council

  • Brian Murray joined the MOTU team. He has been doing great work in the BugSquad and we're happy to have a new MOTU on board.

  • MC Call, 2009-04-08:
    • Attendees (3/7): Richard Johnson, Emmet Hikory, Michael Bienia.
    • Open Applications: Pedro Fragoso (MOTU; scheduled for 2009-04-10), Elliot Murphy (U-C-D; scheduled for 2009-04-23), Benjamin Drung (U-C-D; scheduled for 2009-04-23), Brandon Holtsclaw (re-activation; scheduled for 2009-04-10)
  • Meeting, 2009-04-10: no quorum, no attendees.
  • MC Call, 2009-04-15:
    • Attendees (6/7): Daniel Holbach, Emmet Hikory, Jonathan Davies, Michael Bienia, Richard Johnson, Soren Hansen.
    • Open Applications: Pedro Fragoso (MOTU; scheduled for 2009-04-10), Elliot Murphy (U-C-D; scheduled for 2009-04-23), Benjamin Drung (U-C-D; scheduled for 2009-04-23), Brandon Holtsclaw (re-activation; scheduled for 2009-04-10),LI Daobing (U-C-D; scheduled for 2009-05-08).
    • Meeting times.
  • MOTU Council Meeting 2009-04-23
    • Attendees (6/7): Daniel Holbach, Richard Johnson, Michael Bienia, Emmet Hikory, Nathan Handler
    • Pedro Fragoso joined the MOTU team. He has been working with the Ubuntu Desktop Team, and he has performed Gnome updates, bugfixes, merges and even LPI changes.

    • Benjamin Drung joined the ranks of the Ubuntu Contributing Developers. He has looked after xmms2 and its clients, and is an active member of the Berlin LoCo.

    • Brandon Holtsclaw rejoined the MOTU team. He plans to resume working on the mono (apache and cli) packages as well as universe SRU and SWAT stuff.
  • MC Call, 2009-04-29:
    • Attendees (4/7): Michael Bienia, Jonathan Davies, Emmet Hikory, Daniel Holbach.
    • Open Applications: Li Daobing (u-c-d), James Westby (core-dev), Jo Shields (motu).
    • Continued discussion about changing to more suitable meeting times.

Forums Council

  • Attendees (20-April-2009): ubuntugeek, Matthew Helmke, John Dong, Mike Basinger, Bodhi Zazen and bapoumba
  • Community Council voted to increase size of Forums Council to seven.
  • Matthew Helmke, John Dong, Kiwinz, and Mike Basinger were re-elected to a second two year term to the forums council.
  • Bodhi Zazen and bapoumba added to the Forums Council

  • The bans for linuxisevolution and LaRoza were not lifted.

  • The ability for hide post count, at least from the main page has been added. Post count can still be seen on the forums user profile page.
  • The Forum Council saw no problem is the issue reported by suomalainen on people replying to his posts.
  • The Jaunty Jackalope Development forums was closed and the Karmic Koala Forum Development was open on 24-April-2009.
  • Wolfen69 was banned on 28-April-2009

Americas Membership Board

  • Meeting (17-April-2009)
  • The following people were given Ubuntu Membership: Craig Huffstetler, Michael Terry, Tim Sharitt, Dan Trevino, Alex Launi, and David Siegel

Ubuntu Development Teams

Xubuntu Team

Documentation Team

  • OpenWeek Docs Day was a great success with five hours of documentation tutorials covering everything we do. We'd like to pass on thanks to everyone who attended and made it possible and I'd especially like to thank Jorge.

  • Ubuntu Documentation Students (Contributors) team became an open team.

  • Several new contributers welcomed to the team, especially following OpenWeek.

  • Discussion began on a proposed installation guide https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Specs/KarmicInstallationGuide- the next meeting is 10 May 2009 in ubuntu-doc on irc.freenode.net

  • Team meeting 2 May 2009 19:00 UTC in ubuntu-doc on irc.freenode.net

  • Playbook released - http://www.lynxworks.eu/files/BugsPlaybook.pdf Fixing Bugs in the System Documentation

  • A series of lessons on IRC covering contributing to the team were announced - dates to be confirmed.
  • A series of Doc Days - day long pushes across the community in nominated areas announced.

Ubuntu LoCo Teams

Berlin

  • 2009-04-23: Bug Jam where we discussed how we'd like future Bug Jams to work. Also Benjamin Drung became Contributing Developer during the Jam!

  • 2009-04-25: Fantastic Release Party in Berlin's c-base. http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=415

Kiel

Irish Team

Philippine Team

US Teams Project

Pennsylvania Team

Florida Team

Czech Team

Honduras Team

Swiss Team

Ubuntu Women

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/April2009

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Ubuntu-us-az LoCo Team Meeting

Monday, May 4, 2009

  • None listed as of publication

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Technical Board Meeting

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

Server Team Meeting

Desktop Team Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

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

Community Council Meeting

Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team Meeting

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Ubuntu-us-pa Meeting

  • Start: 12:30 UTC
  • End: 13:30 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-pa
  • Agenda: None 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, May 7, 2009

Ubuntu Bug Day

Packaging Training: Personal Package

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

Friday, May 8, 2009

MC Meeting

  • Start: 06:00 UTC
  • End: 07:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: none listed as of publication

MOTU Council

  • Start: 06:00 UTC
  • End: 07:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: none listed as of publication

Catalan Ubuntu Release Party

  • Start: 14:00 UTC
  • End: 19:00 UTC
  • Location: IES Nicolau Copèrnic

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Catalan Ubuntu Release

  • Ubuntu Catalan Team celebrates the new release on Ubuntu (9.04 Jaunty Jackalope) at IES Nicolau Copèrnic.

Ubuntu Community Learning Team Meeting

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

  • None Reported

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

  • None Reported

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

  • None Reported

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
  • Dave Bush
  • Sayak Banerjee
  • Jeff Martin

  • Kenny McHenry

  • Liraz Siri
  • Isabelle Duchatelle
  • Nathan Handler
  • J. Scott Gwin
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

  1. API - Application Programming Interface.
  2. HA - High Availability.
  3. IRC - Internet Relay Chat.

  4. MOTU - Master Of The Universe - Developers responsible for the Universe and Multiverse repositories. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU

  5. PPA - Personal Package Archive - http://help.launchpad.net/PPA

  6. UTC - Coordinated Universal Time: UTC replaced GMT as the basis for the main reference time scale or civil time in various regions on January 1, 1972.
  7. unr - Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

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

Also, a big thank you to Daniel Holbach for adding a link from the Knowledge Base wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/KnowledgeBase?action=diff&rev1=20&rev2=21) to our Glossary reference page.

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/Issue140 (last edited 2009-05-09 19:42:09 by static)