Issue153
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #153 for the week July 26th - August 1st, 2009. In this issue we cover ...
UWN Translations
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In This Issue
General Community News
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (#) +/- # over last week
- Critical (#) +/- # over last week
- Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
- Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
- All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # over last week
As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
Infamous Bugs
Translation Stats Jaunty
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/
Translation Stats Karmic
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/
# NEEDS UPDATING. # #=== 5-a-day bug stats === # #==== Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days ==== # # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # #==== Top 5 teams for the past 7 days ==== # # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # #5-A-Day stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/
Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
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Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/
LoCo News
New in Karmic Koala
Launchpad News
Ubuntu Forums News
In The Press
Canonical Announces Inexpensive Phone Support
The Linux Loop tells us that Canonical has announced consumer-oriented phone and email support for Ubuntu Desktop Edition. Ubuntu offered phone support before, however it was priced for enterprises managing large install bases. The new support plans are targeted at consumers and start at about $50 per year. There are three tiers of this new support plan: starter, advanced, and professional. All three tiers offer support for installation and basic tasks, such as e-mail, web browsing, and OpenOffice. The advanced tier, which costs $115 per year ($65 more than starter) additionally offers support for Windows migration and a broader set of applications. Finally, the professional tier, which costs over $200 per year, adds support for topics such as virtualization and remote desktop. This new support offering potentially offers a familiar bridge for new users. The Linux Loop's only complaint is that the minimum support length is a year. Many people may only need a few months of support, so a cheper and shorter option would be ideal. http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/07/31/canonical-announces-inexpensive-phone-support/
Dell’s Inspiron 15n With Ubuntu: My Thoughts
Jeremy LaCroix of IT News Today tells us that his current laptop was falling apart, and he found himself in the market for a new one sooner than he'd planned. He decided to get a Dell and ended up with an Inspiron 15n. LaCroix ordered the system on Wednesday July 15th, and he received it Saturday July 25th. Packed in with the laptop Inside the box was an Ubuntu DVD, a CD for reinstalling the media playback software, and the usual instruction booklet and warranty/safety inserts. What we have here is a VERY good laptop with excellent features, that only suffers from a completely braindead default Ubuntu install. That’s probably going to be no big deal to most of you reading this as you’ll probably either install Ubuntu 9.04 or another distribution and customize it yourself anyway. Jeremy says he would definitely recommend this to everyone looking for a great machine, but there may be some post purchase work to do once you get it. http://www.itnewstoday.com/?p=690
Intel Linux Graphics On Ubuntu Still Flaky
Phoronix's Michael Larabel recalls that back in May he shared that the Ubuntu Intel graphics performance was still in bad shape after testing out very early Ubuntu 9.10 packages. The netbook experience was killed in Ubuntu 9.04 after a buggy Intel Linux graphics stack led to slow performance, stability issues, screen corruption, and other problems. Months have passed since he last exhaustively looked at the Intel Linux graphics stack, and he has just carried out some new tests using Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3. This new development release of Ubuntu carries the latest kernel, Mesa, and Intel driver packages as we see how the graphics performance is with an Intel 945 and G43 chipsets. In two of the eight tests, the newer release of Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3 did better than Ubuntu 9.04. However, in the other six tests, Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3 was running slower than Ubuntu 9.04, which was already a release ridden with Intel graphics problems. Clearly, even with the xf86-video-intel 2.8.0 DDX and Linux 2.6.31 kernel, there are still problems at hand to be addressed. Hopefully these Intel 2D/3D performance problems will be fixed within the next three months for Ubuntu 9.10. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_q309_flakes&num=1
Ubuntu Plans New System for Installing Applications
The Linux Loops reports that Launchpad spec targeting Karmic Koala (the next release of Ubuntu) describes specifications for a unified application for installing software on Ubuntu. To be clear, everything will still be based on Apt, so this isn’t a significant backend change, but rather a focus on a better user layer. In the short term, this new application, currently called AppCenter, will basically be a cleaner Add/Remove Programs with an update manager built in. Synaptic and the other software installation tools will still be avaliable in Karmic. If AppCenter becomes a marketplace for all applications, it will revolutionize application installation on computers. Yes, the idea may be inspired by the iPhone app store, but an app store on a tightly locked-down phone and an app store on computers are very different things. http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/07/25/ubuntu-plans-new-system-for-installing-applications/
What Canonical’s Launchpad Move to Open Source Means to Developers
Linux.com's Todd R. Weiss says now that the code for Canonical Ltd.’s Launchpad open source development hosting community was released as open source last week, the company hopes that developers who may have stayed away from Launchpad in the past will take a new look. Canonical’s new mission is to try to change attitudes so developers who may have been skeptical before will join Launchpad now, said Karl Fogel, Canonical’s Launchpad Ombudsman. “We knew that there were projects that would not host on Launchpad because it was not open source, so we just decided to just remove that barrier and remove that problem,” Fogel said. There has been a “spike” of new projects opened on Launchpad since its move last week to open source, but Fogel didn’t have any estimates on how many came over due to the change. “I don’t know if they are new projects or if they are coming from somewhere else, but they had to be somewhere else because there’s no way someone could start up a new project and have all their code together in such a short time.” http://www.linux.com/news/software/developer/30701-what-canonicals-launchpad-move-to-open-source-means-to-software-developers
In The Blogosphere
Canonical Launching “Switch to Ubuntu” Desktop Migration Services
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/30/canonical-launching-switch-to-ubuntu-migration-services/
Canonical’s Ubuntu Partner Program: Moves Worth Watching
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/canonicals-ubuntu-partner-program-moves-worth-watching/
Dell: New Ubuntu Desktop PC Within Days
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/29/dell-new-ubuntu-desktop-pc-within-days/
Canonical-IBM: Virtual Ubuntu Desktops vs. Windows 7
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/30/canonical-ibm-virtual-ubuntu-desktops-vs-windows-7/
Launchpad Open-Sourced. Now What?
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/launchpad-open-sourced-now-what/
Review of the System76 Starling Netbook
http://janehadley.net/Starling_Review/starling_review.html
Ubuntu 9.10 Preview: GRUB 2
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/29/ubuntu-910-preview-grub-2/
Ubuntu Netbooks: Strong Demand at System76
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/ubuntu-netbooks-strong-demand-at-system76/
Ubuntu Server Edition and Alfresco: A Sign of Things to Come
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/28/ubuntu-server-edition-and-alfresco-a-sign-of-things-to-come/
Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support
Computerworld's resident Cyber Synic, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, asks, "Do you want to save desktop support money? Do you have Windows and Mac-using friends or co-workers who want to try desktop Linux? Well, in either case, you're going to want to check out Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, latest desktop support offerings: Starter, Advanced and Professional." Canonical announced these new support services for the Ubuntu desktop for individuals and small businesses on July 31st in London. These services are particularly designed for small business owners who are looking for cost effective alternatives to Windows and Apple Mac. If you've been thinking about saving money by switching to desktop Linux, but the lack of an individual or SMB support plan was stopping you, you can take your foot off the brake now. Canonical is ready to get your Ubuntu desktop Linux rolling. http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/31444-canonical-to-offer-ubuntu-desktop-support
In Other News
Meeting Summaries
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Community Spotlight
Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
Security Updates
Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
UWN #: A sneak peek
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Additional Ubuntu News
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Conclusion
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Glossary of Terms
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