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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #154 for the week August 2nd - August 8th, 2009. In this issue we cover ...

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In This Issue

General Community News

Landscape: Canonical Systems Management and Monitoring Tool

Canonical has announced a new architecture and installation option for its systems management and monitoring system for Ubuntu machines - enabling enterprises to have greater local control over their deployments. Canonical’s Landscape Dedicated Server will be available to be installed on the customer's site running on their local network.

When available in late September 2009, Landscape Dedicated Server will be offered at $150 per node plus server, installation and support fees. Those interested in being the first to get updates on this as well as the latest information may register at: http://www.canonical.com/landscape-server. The Landscape hosted service is currently available for a free 60 day trial at http://www.canonical.com/landscape/register.

Landscape provides the growing number of businesses deploying multiple instances of Ubuntu on servers and desktops with the means to more easily manage and maintain their systems. The tool significantly reduces the cost of ownership and improves the efficiency of resources for any Ubuntu deployment. Landscape will now be available in two architectures: installed on-site or hosted as software as a service (SaaS) by Canonical.

Landscape Dedicated Server will install in a customer’s data center and provide all of the package management, auditing and monitoring capability of the hosted service for both physical and cloud-based Ubuntu instances.

The Landscape Dedicated Server will be able to be configured to manage systems on a network with limited or no access to the public Internet. All system configuration, policies, and profiles are stored locally on the internal infrastructure.

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/landscape-dedicated-server

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (60088) +700 over last week
• Critical (27) -3 over last week
• Unconfirmed (27966) +430 over last week
• Unassigned (51788) +647 over last week
• All bugs ever reported (301219) +1659 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 (12470) -256 over last week
• French (39572) -151 over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (48583) -308 over last week
• Swedish (53814) -17 over last week
• English (United Kingdom) (55729) +/-0 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

• Spanish (22220) -1771 over last week
• French (57908) +1924 over last week
• Swedish (68237) +2174 over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (71936) -3738 over last week
• English (Uk) (81467) +2534 over last week

1. Language (#) +/- # over last week Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

• Changing font color in Gnome panel requires hacking - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20930/

• Caps Lock being on is not visible enough problem when entering passwords - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20953/

• The update manager is plain and old - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20943/

• Have the ability to graphically install RAID to an existing install - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20974/

• Files downloaded from Transmission should be movable (inodes!) - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20926/

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-PH.org is back in business

Finally, after 2 years, ubuntu-ph.org site is back. http://ubuntu-ph.org/ Thanks to Matthias for pointing the domain to our current host. Also thanks to the great devs behind the LoCo Drupal theme group. Dax will also backtrack ubuntu-ph's past (2007-2009) activities and post them on the site. Next project is getting their LoCo Planet back.

http://blog.knightlust.com/?p=155

New in Karmic Koala

Launchpad News

First Launchpad community meet-up

On the 28th September, the Canonical Launchpad team leads will be in London, along with Matthew Revell, community guy Karl Fogel, and UI guy Martin Albisetti. Matthew is organising a Launchpad community meet-up for the evening of the 28th, which will be a chance to meet other Launchpad types, including several of Canonical’s Launchpad engineers. There are a couple of different venues being considered at the moment but it’ll most likely be a pub in central London, and fairly informal.

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/first-launchpad-community-meet-up

Code Hosting quick-start guide

If you want to host code on Launchpad, and you need some help, you can turn to IRC, the launchpad-users mailing list or the Code Hosting section on the help wiki. https://help.launchpad.net/Code

If all you want, though, is to get up and running with hosting your project’s code on Launchpad, there’s now a quick-start guide. It leaves out any detail that might distract from simply getting you started. https://help.launchpad.net/Code/QuickStart

So, here’s the question: does it do the job? If not, what should be put in or left out? You can leave your comments at the link below.

http://blog.launchpad.net/code/code-hosting-quick-start-guide

Ubuntu Forums News

The Planet

Mirco Müller: notify-osd 0.9.16 released

The latest tarball-release of notify-osd is out and includes quite a few major changes.

• further preparation for refactoring of class Bubble and Stack
• mem-leak fixes and fix for LP: #378193 by Alexander Sack
• much code-refactoring
• adapted to 0.10 fd.o spec
• lots of autotools-related fixes and improvements
• added ATK interface by Eitan Isaacson
• fix by Chow Loong Jin for LP: #401809
• added support for image_data and image_path

There’s still some way to go until notify-osd shows up in Karmic, and the next changes will be more interesting for users.

http://macslow.net/?p=370

Dustin Kirkland: Migrating to an Encrypted Home Directory

Many eCryptfs and Ubuntu Jaunty users have requested instructions on migrating their existing, non-encrypted home directories to an Encrypted-Home setup. Dustin has provided us with some instructions! You can see the full set of instructions at the link.

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/06/migrating-to-encrypted-home-directory.html

In The Press

Canonical Expands Ubuntu Linux Landscape

InternetNews.com's Sean Michael Kerner says that while there is a mad rush toward putting more IT resources in the cloud, not everything belongs in the cloud -- just ask Ubuntu Linux vendor Canonical. The Canonical Landscape Ubuntu systems management server is now moving in from the cloud with a new dedicated, on-site offering. "Canonical's Landscape Dedicated Server is a software appliance that is installed on the users' hardware. Updates will be made available by download on an as-needed basis when major kernel/security patches become available," Ken Drachnik, Landscape manager at Canonical, told InternetNews.com. "Of course, this points out one of the major differences between the Hosted edition and Dedicated edition -- users will need to provide hardware and a trained resource to manage Landscape on-site." http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3833111/Canonical+Expands+Ubuntu+Linux+Landscape.htm

Canonical removes middleman from Ubuntu management

Timothy Prickett Morgan of The Register reports that Canonical is offering a dedicated, local version of its Landscape systems management and monitoring server for Ubuntu, rather than insist you access the service through the company's own systems. Canonical will next month launch the Landscape Dedicated Server, which is a local copy of the current Landscape service. It will run inside the data center, giving IT managers some piece of mind about security. Launched in March 2008 to help deploy monitor, manage and patch large numbers of Ubuntu servers or PCs, Landscape wasn't a service you bought from Canonical. Instead you accessed it through a web interface and portal. Landscape does more than just monitor physical machines individually or in groups. It can also control the deployment of applications from the Ubuntu repository to machines individually or in groups. And if Ubuntu shops want to create their own Ubuntu spin with its own repositories and deploy them on boxes, Landscape can do this as well. The Landscape service is priced $150 per machine per year if you want to just purchase it by itself, but if you buy a normal support contract for Ubuntu Linux for a PC or server, Landscape access comes with the price of that support contract. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/04/ubuntu_landscape_desktop/

The Official Ubuntu Server Book

Paul Ferrill of Linux Planet thinks that a newbie system administrator that might not have a system working or connected to the Internet but needs help getting a problem solved would find a good basic book like The Official Ubuntu Server Book handy. This recent release from Prentice Hall comes in several versions including a Barnes & Noble Special Edition with extra content. One good measure of a book of this type is the length of the index. "The Official Ubuntu Server Book" checks in at 501 pages with 48 dedicated to the index. List price for this book is $39.99, but you can pick it up on the B&N site for a good bit less. It also includes a 45-day pass to an online version available through Safari.com. This book is definitely worth the money if you need a good reference to help you over the newbie Linux admin hump. http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/6815/1/

No Intel Poulsbo Driver For Ubuntu 9.10

Michael Larabel of Phoronix thinks that Intel's Poulsbo driver for their GMA 500 IGP on the SCH U15W is a bloody mess. Unlike their X.Org driver for their other Intel IGPs, the Poulsbo driver is closed-source since Intel licensed some of the technologies for this graphics processor, but the problems go beyond just whether or not you like to use a binary blob. Intel hasn't done a good job at maintaining this driver and ensuring it works with the latest kernel and X.Org releases, and tracking down all of the components to use the driver on a non-supported distribution can be challenging. Originally the Intel Poulsbo driver was found with Ubuntu where those using Mark Shuttleworth's operating system could get this driver working with not so many steps. However, that will not be the case with Ubuntu 9.10. Canonical's David Mandala, who serves as the manager of the Ubuntu Mobile project, shared an interesting statement on the ubuntu-devel list: there will be no Poulsbo support in Ubuntu 9.10. Intel is not interested in supporting Ubuntu 9.10 and as a result their proprietary driver will not work or be included with this next Ubuntu release known as the Karmic Koala. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzQzMg

Torvalds and Shuttleworth to speak at LinuxCon 2009

The inaugural LinuxCon organized by the Linux Foundation is set to become the biggest Linux gathering of 2009. Scheduled for next month, September 21-23, in Portland, Oregon, the event will draw some of the best and the brightest that the Linux community has to offer. No less than Linus Torvalds and Mark Shuttleworth among other industry experts will speak at LinuxCon. Just about anyone who is interested in Linux can join. Early registration is available until August 15. http://www.junauza.com/2009/08/torvalds-and-shuttleworth-among-many.html

Ubuntu: Patent Policy and Private Support

Linux Pro Magazine's Marcel Hilzinger reports that Ubuntu has introduced a new Patent Policy to help developers and rights holders deal with software patent issues. With the Private Support, Canonical hopes to improve its revenue. Its new Patent Policy is designed to avoid such problems as far as possible. The policy lists the steps developers and rights holders should take when faced with a possible breach in patent. One clause contained in the policy states that, if Canonical has not heard from the alleged rights holder for an extended period of time and the patent is near expiration, the code will continue to be shipped as normal. http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Ubuntu-Patent-Policy-and-Private-Support

In The Blogosphere

Canonical’s Ubuntu Server Edition Gains ISV Support

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/08/06/canonicals-ubuntu-server-edition-gains-isv-support/

Coming Soon: Landscape Dedicated Server for Ubuntu

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/08/07/coming-soon-landscape-dedicated-server-for-ubuntu/

Reader Polls: Google Is Both Ubuntu Rival, Friend

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/08/03/reader-polls-google-is-both-ubuntu-rival-friend/

Rethinking Ubuntu’s Update Policy…Or Not

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/08/05/rethinking-ubuntus-update-policyor-not/

Shuttleworth wants Debian/Ubuntu co-operation

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14499/shuttleworth_wants_debian_ubuntu_co_operation

In Other News

Meeting Summaries

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Ubuntu IRC Council meeting

• Start: 07:00 UTC
• End: 08:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Monday, August 10, 2009

Ubuntu Community Learning Team Meeting

• Start: 00:00 UTC
• End: 01:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning/Agenda

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Technical Board Meeting

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

Server Team Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:00 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

Ubuntu Beginners Team Meeting

• Start: 23:00 UTC
• End: 24:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

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

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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/

Ubuntu-ie LoCo IRC Meeting

• Start: 20:00 UTC
• End: 21:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #Ubuntu-ie
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Americas Board Membership Meeting

• Start: 22:00 UTC
• End: 23:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

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

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Karmic Alpha 4

• Agenda: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/alpha4

Karmic PartnerUploadDeadline

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PartnerUploadDeadline

Ubuntu Java Meeting

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

Ubuntu Translations Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTF
• End: 16:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TranslatingUbuntu/Events/Meetings

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

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

Friday, August 14, 2009

MC Meeting

• Start: 07:00 UTC
• End: 08:00 UTC
• Location: None listed as of publication
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Karmic Weekly Release Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseTeam/Meeting/2009-08-14

Saturday, August 15, 2009

• None listed as of publication

Community Spotlight

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04

Security Updates

• USN-810-1: NSS vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-810-1

• USN-810-2: NSPR update - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-810-2

• USN-811-1: Firefox and Xulrunner vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-811-1

• USN-812-1: Subversion vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-812-1

• USN-813-1: apr vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-813-1

• USN-813-2: Apache vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-813-2

• USN-813-3: apr-util vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-813-3

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

• None Reported

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

• acroread 9.1.3-1hardy1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-August/012274.html

• postgresql-common 87ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-August/012275.html

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

• acroread 9.1.3-1intrepid1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2009-August/009758.html

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

• acroread 9.1.3-1jaunty1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-August/009877.html

• openbravo-erp 2.50-1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-August/009878.html

UWN #: A sneak peek

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Additional Ubuntu News

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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
• Liraz Siri
• Sayak Banerjee
• Your Name Here
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Glossary of Terms

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

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