Issue159
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #159 for the week September 6th - September 12th, 2009. In this issue we cover ...
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In This Issue
General Community News
Karmic Alpha 6 freeze ahead
The sixth and final alpha testing milestone for Karmic, Karmic Alpha 6, is scheduled for this coming Thursday, September 17. Karmic Alpha 6 will again use a "soft freeze" for main[1]. This means that developers are asked to refrain from uploading packages between Tuesday and Thursday which don't bring us closer to releasing the alpha, so that these days can be used for settling the archive and fixing any remaining show-stoppers.
The list of bugs targeted for alpha-6 can be found at:
Per the policy described at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RCBugTargetting this list is used for tracking bugs that are blockers for the alpha 6 milestone. If you know of other bugs that should be considered blockers, please nominate them for release and set the milestone target for those bugs. If you have questions about whether a bug should be considered a blocker, please contact a member of the release team[2].
And of course, please also consider helping with the bugs already listed there if you have the time.
At this point in the release cycle, it's increasingly important to look not just at the bugs that are critical for the current milestone, but also those which are critical for the upcoming Karmic milestones or critical for the release as a whole:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=12715
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=12698
Please use your best judgement with regard to the alpha freeze when uploading fixes for these bugs; but if you don't have any bugs milestoned for alpha 6 that need your attention, it's definitely not too early to look ahead to the next milestones.
Please also help us to get the archive in a consistent state again for the alpha, as described on: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PackageArchive#Consistency
Finally, if you know of new features in Karmic that you think should be highlighted for Alpha 6, let me or another member of the release team know so that they can be added to the technical overview at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/TechnicalOverview
[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-January/000363.html
[2] https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/+members
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-September/000616.html
UI Freeze in place for Karmic
Effective Sept. 10th, we are officially under the User Interface Freeze for Karmic: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserInterfaceFreeze
In order to help ensure our documentation is accurate for the release, please notify the documentation team of any further changes to artwork, text strings, or UI designs that will be made between now and the release, and please make such changes only where necessary.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-September/000615.html
Ubuntu One has moved from ubuntuone.com to one.ubuntu.com
Ubuntu One has moved from https://ubuntuone.com to https://one.ubuntu.com as of Sept. 8th, 2009. The move was done now before Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) goes into beta so that there would be a minimum of impact on users. This doesn’t imply any servers moving, or any data shifting around, so no risk to user data.
If you run into any problems related to the move or Ubuntu One in general, as always please let us know by filing bugs at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone/+filebug
http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1905
New Developers
- Four applications and three new developers:
Benjamin Drung joined the MOTU team from Berlin, Germany. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2009-September/002221.html
Andres Rodriguez put some hard work into Server and HA applications and joined the MOTU team. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2009-September/002222.html
Cody Somerville was recommended for core-dev membership by the MOTU Council. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2009-September/002220.html
Martin-Éric Racine was approved as a MOTU and recommended for xserver-xorg-video-geode upload rights. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2009-September/002223.html
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (62017) +388 over last week
- Critical (29) +2 over last week
- Unconfirmed (28648) +214 over last week
- Unassigned (53540) +331 over last week
- All bugs ever reported (311846) +2358 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
- Spanish (11271) -14 over last week
- French (37408) -1232 over last week
- Brazilian Portuguese (48183) -26 over last week
- Swedish (53413) -10 over last week
- English (United Kingdom) (53563) -278 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 (17193) +23 over last week
- French (58647) +229 over last week
- Swedish (68848) -106 over last week
- Brazilian Portuguese (71395) -746 over last week
- English (Uk) (84572) +623 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
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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
US LoCo Wiki Doc Day 2009
On the weekend of 2nd - 4th Oct 2009 LoCo Teams around the world will be celebrating the Ubuntu Global Jam. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam In addition to any formal events your team may be having, we want to see your wiki updated. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events If your wiki fine, help us update and expand the USTeams wiki. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams
Want more to do? The LoCo Teams wikis have a wealth of information but could use some help with organizing. You might even find a new idea for an event or project while browsing through the pages, or find a place where you can add your own ideas. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeams
Check out and show your team participation by adding yourself to the list on our wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams/Events/WikiDocDay2009
Also, you can join us in #ubuntu-us on irc.freenode.net to share status updates, collaborate, and chat about your team and other US LoCo teams. If you don't have or know how to use an IRC client, you can join via the web here: http://ubuntu-us.org/chat
http://ubuntu-us.org/?q=node/14363
Ubuntu Pennslyvania
The Ubuntu Pennsylvania team is ROCKING! Events are scheduled just about every other weekend for the next few weeks, with ongoing projects like the collaboration with FreeGeekPenn starting to come together, and an LTSP project that Jim Fisher is leading up as a joint venture with the PLUG Into Hive76 crew.
FreeGeekPenn: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/CommunityOutreachTeam/FreeGeekPenn
Plug into Hive 76: http://www.phillylinux.org/hive76.html
See the Ubuntu Penn. schedule for the next few weeks at the link below.
http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1939
New in Karmic Koala
Launchpad News
Launchpad meet-up: September 28th in London (The Warwick)
The first Launchpad meet-up is happening on Monday the September 28th in London. Come join in the fun and meet some of Canonical’s Launchpad development team and other members of the Launchpad community.
Join the team and have a beer/coffee/mineral water, and get your hands on a Launchpad t-shirt — that is if you arrive before they run out.
If you came to the London release party for Ubuntu Jaunty, you’ll know the venue, which is The Warwick just off Regent Street in London. Google Maps reckons it’s a three minute walk from Picadilly Circus Tube Station. The Launchpad Team will be there from around 7:30pm in the upstairs bar. You’ll be able to tell the Launchpad Team from everyone else by the snazzy Launchpad t-shirts they’ll be wearing.
- When: 7.30pm onwards, Monday 28th September 2009
- Where: Upstairs at The Warwick, 1-3 Warwick Street, London, W1B 5LR
- Nearest tube: Picadilly Circus
If you’re definitely coming, mail Matthew Revell at: matthew DOT revell AT canonical DOT com with your t-shirt size — XS (female only) S, M, L, XL, XXL (male only).
http://blog.launchpad.net/general/launchpad-meet-up-28th-september-the-warwick-london
Meet Deryck Hodge
Recently, Deryck Hodge took over from Bjorn Tillenius as the leader of Canonical’s Launchpad Bug Tracker team. That seemed like a good chance to catch up with Deryck.
Matthew: What do you do on the Launchpad team?
Deryck: I work on the bugs application in Launchpad and am also, as of two weeks ago, the bugs team lead.
Matthew: Can we see something in Launchpad that you’ve worked on?
Deryck: I’ve been doing Ajax work on the bug page mostly. All of the inline bug subscription work is by me, and the inline description editing as well.
Matthew: Where do you work?
Deryck: I’m in Dadeville, Alabama, a very small town no one has everheard of. It’s not far from Auburn, a university town in Alabama. It’s a nice rural community around Alabama’s largest man-made lake.
Matthew: What can you see from your office window?
Deryck: The short answer is my drive way. The longer, more accurate, answer is a Barbie go-kart and two little tyke four wheelers (of which none of them run), a pile of old lumber, some cardboard to take to recyle, and my dog, lying under the steps of my porch. I’m hesistant to tell all this as it makes me so much of a Southern cliche here in the U.S.
Matthew: What did you do before working at Canonical?
Deryck: I worked for several media companies. I worked for a company in Las Vegas called Greenspun Media most recently. And before that, I worked for the Washington Post Company and Scripps. I worked on all manner of web apps, but I had particular experiences in social applications — Facebook Platform, Open Social, iPhone, etc. I was even Emmy nominated as a developer if you can believe it (along with two colleagues) for a project I did while at the Post.
Matthew: How did you get into free software?
Deryck: Initially, a friend of mine gave me a RedHat CD. He was a Samba dev and was constanly talking with me about FOSS, so I knew a bit just from conversations with him. I was interested in learning to code and really getting into the personal freedom FOSS granted. I tried RedHat for a while, then left it. Then, I came back to Linux as I was learning more about coding, spent some time on Suse and then settled on Ubuntu early on after it appeared.
Really, my interest in coding and FOSS are intertwined. I wouldn’t have learned to code had I not had access to free software and friends in FOSS who mentored me.
Matthew: Tell us something really cool about Launchpad that not enough people know about.
Deryck: It’s open source! Okay, so maybe some people have heard of that, but we should say it again. Launchpad is open source! Come hack on it with us!
You can read the entire interview at the link below.
http://blog.launchpad.net/meet-the-devs/meet-deryck-hodge
Ubuntu Forums News
The Planet
Collin Pruitt: Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Posts Team Meeting
The Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Posts Team will be having a meeting on September 26, 2009 at 19:00UTC.
As some of you may, or may not, know, the UA has has a revival of sorts recently. We elected new leaders in the absence of the previous leader (who has since returned, and stayed leader, along with the new leaders), myself being one. I have been trying to get members together and re-spark interest in the team. I, hopefully, have done/been doing a good job .
More information on the meeting can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPostsTeam/Meetings
http://scalar.cluenet.org/~hellow/2009/09/11/ubuntu-forums-unanswered-posts-team-meeting/
Joe Barker: An Interview With nhandler
Joe is thrilled to say that his next interview is from somebody he feels is an almost under-rated member of the community. Nathan Handler (nhandler) is a member of numerous teams within the community. Nathan lives near Chicago, Illinois, USA, where he is an active member of the Ubuntu Chicago LoCo. He is currently a full-time student, and he enjoys contributing to Ubuntu and programming in his free time. Read the whole interview at the link below to find out more about Ubuntu Community Member Nathan Handler.
http://blog.joeb454.com/2009/09/an-interview-with-nhandler/
Screencasting using Ubuntu: Part 1
In the first of three screencasts, the screencasting team looks at some of the preparation steps needed to setup an environment for creating quality screencasts using Ubuntu. In the second part they'll look at scripting and recording a screencast, and part three will cover video editing and publishing. Parts two and three will be released in the near future. Part one can be viewed in Ogg, FLV, or mp4 and is available at the link below.
http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/11/Screencasting_on_Ubuntu_-_Part_1_of_3
Alan Pope: Jono Turning ?? - Wishlist Predictable
It seems our Community Manager, Jono Bacon, has a birthday coming up, and Alan Pope just couldn't resist poking a little fun his way. In Alan's defense, Jono did publish this news to twitter.
Jono's twitter posting: http://twitter.com/jonobacon/status/3893683104
Alan's spoof of that posting: http://popey.com/blog/2009/09/10/jono-turning-40-wishlist-predictable/
Jono's Amazon wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1HUGRJJQTFK9S/ref=cm_sw_su_w
Alan's spoof of that posting: http://popey.com/images/jonowishlist.png
As you can see there were some very "small" differences in what was reported. We're sure it was all in "good" fun, and for the record, Jono will be 30, not 40. Happy Birthday Jono!!
http://popey.com/blog/2009/09/10/jono-turning-40-wishlist-predictable/
In The Press
Canonical adds Premium Service Engineers to support options
The Linux Loop reports that Canonical has added another option to their ever-increasing list of enterprise support options. Businesses requiring frequent support may pay for access to a Premium Service Engineer, an Ubuntu expert who works with the company’s existing team to keep the company’s Ubuntu installations running smoothly. Ubuntu Premium Service Engineers, as opposed to more traditional Ubuntu support plans, gives businesses a single person to contact, who will already know how the servers and desktops are set up in advance of any help being needed. PSEs offer an extremely valuable resource of businesses: a person with specific Ubuntu training. http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/09/05/canonical-adds-premium-service-engineers-to-support-options/
Five Features We Want to See in Ubuntu
Life Hacker says that Ubuntu isn't the only Linux operating system, but it's where the dream of a usable, completely free desktop is closest to reality. If every Ubuntu developer were assembled at one place, there are five things they'd ask them to accomplish.
- An App Store better than Apple's
- Integrate dual-booting and virtualization
- A wave of right-brain rethinking
- Awesome cloud-based backup
- Good video editing software
Hit the link below for further details on why Life Hacker feels this way, and Life Hacker also invites people to tell them what they think Ubuntu needs, or needs to change, to become a great alternative desktop in their comments section.
http://lifehacker.com/5355900/five-features-we-want-to-see-in-ubuntu
Ubuntu Community Manager Responds to Our Wishlist
Life Hacker's Kevin Purdy reports that Ubuntu's community manager, Jono Bacon, wrote a thoughtful, informative response, which details and links what's being done on a few of the fronts that he previously considered crucial in a Life Hacker article. Bacon explains and shows a screenshot of what's happening with the Ubuntu Software Store, notes Ubuntu backer Canonical's efforts in the design field, and writes that cloud-based backup, particularly Ubuntu One, is going to see "new and exciting development" in the next six months. He also points to some video editors "on the horizon," which are promising, if still not quite average-user-friendly yet.
http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/09/10/lifehacker-and-ubuntu-a-response/
How do Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu fit in?
The Linux Loop reminds everyone that in addition to the highly popular Ubuntu operating system, Canonical also sponsors several “official” derivatives of Ubuntu, aimed at different types of hardware, different user preferences, and different use cases.
- Ubuntu – The main OS that everything else is based on
- Ubuntu Server Edition – Ubuntu without any GUI (by default) and designed for use on servers
- Kubuntu – Ubuntu with the KDE desktop
- Edubuntu – Ubuntu with additional applications aimed at education
- Ubuntu MID Edition – Ubuntu with a customized interface and various other tweaks for mobile internet devices
- Ubuntu Netbook Remix – A customized version of Ubuntu MID Edition for Netbooks
Follow the link below for more information on each of these Ubuntu versions.
http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/09/07/how-do-kubuntu-xubuntu-and-edubuntu-fit-in/
The New Artwork in Ubuntu 9.10
Marius Nestor of Softpedia took September 11th to show his readers some of the community themes and icons that will be present in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). If they will not be installed by default, the following themes can be easily added by accessing the Synaptic Package Manager and search for the community-themes package, which is already available in the daily builds. These themes include:
- The Kin theme
- The Night Impression theme
- The Impression theme
- The Hanso theme
- The Turrican theme
- The Breathe icon theme
Nestor says to remember that this is not the official artwork for the next Ubuntu release, and that these are third-party themes developed by the community members.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-New-Artwork-in-Ubuntu-9-10-121453.shtml
Dell renews Ubuntu Linux Desktop lineup
http://blogs.computerworld.com/14701/dell_renews_ubuntu_linux_desktop_line_up
In The Blogosphere
Lifehacker and Ubuntu: A Response
http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/09/10/lifehacker-and-ubuntu-a-response/
Analysis: Canonical’s Ubuntu Support Strategy
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/04/analysis-canonicals-ubuntu-support-strategy/
Dell Ships Ubuntu 9.04 Systems Ahead of Windows 7 Launch
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/04/dell-launches-ubuntu-904-systems/
Dell Ubuntu Oops
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/dell-ubuntu-oops/
Red Hat Challenges Ubuntu With KVM Support
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/09/red-hat-challenges-ubuntu-with-kvm-support/
Canonical’s Ubuntu Cloud Strategy
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/09/ubuntu-ready-for-the-clouds/
Dell renews Ubuntu Linux desktop lineup
http://blogs.computerworld.com/14701/dell_renews_ubuntu_linux_desktop_line_up
In Other News
Jolicloud Innovates Atop Ubuntu Netbook Remix
Phoronix's Michael Larabel states that linux distributions designed specifically for use on netbooks is nothing new. Canonical produces the Ubuntu Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu for these small-sized devices, Intel has their Moblin distribution that is very fast and offers an attractive interface, gOS has their own netbook distribution, Linpus has QuickOS, and the list goes on. One of the newest netbook distributions coming around is Jolicloud, which is based upon Ubuntu Netbook Remix and is self-described as a cool new OS for your netbook. Jolicloud is focused upon building an OS around the web and one that merges open-source and the open web. More on Jolicloud can be learned from the project's web-site, and Larabel says that Phoronix will likely have more on this netbook-focused Linux distribution in the future. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=jolicloud_preview&num=1
Meeting Summaries
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Community Spotlight
Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
Security Updates
- None Reported
Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
- None Reported
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24-24.40 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-September/012290.html
Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
- None Reported
Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
clamav 0.95.2+dfsg-4ubuntu1.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-September/009890.html
linux 2.6.28-15.52 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-September/009891.html
UWN #: A sneak peek
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Conclusion
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