Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. UDS: How to participate even if you aren't attending
    2. Lucid translation imports are now active
    3. Edubuntu Council Elections
    4. New Ubuntu Developers
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Karmic
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. New York State Release Celebration
  6. The Planet
    1. Dustin Kirkland: Results of the Ubuntu Virtualization Survey
    2. Shane Fagan: Parental Control
    3. Dustin Kirkland: Introducing Testdrive
  7. In The Press
    1. 10 reasons Ubuntu 9.10 will be a game changer for business
    2. The Karmic Koala - Not Ubuntu's Vista
    3. Is Ubuntu Broken?
    4. Installing Ubuntu 9.10
    5. New Ubuntu OS Features Create Good Karma
    6. Two Simple Suggestions for Ubuntu
    7. Computerbank installs Ubuntu on recycled PCs
  8. In The Blogosphere
    1. Nicaraguan schools go Ubuntu
    2. Advice Against Upgrading Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10
    3. Ubuntu 9.10: My First 10 Days
  9. In Other News
    1. Arkeia Releases Free Network Backup Software for Ubuntu
    2. Canonical and Creative Commons Meet Donations Target
  10. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, November 16, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)
      2. Security Team Catch-up
    2. Tuesday, November 17, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)
      2. Community Council Meeting
      3. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      4. Technical Board Meeting
      5. Desktop Team Meeting
      6. Kernel Team Meeting
      7. LoCo Council Meeting
    3. Wednesday, November 18, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)
      2. Server Team Meeting
      3. Foundation Team Meeting
      4. QA Team Meeting
      5. Americas Membership Board Meeting
    4. Thursday, November 19, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)
      2. Ubuntu Java Meeting
    5. Friday, November 20, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)
    6. Saturday, November 21, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Posts Team Meeting
    7. Sunday, November 22, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Gaming Team Meeting
  11. Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
    6. Ubuntu 9.10 Updates
  12. Archives and RSS Feed
  13. Additional Ubuntu News
  14. Conclusion
  15. Credits
  16. Glossary of Terms
  17. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  18. Feedback

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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #168 for the week November 8th - November 14th, 2009. In this issue we cover: UDS: How to participate even if you aren't attending, Lucid translation imports are now active, New Ubuntu Developers, New York State Release Celebration, The Planet: Dustin Kirkland, Shane Fagan, Arkeia Releases Free Network Backup Software for Ubuntu, Canonical and Creative Commons Meet Donations Target, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

In This Issue

General Community News

UDS: How to participate even if you aren't attending

UDS begins this week in Dallas, TX and it's going to be another rockin' kickoff for a new Ubuntu release. Lucid Lynx is will be in heavy discussion for the developers and community at large.

Remote participation is encouraged, via IRC, Lifestream, Gobby and Live Stream. There are a number of EXTRA channels to join as each room at the venue will have a different track topic in it every hour. So it’s not by Stream type so you do have to keep an eye on the time table. I’m posting today so you know in advance. The Overall discussion, including plenary: #ubuntu-devel-summit on freenode.

Discussion Channels – The tracks are shuffled around different rooms, so the irc channels are /per room/, not per track. Here are the channels, which corresponds to the room of the session in the schedule.

For Icecast – see the link here: http://icecast.ubuntu.com/

A stream of all Ubuntu and UDS posts made to Identi.ca, Twitter, and Flickr can be found at http://summit.ubuntu.com/media/lifestream.html or if you just want to follow a certain track here is a list of them

Gobby is an on line editor that allows any number of participants to add, edit or delete content to a document. Gobby is being used at UDS to collaborate on the specifications that are being written and to facilitate remote participation. To take part, please install Gobby (available in universe) and tell it to connect to gobby.ubuntu.com. You will be presented with a list of documents being edited. During any session or meeting, and particularly at the end of one, please do make a local backup of your documents. WARNING: There is a new gobby in karmic, gobby-infinote, we will NOT be using this at UDS since we need for people on older releases to participate. Ensure you are using the “gobby” package.

One other thing, on freenode you are limited to joining a maximum of 20 IRC channels. If you need to join more you need to join #freenode and ask a staff member there to allow you to join 20+. UDS schedule can be found here: http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-l/

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1938

Lucid translation imports are now active

Thanks to the wonderful job the Launchpad Translations team has been doing in the last few months it is now much easier to open translations for a new release. Therefore we're pleased to announce that translation imports have now been enabled for Lucid.

This means that packages uploaded to Lucid will have their translations stripped and put in the imports queue straight away. In this way, they will be processed much earlier and it will avoid backlogs of imports as it's been the case in some previous releases.

Translations will still not be visible to translators in the web UI. The team would like to at least wait until the first round of imports has been done and do some clean-up of the templates.

In that respect, there are two points they would like to discuss with the UTC team:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-November/000639.html

Edubuntu Council Elections

As you may have noticed, the Edubuntu project has been going through some big changes recently. Something they have been working on with the Ubuntu Community Council for a while now is to have the Edubuntu Council back to a reasonable size (5 members).

That's why, today, they are announcing that there will be an election for new Edubuntu Council members. Jordan Mantha will be resigning from his Edubuntu Council position due to time constraints from his new job. The two remaining members, Jonathan Carter and Stéphane Graber will be running for re-election.

How will the election work:

During the election process, the current Edubuntu council remains as it currently is.

Ubuntu members will be able to make nominations by adding themselves to the https://wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu/Council/Election or propose a candidate anonymously by contacting an Edubuntu Council member who will add that person the wiki page. The Edubuntu Council will then forward the list of nominees to the Community Council.

The Community Council will set up a vote for Edubuntu Members and announce the results of the election. In the case where the new Edubuntu Council member is not an Edubuntu Member, they will receive Edubuntu Membership concurrently. Edubuntu council elections will occur annually, existing members may re-apply.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-November/000754.html

New Ubuntu Developers

MC Meeting 2009-11-13:

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translation Stats Karmic

  1. Spanish (14060) -307 over last week
  2. Brazilian Portuguese (49154) -2 over last week
  3. French (50270) -403 over last week
  4. Swedish (68771) +188 over last week
  5. English (United Kingdom) (76218) -1220 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

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 York State Release Celebration

The New York State Ubuntu Community held their Karmic Release Event on Sunday. They had an awesome event once their first speaker actually showed up, about an hour late. They had two talks about FOSS and Ubuntu. Elizabeth (pleia2), gave an abbreviated introduction to contributing to FOSS. They also had time after the talks to enjoy pizza, sodas, and have discussions about Ubuntu and computers. Pictures at the link.

http://www.ausimage.us/Blog/20091108

The Planet

Dustin Kirkland: Results of the Ubuntu Virtualization Survey

A big thanks to everyone that participated in the Ubuntu Virtualization Survey. I am pleased to share the results with you now. http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/10/ubuntu-virtualization-poll-your.html

I will provide a few of my own observations, but we are very interested in your own conclusions!

In summary, I think the most important observations were:

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/11/results-of-ubuntu-virtualization-survey.html

Shane Fagan: Parental Control

I've done a good bit of work recently on parental control to get it ready for the UDS. It currently works but it takes a little bit of effort (you have to start the daemon in command line). I'm going to be making it simpler to use next. Ive also made some more changes to the UI so please keep translating https://translations.launchpad.net/parental-control/

Thanks so much to everyone who has worked on it so far!

http://shanefagan.com/2009/11/12/parental-control-2/

Dustin Kirkland: Introducing Testdrive

I'm pleased to introduce a new package I have created for Ubuntu called testdrive! Testdrive makes it simple to run any Ubuntu release in a virtual machine, safely, and without affecting your current Ubuntu installation. http://launchpad.net/testdrive

This is a great way to "try out" the Ubuntu release beyond your current version, before upgrading. For example, if you're still running Ubuntu 9.04, you could testdrive Ubuntu 9.10 before committing to the upgrade.

You could also testdrive a different flavor of Ubuntu, such as Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Netbook Remix, or the Ubuntu Server. This is great way of learning more about the Ubuntu galaxy, as well as introducing yourself, to the wide world of virtualization in Ubuntu.

I expect that testdrive will be very useful to Ubuntu developers, testers, and bug triagers during the Lucid development cycle, as these people will be able to test Lucid's daily ISOs throughout the cycle, and in particular at the release milestones for ISO-acceptance-testing.

Visit the link below to find out the prerequisites, how to install testdrive, and how to run the app. Dustin will also be giving a talk at UDS in Dallas where he'll demo testdrive as an example of what we can do with KVM and Virtualization in Ubuntu.

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/11/introducing-testdrive.html

In The Press

10 reasons Ubuntu 9.10 will be a game changer for business

Jack Wallen, writing for TechRepublic, feels that businesses will like Ubuntu 9.10, and lists 10 reasons for feeling that way.

  1. The new Software Center that includes commercial programs.
  2. Ubuntu One, with it's ability to synchronize between machines automatically
  3. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Images that are easily downloaded and installed.
  4. Quickly, which is a new framework for developers to accelerate the development process.
  5. Better Intel graphics support with the move from EXA to UXA acceleration method.

  6. Faster and stronger AppArmor for additional security

  7. Blocking module loading to prevent kernel root kits from being installed
  8. Boot time, which is getting closer to the elusive 10-second boot time.

  9. HAL deprecation in favor of DeviceKit-Power, DeviceKit-Devices and udev.

  10. Telepathy, the pluggable framework for real-time communication like chat, voice/video over IP and logging.

The full write-up on his reasons can be found at the link.

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/comment/0,1000002985,39875320,00.htm

The Karmic Koala - Not Ubuntu's Vista

Ghabuntu (ghabuntu.com) defends the allegation that Ubuntu 9.10 is similar to the failure of Microsoft Vista. To this writer, Karmic Koala is a departure from previous releases due to the addition of new functionality, and new can mean bugs. But that new functionality is what people have been asking for. He/she recommends that one do a clean install to avoid some of the problems associated with upgrades from a previous release. You can find the article at the link.

http://www.ghabuntu.com/2009/11/karmic-koala-not-ubuntus-vista.html

Is Ubuntu Broken?

Erlik of Tech-no-Media says that there seems to be quite a few concerns and complains about recent Ubuntu releases. Are there really that many regressions and instabilities with the latest releases of Ubuntu? Probably! So is Ubuntu broken? Erlik says he doesn't think so, at least not more than most other Linux distributions. He feels that the problem is that we have two kinds of Linux desktops with their own problems. On one side you have the sedate LTS releases that are stable and ready for the average user, but may be incompatible with newer hardware and software. On the other side you have the bleeding edge interim releases with all the their problems and breakneck 6 month release cycles. Most problems arise when someone wanting a long term solution (a LTS) is forced to use an interim release instead because of hardware compatibility. In the end there is probably no perfect solution. http://www.tech-no-media.com/2009/11/is-ubuntu-broken.html

Installing Ubuntu 9.10

Softpedia's Marius Nestor states that Ubuntu 9.10, also known as the Karmic Koala, arrived exactly on October 29, 2009 and is the eleventh release of Ubuntu OS. He has created a tutorial to teach Linux newcomers how to install the Ubuntu 9.10 operating system on their personal computer. Therefore, it is addressed to people who have just heard about Ubuntu, those who have never installed Ubuntu before and want to test it, but don't know how. The tutorial will make things very simple for you, but if you get stuck somewhere in the middle of the installation and you need help, do not hesitate to use Softpedia's commenting system at the end of the article! http://news.softpedia.com/news/Installing-Ubuntu-9-10-126370.shtml

New Ubuntu OS Features Create Good Karma

Jack M. Germain, in an article for LinuxInsider, looks at Karmic Koala and overall likes what he sees. Though he had some problems with the Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a netbook, still he felt that the improvements included in the release were worth it. Among the things he liked were the inclusion of Firefox 3.5 and OpenOffice.org 3.1. Most significant to him was the Software Center application.

http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/68639.html?wlc=1258298998

Two Simple Suggestions for Ubuntu

Christopher Smart of Linux Magazine notes that his last (admittedly strongly worded) article ("Hey Ubuntu, Stop Making Linux Look Bad", http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7600/1.html) appears to have touched quite a nerve out there in the community. Perhaps some readers jumped the gun when they saw the title and didn’t read the whole article, or perhaps he didn’t make his point clear. Either way, Smart has decided to clarify his perspective a little, because he actually does care about Linux. Follow this link to read further what Smart has to say: http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7607/1.html

Computerbank installs Ubuntu on recycled PCs

Georgina Swan of ComputerWorld notes that the not-for-profit organization, Computerbank Victoria, is installing Ubuntu 9.04 on refurbished computers for people with a government healthcare card and Australian students. Prices start at $30 and recipients have to sign an acknowledgement that they are receiving a Linux-based system. But Computerbank is nice enough to install media codecs and flash, and do other customizing to make it easier for new and non-technical computer users to get up and running right away.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/325438/computerbank_installs_ubuntu_recycled_pcs?fp=4&fpid=1968336438

In The Blogosphere

Nicaraguan schools go Ubuntu

The Ministry of Education in Nicaragua wants to put Ubuntu in public and private elementary and secondary schools. Their goal is to create a derivative distribution based on Ubuntu, that would adapt free software to fit the national curriculum. Among those chosen to participate in the endeavour is the Nicaragua LoCo team. The author sees this as an opportunity both to advocate Ubuntu and to contribute back upstream.

http://leogg.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/nicaraguan-schools-go-ubuntu/

Advice Against Upgrading Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10

Mathaba is upset with Ubuntu 9.10, due to issues he had with installing it on an ASUS laptop. Things that just worked with 9.04 were broken or he felt weren't appropriate (such as the login sequence and color scheme of the boot screens). On top of that, his migration back to 9.04 was made more difficult due to changes in the Master Boot Record from the 9.10 installation. In all, he felt that there was no advantage in upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=622051

Ubuntu 9.10: My First 10 Days

Christopher Tozzi of Works With U, has used Ubuntu 9.10 for 10 days now, and offers his evaluation, good and bad. He feels that Karmic is a lot prettier than it's predecessors, and has faster boot times. Firefox 3.5 by default he likes, as he does the fact that his wireless card works much better. However, even though graphics were better on his laptop, his desktop had an unexpected bug affecting Compiz-Fusion, and he may have to go back to Jaunty on it. The volume applet has been changed (again), and the weather applet doesn't work for him. Plus, there's been a change in the way to get flash to work in 64bit, and the init.d script for NetworkManager has been updated, but the documentation hasn't. So, even though he feels it's a fine release, he feels that there are some non-trivial bugs that really need to be addressed.

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/11/10/ubuntu-910-my-first-10-days/

In Other News

Arkeia Releases Free Network Backup Software for Ubuntu

David Hamilton, reporting for Web Host Industry Review, notes that Arkeia is providing a network backup solution for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. This solution is for one free license of Arkeia Network Backup Enterprise Edition for Ubuntu granted per individual or or company. It includes one server running on Ubuntu and 2 client agents to backup many types of client machines including Windows workstations and desktops, and the vast majority of Linux machines, Mac OS X and BSD computers. This is now available in the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS repository.

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/111209_Arkeia_Releases_Free_Network_Backup_Software_for_Ubuntu

Canonical and Creative Commons Meet Donations Target

Jono Bacon posted on his blog that Melissa from the Creative Commons pointed him to the rather good news that Canonical’s offer to match Creative Commons donations up to $3000 has already been matched. "Just five days ago we announced that Canonical would be generously matching every donation dollar for dollar for the next week – up to $3,000. Well, we met that goal in record time! Thanks to everyone who donated in the past five days and had your donation doubled – for a total of $6,000 going toward our annual campaign to sustain CC! Many thanks to Canonical for their ongoing support of free culture and Creative Commons. We still have a long way to go to reach our $500,000 goal for this year’s campaign, so please donate today and show your support for a culture of sharing!" Thanks to everyone who donated, and if you haven’t donated yet, go and contribute! http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/11/09/canonical-and-creative-commons-meet-donations-target/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, November 16, 2009

Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)

Security Team Catch-up

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)

Community Council Meeting

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

Technical Board Meeting

Desktop Team Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

LoCo Council Meeting

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)

Server Team Meeting

Foundation Team Meeting

QA Team Meeting

Americas Membership Board Meeting

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)

Ubuntu Java Meeting

Friday, November 20, 2009

Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Posts Team Meeting

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Ubuntu Gaming Team Meeting

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

Ubuntu 9.10 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:

Glossary of Terms

  1. FOSS - Free Open Source Software.
  2. IRC - Internet Relay Chat.
  3. KVM - Kernel based Virtual Machine.
  4. LTS - Long Term Support. - Said of a release that will receive support for 3-years/5-years rather than the typical 18 months.

  5. MC - MOTU Council - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Council

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

  7. OS - Operating System.
  8. PDA - Personal Digital Assistant.
  9. UDS - Ubuntu Developer Summit.

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/Issue168 (last edited 2009-11-16 14:11:49 by map-hv-fw)