Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Renewed call for nominees - IRC Council
    2. 2009 Ubuntu Server Edition user survey
    3. UDS Lucid - Kernel Summary
    4. An Interview With Daniel Holbach
    5. Jono Bacon: Lernid
      1. Lernid 0.2 Released
      2. Lernid Gets Real Events
      3. Lernid Gets Notifications, Browser Updates and Translations
    6. A selection of easy merges from the Ubuntu Server Team
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Karmic
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. Finksburg, Maryland Tour
    2. Ubuntu Party Toulouse 2009
  6. Launchpad News
    1. Getting the most from bug mail
  7. The Planet
    1. Daniel Holbach: Ubuntu Membership - debunking myths
    2. Matthew Helmke: Ubuntu Membership Myths Debunked
    3. Ara Pulido: Lucid Alpha 1 is coming to town!
    4. Jonathan Riddell: Kubuntu Lucid LTS is on its way
  8. In The Press
    1. First look at Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10 Technology Preview and the KDE Plasma-Netbook 4.4 interface
    2. Five Years of Ubuntu
    3. 'Ubuntu Needs a Longer Release Schedule!'
    4. Ubuntu X.org Guru Calls for Desktop Help
    5. Nouveau DRM Getting Pulled Into Lucid Soon
    6. Ubuntu 10.04 May Backport Newer Kernels
    7. Ubuntu's B-Sides: Alternative Apps
  9. In The Blogosphere
    1. Eucalyptus: Boosting Ubuntu’s Cloud Efforts?
    2. Ubuntu 9.10: The Karmic Koala Benchmarked And Reviewed
    3. Could Ubuntu get enterprises to finally embrace the cloud?
  10. In Other News
    1. Forensic Cop Journal: Ubuntu Forensic
    2. Ubuntu CE 6.0 Beta Brings Dansguardian Fix
  11. Meeting Summaries: November 2009
      1. MOTU Council
      2. Technical Board
      3. Asturian Team
      4. Cameroonian Team
      5. Czech Team
      6. Danish Team
      7. Irish Team
      8. Japanese Team
      9. Lithuanian Team
      10. Nicaraguan Team
      11. Romanian Team
        1. Kuban Team
        2. Saratov Team
      12. South African Team
      13. Tunisian Team
        1. California Team
    2. Ubuntu Beginners Team
    3. Ubuntu NGO Team
    4. Ubuntu Women Team
    5. Ubuntu Community Learning Project
  12. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, December 7, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Community Learning Project Meeting
      2. Security Team Catch-up
      3. Ubuntu Membership Board - Americas
    2. Tuesday, December 8, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Membership Board - Americas
      2. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      3. Desktop Team Meeting
      4. Kernel Team Meeting
    3. Wednesday, December 9, 2009
      1. Server Team Meeting
      2. Foundation Team Meeting
      3. QA Team Meeting
      4. Ubuntu Women IRC Meeting
    4. Thursday, December 10, 2009
      1. Ubuntu Java Meeting
    5. Friday, December 11, 2009
      1. MC Meeting
      2. Lucid Weekly Release Meeting
    6. Saturday, December 12, 2009
    7. Sunday, December 13, 2009
  13. 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
  14. Archives and RSS Feed
  15. Additional Ubuntu News
  16. Conclusion
  17. Credits
  18. Glossary of Terms
  19. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  20. Feedback

newspaper-icon3.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #171 for the week November 29th - December 5th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Renewed call for nominees - IRC Council, 2009 Ubuntu Server Edition user survey, UDS Lucid - Kernel Summary, An interview with Daniel Holbach, Jono Bacon: Lernid, A selection of easy merges from the Ubuntu Server Team, Finksburg, Maryland Tour, Ubuntu Party Toulouse 2009, Getting the most from bug mail, The Planet: Daniel Holbach, Matthew Helmke, Ara Pulido, & Jonathan Riddell, Forensic Cop Journal: Ubuntu Forensic, Ubuntu CE 6.0 Beta Brings Dansguardian Fix, Meeting Summaries: November 2009, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

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

In This Issue

General Community News

Renewed call for nominees - IRC Council

Matthew East, in his email to the Ubuntu -irc list (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-irc/2009-December/000717.html) is renewing the call to the Ubuntu Community for nominations to the IRC Council.

As Matthew writes in his email: "The Community Council would like to renew the call for nominations for the staffing of the IRC Council. The IRC Council consists of five members and three seats are currently vacant. The Community Council will be working closely with the IRC Council over the coming 6-12 months and it is an exciting time for the IRC community. We would really like to see some more nominees come forward with a passion for improving governance and user experience in our IRC channels, which are essential resources in the Ubuntu community as a whole."

As the email posting on The Fridge notes, Matthew's email contains all the information you need to know about the IRC Council, how to nominate yourself, or encourage someone else, and their governance expectations.

Please read The Fridge Article or Matthew's email, and if you or someone you know would be the perfect candidate for the IRCC, then encourage them to follow the instructions listed and go for it. Remember nominations are only open until Friday December 11, 2009.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1945

2009 Ubuntu Server Edition user survey

The Ubuntu Server Team wants to know how you use Ubuntu Server Edition in day-to-day operations to help the team prioritize the support and development of the product. This is the second edition of this initiative which was first introduced in 2008.

In an effort to better understand, support and further the Ubuntu Server Edition we would like to ask you to take this survey which should take between 15 to 30 minutes to complete. The information provided will help us determine where we can improve support, where to add additional resources and to generate a better understanding of the community which we work within.

Please note that this survey is being conducted by the Ubuntu Server Team community together with the Canonical Product Management. Information about the team is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/

To take the survey, please go to http://survey.ubuntu.com/

http://blog.canonical.com/?p=302

UDS Lucid - Kernel Summary

UDS Lucid was a busy time for the Kernel Team. They chose a new kernel for the Lucid Lynx release, they reviewed their policies for Stable Updates, reviewed their kernel delta and configuration, and much more. Here is a very brief overview of their decisions for those who are interested.

The primary decision for the kernel team at UDS is to choose the base kernel version for the release. For Lucid this will be 2.6.32. This version has just released providing the maximum stabalization time, it also is expected to be the kernel of choice for long term releases from other distributions. The kernel team will also keep ext4 as their primary filesystem.

They also reviewed their Stable Release Update policy, moving to a more upstream stable branch oriented policy. The team will be taking upstream stable updates for longer and preferring those for Lucid.

The team reviewed their Ubuntu delta, the drivers, and patches they are carrying. They plan to update all of their Ubuntu drivers except for drbd. drbd is primarily consumed by the server team and they use a dkms module to get a more up to date version. On the patch side they have identified a number of redundant patches which have been dropped, and a number which should be moved upstream.

The team has decided to experiment with backporting newer kernels onto LTS releases for Lucid. This will involve provision of a kernel from later cycles into Lucid, supported on certified platforms. The policy here is being firmed up now.

For graphics, they chose to enable Radeon Kernel Mode Settings by default and to seriously look at enabling Nouveau for Lucid. This should bring pretty boot to the majority of users.

For those who crave more detail on these and a couple of other key initiatives can find more information at the following wiki page, which they will be keeping up to date with the current state of the union for the kernel. http://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/UDSLucid

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2009-December/007948.html

An Interview With Daniel Holbach

Daniel is a 30 years old, male, still enjoy living in Berlin, Germany. Live together with Murphy, my dog, work for Canonical in Jono Bacon’s community team. He likes wandering around in the city, reading, all kinds of music, learning languages, good food and lots of other things. I DJ'd every now and then, playing Drum & Bass music, but hasn’t for some months now. He grew up having a computer at home, and he always liked toying around with it. He wrote his first program in Basic or Pascal, when he was 11 or 12.

He start with Ubuntu during the Warty release, and like the idea the distro and community were putting forth and soon became an Ubuntu Member. When he joined Canonical he helped out in lots of different areas: he helped Séb with the maintenance of Desktop packages. He also helped with some of the planning for the MOTU team, and was involved in setting up Bug days and the Bug Squad, he even packaged Artwork for some time. He is now more than glad he is part of the Community team, Jono’s four horsemen.

Daniel uses Ubuntu exclusively, and some of his best Ubuntu memories include: his first upload to the archive, the first user who thanked him in a bug report for fixing their bug, and when Mark invited him to UDS. If there was one thing he could tell all new Ubuntu users, it would be that it is such a great feeling to realise that you can help out easily and make a difference, not just for your own good, but also for others. Read the entire interview at the link.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1946

Jono Bacon: Lernid

Lernid 0.2 Released

You can get Lernid from Jono's PPA by running the following commands:

This release fixes a bunch of bugs, includes some further layout improvements, and completes the plumbing on the first-cut of the Telepathy driven classroom IRC pane. Lernid has been translated into 27 languages, but we currently have a bug in displaying them. This should be fixed in the next release. Screenshots at the link.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/12/01/lernid-0-2-released/

Lernid Gets Real Events

So far, Lernid has merely provided a streamlined interface to the common components in Ubuntu Open Week or Ubuntu Developer Week. Jono has just completed some work which starts bringing unique value to Lernid as a user interface for these events.

Jono has been wanting to have a means of providing a structural representation of events, as opposed to just showing a web page with a HTML table showing the schedule. This seems easy enough: just have a database, but part of the value of Ubuntu Open Week and Ubuntu Developer Week is that a wiki means that we can share the burden of scheduling the event, making corrections and swapping sessions. Wikis are not optimal though, they don’t give us the structured information he wanted. Fortunately, he has come up with a better way.

Recently, Jono hacked support into Lernid to read in an iCal calendar for a given event, separate the events out and store them in a way that he could parse into Lernid. He then took this data and converted the times of the events to the local time zone – this solves one of the biggest problems people have with Ubuntu Open Week – understanding what the heck UTC is and calculating the time of the event in their local time zone. Now you can load Lernid and see the list of events with times that make sense to you. Jono is also planning to build in functionality to set an alarm for a given event so that Lernid will pop up a notification bubble then minutes before an event to remind you.

The benefit of using iCal as a backend means that event planners can put together events using any calendaring application, and you can not only get awesome event support in Lernid but also provide a standard iCal feed that people can subscribe to in their calendar apps. When using Google Calendar, working together on events is really simple.

The code is now in Launchpad. Jono is not going to be generating any more packages in the PPA until he has another tested and stable version ready, which will be 0.3. Screenshot at the link.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/12/03/lernid-gets-real-events/

Lernid Gets Notifications, Browser Updates and Translations

Jono has added a bunch of new features this week to Lernid:

The code, bugs, translations and more are available in the Launchpad project. https://www.launchpad.net/lernid/ Screenshot at the link.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/12/06/lernid-gets-notifications-browser-updates-and-translations/\

A selection of easy merges from the Ubuntu Server Team

Now that UDS has ended one of the tasks Ubuntu developers focus on is merging packages from Debian. As Lucid will be an LTS release, packages from testing (instead of unstable) will be pulled in. Here is a selection of packages from the Ubuntu Server team that look easy to get you started on merges:

Some merges may already have been done. Other may turn out to be sync requests. And if you run out of packages to merge you can just head over to Merge-O-Matic to get the full list of packages waiting for your merging skills!

http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/a-selection-of-easy-merges-from-the-ubuntu-server-team/

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 (12876) -281 over last week
  2. Brazilian Portuguese (45551) -25 over last week
  3. French (45970) -91 over last week
  4. Swedish (64247) -913 over last week
  5. English (United Kingdom) (71916) -1219 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

Finksburg, Maryland Tour

The Ubuntu Maryland team went on the road last Saturday and landed at the Finksburg Library. Events of the day included:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarylandTeam/Events/MDTour/Finksburg

Ubuntu Party Toulouse 2009

The server market is certainly the least known to computer users. Yet most companies with more than 1,000 employees use, among others, Linux servers. Over half the websites that we use every day use Linux. This conference aims to explain how Linux has became, in ten years, one of the most widely used operating systems on servers, what are the most common uses, and how free software is now on almost all servers.

The Ubuntu Party in Toulouse had two conferences. Here are the slide presentations: The use of Linux and Free Software in the server domain: http://nicolas.barcet.com/drupal/files/Linux%20Serveurs%20-%20UP%20TLS.pdf

Founded in 2004, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution more widespread on the personal computer and is pushing to become as well known on servers. This conference aims to:

Presentation of the Ubuntu project (jointly with Christopher Sauthier, chairman of Ubuntu-uk and leader goal-free) http://nicolas.barcet.com/drupal/files/PresUbuntu%20-%20UP%20TLS.pdf

Some pictures are now on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbarcet/sets/72157622821502927/

http://nicolas.barcet.com/drupal/fr/ubuntu-party-toulouse-2009

Launchpad News

Getting the most from bug mail

If you’ve reported, commented on or subscribed to a bug in Launchpad, you’ll have seen Launchpad’s bug mail. It’s probably the easiest way to stay up to date with the bugs that interest you and there are a few things you can do to get the most out of it.

If you don’t read anything else…

Probably the best thing you can do to make bug mail useful is to ensure you only get the bug mail that interests you.

Launchpad makes the reasonable assumption that, if you report, comment on or subscribe to a bug, you’re interested in that bug. So, it’ll send you email updates when:

* someone changes the status, importance or targeting of the bug * someone makes a comment on the bug.

If you find you’re no longer interested in a particular bug, check for an unsubscribe link in the footer of the bug mail. You can also visit your own bug page to check which individual bugs you’re subscribed to. https://bugs.launchpad.net/people/+me

If you don’t see an unsubscribe link, it means that you’re not subscribed directly. Instead, you’re receiving the bug mail because either:

So, what do you do?

You’re subscribed to all bugs associated with a distro or project

At the bottom of the bug mail is a link to the bug’s page in Launchpad, along with a short explanation as to why you’re receiving the bug mail. If you’re subscribed to all the bugs associated with Launchpad, for example, it might say:

You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to Launchpad itself

These bulk subscriptions do not show up on your bug page. Instead, you need to visit the distro, project or series’ bug page and follow the Subscribe to bug mail link, where you’ll be able to unsubscribe. https://bugs.launchpad.net/people/+me

A team you’re in is subscribed to the bug

Similarly, if you’re subscribed to a bug indirectly through your membership of a team, the bug mail footer message will tell you which team. You now have two options to stop receiving the bug mail:

Of course, there is another way that isn’t as drastic as either of those two options: instead of unsubscribing, filter the bug mail to a dedicated folder.

Filtering bug mail

Most mail clients can filter your incoming mail based on certain elements, such as text in the subject line, certain mail headers and so on. Launchpad makes it easy to filter bug mail.

The most obvious thing you can use to filter your bug mail is the subject line: Launchpad adds the bug number to the start of each bug mails subject, such as:

[Bug 123456] Add some whatsits to the doodah

The footer, which explains the reason for your receiving the bug mail, can also be handy. Similarly, Launchpad adds an X-Launchpad-Message-Rationale: header to each bug mail, which you can use to filter the bug mail.

Matt Nuzum wrote an excellent guide to filtering Launchpad bug mail. It’s aimed at Gmail users but you can tailor it to your own mail client. http://blog.launchpad.net/bug-tracking/gmail-filters-for-launchpad-bug-email

Duplicate bugs

If you’re subscribed to bug A and someone marks bug A as a duplicate of bug B, Launchpad automatically subscribes you to bug B. You can always follow the unsubscribe link in the mail footer.

Two-way bug communication

Before I go, I should mention that bug mail is not just a one-way conversation. You can report, comment on and alter bugs entirely by email. It’s quick and really easy. Take a look at our guide. https://help.launchpad.net/Bugs/EmailInterface

Don’t forget that if you reply to bug mail, your entire email will be published as a public bug comment on Launchpad. So, remove those phone numbers from your email signature if you don’t want them to be public!

http://blog.launchpad.net/bug-tracking/getting-the-most-from-bug-mail

The Planet

Daniel Holbach: Ubuntu Membership - debunking myths

One thing I really like about Ubuntu is that all kinds of contributions to Ubuntu are valued and recognised through Ubuntu membership. We have several hundreds of Ubuntu members already who have all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of different areas of expertise. They are united by having made significant and sustained contributions to Ubuntu. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership

There are a number of myths about Ubuntu membership that we want to debunk. If you come across somebody who’s uncertain about Ubuntu membership, tell them:

Together with the RMBs the CC just did a number of changes to the Membership document, I hope it’s much clearer now.

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=540

Matthew Helmke: Ubuntu Membership Myths Debunked

As a member of the Ubuntu Regional Membership Board for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, I thought I would help him (Daniel Holbach) out a bit.

As far as I am concerned, the most important factors for applicants are these:

http://matthewhelmke.net/2009/12/04/ubuntu-membership-myths-debunked/

Ara Pulido: Lucid Alpha 1 is coming to town!

Next Thursday, December 10th, Lucid Lynx Alpha 1 is going to be released.We will be spending next week testing the ISOs and coordinating efforts in #ubuntu-testing Freenode IRC channel. http://ubuntutesting.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/old-friend-iso-testing-tracker/

If you are planning to help with the testing, start syncing your Lucid images now, to avoid network bottlenecks and last minute hurries. To sync your images, you can use the rsync URLS at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com, or use Steves Beattie’s script that do all the work for you. http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=ubuntutesting.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbazaar.launchpad.net%2F~ubuntu-bugcontrol%2Fubuntu-qa-tools%2Fmaster%2Fannotate%2Fhead%253A%2Fdl-ubuntu-test-iso%2Fdl-ubuntu-test-iso.py

Lucid knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! (and help us testing the candidate images…)

http://ubuntutesting.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/lucid-alpha-1-is-coming-to-town/

Jonathan Riddell: Kubuntu Lucid LTS is on its way

At the Ubuntu Developer Summit, Kubuntu contributors discussed the next six months in the world's finest KDE distribution. The Lucid Lynx will be a Long Term Support edition and it's exciting that KDE 4 is now at a stage of maturity where this will be possible to do for the first time. LTS means fixing, completing and assuring over and above any new features. So what's in store? Read the specifications for full details here: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KubuntuLucidSpecs You can find more specific information at the link along with pictures of the Kubuntu contributors at UDS.

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/4110

In The Press

First look at Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10 Technology Preview and the KDE Plasma-Netbook 4.4 interface

Caitlyn Martin of Distro Watch guesses that by now almost anyone who keeps up with Ubuntu knows about the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. What many people are not aware of is that there is now a Kubuntu Netbook Edition and an Ubuntu Moblin Remix in development as well. By the time Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" is released next April netbook users will have three Ubuntu variants customized for their smaller systems. From Martin's experience playing with it, Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10 really is incomplete. Despite the missing functionality and a few bugs it's pretty easy to see just how promising the Plasma-Netbook 4.4 desktop is. Martin was also pleasantly surprised that most of the issues fall into the category of inconveniences, not show-stopping problems. It's really surprising just how usable this pre-alpha development code already is.

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20091130

Five Years of Ubuntu

Christer Edwards of Packt Publishing outlines some of the things Ubuntu has brought to the Linux world, and what a major impact it has had in such a short amount of time. He has been using Ubuntu nearly that entire time, having joined the fun with the 5.04 release. Edwards says that if there is any one word that could sum up Ubuntu, it would be Community. Nearly everyone Edwards has met through Ubuntu in the last five years cites the community as the single major reason for their use. In many aspects, Ubuntu is technically equal to its competitors, but nowhere else will you find the same level of community support.

http://www.packtpub.com/five-years-of-ubuntu/

'Ubuntu Needs a Longer Release Schedule!'

LinuxPlanet's Carla Schroder recognizes that the popular Ubuntu Linux's six-month release schedule keeps it in the public eye; every release is greeted with a barrage of news, reviews, praise, and complaints. It seems the last few releases have generated an increasing number of cries for longer release schedules, that six months is too short and results in too many bugs. Mark Shuttleworth discussed at length the importance and benefits of a short release cycle in his Linuxcon keynote: it generates excitement and keeps contributors motivated. And it follows the long-standing principles of "many eyes make all bugs shallow" and "release early, release often." Schroder decided to go to the source and ask Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, to explain the Ubuntu release cycle and clarify some of the whys and wherefores. Follow the link to see what they discussed.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6918/1/

Ubuntu X.org Guru Calls for Desktop Help

Kristian Kissling of Linux Magazine tells us that Bryce Harrington is agonizing over the non-trivial task of delivering a working X server for Ubuntu. On the Ubuntu desktop mailing list he speaks of a flood of bug reports and appeals to improving the situation. The X server must ideally cooperate with with open and closed ATI, NVIDIA and Intel cards, but not forget those from smaller providers, a fact that becomes most noticeable to users when they're sitting in front of blank screens instead of the desktop. The call for help from Ubuntu users keeps coming to Harrington as bug reports on Launchpad. Now Harrington is calling for help himself. His graph of bug reports for Karmic Koala in recent weeks "literally went off the chart," which prompted him to recommend concrete steps to avoid future X.org problems. Follow the link to read more.

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Ubuntu-X.org-Guru-Calls-for-Desktop-Help

Nouveau DRM Getting Pulled Into Lucid Soon

Phoronix's Michael Larabel states that a week ago he found out that Nouveau would be pulled into Ubuntu 10.04 as the default NVIDIA graphics driver replacing the current open-source NVIDIA driver mess that is known as xf86-video-nv. A meeting was held on November 30th on IRC regarding Nouveau in Ubuntu's kernel, and with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS planning to ship with the Linux 2.6.32 kernel, which has no support for Nouveau, it's to be decided what DRM code to back-port into this Ubuntu kernel. Also being decided is whether to pull in all of the Nouveau code now and then pull in a more recent DRM snapshot when the Ubuntu 10.04 release nears, or whether to just selectively pull in new patches. Whatever the case, the first alpha freeze for Ubuntu Lucid is happening next week so expect some Nouveau DRM code to get pulled in shortly so that it will be present for Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nzc1Mg

Ubuntu 10.04 May Backport Newer Kernels

Michael Larabel of Phoronix tells us that the Ubuntu kernel team has written a message on the Ubuntu announcement mailing list in which they lay out the kernel summary for Ubuntu Lucid. In this message the kernel team confirms that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (the "Lucid Lynx") will indeed be shipping with the just-released Linux 2.6.32 kernel. By the time Ubuntu 10.04 rolls around in April, the Linux 2.6.33 kernel will have been released and the Linux 2.6.34 kernel will be in development, but the Ubuntu developers have decided to stick it out with the 2.6.32 kernel for a maximum stabilization period, especially since this is a Long-Term Support release. An interesting piece of news did come out of this message and that is the Ubuntu kernel team may end up back-porting newer kernels into Ubuntu Lucid. They will experiment with bringing kernels from newer Ubuntu releases (i.e. Ubuntu 10.10 and Ubuntu 11.04) back to the Lucid package repository.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nzc3MA

Ubuntu's B-Sides: Alternative Apps

Ubuntu User's Kristian Kissling tells us that in his blog, Canonical coworker Jorge O. Castro announces his so-called "b-sides" of Ubuntu, software that didn't make it into Ubuntu's standard installation. Such "b-sides" will now be available for Ubuntu. Castro together with Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre assembled a PPA for these "killer Bs" that provide a selection of programs that Castro considers needing to be "classy" but couldn't be included in the standard installation due to CD space considerations. A metapackage called b-sides would load the bundle of software. Castro provided a b-sides list that includes OpenOffice, GNOME Do, Gwibber, Jokosher, Miro, Inkscape, gimp-data-extras and GNOME Scan. To install the apps, Ubuntu users can update their systems' software sources with the PPA and install the b-sides package.

http://ubuntu-user.com/Online/News/Ubuntu-s-B-Sides-Alternative-Apps

In The Blogosphere

Eucalyptus: Boosting Ubuntu’s Cloud Efforts?

Matt Weinberger, WorksWithU, in this article talks about Eucalyptus - "Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs to Useful Systems." Weinberger states that "For the Ubuntu cloud strategy to succeed, Canonical is going to need a big assist from Eucalyptus Systems" Weinberger asks "who exactly is Eucalyptus and is the company making progress with its own cloud efforts?" In this article he explains the company behind Eucalyptus and what efforts are being made to improve Eucalyptus. They questions which Weinberger is still exploring in "Who's Using Eucalyptus?" and "Are any businesses deploying Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud?" If you have a curiosity about Eucalyptus then check out this article there just might be a few facts that surprise you in there.

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/11/29/eucalyptus-boosting-ubuntus-cloud-efforts/

Ubuntu 9.10: The Karmic Koala Benchmarked And Reviewed

This in depth article by Adam Overa with tom's hardware goes over 14 points he has benchmarked and reviewed in his installation and use of Ubuntu 9.10 He includes screen shots and write ups on each of the flowing points.

  1. Introduction
  2. Test Systems And, Uh Ok, Problems Already
  3. What's New in 9.10
  4. Software Updates and Upgrades
  5. Ubuntu One Cloud Computing
  6. Ubuntu Software Center
  7. An Extreme Make-Over
  8. Botched Surgery
  9. Ubuntu Netbook Remix
  10. Benchmark Results: Boot, Install, Copy, Compress
  11. Benchmark Results: Render, Lame, Gaming
  12. Benmark Results: Synthetics
  13. Conclusion
  14. More on this topic

There is no question about it: 9.10 is an ambitious release for Ubuntu. There are more new features and changes to previous defaults than any other previous version. With the tight integration of Ubuntu One, Tomboy Notes, Evolution, and Empathy, along with the new theming elements, one can begin to see Ubuntu becoming its own animal and not just another slight variation of Linux with GNOME. He'll give Canonical a ten for design, but he has to give it a zero for execution. If 8.10 was a fail, 9.10 is an epic one.

Whenever a Linux distribution gains a large following and begins to see mainstream attention, it can no longer afford to have a marred product launch. Canonical, by launching a new version of Ubuntu every six months, has made the risk of a failed launch even more fatal. Most users who have a bad experience with 9.10 will most likely not try it again, even if many of the issues are eventually resolved.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ubuntu-karmic-koala,2484.html

Could Ubuntu get enterprises to finally embrace the cloud?

David Linthicum author, and InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Reporter, takes a moment to talk about the possibilities on Ubuntu getting enterprises to embrace the cloud. "Ubuntu's ability to act as a gateway between on-premise IT and multiple clouds, using technology you probably already know, provides a much-need baby step for IT" Linthicum discusses Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) in relation to private clouds and existing platforms. You can also follow the links in this article to get some no-nonsense explanations and advice on how to take advantage of cloud computing. Linthicum also discusses what is meant by cloud-heavy and cloud-light. If you are "considering cloud computing in a larger enterprise architecture context then this article with all the links is just for you.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/could-ubuntu-get-enterprises-finally-embrace-cloud-303

In Other News

Forensic Cop Journal: Ubuntu Forensic

In an Article written by Muhammad Nuh Al-Azhar, a forensic police officer, explains Ubuntu Forensic as the use of Ubuntu for digital forensic purposes. The forensic tools it provides are broad but it also provides anti-forensic and cracking tools. He talks about the differences in using Ubuntu and MS Windows forensic tools applications. Muhammad, wrote this journal to broaden the forensic view among the professionals in in his field. He even points out that Ubuntu gives stronger results than those of MS Windows applications.The whole article is a fascinating look in to another area that Ubuntu is being used - this time in the field of forensics. Muhammad goes into what the analyst can now do using Ubuntu and even list the tools used in digital forensics analysis. If you have passion for the way Ubuntu us being used to help stop crime, digital forensic analysis, or you just like thrust for more information on the forward progression and Open Source applications and how they are being used then this is a must read. http://forensiccop.blogspot.com/2009/12/forensic-cop-journal-21-ubuntu-forensic.html

Ubuntu CE 6.0 Beta Brings Dansguardian Fix

In an Article posted by beginlunix, the discussion turns to Parental control. If that is something that is important to you the Ubuntu CE (Christian Edition) 6.0 beta may have some answers for you. According to the article Ubuntu CE 6.0 beta released on Dec 3, 2009, includes a working version on Dansguardian (and internet filtering application). This article list some new features in Ubuntu CE as:

The Ubuntu CE version is said to operate very much like Ubuntu their are a few differences in the desktop look, but according to the article still retain that Ubuntu feel. The focus of this article though is working parental control ability for those parents (or anyone working with kids) to have the ability to filter *easily* what get through on their computers. The writer discusses complete with screenshots the experience installing Ubuntu CE and setting up Dansguardian. Parental control is a topic being discussed on several fronts in the Ubuntu Community. If Parental Control is on your mind don't pass up the opportunity to read this article in full.

http://beginlinux.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/ubuntu-ce-dansguardian-fi/

Meeting Summaries: November 2009

MOTU Council

Technical Board

Asturian Team

Conference and Install Party in Uviéu (http://blogs.altuxa.com/tapaponga/taller-dinstalacion-nuvieu.html):

Cameroonian Team

Czech Team

Danish Team

Irish Team

Japanese Team

Lithuanian Team

Nicaraguan Team

Romanian Team

Kuban Team

Saratov Team

South African Team

Tunisian Team

California Team

Ubuntu Beginners Team

Ubuntu NGO Team

Ubuntu Women Team

Ubuntu Community Learning Project

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, December 7, 2009

Ubuntu Community Learning Project Meeting

Security Team Catch-up

Ubuntu Membership Board - Americas

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Ubuntu Membership Board - Americas

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

Desktop Team Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Server Team Meeting

Foundation Team Meeting

QA Team Meeting

Ubuntu Women IRC Meeting

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Ubuntu Java Meeting

Friday, December 11, 2009

MC Meeting

Lucid Weekly Release Meeting

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Sunday, December 13, 2009

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. CC - Community Council - http://www.ubuntu.com/community/processes/council

  2. DRM - Direct Rendering Manager.
  3. IRC - Internet Relay Chat.
  4. ISO - International Organization for Standardization. Also, the suffix given to disk images that comply with the conventional Standards format.
  5. LTS - Long Term Support. - Said of a release that will receive support for 3-years/5-years rather than the typical 18 months

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

  7. NTP - Network Time Protocol.

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

  9. RMB - Regional Membership Board.
  10. 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/Issue171 (last edited 2009-12-09 12:32:36 by 563437da)