Issue182

Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Lucid Alpha 3 Released
    2. Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop
    3. Can you hear the music?
    4. New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Karmic
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair
  6. The Planet
    1. David Planella: Help localization testing with the ISO tracker
    2. David Planella: Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey
    3. Dustin Kirkland: Attention Encrypted Home Users
    4. Dustin Kirkland: Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation
    5. Laura Czajkowski: Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel
  7. In The Press
    1. A preview of Ubuntu 10.04
    2. An Update On The Boot & Power Performance In Ubuntu 10.04
    3. Ubuntu 10.04 to Include Built-In Music Store
    4. Ubuntu goin' gray, like the Mac OS way?
    5. Analysis: Ubuntu 10.04 Keeping Pace, Or More, With Windows?
  8. In The Blogosphere
    1. 4 Cool New Features in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Alpha 3
    2. Customizing the Ubuntu Application Stack Before Installation
    3. EFL brings Ubuntu Netbook Remix to ARM
    4. Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 Released - What's new?
    5. Ubuntu Linux Now Available to Fed Customers on GSA Advantage
    6. UbuntuOne Music Store - Your Questions Answered
  9. In Other News
    1. Full Circle Magazine #34
  10. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, March 1, 2010
      1. Security Team Catch-up
    2. Tuesday, March 2, 2010
      1. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      2. Developer Membership Board
      3. Desktop Team Meeting
      4. Kernel Team Meeting
      5. LoCo Teams Meeting
      6. Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer - Laszlo Pandy
      7. EMEA Membership Meeting
      8. Community Council Meeting
    3. Wednesday, March 3, 2010
      1. Ubuntu Beginners Team Meeting
      2. Ubuntu Women Project IRC Meeting
      3. Server Team Meeting
      4. Cameroonian LoCoTeam monthly IRC meeting
      5. How to run a Translation Jam
      6. Foundation Team Meeting
      7. QA Team Meeting
      8. Edubuntu Meeting
      9. Ubuntu-uk LoCo Meeting
    4. Thursday, March 4, 2010
      1. Ubuntu Java Meeting
      2. How to run a Packaging Jam
      3. Ubuntu Translations Meeting
    5. Friday, March 5, 2010
      1. Lucid Weekly Release Meeting
    6. Saturday, March 6, 2010
      1. How to Run a Jam
      2. BugJam
      3. DC Loco IRC meeting
    7. Sunday, March 7, 2010
  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. Subscribe
  13. Archives and RSS Feed
  14. Additional Ubuntu News
  15. Conclusion
  16. Credits
  17. Glossary of Terms
  18. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  19. Feedback

newspaper-icon3.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #182 for the week February 21st - February 27th, 2010. In this issue we cover: Lucid Alpha 3 Released, Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop, Can you hear the Music, New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting, Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair, Help localization testing with the ISO tracker, Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey, Attention Encrypted Home Users, Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation, Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel, Full Circle Magazine #34, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

  • Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information you need.

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

In This Issue

  • Lucid Alpha 3 Released
  • Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop
  • Can you hear the Music?
  • New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair

  • Help localization testing with the ISO tracker
  • Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey
  • Attention Encrypted Home Users
  • Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation
  • Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel
  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • Full Circle Magazine #34
  • Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

General Community News

Lucid Alpha 3 Released

Welcome to Lucid Lynx Alpha 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Pre-releases of Lucid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Lucid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Lucid. You can download it here:

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Alpha 3 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3 for information on changes in Ubuntu.

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a list of known bugs (that you don't need to report if you encounter), please see: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2010-February/000682.html

Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop

Here are some fun opportunistic developer things going on over the next few weeks. All of these events provide a great opportunity to get started having fun making awesome apps that you can share with others.

1. Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week

A few weeks ago Jono Bacon announced the plan to put together Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: a week of IRC tuition sessions aimed at helping opportunistic developers scratch their itches and write fun and useful programs using our awesome platform. The week takes place from 1st – 6th March 2010.

The response so far to the call for sessions has been fantastic, and we already have the following sessions scheduled, all visible from the timetable for the week:

  • Welcome! Ubuntu For Opportunistic Developers – Jono Bacon
  • Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer

  • Testdrive – Dustin Kirkland
  • CouchDB support in your app with DesktopCouch – Stuart Langridge

  • Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy
  • Hot-rod your app for translations support – David Planella
  • Creating a PyKDE app – Rich Johnson

  • Creating an application from scratch with Quickly – Rick Spencer
  • Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine

  • What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche
  • Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon
  • Building in Application Indicator support – Sense Hofstede
  • Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge
  • Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer

  • Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar
  • Using GTK+ signals in Python – Sense Hofstede
  • Integrated development workflow with Ground Control – Martin Owens
  • Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy
  • Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer
  • Web browsing and rapid UI with WebKit – Ryan Paul

Each of these sessions is designed to give you a taste of the topic and get you up and running, enough to be productive and start exploring the features of the tool being discussed. In addition to this we will have a series of showcase sessions:

  • SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken VanDine

  • SHOWCASE: Lernid – Jono Bacon
  • SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer

These sessions explain the story behind the app: talking about which tools, modules and technology that was used to put these apps together and what challenges were solved. This is a great way to learn more about tools available for opportunistic developers so that when you need to do something, you know which tool to reach out for.

2. Introduction To Python Tuition Sessions

Now, many of you will be entirely new to Python and entirely new to coding. To give you folks a head start before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week kicks off, Rick Spencer from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition sessions on the Thursday before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week:

  • Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for total beginners – Rick Spencer
  • Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for programmers – Rick Spencer

This is a great way of getting your opportunistic development kickstarted!

Again, this awesome content is best experienced using Lernid. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

3. Fun Apps And Hacking Parties

With an awesome week of opportunistic developer learning ahead of us, I was keen to put together some sessions where you good folks can just hack on fun projects in the same room, ask each other questions and more. As such, at the end of each Opportunistic Developer Week day, there will be a a series of parties. These include:

  • Mon 1st March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
  • Tues 2nd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
  • Wed 3rd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
  • Thu 4th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Snippets Party – Join us and create Python snippets!\
  • Fri 5th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!

This is an awesome opportunity to get together and make something fun. So, Jono has issued a challenge for you good folks: before we start next week, think of a fun app to focus on writing next week. Pick something that will do something useful for you and something not too large and comprehensive (e.g. don’t pick a word processor or spreadsheet!).

4. The Place To Be: #ubuntu-app-devel

As part of building an awesome community and platform for opportunistic developers, Jono created #ubuntu-app-devel on Freenode and we have a great group of enthusiastic developers in there who can answer your questions and help you get started. Join us and join in the fun!

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/02/24/rocking-the-opportunistic-desktop/

Can you hear the music?

Well probably not yet, but the Ubuntu One Music Store is right around the corner.

The team has made great progress since we announced this new Ubuntu feature just a few short months ago at UDSLucid in Dallas. That session was very important for a couple of reasons. It confirmed the community’s interest in having easy access to popular music from within an Ubuntu application. It was also an excellent opportunity to learn some of the community’s concerns and desires. We think we’ve built a music store that everyone will enjoy using at the launch of Ubuntu 10.04 and as it evolves in the future.

There have been some great discussions in blogs and blog comments since bits of the store started appearing in Lucid Lynx Alphas. Now that Lucid Lynx has just passed the Alpha 3 milestone, we thought it was a good time to give everyone a quick update.

The store is currently being thoroughly tested by a small group of users. After we fix some of the initial bugs, we’ll expand testing to a larger group. This should be in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we’ve prepared an FAQ for everyone to learn more about the upcoming music store. Additional information about expanded testing will be posted here so follow this blog or our posts on identi.ca and twitter for more information.

http://voices.canonical.com/ubuntuone/?p=230

New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting

The approval results from the February 25th Americas Membership meeting are as follows:

Dylan Mccall

Dylan is a student from Vancouver, Canada who has been using and following development of Ubuntu since 2006. He is the maintainer of the slideshow that runs during Ubuntu's desktop installation process, simply named "ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu" and also contributes to the forums, writes patches and submits bugs.

Penelope Stowe

Penelope has been using Ubuntu since 7.04 and is currently involved with several projects in the community, including: Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu User Days as an organizer and now member of the Classroom team, Ubuntu NGO as co-head of the Advocacy team, has worked with Ubuntu UK and is also involved with research to create an open source device for people who cannot communicate orally or through sign.

Anthony Hook

Anthony is a Computer Science student at the University of Wisconsin and is currently the team lead for Ubuntu Wisconsin where he has hosted a successful release party, launched a new website and organized monthly team meetings. He also is involved with bug reporting, testing and has done some work with application development.

Robert Wall

Robert has been an active member of the California LoCo team since December 2008, working on many projects and events, including: the team's approval application, manning booths at both OSCON 2009 and SCaLE 8x 2010, handling mailing list, IRC channel and launchpad administration, and also even has time for the occasional forays into Launchpad Answers and Ubuntu bug triaging.

Brett Alton

Brett Canadian web developer and computer science undergrad who began using Ubuntu with 5.10. In addition to deploying over 60 Ubuntu installations, he is active on the forums, brainstorm ideas, bug reports, feature requests, blog posts and blog posts. He is currently helping the GetDeb.net project with user interface work and doing work on the Ground Control project.

Pablo Rubianes

Pablo is a member of Uruguay's LoCo Community Council where he has done a considerable amount of work with the team site and wiki, handling administrative tasks and developing tutorials in Spanish. He is also a member of the Ubuntu Beginners team, was also instrumental in the recent Spanish version of Ubuntu User Day, has done translations and documentation work.

A big welcome from the Americas Board and the Ubuntu community to all of these great new members!

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2010-February/000872.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (77026) +335 over last week
  • Critical (26) +/-0 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (38964) -38 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 Karmic

  1. Spanish (10404) −210 # over last week
  2. English (United Kingdom) (16234) −3819 # over last week
  3. French (40201) −89 # over last week
  4. Brazilian Portuguese (40568) −1120 # over last week
  5. German (65160) Not listed 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

Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair

Starting a new local community group requires a mixture of dedication, enthusiastic people and the will to make things happen. And having fun at it. The folks at the Ubuntu Libyan LoCo seem to have all the ingredients for the recipe to success and are showing them off on their way to becoming an approved LoCo team.

Ubuntu is the most used distro in Libya, and the team was born with the lofty goal of supporting the Ubuntu users in the country. Since they first joined the Ubuntu family in Karmic, a lot new members have joined in. They’ve participated in a great deal of workshops, meetings and discussions, which allowed them to shape the team’s plans and goals.

While doing that, they’ve also participated in educational events organized by local universities and private educational institutes, and we’re going to focus in one of them.

As part of its activities and ongoing strive to increase the knowledge of GNU/Linux and Open Source Software, the Ubuntu Libya LoCo Team participated in the Technology & Science Fair, organized by The Libyan Information Technology Group during the week of Dec 6th-12th 2009 and hosted by the Al-Fateh University in Tripoli, Libya.

The Libyan Information Technology Group kindly provided a dedicated booth for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam, with an elegant and attractive black and orange Ubuntu theme that clearly stood out in the Fair.

During the period of the Fair, the Libya LoCoTeam distributed 500 Ubuntu Karmic CDs to visiting students, IT specialists, Instructors and IT consultants. An Ubuntu installation workshop was also organized by the team after an introductory presentation about Ubuntu.

Many visitors were interested to know more about Ubuntu and Open Source Software and this event was a great opportunity for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam to spread their knowledge and enthusiasm.

Their next event is going to be Libya’s first installfest, for which they’ve set themselves a target of 1000 attendees.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1984

The Planet

David Planella: Help localization testing with the ISO tracker

The Ubuntu Testing Team is currently testing Lucid Alpha 3 candidate images.

This cycle we have a brand new set of localization test cases for everyone to check and make sure language support in Lucid is top notch, and we need your help!

Here’s how you can contribute; the procedure for testing is very easy, and it involves:

  • Signing up – create an account at the ISO testing tracker and log in
  • Running the test cases – run the localization test cases following the given steps
  • Reporting – report on them (pass/fail, comments, bugs, etc.)

If you are interested in helping out, please visit the link below for in-depth instructions on how to set up your own testing tracker.

http://davidplanella.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/help-localization-testing-with-the-iso-tracker/

David Planella: Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey

Nightmonkey: http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=davidplanella.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnightmonkey.ubuntu.hu%2F

What’s this?

Nightmonkey is a project created and driven by the Ubuntu Hungarian team to allow an easier translation of the descriptions of packages, with István Nyitrai as the main developer and rockstar.

These are the short and long texts used to describe what a particular software package does. They are shown in different places in the system, most notably on Software Center when you are looking at an application’s info page. Why is this so cool?

For multiple reasons. Let me just mention a few:

  • It’s a community project around translations, providing an alternative view to translatable packages in Launchpad. This makes them more discoverable and eases the translation process.
  • It was designed with upstream collaboration in mind. István and Michael Vogt made a great effort to ensure these translations can be sent back to Debian.
  • It’s very easy to use, and it allows filtering translations according to popularity, so that translators can focus their work on the descriptions of most important applications.
  • It is a great tool for teams to set translation goals and use it for Translation Jams, for example.

Can I contribute to it?

Well of course!, Nightmonkey is Open Source, and you can:

http://davidplanella.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/translating-software-descriptions-with-nightmonkey/

Dustin Kirkland: Attention Encrypted Home Users

We're rapidly pushing toward an excellent Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release, and we have made a few improvements in the way your Encrypted Home's metadata is stored.

If you configured your Encrypted Home with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) or Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid), then no action is required, -- you may stop reading here.

If you're not sure, and you want to check if you need to read this article, take a look at your /var/lib/ecryptfs directory. If that directory is empty, or it does not exist, you may stop reading here. If that directory has contents, then you may want to continue reading...

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Encrypted Home installations stored eCryptfs metadata in /var/lib/ecryptfs/$USER. This information is absolutely required to mount your Encrypted Home Directory. Actually, everything in here can be re-created if you wrote down your randomly generated mount passphrase!

  • Big fat reminder here ... please be absolutely certain that you have recorded your mount passphrase, on a piece of paper, stored somewhere safely, separate from your computer! You can retrieve your randomly generated passphrase by running the ecryptfs-unwrap-passphrase utility.

For Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), new installs actually put this metadata in /home/.ecryptfs/$USER. This is far more convenient for users who put all of /home on its own partition, or for users who just simply backup all of /home.

I've previously written about how to move your metadata out of /var/lib/ecryptfs. Particularly if you're planning a Lucid upgrade of a system that was originally installed with Jaunty's Encrypted Home Directory, I strongly recommend that you follow these instructions: http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/08/moving-your-encrypted-home-meta-data.html

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2010/02/attention-encrypted-home-users.html

Dustin Kirkland: Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation

In October 2009, just before the release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), Mathias Gug, Dan Nurmi, and I holed up for a couple of very long days, working on the Ubuntu Eucalyptus package. Over the course of 72 hours, we uploaded Eucalyptus 7 times, fixing over 30 bugs! While Mathias, Dan, and I were co-located, we were also greatly assisted by Thierry Carrez (located +7 hours ahead) and community member Joseph Salisbury. Thierry and Joe helped tremendously with regression testing of the rapid fire uploads, triaging and squashing any new issues as they arose. This "push" was essential to delivering UEC for Ubuntu 9.10!

Well, the Server Team is going to do it again, for Ubuntu 10.04, and covering several other important server packages in addition to Eucalyptus, and we're hoping to get your help this time!

We're calling this effort Server Bug Zapping. The schedule and plans are detailed here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerLucidBugZapping

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2010/02/server-bug-zapping-call-for.html

Laura Czajkowski: Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel

Since UDS Lucid we’ve been working on some changes as a team, most know about the Ubuntu team leader, but also a big change was the decision to have a LOGGED CHANNEL. These came about from discussions and meetings discussing the IRC purpose, as again the team is more than IRC.

Many many conversations were happening on IRC and not on mailing list of indeed the forums. If you weren’t on IRC you missed the information or indeed the lengthy and interesting discussions taking place. The idea to create a logged channel means if you don’t IRC, not on IRC at the time, and perhaps you don’t run a screen session you don’t lose out on these conversations and discussions, you can catch up and read the logs like many other teams.

We now have two channels and I’d like to point out to folks to perhaps join and update their autojoin

#ubuntu-women-project is the new channel created, it is the logged channel for the Ubuntu Women Project This is the Ubuntu, technical, and project discussions take place, of course social chat is going to happen.

#ubuntu-women is the non logged channel social channel.

If anyone has any questions pop onto IRC and chat to us there.

http://www.lczajkowski.com/2010/02/25/ubuntu-women-new-channel/

In The Press

A preview of Ubuntu 10.04

Kenny Johnson of the PC Report acknowledges that Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) is only in the Alpha stage of testing at this moment. It doesn’t look extremely different from the current version of Ubuntu but there are a few noticeable differences. Johnson decided to dig a little to find out what has been changed. The most notable differences to me are the games (or lack thereof) and a video editing software called PiTiVi. The games that come with Ubuntu 10.04 are AisleRiot Solitaire, gbrainy, Mahjongg, Mines, Quadrapassel, and Sudoku. The video editor known as PiTiVi looks similar to Windows Movie Maker in Johnson's opinion. Ubuntu Software Center has been upgraded, and when you click on the Games category the screen gets split and you can chose from a sub-category or scroll through the entire list of games. These are just the first few things Johnson discovered. Follow the link for more information.

http://thepcreport.net/2010/02/preview-of-ubuntu-10-04/

An Update On The Boot & Power Performance In Ubuntu 10.04

Phoronix's Michael Larabel recalls that in December he wrote that Ubuntu 10.04 already shortened the boot time, which has been a great focus amongst Canonical and Ubuntu developers as they strive for a ten second boot. A lot has changed since that article was published last year, including the introduction of Plymouth and many kernel mode-setting improvements along with the introduction of Nouveau for NVIDIA KMS support. Larabel has ran a new boot performance comparison on two laptops and a netbook to see how the boot times are looking with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS when compared to Ubuntu 9.10. He also looked at how the power consumption has changed in the Lucid Lynx for these mobile devices. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" is certainly on track to booting much faster than its predecessor, which will certainly please many mobile users particularly those with netbook computers. While it's not been an active area of interest for Ubuntu developers, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS doesn't appear to be any more power efficient than Ubuntu 9.10 besides with some notebooks now dimming to a darker state by default when running on battery power.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_lucid_boot2&num=1

Ubuntu 10.04 to Include Built-In Music Store

Kevin Purdy of Lifehacker notes that looking to further its mission of making your software, and your media, free of restrictions, Ubuntu is bundling an Ubuntu One Music Store into 10.04, the next release of the Linux operating system due out in April. The store uses 7Digital as its provider, likely due to its greater international availability than Amazon's own offering, and looks to be integrated into the Rhythmbox music player. The Ubuntu One name implies a likely connection with the cloud-based file syncing service, and a blogger who came across a preview interface [1] says each track purchased can be downloaded 3 times on different computers.

http://lifehacker.com/5478063/ubuntu-1004-to-include-built+in-mp3-store?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29

Ubuntu goin' gray, like the Mac OS way?

Tech Source's Jun Auza reports that a source from inside the Ubuntu team has informed a blogger that there will be an important announcement coming from Canonical regarding a possible rebranding of Ubuntu. A lot of enthusiasts are quick to speculate that the changes will be all about the color schemes used by Ubuntu and that it may go from brown to gray. Evidence pointing to an Ubuntu makeover is this Ubuntu Single Sign On page where the logo being used is color gray and not the usual brown. There’s also this statement made by Shuttleworth from a recent interview in which he said: "We'll have some new styling which is going to be the starting point of another five year view. We've been Human for the last five years and now we're going to be light oriented." If indeed Ubuntu turns to gray or light oriented as they call it, how will the users react?

http://www.junauza.com/2010/02/ubuntu-goin-gray-like-mac-os-way.html

Analysis: Ubuntu 10.04 Keeping Pace, Or More, With Windows?

Edward F. Moltzen, writing for ChannelWeb, has reviewed Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" Alpha 3 and feels that it compares well to Windows 7 in boot speed: 15.2 seconds for Lucid Lynx compared to 30 seconds for Windows 7 on the same machine. He also noted that it includes other software in it's installation. NVidia is getting solid support, and Gwibber, a social networking application that aggregates services including Flickr, Twitter and Facebook is now included. He also tried putting Windows 7 inside a Virtual Machine (VM) in Lucid Lynx, and putting Lucid Lynx inside a VM in Windows 7, and was successful both ways. In his words, "Folks, this is the real deal."

http://www.crn.com/software/223100831;jsessionid=1WDF2YMDSPYUDQE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN

In The Blogosphere

4 Cool New Features in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Alpha 3

Jim, Starry Hope Blog, talks about 4 cool features in Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, Alpha 3 release. Those features include:

  • iPhone and iPod Touch Support
  • Gwibber and the MeMenu

  • Facebook Chat
  • Improved Sound Controls

This article contains screenshots and commentary on all the above features. The author concludes with, "Ubuntu 10.04 is shaping up to be a fine release. Alpha 3 is pretty stable and brings some great new features with it. There are still more features to come, such as the Ubuntu One Music Store and possibly a new theme. I look forward to tracking Lucid’s progress and installing it on all of my workstations when it is released in April."

http://www.starryhope.com/linux/ubuntu/2010/4-cool-new-features-in-ubuntu-lucid-lynx-alpha-3/

Customizing the Ubuntu Application Stack Before Installation

Christopher Tozzi, workswithU, discusses the pros and cons of allowing users to pick and choose what applications users want on their computers when installing Ubuntu on a new system. In this article Tozzi discusses nhandler's brainstorm idea that proposes just that. Tozzi points out that the implementation of this idea may save advance users time in customizing their systems after a new install, but may as d0od points out on OMG!Ubuntu, confuse new or "non-geek" users. Tozzi himself agrees that though the idea has some limitations it also has merit, and he would like to see Ubiquity follow suit.

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/02/22/customizing-the-ubuntu-application-stack-before-installation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WorksWithU+%28Works+With+U%29

EFL brings Ubuntu Netbook Remix to ARM

Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri, Enlightenment news, points to Jamie Bennett's (Canonical, Mobile Team) about the new user interface (UI) for the ARM based Ubuntu devices. Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) enabled rich graphical user interfaces even on non-3D-accelerated ARM devices and this is what the UNR ARM devices will use. Barbieri gives some history on EFL in this article as well as pointing out that the Enlightenment team boasts pride over in this inclusion stating, "Another of the great things about this launcher, as opposed to the 3D launcher shipped with Karmic, is that it's extremely theme-able. The Enlightenment team is proud its products are being used more and more on embedded systems, be they e-book readers, phones, or TV's; x86, ARM, or MIPS; accelerated or non-accelerated hardware."

http://www.enlightenment.org/p.php?p=news/show&l=en&news_id=20

Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 Released - What's new?

In this article, OMG!Ubuntu, points to what's new in Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 that was released this week.

  • Music Store
  • Plymouth
  • Boot time
  • Software Centre
  • Ubuntu Netbooks and "Desktop mode"
  • Notification area
  • Gwibber
  • as well as all the latest fixes, updates, revisions and kernel updates

If you are curious to see all this new and exciting things that are in Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 release the article even gives you this link to download it for yourself.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/ubuntu-1004-alpha-3-released-later.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+d0od+%28Omg!+Ubuntu!%29

Ubuntu Linux Now Available to Fed Customers on GSA Advantage

David Coursey, PCWorld, points out that Ubuntu is now the third Linux operating system approved by the General Services Administration (GSA) for use by federal purchasers. Red hat and Novell are already available through the GSA advantage purchasing program. "This gives government purchasers the option of using Canonical's Ubuntu as well as its Landscape systems management and monitoring tool," said Cole Crawford, CTO of Autonomic Resources, an IT and service integration company approved to offer the products to federal customers. Ubuntu is currently the most popular operating system base for developers building cloud-based computing solutions, Crawford said. The open source operating system is already used in some government agencies, including NASA, but has not been widely available as it lacked GSA schedule pricing and support." The value to the federal government or to Canonical with Ubuntu and the Landscape services being added to the GSA schedule is unknown at this time, but to find out more follow the link.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/190264/ubuntu_linux_now_available_to_fed_customers_on_gsa_advantage.html

UbuntuOne Music Store - Your Questions Answered

OMG!Ubuntu takes a moment to answer your UbuntuOne music store questions. The UbuntuOne Music Store team as a helpful online FAQ and there is a link to that as well in the article. Questions and the answer to them include the following:

  • What will be the store's name?
  • How is Ubuntu getting access to popular music?
  • What desktop application will include the Ubuntu One Music Store?
  • How is this different than Jamendo and Magnatune?
  • Will these downloads play on my iPod or portable media player?

Answers to these and more can be found at OMG!Ubuntu. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/ubuntuone-music-store-your-questions.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+d0od+%28Omg!+Ubuntu!%29

In Other News

Full Circle Magazine #34

Full Circle - the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community are proud to announce the release of our thirty-fourth issue.

This month:

  • Command and Conquer.
  • How-To : Program in Python – Part 8, Digitally Retouching a Photo in GIMP, and The Perfect Server – Part 4.
  • My Story – a Linux User, and Powerpets.
  • Review – Acer UL30-A laptop.
  • MOTU Interview – Roderick Greening.
  • Top 5 – Reference Tools.
  • Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Games, My Opinion, and all the usual goodness!

Get it while it's hot: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-34/

Full Circle Magazine now has a new podcast available. Created by Robin Catling, Ed Hewitt and Dave Wilkins, the podcast features tech segments, news, opinions, and fun tidbits. Check it out here: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/2010/02/24/full-circle-podcast-1-stop-wine-ing-and-go-native/

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2010-February/000878.html

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, March 1, 2010

Security Team Catch-up

  • Start: 18:00 UTC
  • End: 18:30 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: nothing formal, just a weekly catch-up.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

Developer Membership Board

  • Start: 15:00 UTC
  • End: 16:00 UTC
  • Location: None listed as of publication
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Desktop Team Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

  • Start: 17:00 UTC
  • End: 18:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

LoCo Teams Meeting

  • Start: 18:00 UTC
  • End: 19:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-locoteams
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer - Laszlo Pandy

  • Start: 20:00 UTC
  • End: 21:00 UTC
  • Location: None listed as of publication
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

EMEA Membership Meeting

Community Council Meeting

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Ubuntu Beginners Team Meeting

Ubuntu Women Project IRC Meeting

Server Team Meeting

Cameroonian LoCoTeam monthly IRC meeting

How to run a Translation Jam

  • Start: 15:00 UTC
  • End: 16:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-locoteams
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

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

Edubuntu Meeting

Ubuntu-uk LoCo Meeting

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Ubuntu Java Meeting

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

How to run a Packaging Jam

  • Start: 15:00 UTC
  • End: 16:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-locoteams
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Ubuntu Translations Meeting

Friday, March 5, 2010

Lucid Weekly Release Meeting

Saturday, March 6, 2010

How to Run a Jam

  • Start: 19:00 UTC
  • End: 20:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-locoteams
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

BugJam

  • Start: 21:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-dc and IRC channel #ubuntu-bugs
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

DC Loco IRC meeting

  • Start: 23:00 UTC
  • End: 24:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-dc
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Sunday, March 7, 2010

  • None listed as of publication

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

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Credits

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  • Dave Bush
  • Amber Graner
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Glossary of Terms

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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.

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue182 (last edited 2010-02-28 22:46:19 by ip68-0-180-217)