Issue206


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events!
    2. Feature Freeze in place for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
    3. Making Ubuntu More Accessible
    4. Talking about Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender, Project Lead for Ubuntu Studio
    5. Another Heated Discussion In the Ubuntu Community
  3. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Lucid
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  4. LoCo News
    1. LoCo Directory Needs Your Input Now Rather Than Later
    2. Ubuntu Global Jam – Coming very soon
    3. Great success + Pictures :)‎
    4. The Ubuntistas magazine (in Greek)
    5. Ubuntu Global Jam – Dublin
    6. First Ubuntu UK Geeknic a Success
  5. Launchpad News
    1. Dupes Of Dupes Now Become Dupes Of The Master Bug
    2. Showing The Right Bug Comments
    3. Better Dupe Finding
    4. How To Obtain Your Team Members Karma From Launchpad .net
  6. The Planet
    1. Canonical Design Team: This week In Design – 13 August 2010
    2. Canonical Design Team: Finding The Ubuntu Font Design
    3. Canonical Design Team: How are your users feeling? Example from Rhythmbox
    4. Canonical Design Team: An Update to the Ubuntu Light Themes
    5. Daniel Holbach: Awesome Work Others Have Done
    6. Daniel Holbach: Hugs For Bugs!
    7. Rick Spencer: Can We Count Users Without Uniquely Identifying Them?
    8. Benjamin Humphrey: Revving up the Ubuntu Manual Project for Maverick
    9. Behind The Circle: Behind MOTU Relaunches As Behind The Circle
  7. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu's Vision For Its Unity interface
    2. Ubuntu And The Importance Of Community
    3. A Funny Thing Happened in the Shuttleworth Forum
    4. Readers Sound Off On Dell Ubuntu Support, Adobe Reader Updates
  8. In The Blogosphere
    1. Ubuntu Probably the First Ever Linux Distro to Overshoot Popularity of Linux Itself
    2. 20 Useful Ubuntu/Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts
    3. Canonical Explains The New Ubuntu Census Package
    4. Trying Out The New Ubuntu 10.10 Installer
    5. Maverick Ubuntu
    6. EZ Lube runs LubeSoft, which runs on Linux — more specifically on Ubuntu
    7. How to Install Updated Light Themes For Maverick 10.10 in Ubuntu 10.04 'Lucid Lynx'
    8. Ubuntu Server 10.04.1 virtual release party - Mark your city now!
    9. Canonical Landscape Veteran Joins Dell
    10. Ubuntu Devs Discuss Backports Changes
  9. In Other News
    1. Linux Foundation Makes Enterprise Open Source Boring
    2. Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" Frozen
    3. KDE's New Releases Make a Splash
    4. LinuxCon Grapples With Challenges, From Mobile To Multicore
    5. Fotoxx -- the Greatest Little Linux Photo Editor You've Never Heard Of
    6. Zenoss Releases 2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey Report
  10. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  11. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Tuesday, 17 August 2010
      1. Community Council Meeting
      2. Asia - Oceania RMB Meeting
      3. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
      4. Developer Membership Board
      5. Desktop Team Meeting
      6. Kernel Team Meeting
      7. LoCo Council Meeting
    2. Wednesday 18 August 2010
      1. Weekly Ubuntu Foundations team meeting
      2. Jono Bacon @ Home Videocast : Various Topics and Q+A
      3. Edubuntu Meeting
      4. QA Team Meeting
    3. Thursday 19 August 2010
      1. Ayatana UX team meeting
      2. Americas Regional Membership Board Meeting
    4. Friday 20 August 2010
      1. Maverick Weekly Release Meeting
    5. Saturday 21 August 2010
    6. Sunday 22 August 2010
      1. Ubuntu Gaming Team Meeting
    7. Monday 23 August 2010
      1. Security Team Catch-up
  12. Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 9.04, 9.10, and 10.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 9.10 Updates
    6. Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
  13. UWN Translations
  14. UWN Sneak Peek
  15. Subscribe
  16. Archives and RSS Feed
  17. Additional Ubuntu News
  18. Conclusion
  19. Credits
  20. Glossary of Terms
  21. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  22. Feedback

newspaper-icon4.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 206 for the week August 8th - August 14th, 2010.

In This Issue

  • Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events!
  • Feature Freeze in place for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
  • Making Ubuntu More Accessible
  • Talking about Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender, Project Lead for Ubuntu Studio
  • Another Heated Discussion In the Ubuntu Community
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • LoCo News

  • Launchpad News
  • This week In Design – 13 August 2010
  • Finding The Ubuntu Font Design
  • How are your users feeling? Example from Rhythmbox
  • An Update to the Ubuntu Light Themes
  • Awesome Work Others Have Done
  • Hugs For Bugs!
  • Can We Count Users Without Uniquely Identifying Them?
  • Revving up the Ubuntu Manual Project for Maverick
  • Behind MOTU Relaunches As Behind The Circle
  • In The Press
  • In The Blogosphere
  • Linux Foundation Makes Enterprise Open Source Boring
  • KDE's New Releases Make a Splash
  • LinuxCon Grapples With Challenges, From Mobile To Multicore

  • Fotoxx -- the Greatest Little Linux Photo Editor You've Never Heard Of
  • Zenoss Releases 2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey Report
  • Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security
  • UWN Sneak Peek
  • And Much Much More!

General Community News

Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events!

Are you good folks aware of what is happening on 27th – 29th August 2010. But of course, it is the Ubuntu Global Jam!

In the last few cycles we have organized and run an event called the Ubuntu Global Jam. The idea was simple: encourage our awesome global Ubuntu community to get together in the same room to work on bugs, translations, documentation, testing and more. And they did, all over the world, as can be seen here.

One thing that I am keen that everyone remembers: you don’t have to be an official developer, packager or programmer to take part in the Ubuntu Global Jam. Also, lets not forget that Ubuntu Global Jam events are a fantastic place to learn and improve your skills: you can sit next to someone who can show you how to do something or explain something in more detail.

If this is all sounding right up your street and you fancy organizing an event, go and read this page and then add your event to the LoCo Directory by following these instructions. Rock and roll: let’s make this one to remember. Start your engines, folks…

For more information go to:

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/08/10/ubuntu-global-jam-we-need-your-events-2/

Feature Freeze in place for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

The Feature Freeze is now in effect for Maverick. The focus from here until release is on fixing bugs and polishing.

If you believe that a new package, a new upstream version of a package, or a new feature is needed for the release and will not introduce more problems than it fixes, please follow the Freeze Exception Process by filing bugs and subscribing ubuntu-release. Please also make sure that specs assigned to you for Maverick are updated to their current status (which should be at least Beta Available if not Deferred, or unless granted a freeze exception).

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/

Our next testing milestone, Maverick Beta, is in 3 weeks (September 2). The list of bugs targeted for beta can be found at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+bugs?field.milestone=27563

For more information got to:

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/2100

Making Ubuntu More Accessible

Jono Bacon talks to Penelope Stowe about the making Ubuntu more accessible.

Jono notes, I had a great call Penelope Stowe who has been leading some excellent efforts with the Ubuntu Accessibility Team in conjunction with the (quite literally) always rocking Luke ‘The Muso’ Yelavich.

The reason for the call was simple: I felt like I didn’t have enough knowledge or visibility of the Ubuntu Accessibility Team and accessibility in general, and when Ubuntu was started, the project made a firm commitment to the core aspects of freedom such as freedom of access to the technology, the freedom to have Ubuntu in your language, and the freedom to experience Ubuntu in an accessible way. Penelope, Luke and others are passionate about bringing the focus back to accessibility more, and I wanted to echo this important ambition here.

Want to find out more about what the Accessibilty Team goal's are? Go to:

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/08/07/making-ubuntu-more-accessible/

Talking about Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender, Project Lead for Ubuntu Studio

Have you ever wanted to know more about some of the Ubuntu derivative distributions? In this interview we look at Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender Ubuntu Member and Project Lead for the Ubuntu Studio Project.

Want to know more information about Ubuntu Studio go to:

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/2099

Another Heated Discussion In the Ubuntu Community

A post by Benjamin Humphrey on the OMG!Ubuntu! site on August 7th, 2010 sparked a fire and flames across the community.

The post was titled, "Dude, You're a 35 Year Old With a Neck Beard" and can be found at http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/dude-youre-35-year-old-with-neck-beard.html

Who is Benjamin Humphrey? According to the OMG!Ubuntu! site is the founder and leader of the Ubuntu Manual Project, an Ubuntu member, and was sponsored by Canonical to attend the Ubuntu Developers Summit for the Maverick release earlier this year. He is also one of the personalities behind OMG!Ubuntu!

This posts prompted 100s of comments and discussion through the community.

It also prompted this tweet by Jono Bacon - "To be clear, folks, I am looking into the OMG!Ubuntu issue, and remember, it is *not* officially representative of Ubuntu #ubuntu", which can be found at: http://twitter.com/jonobacon/status/20738755506

Alan Pope, a member of both the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu LoCo Council, sent out these tweets as well:

"Dear Internet. The words of one blogger do not represent the perspective of the whole #Ubuntu Community.Love popey.(neither does this tweet)" http://twitter.com/popey/status/20722842025

"Just because you don't see a public 'flogging' when someone is alleged to have breached the #ubuntu CoC doesn't mean nothing happened." http://twitter.com/popey/status/20727036288

Then on August 10th, 2010 Benjamin posted an article entitled "I said a few things wrong, let's move on" found at http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/i-said-few-things-wrong-lets-move-on.html

In this post Benjamin says, "A couple of days ago I posted an article which, believe it or not, had a fundamental message buried somewhere amongst the stereotyping, name-calling trollop. It was a mistake on my behalf to use such wording and I admit I cocked up big time.

Ubuntu is a pretty diverse place full of loads of different people working together on something that they enjoy and that should be respected. I think most of us agree that Ubuntu won't become mainstream based on principles alone, and recently we've seen a lot of work go into it to make sure that the product is as good as it can be for mainstream consumption. Of course, there is always room for improvement and everyone in downstream, upstream and even the FSF help in their own way.

So, I apologize for my crass wording and hope that everyone affected doesn't take too much of it to heart - keep doing great work on open source software and I'll see you on the other side!"

These posts have brought out emotions, opinions, and discussion that continue across the community. Even the mention of including this in UWN stirred up some strong opinions.

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (76679) -1567 over last week
  • Critical (28) -2 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (37320) +233 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 Lucid

  1. English (United Kingdom) (0) +/-0 over last week
  2. Spanish (8779) +/-0 over last week
  3. Brazilian Portuguese (34537) -43 over last week
  4. French (37852) -296 over last week
  5. German (54014) -169 over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/

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

LoCo Directory Needs Your Input Now Rather Than Later

The lovely LoCo Directory(LD) developers have done an amazing job on the LD. What started off as an idea has really come to fruit and now is a useful source of information for everyone. For your own team, for people travelling to see if they are in the area and if you’ve events running so they can join you. With this in mind there are some bugs that need YOUR help with. They need YOUR OPINIONS Now rather than later.

For more information on what the LD needs your help and opinion on go to:

http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=837

Ubuntu Global Jam – Coming very soon

So firstly for those who may be unfamilar with a Global Jam and what it’s all about. The Ubuntu Global Jam (UGJ) is a a world-wide online and face-to-face event to get people together to fix Ubuntu bugs – we want to get as many people online fixing bugs, having a great time doing so. This is not only a great opportunity to really help Ubuntu, but to also get together with other your team mates and work on things as a group and help one another.

For more information on how you and your LoCo team can participate in the Ubuntu Global Jam go to:

http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=829

Great success + Pictures :)‎

After all the time expecting excited, we (the Israeli LoCo) had a booth on August penguin event, which is no less than the biggest FLOSS event over here.

First of all, we spread more than 700 Ubuntu CDs, including Kubuntu, Server edition, and even what we had left from the last version (9.10). I was amazed to see that we gave almost all the 9.10 CDs! not to mention all the badges and stickers people were so happy to have! (and again thanks to Ubuntu-fr).

I was happy to see in the event many people that i already know from Ubuntu on the grass (which is our Ubuntu event name)

Try to find our Booth in the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sijproject/2010 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=203940&id=810428115&l=cda90399a0 http://elad.blogli.co.il/archives/1406

As you can see, the event was a great success, either for our booth and for the FLOSS in Israel

For more information go to:

http://ddorda.useopensource.net/?p=1441

The Ubuntistas magazine (in Greek)

This is the 9th issue of Ubuntistas for May-June-July. You can click on the image above and have a look at the issue. The text should look Greek to you but you can get the gist of the content.

To find out more information go to:

http://simos.info/blog/?p=1176

Ubuntu Global Jam – Dublin

Plans are well underway now for a Global Jam to take place in Dublin on the weekend of Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th August.

We’re going to split into a two part event, real life meet up on the Saturday at TOG – A Hackerspace in Dublin. On Sunday we’re going to meet online in #ubuntu-ie and working on areas as well but this way we allo for folks who can’t make it but do want to work on Ubuntu. We’ll also be online on the Saturday.

What do we do at a global jam – work on bug triaging, cleaning up our wiki pages, logging bugs, documentation. It’s a day when you get to decide to work on Ubuntu in your own way.

We have created the event on the LoCo Directory and we need you to sign up as places are limited. All of the details, including a rough timetable of what we are going to do during the day, if you can help people with bug triaging, python coding etc, how to get there are all on the sign up page.

For more information go to:

http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=820

First Ubuntu UK Geeknic a Success

The first Ubuntu-UK LoCo “geeknic” and in my opinion it was a great success. Around 20 people turned up to enjoy fun, food and chat in Hyde Park in London, UK and stayed for about 4 hours.

The event was co-organised by Joe O’Dell and Isabell Long and was discussed at multiple UK LoCo IRC meetings in the weeks leading up to the event. The idea behind it was for people to get together in a social setting rather than the usual geek meets which happen in stuffy rooms with everyone on a laptop and nobody actually talking to anyone in meatspace. People were also encouraged to bring friends and family.

For more information on this event go to:

http://popey.com/blog/?p=1140

Launchpad News

Dupes Of Dupes Now Become Dupes Of The Master Bug

Some bugs get reported more than once. That’s why we’ve got the dupe finder.

Some duplicate bugs slip through the dupe finder. Really common issues get quite a few dupes and someone from the relevant project usually goes through and marks them as duplicates of the master bug where the actual discussion and tracking is taking place. There has been a really annoying bug in the way Launchpad has handled all this, though, and Deryck’s just fixed it.

For more information go to:

http://blog.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/dupety-dupe

Showing The Right Bug Comments

Some bugs attract many, many comments.

For a while now, Launchpad has displayed only the first 80 comments on any bug report, with the option of viewing the full comment history. That’s been good for speeding up page loads but not so great at offering an accurate view of the current state of discussion about the bug.

Bryce has fixed that. Now, a bug report page still shows only 80 comments, by default. However, to give a better overview of the state of discussion, it now shows the first 40 and the last 40 comments.

For more information go to:

http://blog.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/snip-it-in-the-middle

Better Dupe Finding

One of my favourite things about Launchpad’s bug tracker is the dupe finder: when you report a new bug, it’ll search to see if there’s already a similar bug report. It’s the same for questions in Launchpad Answers, too.

Getting to see possible dupes before you file a bug or question is a great time saver for you and the people on the other end. However, the dupe finder has been timing out a lot lately. Rob Collins, Launchpad’s new Technical Architect, has introduced some changes that should make the dupe finder more reliable.

Other than fewer timeouts, here’s what you might notice:

  • the dupe finder now returns fewer matches — three or four rather than ten or more
  • the results should be more relevant.

We want to know how this works in practice. Let us know how you get on with the new dupe finder. Either leave a comment here, mail feedback@launchpad.net or join us on the launchpad-users mailing list.

For more information go to: http://blog.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/better-dupe-finding

How To Obtain Your Team Members Karma From Launchpad .net

One of our communuty members, Fernando (you can check his blog at http://blog.beford.org ) post some weeks ago this small javascript that could be pretty useful for other LoCo Teams. I' m transcribing his post here for public consumption.

This little javascript obtains a sorted list of members from any Launchpad Team by karma. It's using the Launchpad API and Mochikit

For more information go to:

http://www.hollmanenciso.com/en/content/how-obtain-your-team-members-karma-launchpad-net

The Planet

Canonical Design Team: This week In Design – 13 August 2010

The design team posts about the follow complete with screenshots.

  • Updates to the Ubuntu desktop theme
  • Papercuts
  • Font Want to know more about what the design team did last week go to:

http://design.canonical.com/?p=7522

Canonical Design Team: Finding The Ubuntu Font Design

In our second post from Dalton Maag we get an insight into the origin of our very own Ubuntu font.

Want to know more on the history of the Ubuntu Font go to:

http://design.canonical.com/?p=7496

Canonical Design Team: How are your users feeling? Example from Rhythmbox

When conducting and writing up user research findings, I make a point of defining the experience goals alongside participant’s actual real life goals. This is because, as users interact with a system, they are made to feel a certain way – just as people can, software can bring the best or the worst out of a user. Yet, while users’ feelings are part of the usability of a software product, we don’t often test to understand that side of user experience.

The usability testing of Rhythmbox highlights the power of an interface to stimulate emotions by means of design. In this blog post I will only discuss the findings relating to usability and emotions. A full description of the results of the test is available in the attached pdf. This test was conducted in June 2010 at Canonical.

Want to know more about how the Rhythmbox users were feeling go to:

http://design.canonical.com/?p=7397

Canonical Design Team: An Update to the Ubuntu Light Themes

One of our key objectives when we started conceptualising the new themes was their ability to be immediately recognisable as Ubuntu, even if represented as a small screenshot. As easily recognised as when it used to be brown – but not that brown… the incarnation that we initially launched was a bold new statement: a little unrefined maybe, but a good starting block on which to build.

To find out more about the updates to the Ubuntu light themes and to see some screenhots go to:

http://design.canonical.com/?p=7027

Daniel Holbach: Awesome Work Others Have Done

I wanted to follow up on Jorge’s great blog post for a longer while already. He said:

Lately I think we’ve gotten in a collective funk of “here’s what I think about this.” followed by “Oh yeah, well here’s what I think of that”, and “Allow me to retort!” and then getting stuck in a rabbit hole of distractions. So screw that, let’s share some stories[…]

Needless to say: Jorge is spot on!

A lot of people have been doing ROCKing work in the last few weeks and I never took the time to thank them:

  • Dylan McCall

  • The LoCo Directory hackers!

  • Sponsors! Want to know more about the people being thanked in this post and how you can thank people as well go to:

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=764

Daniel Holbach: Hugs For Bugs!

  • Total bugs with patches: 2286 (-27)
  • Reviewed patches: 379 (-9)
  • Bugs with 'patch-needswork': 94 (+1)
  • Bugs with 'patch-forwarded-upstream': 163 (-5)
  • Bugs with 'patch-forwarded-debian': 51 (-2)
  • Bugs with 'indicator-application': 41 (-1)
  • Bugs with 'patch-accepted-upstream': 49 (-3)
  • Bugs with 'patch-accepted-debian': 11 (0)
  • Bugs with 'patch-rejected-upstream': 16 (+1)
  • Bugs with 'patch-rejected-debian': 2 (0)

To find out more on how you can help "Hug a Bug" and Operation Cleansweep go to:

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=758

Rick Spencer: Can We Count Users Without Uniquely Identifying Them?

Rick notes that a post on Phoronix that triggered him to write this post, one that he says, "I've been meaning to do for the last few weeks, since the Canonical Platform Team got together in Prague three weeks ago, to be exact."

Rick Spencer discusses the following areas:

  • Pre-installed desktops ftw
  • Non-unique channel identifiers
  • Future? Want to know more about these subjects as discussed by Rick Spencer then go to:

http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/2010/08/can-we-count-users-without-uniquely.html

Benjamin Humphrey: Revving up the Ubuntu Manual Project for Maverick

Breaking it down, we’re going to continue with the release of the Lucid manual 2nd edition next week, which has seen over 300 bugs fixed since the first edition thanks to the Show us ya Bugs! competition we ran. This should provide a solid manual to go alongside the LTS for the next five years. Then we need to copy across that work to the Maverick branch and start incorporating the new changes, such as the sound menu, MeMenu, Shotwell instead of F-spot and the new installer. The manual is also getting a bit of fat trimmed and the section about the terminal is going to be shortened and combined into another section.

Want to know more about what's happening with the Ubuntu Manual Project and how you can help go to:

http://humphreybc.wordpress.com/?p=1012

Behind The Circle: Behind MOTU Relaunches As Behind The Circle

With the Ubuntu development reorganization, it has been decided to expand the scope of Behind MOTU interviews beyond the MOTU team, and onto the larger Ubuntu Development Team.

The new Behind the Circle website features more than just a visual refresh. The former maintainer, Daniel Holbach, has handed the reins to the team of Maia Kozheva, Nigel Babu, and David Futcher. With the new authors, you can expect a number of new interviews with Ubuntu developers appearing in the near future!

http://behindthecircle.org/?p=237

In The Press

Ubuntu's Vision For Its Unity interface

Jono Bacon Interviews David Siegel for Linux Format.

Ubuntu's ambitions don't stop with moving some window buttons and making everything purple – the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Belgium saw the announcement of Unity, a completely new desktop interface aimed at instant-on computing.

What's got us really excited is that fact that the creator of the fantastic Gnome Do, David Siegel, is working with the design team. Naturally, we wanted to find out some more…

To read the interview in full go to:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/ubuntu-s-vision-for-its-unity-interface-707818

Ubuntu And The Importance Of Community

Canonical developer Dave Walker investigates the importance of governance in a community as rich and diverse as Ubuntu’s…

To read th article in full go to:

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/opinion/ubuntu-and-the-importance-of-community/

A Funny Thing Happened in the Shuttleworth Forum

What was especially interesting about a recent conversation Mark Shuttleworth started with musings about tribalism and treating people with respect was the turn it took when blogger Mairin Duffy steered it in the direction of the "Great Sexism Debate," in which Shuttleworth's unfortunate remarks about women at LinuxCon played an incendiary role. "Did you ever end up apologizing?" Duffy asked.

To read more about what Katherine Noyes of LinuxInsider had to say go to:

http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/70578.html

Readers Sound Off On Dell Ubuntu Support, Adobe Reader Updates

Christina Tynan-Woods reports from the Grip Line:

Not everyone is as happy with Dell as Tom is. In response to my post "Where are Dell's Ubuntu PCs?" there was quite a debate over the relative merits and evils of companies that will or will not offer some systems with Ubuntu preinstalled.

Some Gripe Line readers expressed fears of a collusion with Microsoft to scuttle Ubuntu; others suggested that software should never be preinstalled on computers at all; and a third camp decried Ubuntu as a "toy" operating system.

Gripe Line reader Alex offered a unique solution to Dell's Ubuntu conundrum: "We want Ubuntu options on all of their machines!"

For more information go to:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/readers-sound-dell-ubuntu-support-adobe-reader-updates-249?page=0,0&source=rss_

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu Probably the First Ever Linux Distro to Overshoot Popularity of Linux Itself

Google Trends is not an authentic source of popularity index, but it can definitely give you a lot of pointers on what future holds for Ubuntu and Linux. As you can see from the above Google Trends screenshot, popularity of Ubuntu is almost same as that of Linux in 2010.

Intermittent small spikes shows the Ubuntu release cycle. And during the last Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS ie, Ubuntu almost overtook Linux's popularity by a whisker. A feat no other Linux distro ever managed to achieve.

To find out more information go to:

http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/08/ubuntu-probably-first-ever-linux-distro.html

20 Useful Ubuntu/Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts

This may not be a big deal for a vast majority of you. But keyboards shortcuts are very essential for my mere 'existence'. And those of you who have similar addiction with keybord shortcuts, here are a few of them which I think are really useful for everyday use.

To find out what those 20 useful keyboard shortcuts are go to:

http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/08/20-useful-ubuntugnome-keyboard.html

Canonical Explains The New Ubuntu Census Package

Canonical developer Rick Spencer has blogged about the recent discovery of a canonical-census package in the Ubuntu repositories. Although initial speculation suggested Canonical was tracking the users of pre-installed systems with Ubuntu, Spencer points out that the idea of the census package is actually to count the number of OEM installed Ubuntu system without identifying the users of those systems.

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-explain-the-new-Ubuntu-census-package-1053610.html

Trying Out The New Ubuntu 10.10 Installer

Following last week's Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 3 release but landing before the Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" feature freeze this week were a number of last-minute features like X Server 1.9 integration and other updated packages along with the committing of the revamped Ubuntu desktop installer to Maverick. Via this revamped Ubuntu installer it's possible to install proprietary bits directly like support for MP3 audio files and proprietary graphics drivers.

Using this new installer for Ubuntu 10.10 also supports specifying network connection information for easy wireless setup and Ubuntu package updates can also be installed automatically. We tried out this new installer over the weekend using an Ubuntu daily LiveCD. Ubuntu's alternate/server installer is unchanged.

For More information and to see the screenshots go to:

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

Maverick Ubuntu

The release of Ubuntu 10.10 is getting closer and details of what will be included are starting to become clear:

  • No Gnome 3.0
  • Better sound management
  • Firefox still in place
  • OneConf

To find out more information go to:

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/14280-Maverick-Ubuntu.html

EZ Lube runs LubeSoft, which runs on Linux — more specifically on Ubuntu

It's not like this is breaking news or anything, but I was at EZ Lube today getting an oil change and noticed the tell-tale brown GNOME windows of the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS era.

From looking at the screen while I was paying the bill, One of the windows on the Ubuntu desktop said "LubeSoft," which indeed is software for oil-change places — and which proudly runs in a Linux environment.

To read the article in full and read what LubeSoft's owner had to say about Linux and what it offers LubeSoft go to:

http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2010/08/ez-lube-runs-lubesoft-which-ru.html

How to Install Updated Light Themes For Maverick 10.10 in Ubuntu 10.04 'Lucid Lynx'

Ubuntu Light themes were introduced as part of the larger Ubuntu branding overhaul that took place just before the release of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Now for the first time, major changes are happening to Ubuntu Light themes prior to the next major release, Ubuntu 10.10 'Maverick Meerkat' ie.

To find out more information go to:

http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/08/how-to-install-updated-light-themes-for.html

Ubuntu Server 10.04.1 virtual release party - Mark your city now!

This post is from the blog of Ahmed Kamal of Cairo, Egypt. He states that many conservative sys-admins wait for the first point release before deploying a server OS. In celebration of this point release he has written a web app that allows people to register their install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 and have it show up on a Google Map. This way we can begin to track the wide-spread use of Ubuntu Server all around the world.

http://foss-boss.blogspot.com/2010/08/ubuntu-server-10041-virtual-release.html

Canonical Landscape Veteran Joins Dell

Canonical remains committed to Landscape — the remote systems management platform for Ubuntu. But one of the Landscape team members has joined Dell, according to sources close to the hardware giant.

For more information go to:

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/08/13/canonical-landscape-veteran-joins-dell/

Ubuntu Devs Discuss Backports Changes

WorksWithU discusses the different options for backporting applications to older Ubuntu versions. This allows users to use the stability of an LTS or set-up that they know works for them without sacrificing the chance to have more recent stable versions of applications (such as Firefox) that have been new since the original Ubuntu version came out.

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/08/09/ubuntu-devs-discuss-backports-changes/

In Other News

Linux Foundation Makes Enterprise Open Source Boring

An important part of this is a set of new tools. All of them, of course, are open source, so it will be interesting to see whether any new companies grow up around them:

  • Dependency Checker Tool
  • Code Janitor Tool:
  • Bill of Material Difference Tool (BoM Diff)

All three tools -- but especially the one that sanitizes your code -- reveal a deep and important truth about this latest move by the Linux Foundation: that they try to take all the fun out of free software. They are about removing the quirkiness and the riskiness that has characterized free software in business for the last decade and a half, and seek to replace it with nice, safe systems that senior management will instantly fall in love with. In a word, they seek to make open source boring for the enterprise. That's not only good news for companies, it's a really important step for the Linux Foundation.

To read more about what Glyn Moody of Computerworld UK had to say about these tools go to:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/linux-foundation-makes-enterprise-open-source-boring-595?page=0,2&source=rss_

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" Frozen

Finally announced during the annual Debian Developer Conference "Debconf10" in New York that Debian "Squeeze" has now been frozen. In consequence this means that no more new features will be added and all work will now be concentrated on polishing Debian "Squeeze" to achieve the quality Debian stable releases are known for.

To read the article in full and to get more information go to:

http://www.unixmen.com/news-today/1087-debian-60-qsqueezeq-frozen

KDE's New Releases Make a Splash

The new software from KDE's recent 4.5 Release Day has been well received by the technical media with widespread positive reviews and recognition of the focus on quality for this set of releases.

For more infomation go to:

http://dot.kde.org/2010/08/14/kdes-new-releases-make-splash

LinuxCon Grapples With Challenges, From Mobile To Multicore

This week's (Last week's) LinuxCon featured some lively discussions over the fate of Linux, says eWEEK. Hosted by the Linux Foundation (LF), the event explored cloud computing, social networking, Android integration, GPL licensing, Linux kernel challenges such as multicore processing and code complexity, and MeeGo, among other issues.

For more information and links to the slide decks go to:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9054103012.html?kc=rss

Fotoxx -- the Greatest Little Linux Photo Editor You've Never Heard Of

F-spot, shotwell, solang -- some distros are arguing about what should be the default "simpler than GIMP" image editor. But there's one that never seems to get mentioned and deserves a look: fotoxx. Despite a name that sounds like a wrinkle treatment, this little image editor is lightweight and doesn't have many dependencies -- great for a netbook or other modest machine. And it's jam-packed with great features.

To find out more about Fotoxx go to:

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7152/1/

Zenoss Releases 2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey Report

Zenoss Inc., the corporate sponsor of Zenoss Core, today announced the release of the 2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey. Based on more than 950 completed surveys gathered at the USENIX Large Installation System Administration conference each year from 2006 and 2009 and within the Zenoss open source systems management community from 2007 through 2009, the survey’s purpose was to determine usage patterns for systems management software and particularly the usage of open source software to solve IT management needs of large organizations.

To find out more go to:

http://www.zenoss.com/about/news/Zenoss_Releases_2010_Open_Source_Systems_Management_Survey_Report.html

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Community Council Meeting

Asia - Oceania RMB Meeting

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

Developer Membership Board

  • Start: 14:00 UTC
  • End: 15:00 UTC
  • Location: Not listed as of publication
  • Agenda: Not 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 Council Meeting

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Weekly Ubuntu Foundations team meeting

Jono Bacon @ Home Videocast : Various Topics and Q+A

Edubuntu Meeting

QA Team Meeting

Thursday 19 August 2010

Ayatana UX team meeting

  • Start: 12:00 UTC
  • End: 12:30 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: * Introductions * Review team charter * Organize first UX activity * Brainstorm future UX activities

Americas Regional Membership Board Meeting

Friday 20 August 2010

Maverick Weekly Release Meeting

Saturday 21 August 2010

None Listed as of Publication

Sunday 22 August 2010

Ubuntu Gaming Team Meeting

  • Start: 19:00 UTC
  • End: 21:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Monday 23 August 2010

Security Team Catch-up

  • Start: 17:00 UTC
  • End: 17:30 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: nothing formal, just a weekly catch-up. Weekly Ubuntu Security Team catch-up meeting. Anyone is welcome to join if they want to watch, contribute, etc.

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 9.04, 9.10, and 10.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

Ubuntu 9.10 Updates

Ubuntu 10.04 Updates

UWN Translations

  • Note to translators and our readers please follow the link below for the information you need.

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

UWN Sneak Peek

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Conclusion

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Credits

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Glossary of Terms

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Ubuntu - Get Involved

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue206 (last edited 2010-08-17 23:26:06 by user80)