Issue259


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Released.
    2. Ubuntu Countdown Banners Now Available
    3. Welcome New Members
  3. Community Acknowledgments and Success Stories
    1. Unsung heroes
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Oneiric
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top this week
    4. Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. Stellenbosch ubuntu hour March
  6. Launchpad News
    1. Parallelising the Unparallelisable
    2. That Juju that you do (Part I: Bring the pain)
  7. The Planet
    1. Jono Bacon: Integrating Your App Into Unity
    2. Brian Murray: See the heat
    3. Mark Shuttleworth: Holistic UI is smarter UX
    4. Canonical: Ubuntu Survey Parts 3 and 4
    5. Rick Spencer: 12.04 Quality Engineering Retrospective
    6. Xubuntu: Beta 2 released & new branding
    7. Michael Hall: Hello Unity
  8. In The Press
    1. What Ubuntu users think about Ubuntu 2012
  9. In The Blogosphere
    1. [How To] Easily Skin Ubuntu’s Unity Desktop
    2. Canonical Integrates Landscape with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
    3. Red Hat Earnings End Ubuntu Server Debate
    4. On Old Hardware, Think Twice About Ubuntu 12.04
    5. If You're Lucky, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Can Boot Faster
    6. Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: The Battle for Desktop Supremacy
    7. Beta 2 Reviews
  10. In Other News
    1. Full Circle #59 is here for the taking!
  11. Other Articles of Interest
  12. Featured Podcasts
    1. Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S05E03 – True to His Colours
  13. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  14. Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings
  15. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  16. Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 10.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 11.04 Updates
    6. Ubuntu 11.10 Updates
  17. Subscribe
  18. Archives
  19. Additional Ubuntu News
  20. Conclusion
  21. Credits
  22. Glossary of Terms
  23. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  24. Feedback

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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 259 for the week March 26 - April 1, 2012.

In This Issue

  • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Released.
  • Ubuntu Countdown Banners Now Available
  • Unsung heroes
  • Ubuntu Stats

  • LoCo News

  • Parallelising the Unparallelisable
  • Jono Bacon: Integrating Your App Into Unity
  • Mark Shuttleworth: Holistic UI is smarter UX
  • Canonical: Ubuntu Survey Parts 3 and 4
  • Rick Spencer: 12.04 Quality Engineering Retrospective
  • What Ubuntu users think about Ubuntu 2012
  • Canonical Integrates Landscape with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
  • Red Hat Earnings End Ubuntu Server Debate
  • Beta 2 Reviews
  • Full Circle #59 is here for the taking!
  • Other Articles of Interest
  • Featured Podcasts
  • Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  • Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Released.

Kate Stewart of the Ubuntu Release Team has announced the second, and final, beta release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, along with the recognized flavors.

"Code-named "Precise Pangolin", 12.04 continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features, but mostly fixing bugs.

With Ubuntu 12.04, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Mythbuntu and Ubuntu Studio also reached Beta 2 status today.”

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2012-March/000157.html

Ubuntu Countdown Banners Now Available

The Ubuntu Countdown Banners for 12.04 are now available.

Thanks to the Ubuntu Web Presence Team for contributing these graphics and animations. If you're interested in helping to spread Ubuntu, the team is open to everyone. A special thanks goes to the community members who created the graphics, concept and animation:

  • Silviu-Ionut Radu
  • Gerhard Großmann
  • JavierGMXD
  • Everyone who entered a countdown banner

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/countdown

Welcome New Members

Marcin Juszkiewicz became MOTU on 2012-03-12

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2012-March/001525.html

Community Acknowledgments and Success Stories

Unsung heroes

Mark Shuttleworth recognizes and thanks Manish Sinha and Stefano Candori for their contributions to the new privacy features in 12.04.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1082

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (92147) +463 over last week
  • Critical (97) -2 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (47767) +269 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 Oneiric

  • English (Australia) (2) +/-0 over last week
  • Spanish (8203) -11 over last week
  • English (United Kingdom) (23743) -91 over last week
  • Bosnian (37002) -537 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (42584) +/- 0 over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Oncelot", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/ and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 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/

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week

Ask (and answer!) your own questions at http://askubuntu.com

LoCo News

Stellenbosch ubuntu hour March

Maia Grotepass shares a photo from the latest Ubuntu Hour in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

http://my-ubuntu-day.blogspot.com/2012/03/stellenbosch-ubuntu-hour-march.html

Launchpad News

Parallelising the Unparallelisable

Having to run more than twenty thousand tests can really burden down systems - and making them work parallel brings in complications. Access to databases, temporary directories and virtual machines comes with a high overhead. Launchpad has found their solution, LXC (Linux Containers) and talks about it in this post.

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/parallelising-the-unparallelisable

That Juju that you do (Part I: Bring the pain)

Launchpad recently announced that they were planning on changing their testing system to a parallel system but with this came a lot of unknowns and some tricky problems. One problem was solved by using Amazon EC2 instances, while not being sure what the best architecture would be. Then they had to set it all up quickly to overcome geographical and time zone differences, something which requires a better solution than simple shell-scripts. This post details these problems and ends with a “to be continued” with a better solution.

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/that-juju-that-you-do-part-i

The Planet

Jono Bacon: Integrating Your App Into Unity

Jono Bacon shares a video about how you can integrate your application into the Unity interface, including use of Quicklists, Indicators, Launcher, Menus and the HUD and Lenses and Scopes within the Dash.

http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=4250

Brian Murray: See the heat

Brian Murray blogs about how bug heat is a good indication of which bugs need to be addressed, and takes the opportunity to graph the five hottest bugs for the packages that his team subscribes to.

http://www.murraytwins.com/blog/?p=114

Mark Shuttleworth: Holistic UI is smarter UX

Mark Shuttleworth writes about the shortcomings of having many tools that each “do one thing well,” and notes that having greater awareness between the various pieces of software would allow for better user experiences. He spotlights some small issues with the notification system, and how fixing the simple things leads to a better experience overall.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1085

Canonical: Ubuntu Survey Parts 3 and 4

The final sets of responses from the Ubuntu Survery have been released, and bring with them a closer look at the people that use Ubuntu. Some of the results include the fact that ~40% of users take advantage of Ubuntu One, users seem to be most excited about the upcoming Ubuntu for Android, and the majority of users still use Windows or other operating systems on a regular basis. Most users report that they use Ubuntu on their main PC, and are willing to buy a device with Ubuntu pre-installed.

http://blog.canonical.com/2012/03/27/ubuntu-survey-part-3/

http://blog.canonical.com/2012/03/29/ubuntu-survey-fourth-and-final/

Rick Spencer: 12.04 Quality Engineering Retrospective

Rick Spencer discusses the robustness of the upcoming 12.04 release, pointing out that he has been using the development release for a couple months and that it’s “beautiful, fast, and robust” and has “stayed of usable quality throughout the development cycle.” He goes into depth by describing the three key activities:

1. Verify and fix before landing major changes in Ubuntu 2. Not waiting when something breaks to take action 3. Test for testability, then test rigorously

And how their value led to the engineering quality Spencer observes in this development cycle.

http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/2012/03/1204-quality-engineering-retrospective.html

Xubuntu: Beta 2 released & new branding

Along with their Beta2 release this week, the Xubuntu team announces a new, wider wallpaper and an update to their branding, included in 12.04.

http://xubuntu.org/news/beta-2-released-new-branding/

Michael Hall: Hello Unity

Michael Hall and David Planella have been working on a “Hello World” example application for Unity, called Hello Unity. The post provides a video explaining the key features and a link to the package and source code on Launchpad.net.

http://mhall119.com/2012/03/hello-unity/

In The Press

What Ubuntu users think about Ubuntu 2012

“Ubuntu’s come a long way from being the popular Debian-based Linux distribution for desktops. So, who uses Ubuntu today and what do they think about where Ubuntu is now and where it’s going?” Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet seeks to answer this by reviewing some of the results from the Ubuntu Survey results recently published by Canonical.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/what-ubuntu-users-think-about-ubuntu-2012/10680

In The Blogosphere

[How To] Easily Skin Ubuntu’s Unity Desktop

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! shares a how-to about creating custom skins for the Unity Desktop. He shows how to create a “Costume Background,” and how to use MyUnity to put it into good use.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-easily-skin-ubuntus-unity-desktop/

Canonical Integrates Landscape with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Manuel Jose shares that Ubuntu 12.04 now contains Landscape, a service from Canonical that allows administrators to “monitor, manage and update [their] entire Ubuntu infrastructure from a single interface” and provides management tools that help admins remotely access machines, manage tasks, and get real-time alerts. Jose shows screenshots of how this integration works in 12.04.

http://www.techdrivein.com/2012/03/canonical-integrates-landscape-with.html

Red Hat Earnings End Ubuntu Server Debate

The VAR Guy takes a look at the announced quarterly results from Red Hat in context of the recently made blog post by Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth about the success of Ubuntu at Red Hat’s expense.

http://www.thevarguy.com/2012/03/29/red-hat-earnings-put-ubuntu-server-debate-to-rest/

On Old Hardware, Think Twice About Ubuntu 12.04

With less than a month to go before Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is released Phoronix has already done a host of tests using the pre-release images and are planning even more once the final release is out. So far for all of the improvements in Precise Pangolin in regards to performance and power usage for “respectable hardware, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is looking great”, but the verdict on older hardware is slightly less rosy.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA3ODQ

If You're Lucky, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Can Boot Faster

Thus far the booting time tests conducted by Phoronix have been a mixed bag with boot times sometimes being faster and even, at times, being twice as slow as booting Ubuntu 10.04.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1204_boots&num=1

Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: The Battle for Desktop Supremacy

A unified interface is one which is to be used over multiple different devices. Unity is one, Windows 8 is another. Jun Auza does a little comparing to see how they match up.

http://www.junauza.com/2012/03/ubuntu-1204-vs-windows-8-battle-for.html

Beta 2 Reviews

There have been many Beta 2 reviews, but the following caught the attention of our editors.

And Softpedia provided screenshot tours for Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu:

In Other News

Full Circle #59 is here for the taking!

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

This month:

  • Command and Conquer.

  • How-To : Beginning Python - Part 31, LibreOffice - Part 13, Portable Linux, Resizing Your VirtualBox Drive, and Create Your Own Greeting Card.

  • Linux Lab - Foremost for data recovery.
  • Review - Bodhi Linux
  • I Think - What turns to/from a distro?
  • Closing Windows - Task Manager

plus: more Ubuntu Games, My Desktop, My Opinion, My Story, and much much more!

Google Currents Edition: http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownNt7/full_circle_magazine_59_lite

ePub Edition: http://dl.fullcirclemagazine.org/issue59_en.epub

Get it while it's hot! http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-59/

Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S05E03 – True to His Colours

Mark Johnson, Tony Whitmore, Alan Pope, and Laura Cowen are back for the third episode of the new season of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo Team!

Segments include:

  • Interview with Richard Hughes
  • News, including: Android forks, new Humble Bundle, KDEnlive

  • Upcoming events: Ohio Linux Fest, Barcamp Canterbury, Ubuntu UK Release Party and OggCamp 12

  • Ubuntu News: Mark Shuttleworth blog post, Do geeks dream of Ubuntu desktops?, WUBI wemoved, KDE’s lives, Ubuntu User Survey results, and Photograph winners announced for 12.04
  • and more!

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2012/03/28/s05e03-true-to-his-colours/

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings

Upcoming Meetings and Events

For upcoming meetings and events please visit the calendars at fridge.ubuntu.com: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/

Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

End of life - April 2013 (Server)

Ubuntu 10.04 Updates

End of Life - April 2013 (Desktop) - April 2015 (Server)

Ubuntu 10.10 Updates

End of Life - April 2012

Ubuntu 11.04 Updates

End of Life - October 2012

Ubuntu 11.10 Updates

End of Life - April 2013

Subscribe

Get your copy of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter delivered each week to you via email at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news

Archives

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

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:

  • Elizabeth Krumbach
  • Nathan Dyer
  • Neil Oosthuizen
  • Matt Rudge
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

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.

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue259 (last edited 2012-04-02 21:27:20 by lyz)