Issue260


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Introducing Metal as a Service: provisioning for the hyperscale era
  3. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Oneiric
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top Ideas this week
    4. Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week
  4. LoCo News
    1. Ordering your 12.04 CDs for LoCo Teams is now available
  5. Launchpad News
    1. That Juju that you do (Part II: A magical balm to sooth your ills)
  6. Ubuntu Cloud News
    1. POSSCon 2012 and charm set options.
    2. Why the juju charm store will change the way you use Ubuntu Server
    3. Ubuntu Server is No Longer the Best OS for Cloud Computing.
    4. Kicking the tires on MAAS
    5. Don’t miss the inaugural Ubuntu Cloud Summit
  7. The Planet
    1. Michael Hall: Hello Unity, episode 2
    2. Jono Bacon: Looking Towards Ubuntu 12.04
    3. Chuck Short: Openstack Essex on 12.04
    4. Tiago Hillebrandt: Interview: Jorge Castro, Ubuntu Community Team member
    5. Ubuntu App Developer Blog: Ubuntu Software Center: Run, jump, thermonuclear war and more!
    6. Ubuntu Classroom: Algorithms in Programming Classes
  8. In The Press
    1. Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu's Linux contributions
    2. New Canonical Tool Tackles 'Hyperscale' Data Centers
    3. This Wild Visionary Wants To Turn His Linux Company Into The Next Apple
    4. Ubuntu in South African Schools
  9. In The Blogosphere
    1. New Ubuntu Print Test for 12.04 LTS
    2. The Ubuntu 12.04 Default Wallpaper Revealed
    3. 5 problems with Ubuntu 12.04 part 1: Unity Dash usability issues
    4. Why Ubuntu Is Not Contributing To Linux, Or Is It?
    5. My interview with Andy Woodhead, aka ActionParsnip.
  10. Other Articles of Interest
  11. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  12. Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  14. 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
  15. Subscribe
  16. Archives
  17. Additional Ubuntu News
  18. Conclusion
  19. Credits
  20. Glossary of Terms
  21. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  22. Feedback

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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 260 for the week April 2 - 8, 2012.

In This Issue

  • Introducing Metal as a Service: provisioning for the hyperscale era
  • Ubuntu Stats

  • Ordering your 12.04 CDs for LoCo Teams is now available

  • Launchpad News
  • Why the juju charm store will change the way you use Ubuntu Server
  • Kicking the tires on MAAS
  • Don't miss the inaugural Ubuntu Cloud Summit
  • Jono Bacon: Looking Towards Ubuntu 12.04
  • Chuck Short: Openstack Essex on 12.04
  • Ubuntu Classroom: Algorithms in Programming Classes
  • Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu's Linux contributions
  • New Canonical Tool Tackles 'Hyperscale' Data Centers
  • The Ubuntu 12.04 Default Wallpaper Revealed
  • Why Ubuntu Is Not Contributing To Linux, Or Is It?
  • Other Articles of Interest
  • 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

Introducing Metal as a Service: provisioning for the hyperscale era

On April 4th Mark Shuttleworth announced the new Metal as a Service (MAAS) in this blog post, explaining:

“As we move from “tens” to “hundreds” to “thousands” of nodes in a typical data centre we need new tools and practices. This hyperscale story – of hyper-dense racks with wimpy nodes – is the big shift in the physical world which matches the equally big shift to cloud computing in the virtualised world. Ubuntu’s popularity in the cloud comes in part from being leaner, faster, more agile. And MAAS – Metal as a Service – is bringing that agility back to the physical world for hyperscale deployments.”

He shares further ideas behind MAAS, which makes “it easy to set up the hardware on which to deploy any service that needs to scale up and down dynamically.”

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1103

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (92635) +488 over last week
  • Critical (91) -7 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (48032) +265 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 (8147) -56 over last week
  • English (United Kingdom) (23260) -483 over last week
  • Bosnian (37002) +/- 0 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (42309) - 2750 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 Ideas 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

Ordering your 12.04 CDs for LoCo Teams is now available

The LoCo Council announces that Approved LoCo team administrators can now pre-order 12.04 CDs for their teams. The new packs, effective with this release, do not come with Kubuntu.

http://lococouncil.ubuntu.com/2012/04/05/ordering-your-12-04-cds-for-loco-teams-is-now-available/

Launchpad News

That Juju that you do (Part II: A magical balm to sooth your ills)

Graham Binns of Launchpad shares a second post regarding Launchpad and the use of juju. In this post he introduces juju itself and the first Buildbot charm, and discusses how the relationship management that juju provides helped their build environment. He wraps up the post by sharing what they’ve learned generally about juju and provides instructions how to download the Buildbot master and slave charms yourself.

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

Ubuntu Cloud News

POSSCon 2012 and charm set options.

Jorge Castro gives a short review of his visit of POSScon 2012 where Marco Ceppi demoed the juju set command during his speech in the charm school.

http://www.jorgecastro.org/2012/04/03/posscon-2012/

Why the juju charm store will change the way you use Ubuntu Server

Jorge Castro discusses some of what the juju team is trying to accomplish policy-wise with the development of their “charm store” -- a non-freezing archive that charm writers and administrators can choose to use.

http://www.jorgecastro.org/2012/04/03/the-juju-charm-store-will-change-the-way-you-use-ubuntu-server/

Ubuntu Server is No Longer the Best OS for Cloud Computing.

Robbie Williamson makes the case for why the Ubuntu Cloud release is a better option than Ubuntu Server for cloud computing with Ubuntu. He explains why scaling-out is better than scaling-up and looks at the complexity of management that scale brings.

http://undacuvabrutha.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/ubuntu-server-is-no-longer-the-best-os-for-cloud-computing/

Kicking the tires on MAAS

Jorge Castro shares step-by-step instructions for how users can test out the new Metal as a Service infrastructure with as few as 3 boxes for testing, and details for how to give feedback.

http://www.jorgecastro.org/2012/04/04/kicking-the-tires-on-maas/

Don’t miss the inaugural Ubuntu Cloud Summit

Cezzaine Haigh announces the inaugural Ubuntu Cloud Summit, “a one day event for both technology and business people interested in what cloud computing can do for their organisations.” This will be taking place at the Ubuntu Developer Summit at the The Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland on Tuesday 8th May.

http://blog.canonical.com/2012/04/05/dont-miss-the-inaugural-ubuntu-cloud-summit/

The Planet

Michael Hall: Hello Unity, episode 2

Last week we saw a preview of Hello Unity, a “Hello World” example application for Unity, which was delivered by Michael Hall and David Planella. This post describes even more features about it, and what has been added since the last video came out.

http://mhall119.com/2012/04/hello-unity-episode-2/

Jono Bacon: Looking Towards Ubuntu 12.04

Jono Bacon shares some history leading up to the upcoming release of 12.04, including changes made to the interface with the introduction of Unity, Ubuntu’s core values, and the evolving vision and design of Ubuntu. Bacon discusses the introduction of a formal QA team during this development cycle and notes that “Ubuntu 12.04 is shaping up to be a solid contender in continuing to break down the digital divide and bring a stable, simple, effective, and powerful experience for everyone.”

http://www.jonobacon.org/2012/04/03/looking-towards-ubuntu-12-04/

Chuck Short: Openstack Essex on 12.04

Chuck Short shares the news of the availability of the latest Openstack release, Essex, and progress of its availability in upcoming release of Ubuntu 12.04.

http://zulcss.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/openstack-essex-on-12-04/

Tiago Hillebrandt: Interview: Jorge Castro, Ubuntu Community Team member

Tiago Hillebrandt interviews Jorge Castro, asking him about his life, work with Canonical and Ubuntu, inspiration for involvement with Ubuntu, a personal perspective of what can be expected with 12.04 and more.

http://tiagohillebrandt.eti.br/blog/interview-jorge-castro-ubuntu-community-team-member.html

Ubuntu App Developer Blog: Ubuntu Software Center: Run, jump, thermonuclear war and more!

John Pugh showcases several new applications available via the Ubuntu Software Center this month, including And Yet it Moves, DEFCON, Multiwinia, PDF Studio 7 and more.

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/04/ubuntu-software-center-run-jump-thermonuclear-war/

Ubuntu Classroom: Algorithms in Programming Classes

The Ubuntu Classroom will be hosting a new series of Algorithms in Programming classes presented by Marek Bardoński (bdfhjk). The first will be taking place on Friday, April 13th at 17:00 UTC in #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat on irc.freenode.net.

http://ubuntuclassroom.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/algorithms-in-programming-classes/

In The Press

Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu's Linux contributions

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet reports on the recent report by Linux.com on top contributors to the Linux kernel, noting that Canonical is not in the list of top 20 contributors. He shares excerpts from emails with Mark Shuttleworth defending Canonical’s Linux contributions explaining, among other things, that “ the kernel is a tiny part of the user experience of Ubuntu, and we don’t lead kernel development as a particular goal” and that they do lead with “tools that make Linux a fantastic environment for developers, system administrators and end-users alike”

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/shuttleworth-defends-ubuntus-linux-contributions/10726

New Canonical Tool Tackles 'Hyperscale' Data Centers

Rick Whiting of CRN covers the release of the Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS) provisioning and management tool. Whiting writes “Businesses and cloud service providers today are wrestling with what some are calling "hyperscale" data centers running tightly packed racks of thousands of nodes, especially those running ARM and Atom CPUs.” The post includes excerpts from an interview with Mark Shuttleworth where the tool is discussed.

http://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/232800273/new-canonical-tool-tackles-hyperscale-data-centers.htm

This Wild Visionary Wants To Turn His Linux Company Into The Next Apple

Julie Bort of Business Insider compares some of the goals, actions and relationships that Canonical has with users and vendors with those of Apple. Among those comparisons include the “new Apple-like user interface” (Unity), Ubuntu One service which mixes the ideas of iTunes and iCloud, Ubuntu TV, Ubuntu for Android to market to phones and Ubuntu tablets. Bort ends by quoting from Mark Shuttleworth who “sees his role as making Linux more popular.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-shuttleworth-turning-ubuntu-into-the-next-apple-2012-4

Ubuntu in South African Schools

Andrew Craucamp writing for MyBroadband.co.za News makes a case for using Ubuntu and other open source software in South Africa, rather than the current proprietary options. His reasons include recognised open standards that Ubuntu abides by, ability to run it on older machines without additional antivirus software, and freedom of licensing. The article concludes that Ubuntu is “ a natural fit for a modern South African youth.”

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/columns/43737-ubuntu-in-south-african-schools.html

In The Blogosphere

New Ubuntu Print Test for 12.04 LTS

The printer test page has had an update to herald the upcoming release of Ubuntu. The new test page not only uses less ink, but also gives additional information about the printer and driver that was used.

http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/04/new-ubuntu-print-test-for-1204-lts.html

The Ubuntu 12.04 Default Wallpaper Revealed

Web Upd8 reports on the release of the Ubuntu 12.04 Default Wallpaper with screenshots and comparisons with the past releases.

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/ubuntu-1204-default-wallpaper-revealed.html

5 problems with Ubuntu 12.04 part 1: Unity Dash usability issues

Russell Barnes of Linux User discusses his view of what would happen to a prospective Windows user experiencing Ubuntu 12.04. The fictitious character Wendy Windows encounters five problems in this article including the following: "At first glance she doesn’t see the Lens icons at the bottom of the window at all, but even if she did would she recognise which represents applications? Should she take her chances she would eventually be met by a list of applications, but it needs to be expanded and cycled through before she’ll get the result she’s looking for."

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/opinion/5-problems-with-ubuntu-12-04-part-1-unity-dash-usability-issues/

Why Ubuntu Is Not Contributing To Linux, Or Is It?

Swapnil Bhartiya of Muktware discusses some of the contributions to Linux being made by Ubuntu and Canonical. Bhartiya begins by discussing the low percentage of kernel changes submitted by Canonical, and takes the discussion beyond the raw numbers presented in these contributions. He shares discussions around the development that has been done in making Linux more accessible “among the masses” and contributions to other open source projects.

http://www.muktware.com/news/3510/why-ubuntu-not-contributing-linux-or-it

My interview with Andy Woodhead, aka ActionParsnip.

Vibhav Pant interviews Andy Woodhead (aka actionparsnip), a top contributor in Launchpad Answers, and contributor in the #ubuntu channel on IRC.

http://vibhav01.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/my-interview-with-andy-woodhead-aka-actionparsnip/

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

  • None at time of publication

Ubuntu 10.04 Updates

Ubuntu 10.10 Updates

Ubuntu 11.04 Updates

Ubuntu 11.10 Updates

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
  • Chris Druif
  • Charles Profitt
  • 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/Issue260 (last edited 2012-04-09 21:46:22 by lyz)