Issue279


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Ubuntu App Showdown: let the community vote begin
    2. UDS-R Registration Now Open
    3. Welcome New Members
  3. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Precise
    3. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
    4. Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week
  4. LoCo News
    1. Ubuntu-mx request for help
    2. Time to Jam Again!
    3. Ubuntu Jam AT Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  5. Launchpad News
    1. New fastdowntime schedule
  6. Ubuntu Cloud News
    1. Charming Hadoop
  7. The Planet
    1. Ubuntu TV: Ubuntu TV Weekly Update #6
    2. Lubuntu blog: A few things
    3. Marco Ceppi: How’s Ask Ubuntu working out for you?
    4. Nicholas Skaggs: Quality Perceptions Survey Results
    5. Pasi Lallinaho: Working on the Xubuntu documentation rewrite
    6. Didier Roche: Quickly reboot: Q&A session wrap up!
  8. Canonical News
    1. Invite your friends and get more free storage
    2. Fieldrunners, Spirits and BIT.TRIP BEAT debut on Ubuntu, in the Humble Android Bundle 3
  9. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu 12.04.1: LTS maintenance release
    2. Canonical: Making the Open Cloud Seamless for Users
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. Unity 6.2 Arrives in Quantal
    2. Canonical Showcases Desktop Linux, Inside the Browser
    3. We Interview Leann Ogasawara, Canonical Kernel Team Manager, Marathoner and Mother
    4. Ubuntu Icon Comes Back to GNOME Classic
    5. Unity 2D No Longer Installed By Default, Removed From The Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Repositories
    6. Why Ubuntu 12.04 is the best desktop experience the free software community has to offer.
    7. Say Hello To Unity’s Newest Feature: Previews
    8. Does Ubuntu Need A Separate 'eBook & Magazine' Store?
  11. In Other News
    1. Linux Top 3: SUSE Secures Boot, Ubuntu Boots Wayland, Slackware 14 Boots Up
    2. Best Educational Linux Distributions
    3. Ubuntu 12.10 Is Faster With Intel Hardware
  12. Other Articles of Interest
  13. Featured Podcasts
  14. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  15. Monthly Team Reports: July 2012
  16. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  17. Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 11.04 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 11.10 Updates
    6. Ubuntu 12.04 Updates
  18. Subscribe
  19. Archives
  20. Additional Ubuntu News
  21. Conclusion
  22. Credits
  23. Glossary of Terms
  24. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  25. Feedback

newspaper-icon41.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 279 for the week August 13 - 19, 2012.

In This Issue

  • Ubuntu App Showdown: let the community vote begin
  • UDS-R Registration Now Open
  • Welcome New Members
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Ubuntu-mx request for help
  • Time to Jam Again!
  • Ubuntu Jam AT Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  • New fastdowntime schedule
  • Charming Hadoop
  • Marco Ceppi: How’s Ask Ubuntu working out for you?
  • Nicholas Skaggs: Quality Perceptions Survey Results
  • Pasi Lallinaho: Working on the Xubuntu documentation rewrite

  • Didier Roche: Quickly reboot: Q&A session wrap up!

  • Fieldrunners, Spirits and BIT.TRIP BEAT debut on Ubuntu, in the Humble Android Bundle 3
  • Unity 6.2 Arrives in Quantal
  • We Interview Leann Ogasawara, Canonical Kernel Team Manager, Marathoner and Mother
  • Unity 2D No Longer Installed By Default, Removed From The Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Repositories
  • Why Ubuntu 12.04 is the best desktop experience the free software community has to offer.
  • Say Hello To Unity’s Newest Feature: Previews
  • In Other News
  • Other Articles of Interest
  • Featured Podcasts
  • Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  • Monthly Team Reports: July 2012
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04
  • And much more!

General Community News

Ubuntu App Showdown: let the community vote begin

The final stage of the Ubuntu App Showdown is now underway. During the Community Vote, any individual can rate an application. At the end of the voting period, the three developers whose applications have the highest ratings will win a Nokia N9 smartphone. Applications can be installed using the developer’s PPAs, and votes can be submitted using the online judging sheet.

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/08/ubuntu-app-showdown-let-the-community-vote-begin/

UDS-R Registration Now Open

Registration for the upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the R cycle is open. The four-day event brings together developers, partners, contributors, and upstream representatives to discuss the upcoming 13.04 release.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2012/08/19/uds-r-registration-now-open-2/

Welcome New Members

Results for the 2200 UTC Regional Membership Board Meeting, Wednesday the 16th of August 2012:

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (97651) -463 over last week
  • Critical (62) -2 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (48324) -514 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 Precise

  • English (Australia) (2) -1 over last week
  • English (United Kingdom) (5270) -2524 over last week
  • Spanish (10081) -71 over last week
  • Bosnian (33781) +/-0 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (33839) -108 over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/ and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations

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/

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week

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

LoCo News

Ubuntu-mx request for help

Javier shares that the Mexican LoCo was inspired by the Columbian team and is currently undergoing a reorganization process. The team has updated their website at ubuntumexico.org and is asking their members to update or reactivate their launchpad membership, and has created a list of other tasks they wish to accomplish. Javier wraps up by explaining the point of the post is to “announce that we’re alive and ready to rumble, and ask whoever wants to help to join us” and ask for suggestions on some of the technical and administrative tasks related to running the LoCo.

http://viajemotu.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/ubuntu-mx-request-for-help/

Time to Jam Again!

Benjamin Kerensa reminds LoCos that the 12.10 release is quickly approaching, meaning that once again it’s time to plan Ubuntu Global Jams. The Jam, which takes place September 7th-9th, is an opportunity for the community to work on improvements for the upcoming release. Jams are also an opportunity to introduce LoCo members to different aspects of the community and new ways to contribute.

http://benjaminkerensa.com/2012/08/16/time-to-jam-again

Ubuntu Jam AT Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Rachid BM shares plans for an upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam in Nijmegen, the Netherlands in a schoolroom of AT Computing, and notes that the venue provides “computers with Ubuntu installed, so that we are ready to rock!”

http://rachidbm.com/2012/08/ubuntu-jam-at-nijmegen-netherlands/

Launchpad News

New fastdowntime schedule

Robert Collins of Launchpad discusses the new, fast application of patches over the past year using FDT (Fast Down Time). He reports the application of “60 such patches, typically taking between 60 and 90 seconds each time, at 1000UTC, our scheduled daily 5 minute downtime window for DB patching.” Collins shares that with the removal of Slony from their environment, they can now do even faster schema patches (6 seconds), and they’ll be taking advantage of this by adding two 10 second downtime windows at 0200 UTC and 1800 UTC.

http://blog.launchpad.net/general/new-fastdowntime-schedule

Ubuntu Cloud News

Charming Hadoop

James Page dives into the details of the Hadoop charm for Ubuntu Server’s juju infrastructure. Page explains what Hadoop is, covers some juju basics, and finally discusses how to configure and use the Hadoop charm as well as Hadoop itself, and scale and monitor it with juju.

http://javacruft.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/charming-hadoop/

The Planet

Ubuntu TV: Ubuntu TV Weekly Update #6

Jim Hoddap once again brings the weekly update from the Ubuntu TV team, including:

  • Grilo plugin for TMDB is in the queue waiting to be merged into git repository
  • The Ubuntu TV Testcard utility has been submitted for inclusion in the 12.10 repositories.

He also shares regular updates on the progress of NUX, Unity 3D, Lenses and Scopes and more.

http://www.doadjustyourset.com/2012/08/13/ubuntu-tv-weekly-update-6/

Lubuntu blog: A few things

PCManFM and LibFM have reached 1.0, which is a major update. Also, the new mini icons for the Box icon theme are in progress.

http://lubuntublog.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-few-things.html

Marco Ceppi: How’s Ask Ubuntu working out for you?

In his blog, Marco Ceppi asks about the niceness of answers on the Stack Overflow site, which hosts Ask Ubuntu. Pointing out the perennial problem of quality versus quantity, he acknowledges that the larger a community grows, the greater the loss of quality. As the original dedicated team moves on, he suggests the answers might get more rude and less helpful. He then points out that a lot of work has gone into maintaining standards, redirecting bug reports to Launchpad, and removing rude comments considered “too snarky”.

http://marcoceppi.com/2012/08/hows-ask-ubuntu-working-out-for-you/

Nicholas Skaggs: Quality Perceptions Survey Results

Nicholas Skaggs provides results and insight from his Quality Perceptions Survey. Questions asked in the survey included questions about quality itself “What does quality mean to you?” and “What's the biggest problem with quality in Ubuntu right now?”, along with questions about using development releases and participation in the QA team itself.

http://www.theorangenotebook.com/2012/08/quality-perceptions-survey-results.html

Pasi Lallinaho: Working on the Xubuntu documentation rewrite

Pasi Lallinaho shares progress of the Xubuntu offline documentation rewrite. He covers the work completed thus far on a community-maintained wiki, and explains the structure so contributors can jump in to help. He also stresses that the writing portion of this project needs to be completed within the next week or two.

http://open.knome.fi/2012/08/17/working-on-the-xubuntu-documentation-rewrite/

Didier Roche: Quickly reboot: Q&A session wrap up!

Didier Roche shares the recording of the latest Quickly Q&A session, where he invited the community to “ask questions about Quickly and propose enhancement[s]” for Quickly. He also mentions that they’ll be taking a break from these sessions and invites people to “catch up on the session notes, and provide feedback/ideas” on the wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Quickly/Reboot.

http://blog.didrocks.fr/post/Quickly-reboot%3A-QA-session-wrap-up%21

Canonical News

Invite your friends and get more free storage

Canonical recently launched a referral program where current Ubuntu One account holders can increase their free cloud storage to 25GB. Every invite is worth 500MB and a maximum is capped at 40 invites, for a total of an extra 20GB. On the right of each account holder a referral code is shown which, when used, leads to the activation of a new account.

http://voices.canonical.com/ubuntuone/2012/08/15/invite-your-friends-and-get-more-free-storage/

Fieldrunners, Spirits and BIT.TRIP BEAT debut on Ubuntu, in the Humble Android Bundle 3

David Pitkin of the Canonical blog announces the availablity of the latest Humble Bundle of games, “bringing with it three games new to Ubuntu: Spirits, Fieldrunners and BIT.TRIP BEAT.” SpaceChem and Uplink are also updated for the bundle.

http://blog.canonical.com/2012/08/15/1827/

In The Press

Ubuntu 12.04.1: LTS maintenance release

The first of four planned maintenance releases, Ubuntu 12.04.1, was released on August 16, 2012. This is an updated installation image that includes many of the software updates since the original release. This will save time during fresh installations.

http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-12-04-1-lts-maintenance-release-7000002616/

Canonical: Making the Open Cloud Seamless for Users

Libby Clark reports on the role of Canonical in open cloud computing by interviewing Kyle MacDonald, VP of cloud computing at Canonical. They cover how Canonical defines the open cloud, how Canonical contributes to OpenStack, some of the issues and debates in the open cloud community (and where Canonical stands on them), and what the future may hold.

http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/618431-canonical-making-the-open-cloud-seamless-for-end-users

In The Blogosphere

Unity 6.2 Arrives in Quantal

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! writes of the recent arrival of Unity 6.2 in Quantal Quetzal’s repositories. This release contains some 91 bug fixes, including: the HUD not closing by Alt+F4 when Numlock or Capslock are on, purchased apps not showing in the Unity launcher, and more.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/unity-6-2-arrives-in-quantal

Canonical Showcases Desktop Linux, Inside the Browser

Christopher Tozzi reviews how the online tour of Ubuntu provides a “a rigorous and impressively smooth” preview of Ubuntu from within a web browser. Developed by Canonical’s Web Design Team, it aims at highlighting the desktop OS, the Unity Launcher and lens, and the default apps - such as LibreOffice etc.

http://www.thevarguy.com/2012/08/13/canonical-showcases-desktop-linux-inside-the-browser/

We Interview Leann Ogasawara, Canonical Kernel Team Manager, Marathoner and Mother

Benjamin Kerensa of OMG! Ubuntu! interviews Canonical Kernel Team Manager Leann Ogasawara about her role and work at Canonical and what she is passionate about in life.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/omg-interviews-leann-ogasawara-canonical-kernel-team-manager-marathoner-and-mother

Ubuntu Icon Comes Back to GNOME Classic

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! shows off the 114KiB update to the Light Themes package for Classic session in Ubuntu 12.04: the reimplementation of the Ubuntu icon for the Application Menu.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/ubuntu-icon-comes-back-to-gnome-classic

Unity 2D No Longer Installed By Default, Removed From The Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Repositories

Andrew of Web Upd8 writes about Unity 2D no longer being available for the 12.10 Quantal Quetzal release. “Furthermore, the latest Unity package, uploaded to the Ubuntu Quantal repositories a few hours ago, uses a "dummy" Unity-2D package, so Unity 2D is no longer available in the repositories and won't be installable at all in Quantal. Ubuntu users without graphical acceleration will be able to use Unity 3D thanks to llvmpipe.”

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/unity-2d-no-longer-installed-by-default.html

Why Ubuntu 12.04 is the best desktop experience the free software community has to offer.

Neil Munro covers some of the features of Unity which make 12.04 “best desktop experience that the FLOSS community has to offer.” Munro covers in detail the five-year support period included with LTS, the different feel from “the usual Gnome/KDE/XFCE interfaces” and calls it “a next generation interface.” He goes on to cover many of the features of the Unity desktop and concludes: “All these little things add up to create a very polished, functional unique branded desktop experience.”

http://nmunro.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/why-ubuntu-1204-is-best-desktop.html

Say Hello To Unity’s Newest Feature: Previews

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! shares details, screenshots, and a video of one of Unity’s newest features: Previews. “In Ubuntu 12.04 and earlier Dash results sport a single action: open. If it’s a music file it opens in a music player; if it’s a Wikipedia Lens result it opens in your browser, etc. Previews give users more by introducing a ‘right-click’ action for items displayed in the lens. This action opens a ”Preview Pane” tailored for that content type.”

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/say-hello-to-unitys-newest-feature-previews

Does Ubuntu Need A Separate 'eBook & Magazine' Store?

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! writes about the increasing number of eBooks and magazines in the Ubuntu Software Center. ‘Despite having ‘Software’ in its name, the shelves of Ubuntu’s one-stop app shop are starting to warp under the weight of so much reading material. One could say that the name “Ubuntu Software Center” is no longer an apt description of what is actually on offer,’ states Sneddon.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/does-ubuntu-need-a-separate-ebook-magazine-store

In Other News

Linux Top 3: SUSE Secures Boot, Ubuntu Boots Wayland, Slackware 14 Boots Up

Sean Michael Kerner from Linux Planet writes about some of the latest news coming out of the Linux community. He highlights “Ubuntu booting Wayland”, and says “Ubuntu is not booting Wayland in the software sense, they are 'booting' Wayland in the kicking out sense.”.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/news/linux-top-3-suse-secures-boot-ubuntu-boots-wayland-slackware-14-boots-up.html

Best Educational Linux Distributions

Abhishek of Tech Source reviews the best Linux-based Educational distributions. Technology and education have been combined from all levels of education. Abhishek reviews the most popular distros, Edubuntu, UKnow4Kids, Qimo 4 Kids, and OLPC, as well as their apps and target market.

http://www.junauza.com/2012/08/best-educational-linux-distributions.html

Ubuntu 12.10 Is Faster With Intel Hardware

Michael Larabel of Phoronix shares benchmarks of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS vs. 12.10 2012-08-13 on a CompuLab Intense-PC. He concludes that the system “with Intel Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" processor is performing very well with Ubuntu 12.10 and a very nice upgrade already over Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Most of the performance boosts come from continued optimizations on the open-source Intel graphics driver stack and the move to the GCC 4.7 compiler. Additional performance boosts for Nouveau/Radeon/Intel graphics may come still this cycle when moving to Mesa 8.1/9.0.”

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1210_intelivy&num=1

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

Monthly Team Reports: July 2012

See here for the team report for June 2011: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/July2012

If your team is not producing monthly reports, see this page to get your team started: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting

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, 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04

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 11.04 Updates

End of Life - October 2012

Ubuntu 11.10 Updates

End of Life - April 2013

Ubuntu 12.04 Updates

End of Life - April 2017

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
  • John Kim
  • Jasna Benčić
  • Nathan Dyer
  • Benjamin Kerensa
  • Leon Marincowitz
  • Cheri Francis
  • Jose Antonio Rey
  • Jim Connett
  • 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/Issue279 (last edited 2012-08-20 22:01:18 by lyz)