Issue355


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Next UDS: 11 - 13 March 2014
    2. Losing graciously
    3. Welcome New Members and Developers
  3. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week
      1. Most Active Questions
      2. Top Voted New Questions
  4. LoCo News
    1. Interim Report on 2014 Census Effort
    2. German Ubucon in Katlenburg
    3. On Community Sentiment
  5. Ubuntu Cloud News
    1. Apache Syncope Sponsor, Tirasa, shows instant IDM on Juju
  6. The Planet
    1. Rohan Garg: New Driver Manager for Kubuntu
    2. Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph: 5 ways to get involved today: Ubuntu User Support and Testing
    3. Rohan Garg: New Touchpad management app in Kubuntu 14.04
    4. Ubuntu GNOME: What Ubuntu GNOME Has Learned from Linus Torvalds
    5. Mark Shuttleworth: All Star 'Buntu
    6. Jono Bacon: Forward Momentum in the Ubuntu App Developer Platform
    7. Ubuntu Classroom: March 2nd is Ubuntu Documentation Day in the Classroom!
    8. Alan Bell: Ubuntu and Privacy and how it really works now.
    9. Jonathan Riddell: No Licence Needed for Kubuntu Derivative Distributions
    10. Xubuntu: Reporting is caring
    11. Ubuntu GNOME: Ubuntu GNOME Official Members Requirements
    12. Ubuntu GNOME: Testing – The Clock is Ticking
    13. Lubuntu Blog: Community wallpaper contest
  7. Other Community News
    1. Expansion of Valve free games offer to Ubuntu developers
    2. Community Council Statement on Canonical Package Licensing
  8. Canonical News
    1. Canonical Design Team: A bit of summer in the middle of winter
    2. Smart joins Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group
    3. Ubuntu Kylin booms in China with over 1,300,000 downloads in less than 6 months
    4. Canonical/Ubuntu Enables Instant NFV
  9. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu store apps won’t work across mobile and desktop in 14.04
    2. China switches on to Ubuntu in hunt for Windows XP successor
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. Valve Is Now Giving Away Their Games To Ubuntu Developers
    2. Ubuntu Is Short On Developer Membership Board Nominations
    3. Pennsylvania High School Rolls Out 1,700 Linux Laptops to Students
    4. Ubuntu Wallpaper Contest Offers Artists Chance to Feature on Millions of Desktops
    5. One App, Many Faces: Ubuntu Touch Convergent App Demo
    6. Ubuntu Shows Off Progress In Convergence Mode
    7. An Ubuntu Phone/Mobile Announcement Is Coming Next Week
    8. China Downloaded More Than 1.5 Million Copies of Ubuntu in 2013
  11. Other Articles of Interest
  12. Featured Audio and Video
    1. Jono Bacon Q&A - 11th Feb 2014
    2. App Design Clinic #8
    3. Ubuntu Engineering Live!: 12th February 2014
  13. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  14. Monthly Team Reports: January 2014
  15. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  16. Updates and Security for 10.04, 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 12.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 12.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 13.10 Updates
  17. Subscribe
  18. Archives
  19. Additional Ubuntu News
  20. Conclusion
  21. Credits
  22. Glossary of Terms
  23. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  24. Feedback

newspaper-icon41.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 355 for the week February 10 - 16, 2014.

In This Issue

  • Next UDS: 11 - 13 March 2014
  • Losing graciously
  • Welcome New Members and Developers
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Interim Report on 2014 Census Effort
  • German Ubucon in Katlenburg
  • On Community Sentiment
  • Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph: 5 ways to get involved today: Ubuntu User Support and Testing
  • Rohan Garg: New Touchpad management app in Kubuntu 14.04
  • Mark Shuttleworth: All Star 'Buntu
  • Jono Bacon: Forward Momentum in the Ubuntu App Developer Platform
  • Ubuntu Classroom: March 2nd is Ubuntu Documentation Day in the Classroom!
  • Alan Bell: Ubuntu and Privacy and how it really works now.
  • Xubuntu: Reporting is caring
  • Ubuntu GNOME: Testing - The Clock is Ticking
  • Lubuntu Blog: Community wallpaper contest
  • Expansion of Valve free games offer to Ubuntu developers
  • Community Council Statement on Canonical Package Licensing
  • Canonical News
  • China switches on to Ubuntu in hunt for Windows XP successor
  • In The Blogosphere
  • Other Articles of Interest
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Monthly Team Reports: January 2014
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 10.04, 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Next UDS: 11 - 13 March 2014

Jono Bacon announces the dates of the next Ubuntu Developer Summit, Tuesday 11th March 2014 to Thursday 13th March 2014. Jono provides a link to propose a session, and asks that all sessions are scheduled by Friday 21st February 2014.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/community-announce/2014-February/000017.html

Losing graciously

Mark Shuttleworth writes that the Debian technical committee has settled the question of init for Debian in favor of systemd. As a result, he writes that Ubuntu too will make the move to systemd and that he will ask members of the Ubuntu community to help implement the decision.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1316

This news was also followed closely in the press and blogs:

Welcome New Members and Developers

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2014-February/001940.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (107925) +23 over last week
  • Critical (168) -7 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (52757) +167 over last week

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week

Most Active Questions

Top Voted New Questions

People Contributing the best questions and answers this week: Avinash Raj (http://askubuntu.com/users/202806/avinash-raj), davidbaumann (http://askubuntu.com/users/238179/davidbaumann), amrith92 (http://askubuntu.com/users/115835/amrith92), Sneetsher (http://askubuntu.com/users/26246/sneetsher) and Oli (http://askubuntu.com/users/449/oli)

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

LoCo News

Interim Report on 2014 Census Effort

Stephen Michael Kellat provides an interim report from the LoCo Council about their recent census which saw 156 teams contacted out of a potential 161. Stephen says many contacts resulted in replies noting that the teams existed as mere shells, and notes that only 47 teams are currently eligible for disc distributions of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

http://lococouncil.ubuntu.com/2014/02/16/interim-report-on-2014-census-effort/

German Ubucon in Katlenburg

Sujeevan Vijayakumaran writes about the upcoming 8th German Ubucon in Göttingen, Germany, past German Ubucons and what to expect this year.

http://svij.org/blog/2014/02/15/german-ubucon-in-katlenburg/

On Community Sentiment

Benjamin Kerensa give us his views on the LoCo Council's interim report on their census efforts of Ubuntu LoCo teams. Benjamin believes that the Ubuntu local communities can be vibrant again and concludes his post by saying "We need to bring back the culture where community was one of the most important aspects of Ubuntu."

http://benjaminkerensa.com/2014/02/16/community-sentiment

Ubuntu Cloud News

Apache Syncope Sponsor, Tirasa, shows instant IDM on Juju

Maarten Ectors explains the interaction between Tirasa, Apache Syncope and Juju.

http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/apache-syncope-sponsor-tirasa-shows-instant-idm-on-juju/

The Planet

Rohan Garg: New Driver Manager for Kubuntu

Rohan Garg explains the new ubuntu-drivers-common package, how and why to install it in Kubuntu.

http://kshadeslayer.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/new-driver-manager-for-kubuntu/

Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph: 5 ways to get involved today: Ubuntu User Support and Testing

Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph continues her series of posts about getting involved with Ubuntu. Elizabeth's first post this week deals with user support while her second deals with ISO testing and running testcases.

http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=9074 & http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=9077

Rohan Garg: New Touchpad management app in Kubuntu 14.04

Rohan Garg writes that along with new driver management tools in Kubuntu, there is a new tool for managing a touchpad. The Kubuntu team thanks Alexander Mezin for all his hard work in GSoC on kde-touchpad.

http://kshadeslayer.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/new-touchpad-management-app-in-kubuntu-14-04/

Ubuntu GNOME: What Ubuntu GNOME Has Learned from Linus Torvalds

Ali Linx tells us that the Ubuntu GNOME team shares five important lessons it has learned from Linus Torvalds, and once again encourages you to join them. Ubuntu GNOME continues to see rapid growth and success in building a new Ubuntu community centered on GNOME Shell.

http://ubuntugnome.org/linus/

Mark Shuttleworth: All Star 'Buntu

Mark Shuttleworth writes about the time he’s spent recently with each of the four main flavors of Ubuntu which he tracks - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME. All four appear to be settling down from periods of upheaval and change for solid LTS releases, and he encourages everyone to move to Trusty and assist in the testing.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1314

Jono Bacon: Forward Momentum in the Ubuntu App Developer Platform

Jono Bacon gives us a rundown on the current state of key sections of the Ubuntu App Developer Platform, including HTML5, SDK and desktop integration. After a sprint in Orlando last week there are many changes large and small in the works.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2014/02/13/forward-momentum-in-the-ubuntu-app-developer-platform/

Ubuntu Classroom: March 2nd is Ubuntu Documentation Day in the Classroom!

Ubuntu Classroom and the Ubuntu Documentation and Manual teams are excited to announce they are teaming up for a day of documentation-related Classroom sessions on March 2nd. Starting at 16:00 UTC with Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph giving a tour of the current resources available, followed by a session from team contributors on contributing to each.

http://ubuntuclassroom.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/march-2nd-is-ubuntu-documentation-day-in-the-classroom/

Alan Bell: Ubuntu and Privacy and how it really works now.

Alan Bell explains again how the Unity dash works, and the privacy concerns related to it, Amazon and the many other services now available via the dash, including Etsy, Grooveshark, Songster, Yelp, and many, many others.

http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2014/02/ubuntu-and-privacy-and-how-it-really-works-now/

Jonathan Riddell: No Licence Needed for Kubuntu Derivative Distributions

Jonathan Riddell writes that there is no license needed for Kubuntu derivative distributions. With the recent release of vague and apologetic licensing statements from Canonical related to Ubuntu licensing, derivatives, etc they felt the community would appreciate such a clear statement from Kubuntu.

http://blogs.kde.org/2014/02/14/no-licence-needed-kubuntu-derivative-distributions

Xubuntu: Reporting is caring

The Xubuntu team writes about motivating its users to start running and reporting tests and summarize the tests reported on the package and ISO trackers. After telling us that on average Xubuntu gets tested by around 20 people before release but then gets used by thousands after release, the team ask Xubuntu users to consider "giving back."

http://xubuntu.org/news/reporting-is-caring/

Ubuntu GNOME: Ubuntu GNOME Official Members Requirements

Ali Linx describes the process of becoming an Ubuntu GNOME team member. Ali’s post includes a number of links to the requirements to become a member, explains the “90-days-policy”, and what to do if your membership expires.

http://ubuntugnome.org/official-members-requirements/

Ubuntu GNOME: Testing – The Clock is Ticking

Ali Linx writes "We do need to be ready and keep testing if Ubuntu GNOME Community wishes to participate to Beta 1" in his appeal for testing of the current Ubuntu GNOME development release.

http://ubuntugnome.org/testing-the-clock-is-ticking/

Lubuntu Blog: Community wallpaper contest

Rafael Laguna announces the start of the Lubuntu wallpaper contest by saying "Please, feel free to join us at Flickr and upload your creation. The best 5 will become part of Lubuntu 14.04 distro." Rafael links to the Flickr site where the rules can be found.

http://lubuntublog.blogspot.com/2014/02/community-wallpaper-contest.html

Other Community News

Expansion of Valve free games offer to Ubuntu developers

Neil McGovern makes the announcement that Valve has expanded its offer of free games from all Debian developers to all developers of Ubuntu. Collabora is administering the distribution of keys, to request yours contact Jo Shields <jo.shields at collabora.co.uk> with a PGP signed email.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2014-February/001079.html

Community Council Statement on Canonical Package Licensing

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2014/02/13/community-council-statement-on-canonical-package-licensing/

Since this posting, there have also been a couple of follow ups from community members:

Canonical News

Canonical Design Team: A bit of summer in the middle of winter

Vesa Rautiainen writes about the Canonical Design Team’s trip to Cape Town, South Africa in mid-January when London’s weather was at its worst for Client Platform Sprint, and a bit of sightseeing.

http://design.canonical.com/2014/02/a-bit-of-summer-in-the-middle-of-winter/

Smart joins Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group

Smart Communications, Inc the leading wireless provider in the Philippines has joined Ubuntu’s Carrier Advisory Group. Smart joins other leading operators from around the world, including Vodafone, Three, Deutsche Telekom and Verizon among others. Members of the advisory board are given early access to Ubuntu’s smartphone roadmap, prototype trials and market rollout information.

http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/press-releases/smart-joins-ubuntu-carrier-advisory-group/

Ubuntu Kylin booms in China with over 1,300,000 downloads in less than 6 months

Jon Melamut writes about the booming popularity of Ubuntu Kylin in China. Thanks to a partnerships with Chinese organisations, Ubuntu Kylin is optimized to the needs of Chinese users including a full Chinese user interface, applications, the Chinese lunar calendar, and Kingsoft WPS. With strong initial growth of 1,300,000+ downloads of its second release, Ubuntu Kylin is sure to have a bright future in China.

http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-kylin-booms-in-china-with-over-1300000-downloads-in-less-than-6-months/

Canonical/Ubuntu Enables Instant NFV

Maarten Ectors writes: "For backend network infrastructure, new developments are focused around Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) which allows sophisticated network services to be delivered rapidly without the need for specialized hardware. Ubuntu OpenStack and open source orchestration solutions enable instant NFV. With Ubuntu, NFV solutions can be instantly deployed, integrated and scaled on any public cloud, private cloud or bare-metal server." And gives readers who attend the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) details on how to contact them for a demo.

http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/canonicalubuntu-enables-instant-nfv/

In The Press

Ubuntu store apps won’t work across mobile and desktop in 14.04

Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica reminds us that while an app can run across phones, tablets, and PCs, you won't actually find it in the PC version of the Ubuntu Software Centre right now. Jon says that Unity 8, which is already powering Ubuntu for phones and will power Ubuntu for tablets in Ubuntu 14.04, won’t be available for desktops until at least Ubuntu 14.10.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/ubuntu-store-apps-wont-work-across-mobile-and-desktop-in-14-04/

China switches on to Ubuntu in hunt for Windows XP successor

Nick Heath of ZDNet writes about the growing popularity of Ubuntu Kylin, stating “China's homegrown version of the Linux Ubuntu OS has racked up more than one million downloads in half a year” and exploring what this means for the impending End of Life of Windows XP.

http://www.zdnet.com/china-switches-on-to-ubuntu-in-hunt-for-windows-xp-successor-7000026355/

In The Blogosphere

Valve Is Now Giving Away Their Games To Ubuntu Developers

Michael Larabel of Phoronix that Valve's program of giving free access to Steam for Debian developers has been extended to Ubuntu developers. Michael tells us that Collabora is administering the program, and links to a mailing list announcement for those wishing to learn more.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTU5OTQ

Ubuntu Is Short On Developer Membership Board Nominations

Michael Larabel of Phoronix writes that Ubuntu is in need of more Developer Membership Board nominations as there have been insufficient nominations to date. Michael says the deadline for nominations has been extended by two weeks, and links to a mailing list announcement where those interested can find more information.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTU5OTg

Pennsylvania High School Rolls Out 1,700 Linux Laptops to Students

Libby Clark of Linux.com reports on Penn Manor High School’s massive deployment of 1700+ “Acer TravelMate laptop[s] pre-loaded with Ubuntu 13.10” for every student. The goal for the school is not only to embrace open source, but also help its students contribute to the school and the greater movement.

https://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/761499-pennsylvania-high-school-rolls-out-1700-linux-laptops-to-students

Ubuntu Wallpaper Contest Offers Artists Chance to Feature on Millions of Desktops

Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! informs us that the Ubuntu 14.04 wallpaper contest has opened for entries and that those taking part should keep to the set of sensible guidelines which he lists. Joey-Elijah advises that the deadline for submissions is March 5, 2014 at 18:00 GMT and that the final choices will be revealed on March 11, 2014, ahead of the Trusty Tahr UI freeze.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/ubuntu-14-04-lts-wallpaper-contest

One App, Many Faces: Ubuntu Touch Convergent App Demo

Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! reports on Canonical’s ongoing effort to achieve convergence in Ubuntu with their homegrown display server Mir and Unity 8. The goal is to “unify the disparate user experience” of phones, tablets, and desktop into one. He demonstrates community-built Reddit application, Karma Machine, as an example.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/ubuntu-touch-convergence-demo

Ubuntu Shows Off Progress In Convergence Mode

Michael Larabel of Phoronix shares a short video of Jono Bacon running the winner of the latest Ubuntu App showdown to reveal convergence at work. Drawing “all from the same codebase,” the app shows promise, suggests Larabel, for future Ubuntu SDK-developed apps ready for convergence by 14.10.

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

An Ubuntu Phone/Mobile Announcement Is Coming Next Week

Michael Larabel of Phoronix quotes from a Canonical press invitation: "Mark will be providing the first major update on Ubuntu’s plans for the mobile space since Canonical’s milestone crowdfunding campaign to develop the ground-breaking Ubuntu Edge smartphone." Michael says Phoronix will be on call to see what Mark [Shuttleworth] has to say about Ubuntu's plans for their mobile ambitions.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTYwMzU

China Downloaded More Than 1.5 Million Copies of Ubuntu in 2013

Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! reports on the recent news that more than 1.5 million copies of Ubuntu Kylin were downloaded in China last year. Joey-Elijah says that China is largely dominated by vendor lock-in to Windows but that is changing as Ubuntu is available pre-installed on HP, Dell and Lenovo laptops both online and through more than 2,500 retail stores.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/number-of-ubuntu-downloads-in-china

Jono Bacon Q&A - 11th Feb 2014

Jono Bacon presents another of his weekly Ubuntu On-Air Q&A sessions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaYHAPWiZ2E

App Design Clinic #8

Katie Taylor talks about sizing, and ensuring widgets and items are usable (touchable). There’s also a sneak preview of the updated widgets coming to Ubuntu Touch.

http://design.canonical.com/2014/02/app-design-clinic-8/

Ubuntu Engineering Live!: 12th February 2014

Michael Hall presents the latest Engineering update with contributions from Bill Filler and Thomas Voss.

http://youtu.be/9hScUimep-g

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

Monthly Team Reports: January 2014

See here for the team report for January 2014: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/January2014

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 10.04, 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 10.04 Updates

None.

End of Life - April 2015 (Server)

Ubuntu 12.04 Updates

End of Life - April 2017

Ubuntu 12.10 Updates

End of Life - April 2014

Ubuntu 13.10 Updates

End of Life - July 2014

Subscribe

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Archives

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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 Joseph
  • Paul White
  • Emily Gonyer
  • John Kim
  • 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://community.ubuntu.com/contribute/

Or get involved with the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter team! We always need summary writers and editors, if you're interested, learn more at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Join

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 check http://community.ubuntu.com/help-information/ for more information on where to get help.

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue355 (last edited 2014-02-17 22:13:29 by lyz)