Issue418


Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Kubuntu Council Election 2015 - Winners
  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. Call for UbuCon Speakers at SELF
    2. UbuConLA 2015: Call for Papers // UbuConLA 2015: Llamado a Charlas
    3. 9th Ubucon 2015 in Germany
  5. LoCo Events
  6. Other Community News
    1. A new timeslot for the Membership Board meetings
  7. Ubuntu Cloud News
  8. Ubuntu Phone News
    1. RFC: Help app design
  9. Canonical News
    1. Ubuntu Advantage Storage launches at OpenStack Summit
    2. To converge onto mobile, tablet, and desktop, think Grid Units
    3. IoT World and the power of Snappy Apps everywhere
  10. In The Press
    1. How Walmart uses OpenStack to deliver its 'everyday low prices'
    2. The Meizu X4 is the first compelling Ubuntu phone
    3. Mark Shuttleworth: Why Ubuntu mobile really matters
  11. In The Blogosphere
    1. Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition Launched in China, Coming to Europe soon
    2. Ubuntu Touch to be Officially Based on Ubuntu 15.04 Starting with OTA-4
    3. Will Ubuntu Linux Hit 200 Million Users This Year?
    4. Misplaced ire toward Ubuntu and Canonical is hurting Linux
    5. Ubuntu 15.10 Release Schedule
    6. Xubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet - Fabulous
  12. Featured Audio and Video
    1. Community Team Q&A - 19th May 2015
    2. Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S08E11- Blubberella
  13. Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  14. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  15. Updates and Security for 12.04, 14.04, 14.10 and 15.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 12.04 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 14.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 14.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 15.04 Updates
  16. Subscribe
  17. Archives
  18. Additional Ubuntu News
  19. Conclusion
  20. Credits
  21. Glossary of Terms
  22. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  23. Feedback

newspaper-icon41.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 418 for the week May 18 - 24, 2015.

In This Issue

  • Kubuntu Council Election 2015 - Winners
  • Ubuntu Stats

  • Call for UbuCon Speakers at SELF

  • UbuConLA 2015: Call for Papers // UbuConLA 2015: Llamado a Charlas
  • 9th Ubucon 2015 in Germany
  • A new timeslot for the Membership Board meetings
  • Ubuntu Cloud News
  • RFC: Help app design
  • Canonical News

  • How Walmart uses OpenStack to deliver its 'everyday low prices'

  • The Meizu X4 is the first compelling Ubuntu phone
  • Mark Shuttleworth: Why Ubuntu mobile really matters
  • In The Blogosphere
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 12.04, 14.04, 14.10 and 15.04
  • And much more!

General Community News

Kubuntu Council Election 2015 - Winners

R.P. Charbonneau writes: “The poll was closed last night and I am pleased to bring you the results:

The winners are:

  • Rohan Garg
  • Philip Muškovac
  • Valorie Zimmerman

Congratulations to the winners!”

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kubuntu-devel/2015-May/009558.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (118400) +301 over last week
  • Critical (262) -4 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (59050) +160 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: heemayl (http://askubuntu.com/users/216503/heemayl), Tim (http://askubuntu.com/users/186134/tim), waterlubber (http://askubuntu.com/users/234343/waterlubber), A.B. (http://askubuntu.com/users/367165/a-b) and Nithi2023 (http://askubuntu.com/users/328863/nithi2023)

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

LoCo News

Call for UbuCon Speakers at SELF

Michael Hall informs us that Ubuntu is sponsoring this year's South East Linux Fest in Charlotte, North Carolina and that a room is available on 12th June for a UbuCon. He appeals for speakers to fill three hour slots, advises that the topic can be anything Ubuntu related, and provides his email address for anyone interested to contact him.

http://mhall119.com/2015/05/call-for-ubucon-speakers-at-self/

UbuConLA 2015: Call for Papers // UbuConLA 2015: Llamado a Charlas

José Antonio Rey appeals for speakers at this year's UbuConLA in Lima, Peru on 7th and 8th August. He tells us that there are slots for both English and Spanish speakers, and links to a web form for anyone wanting to propose a talk.

https://joseeantonior.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/ubuconla-2015-call-for-papers-ubuconla-2015-llamado-a-charlas/

9th Ubucon 2015 in Germany

Sujeevan Vijayakumaran, head of the organizing team this year, writes that the 9th Ubucon will be hosted in Berlin, Germany on October 25, 2015. He shares a link to the call for papers, hopes for higher attendance and the “Community in Touch” slogan for the event.

https://svij.org/blog/2015/05/24/9th-ubucon-2015-in-germany/

LoCo Events

Want to learn whether there is an event upcoming in your area? Visit the LoCo Team Portal to browse upcoming events around the world:

http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/

Other Community News

A new timeslot for the Membership Board meetings

El Achèche ANIS informs us that after some discussion on the Membership Board mailing list there will be two board meetings on the first Thursday of each month, one at 2000 UTC, the other at 2200 UTC.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2015-May/002218.html

Ubuntu Cloud News

Ubuntu Phone News

RFC: Help app design

Daniel Holbach writes that he is trying to make the help app look friendlier, more intuitive and useful. He provides some screenshots of designs by Daniel McGuire, and asks: "What are your thoughts? If you look at the content we currently have, how else would you expect the app to look like or work?"

https://daniel.holba.ch/blog/2015/05/rfc-help-app-design/

Daniel followed up his post with another after feedback from several users: More Help App design ponderings - https://daniel.holba.ch/blog/2015/05/more-help-app-design-ponderings/

Canonical News

Ubuntu Advantage Storage launches at OpenStack Summit

Caroline Tarbett informs us that at the OpenStack Summit in Vancouver Canonical has launched software-defined storage solutions with cloud-style pricing. She says: "Metered support plans are available and priced based on the amount of data written, not the number or size of disks or the number of machines used to provide the service."

http://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/05/18/ubuntu-advantage-storage-launches-at-openstack-summit/

The following articles were also released by Canonical on the first day of the OpenStack Summit:-

To converge onto mobile, tablet, and desktop, think Grid Units

Benjamin Keyser looks at how in the converged world of Unity 8, applications will work on different size screens as if by magic and that to achieve this he says that we should design using grid units. He explains what grid units are, and provides an exercise for those interested to try out.

http://design.canonical.com/2015/05/to-converge-onto-mobile-tablet-and-desktop-think-grid-units/

IoT World and the power of Snappy Apps everywhere

Maarten Ectors provides a brief overview of the technologies on display at the Internet of Things (IoT) World event.

http://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/05/19/iot-world-and-the-power-of-snappy-apps-everywhere/

In The Press

How Walmart uses OpenStack to deliver its 'everyday low prices'

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writing for ZDNet details how the world’s largest retailer has “bet the house that OpenStack is ready for prime-time.” He goes on to share details about their deployment, including the use of Ubuntu.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/walmart-relies-on-openstack/

The Meizu X4 is the first compelling Ubuntu phone

Chris Hoffman of PCWorld writes that Meizu's MX4 is now out in China and that it will be on sale in Europe soon. He looks at its specification, noting that is a higher-end phone than the Bq Aquaris, informs us that it is initially pitched at developers, and asks about phones for the USA and elsewhere. He reminds us that Canonical will be announcing a phone for the US market in June, adding: "Unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything about phones for the rest of the world."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2923931/the-meizu-x4-is-the-first-compelling-ubuntu-phone.html

Mark Shuttleworth: Why Ubuntu mobile really matters

Toby Wolpe of ZDNet reports on why Mark Shuttleworth believes Ubuntu mobile really matters. According to Shuttleworth, while there may not be a smartphone that can function as a desktop, the actual pursuit of mobile technology has brought many benefits to Ubuntu.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/mark-shuttleworth-why-ubuntu-mobile-really-matters/

In The Blogosphere

Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition Launched in China, Coming to Europe soon

Tech Drive-In’s Manuel Jose reports three months since BQ Aquaris E4.5 was revealed the Meizu MX4 with Ubuntu has been launched. While BQ’s device is labeled as a low-end device the MX4 does not cut any corners when it comes to specs.

http://www.techdrivein.com/2015/05/meizu-mx4-ubuntu-edition-launched-in.html

Ubuntu Touch to be Officially Based on Ubuntu 15.04 Starting with OTA-4

Marius Nestor writes that Łukasz Zemczak from Canonical's Foundations Team has announced that the next major update to Ubuntu for phones will be dubbed OTA-4 and will officially change its base to the Ubuntu 15.04 release. He says that the update, which is due at the end of May, includes significant new features such as better Bluetooth support, hotspot support, new keyboard layouts, as well as better app startup performance.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-Touch-to-be-Officially-Based-on-Ubuntu-15-04-Starting-with-OTA-4-481576.shtml

Will Ubuntu Linux Hit 200 Million Users This Year?

Michael Larabel of Phoronix reminds us that it has been four years since Mark Shuttleworth expressed his goal of "200 million users of Ubuntu in four years" and says that while use of Ubuntu has increased it doesn't look like that goal will be realized. He says that when Mark came up with his goal he was probably thinking that there would be far more users of the Ubuntu Phone than there is now. Michael also reminds us of Canonical's claim that Ubuntu would soon ship on 5% of PCs, something which is clearly not the case in the US and Europe.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=2015-200-Million-Goal-Retro

Misplaced ire toward Ubuntu and Canonical is hurting Linux

Jack Wallen of TechRepublic reflects upon the history of how the open source community has treated successful companies like Red Hat throughout the years and compares it to the treatment of Ubuntu and Canonical today. He continues by writing that the Ubuntu brand is the “one distribution best poised for mass acceptance” and calls upon the open source community to get behind the effort rather than continuing to “fight among themselves”.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/misplaced-ire-toward-ubuntu-and-canonical-is-hurting-linux/

Ubuntu 15.10 Release Schedule

Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! writes that Canonical has announced the planned release schedule of Ubuntu 15.10 ‘Wily Werewolf’. Of note is the release date of October 22, 2015 with a the Beta 2 release scheduled for September 24, 2015.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2015/05/ubuntu-15-10-release-schedule-wily-werewolf

Xubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet - Fabulous

Dedoimedo takes a look at Xubuntu 15.04 which he says has been an excellent performer in recent years. With the aid of screenshots, he looks at running it in a live session, installation, package management and updates, the applications, smartphone support, and battery life. In his conclusion Dedoimedo says "By far the best distro of this year." and "Try it, you won't be disappointed. We're done here."

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/xubuntu-vivid.html

Community Team Q&A - 19th May 2015

Michael Hall is joined by Nicholas Skaggs for another regular session in which they answer questions that are put to them on IRC. The focus this week is on QA and testing.

https://youtu.be/fBeRaSjqrmg

Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S08E11- Blubberella

It’s Episode Eleven of Season Eight of the Ubuntu Podcast! Alan Pope, Mark Johnson, Laura Cowen, and Martin Wimpress are connected and speaking to your brain.

In this week’s show:

  • We look at what’s been going on in the news:

    • Canonical and GE’s FirstBuild collaborate on a smart refrigerator, ChillHub

    • Meizu have announced the availability of the MX4 Ubuntu Edition in China
    • 23 years remaining until 2038’s version of Y2K
    • Security vulnerability in the virtual floppy drive code used by many computer virtualization platforms
    • Firefox 38 arrives with tab-based preferences, responsive image support and content decryption module
    • Official Syncthing Debian/Ubuntu repository released
    • Interplanetary Society has launched a kickstarter to explore the universe with a spacecraft whose locomotion is light-powered
    • Shutting down pirate sites is ineffective, European Commission finds
    • MAME games emulator is going open-source
  • We mention some community events:

    • OpenTech – London, UK – Saturday 13th June

    • PyCon UK – Coventry University Technology Centre, UK – Friday 18th – Monday 21st September

That’s all for this week, please send your comments and suggestions to: show@ubuntupodcast.org

http://ubuntupodcast.org/2015/05/21/s08e11-blubberella/

Weekly Ubuntu Development 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 12.04, 14.04, 14.10 and 15.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 12.04 Updates

End of Life - April 2017

Ubuntu 14.04 Updates

End of Life - April 2019

Ubuntu 14.10 Updates

End of Life - July 2015

Ubuntu 15.04 Updates

End of Life - January 2016

Subscribe

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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:

  • Paul White
  • Elizabeth K. Joseph
  • Vishnu Narayanan
  • Mary Frances Hull
  • 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/Issue418 (last edited 2015-05-26 04:56:46 by lyz)