UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue53

Contents

In This Issue
General Community News
LoCo News
Launchpad News
In The Press
In The Blogosphere
Meetings and Events
Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04
Bug Stats
Translation Stats
What is it?
Archives and RSS Feed
Additional Ubuntu News
Conclusion
Credits
RSS
Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 53 for the week August 12th - August 18th, 2007. In this issue we cover Celebratory Hug Day for GNOME, updates on compromised community servers and LoCo options, LinuxMCE Media Centre addon for Kubuntu, the Portuguese Team's effort to put FOSS in schools, and much much more.

UWN Translations

Deutsch - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue53/De
Español - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue53/Es
Français - http://ubuntu-fr.org/lettre/lhu53.html
Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana
Português - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue53/Pt

In This Issue

Update on Compromised LoCo Servers and Options
Celebratory Hug Day for GNOME
LinuxMCE Releases Media Centre Addon to Kubuntu
Portuguese Team's Starts Effort to Put FOSS in Schools
In The Press and In the Blogosphere
Translation stats
Bug Stats

General Community News

Compromised LoCo Servers (What are your options)

The recent compromise of the community hosted servers has received considerable scrutiny both in the linux press and through the mailing lists. However, since some of the community do not subscribe to the loco-contacts mailing list, there remains some confusion about what steps LoCos need to take.

The Canonical staff wishes to point out that this event had no effect on the code, packages, or CD's for Ubuntu.

Here are the two options available to LoCos:

First, if a LoCo is using one of the "approved" webapps listed in the e-mail, https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2007-August/001510.html, the LoCo is welcome to use the hosting provided by the Canonical sysadmin team in the London based Canonical data center (CDC). If third-party modules or plugins are needed, they will need to be audited for security before being activated.
Second, if the LoCo is not using an approved application and doesn't feel migration to a supported application is possible, the application can continue to be hosted on the community servers. The community servers will still be maintained, but not allocated the same administrative resources that the CDC hosted sites will receive. The PHP, CGI, and other executable codes on the community servers will need to be replaced since they may have been compromised.

All of the above means, "don't worry, everything is going to be OK." Also, each site will need to make arrangements for getting their site set up in the proper place. To do this, follow these steps:

A. File a bug at https://launchpad.net/loco-webhosting.
B. Contact us to make sure we can make DNS changes for your site by filing a bug at https://launchpad.net/loco-webhosting. This process is not instantaneous unfortunately.

As always, be patient, LoCo teams far outnumber sysadmins.

If you do not yet have Canonical sponsored hosting and are an approved team, but would like to have hosting, please understand that there will be a longer than usual delay, and see the existing instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoHosting.

See the following links for more information:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2007-August/001510.html

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2007-August/001511.html

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2007-August/001512.html

Celebratory Hug Day - 22 Aug 2007

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the GNOME project we are having a very special Hug Day on Wednesday, August 22nd. We will be focusing on the collaboration between the Ubuntu and GNOME projects by working on the following topics:

Linking related bugs in Malone to GNOME's bugzilla.
Ensuring that any forwarded bug reports have the same information and are complete.
Reproducing crasher bugs in GNOME's bugzilla in the development release of Ubuntu to provide a detailed crash report for GNOME.

There will be a list of types of bugs including specifically targeted bugs at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20070822 So on 22 August 2007, in all timezones, we'll be meeting in #ubuntu-bugs on irc.freenode.net for a very special Hug Day. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay If you're interested in helping to improve Ubuntu and GNOME, please join us. Feel free to ask pedro, bdmurray, heno and the rest of the team for ways to help out. We hope to see you there and your name on the list of bug triagers! https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2007-August/121367.html

LinuxMCE Releases Media Centre Addon to Kubuntu

When picking a media center solution for your PC, it tends to be a matter of compromise. There are solutions that are visually attractive, solutions that are Free/open source software, solutions that are more complete than others and solutions that integrate well with a desktop environment. In the past there have been few, if any, that have been all of these things. After an extensive beta testing period a new version of LinuxMCE, release 0704, was recently made available to the public that shows how we can indeed have our media center cake and eat it too. See more at http://dot.kde.org/1187201437/ and http://linuxmce.com/

LoCo News

The Ubuntu Loco-Team in Portugal, the Portuguese translation team and also a few free software friends in Portugal had been discussing a project specialized in implementing Ubuntu in Portuguese Schools for a few months (on the ubuntuescolas at googlegroups.com mailing list and in Freenode #ubuntu-pt). The discussions have led to the conclusion that the LoCo should focus all the efforts in a more general project, which could include other free software distributions as well. The websites, http://www.escolaslivres.org and a forum at http://www.escolaslivres.org/forum, have been setup and already have some interesting content. There has been a substantial amount of input in the first days already. If you are a Portuguese speaker, interested in Free Software in schools, join us and contribute!

Launchpad News

Wednesday 22nd August sees the release of Launchpad 1.1.8! Full details of what's new in Launchpad will be posted to the Launchpad News blog (http://news.launchpad.net/) and in the next issue of UWN.

In The Press

Ubuntu tries to go Loco in all 50 states - The Ubuntu community is seeking to get approved Local Community (Loco) teams in all 50 states in the US by the end of this year, and it's making impressive progress. Christer Edwards, founder of the Utah Loco team and one of the founders of the US Teams project, says, "As one of the few US Teams leaders, I felt a bit of a responsibility to share what I had done with the rest of the country. Myself, Aaron Toponce (also of the Utah Team), and Stephen Stalcup (of the Ohio Team) started the US Teams project. Our goal was to create a team-building framework, improve communication between teams, and build a small group of mentors to help users build their teams with one-on-one guidance." Long-time Linux users may be wondering why there's a need for Ubuntu Loco teams when so many Linux user groups already exist, and whether the Loco teams are competing with LUGs. Edwards says that the Loco teams exist to "advocate, educate, and support the use of Ubuntu" specifically, and that they try hard not to compete with existing LUGs. In fact, Edwards says a Loco team can assist LUGs. "By offering Ubuntu-specific education and resources to existing regional and university-based LUGs, we can help them improve their attendance and user experience. http://www.linux.com/feature/118583
Cedric Janssens, French Speaking Press Contact for Ubuntu-be.org was invited to a Belgian tech podcast (in French). In the first half of the podcast, he presented Ubuntu, described the French-speaking Ubuntu community structure (ways to find websites and help are given at the end of the interview), and discussed several open-source applications such as OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird. The professional support offered to business companies or public administrations is also presented, in addition to security issues handling in open-source projects. For the complete interview and a 3D video of the Ubuntu desktop, please see: http://www.lepetitjournal.com/content/view/17621/1257/
Ubuntu Servers Compromised - This last week, 5 of the 8 servers that are loco hosted but Canonical sponsored, had to be shut down due to reports that they were actively attacking other machines. - http://osdir.com/Article9888.phtml

In The Blogosphere

XP, Vista, MacOS X and Ubuntu Linux: Innovations at Risk - As I ponder the coming need to replace my fast aging IBM Thinkpad T40, I am faced with a tough choice. Do I continue using Windows? I decided to download and install Ubuntu Linux. Since the arrival of Ubuntu, Linux installation has become increasingly easy. While Ubuntu doesn’t support as many devices as Windows does, Ubuntu does a great job. The fact that the Ubuntu CD comes with major productivity software already bundled makes perfect sense. If you are weary of such a major switch, you can even run the CD live, that is, you don’t have to install Ubuntu until you are ready.http://www.bityard.com/article.php?sid=909#Adds
Lunch Meet: Ubuntu is Linux for Human Beings - Ubuntu is a GNU/Linux distribution that is quite useable and easy to install. Based on debian and GNOME, ubuntu offers extensive hardware recognition combined with a functional desktop environment complete with a suite of office applications. While at Linuxworld in San Francisco, I had a chat with ubuntu's Kevin Shuk, who gives me a demo. Video available by clicking on the link. http://www.podtech.net/home/3854/lunchmeet-ubuntu-is-linux-for-human-beings
Review: Dell Inspiron 1420N with Ubuntu - The time seems right for a company like Dell to partner with a distribution like Ubuntu and bring Linux to the masses. Unfortunately, Dell and Ubuntu’s parent company Canonical have not worked together closely enough to make this a first-rate offering. While I think the 1420N is a great computer overall, the lack of attention to detail (and unbelievably bad driver support) keep these latest Linux offerings from being ready for the general public. Hopefully Dell and Canonical will resolve these problems and make a truly great product that I could feel comfortable recommending to family members who are not familiar with Linux.http://www.starryhope.com/dell/2007/review-dell-inspiron-1420n-with-ubuntu/
Vista Ultimate vs. Ubuntu 7.04 - Which Install Is Easier? - So less than 3 hours into this experiment, I have both Vista and Ubuntu installed and patched. Both systems are stable, more or less, but both systems have quirks. Neither system worked perfectly, but much to my surprise the Ubuntu system worked better, (once I got the keyboard working). More hardware worked without needing to download additional drivers. More over, the desktop that I do have is more functional - applications like GIMP, Open Office, and a slew of multi-media apps are far more useful than Wordpad, Paint and the slew of crap that Vista comes with. I am left with the feeling that Ubuntu passed the install test with a higher mark than Vista. While it may lack some of the polish of Microsoft’s flagship product, in this test, on my machine, it was the better OS.http://scitech.teambio.org/2007/08/14/vista-ultimate-vs-ubuntu-704-which-install-is-easier/
How to install Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) in OS X using Parallels Desktop 3.0 - a complete walkthrough - This tutorial will take you every single step of the way through installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) using Parallels Desktop 3.0 (Build 4128) for OS X. In other words, even your parents should be able to follow along. This tutorial is for anyone with an Intel based Mac who is curious about Linux - specifically Ubuntu, and has about an hour to kill (not including the time it takes to download Ubuntu). The steps and screen shots used for this tutorial are specific to Parallels Desktop 3.0 (Build 4128) running on a Mac Book Pro w/ OS X (10.4.10). With that said, they will be nearly identical if you have a Mac Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Book or any other Intel based Apple Mac. http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/08/15/how-to-install-ubuntu-feisty-fawn-in-os-x-using-parallels-desktop-30-a-complete-walkthrough/
First Official Compiz Fusion Release! - Compiz Fusion is the result of a merge between the Compiz community plugin set “Compiz Extras” and the window manager core independent parts of the “Beryl” project. Both Compiz Extras and Beryl have left important marks on in how we look at Window management, and with the merge, you no longer have to choose which one to use. The release marks a milestone as our first release and six months since the last release of Beryl. - http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/compiz-fusion-our-first-release-052/

Meetings and Events

Monday, August 20, 2007

Forum Council Meeting

Starts: 22:00 UTC
Ends: 23:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Kernel Team Meeting

Start: 15:00 UTC
End: 16:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Meeting

New York Loco Meeting

Start: 18:00 EST
End: 19:30 EST
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-newyork
Info: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/NewYorkTeam

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Edubuntu Meeting

Start: 12:00 UTC
End: 14:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda

Xubuntu Developers Meeting

Start: 20:00 UTC
End: 22:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Meetings

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Gutsy Tribe 5 Release

Start: 00:00 UTC
End: 23:59 UTC
Info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyReleaseSchedule

Ubuntu Development Team Meeting

Start: 15:00 UTC
End: 17:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: No agenda as of this publication

Ubuntu Desktop Training Meeting

Start: 15:00 UTC
End: 16:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-training
Agenda: No agenda as of this publication

Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04

Bug Stats

Open (31738) +383 # over last week
Critical (20) +2 # over last week
Unconfirmed (15767) +128 # over last week
Unassigned (23758) +266 # over last week
All bugs ever reported (114874) +1262 # 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

Spanish (23206) -480 # over last week
French (39954) +1177 # over last week
Swedish (54747) +185 # over last week
English-UK (61179) +823 # over last week
German (64506) +1251 # over last week

Remaining string to translate in Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/

What is it?

Last week's closeup was a The Oxygen icon for Kopete. The winner was:

Jucato

Archives and RSS Feed

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

You can subscribe to the Ubuntu Weekly News via RSS at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news

and

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

Nick Ali
Martin Albisetti
Dawid van Wyngaard
John Crawford
Isabelle Duchatelle
And many others

RSS

You can subscribe to the UWN feed at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

Feedback

If you would like to submit an idea or story you think is worth appearing on the UWN, please send them to ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com. This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team Contact Information Page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam). 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 then ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.