Issue673


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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 673 for the week of February 28 - March 6, 2021.

In this Issue

  • Results of the Local Communities Research Committee
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Hot in Support
  • LoCo Events

  • You Don't Need To Ask
  • Ubuntu Voltage
  • Updated Snaps for KDE Apps
  • Hirsute Yaru Call for Testing
  • Other Community News
  • Canonical News
  • In the Press
  • In the Blogosphere
  • In Other News
  • Other Articles of Interest
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Meeting Reports
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Results of the Local Communities Research Committee

Torsten Franz on behalf of the Community Council announces the new Local Communities Research Committee (in no particular order)

  • Michael Hall
  • Naudy Villarroel Urquiola
  • Ko Ko Ye
  • Diogo Constantino
  • Tiago Carrondo

who will sit on the committee and conduct the research over the next six months.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2021-February/002958.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 136629 (+129)
  • Critical: 345 (+1)
  • Unconfirmed: 68000 (+46)

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

Translations

  • Ukrainian: 87.68% (39952/1055)
  • German: 86.48% (43842/276)
  • French: 81.12% (61198/6265)
  • Spanish: 80.64% (62776/3749)
  • Swedish: 75.47% (79535/869)

Hot in Support

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions

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

Ubuntu Forums Top 5 Threads

Find more support at: https://ubuntuforums.org/

LoCo Events

The following LoCo team events are currently scheduled in the next two weeks:

Looking beyond the next two weeks? Visit the LoCo Team Portal to browse upcoming events around the world: http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/

The Planet

You Don't Need To Ask

Alan Pope reminds us that Ubuntu has been around for seventeen years now and mentions it has changed during that time. Alan fears some potential contributors are being missed for fear of asking permission to get involved, thus reminding us that we should be as encouraging to newcomers as we can be.

https://popey.com/blog/2021/03/you-dont-need-to-ask/

Ubuntu Voltage

Alan Pope reminds us that for a few years there has been a live version of Ubuntu Podcast seen at FOSS Talk Live, which is going to happen again at FOSS Talk Live 2021 on Saturday 12 June. Time has yet to be decided, but we are reminded of some prior years, with a video link provided for FOSS Talk Live 2019.

https://popey.com/blog/2021/03/ubuntu-voltage/

Updated Snaps for KDE Apps

Jonathan Riddell tells us he has updated the kblocks, labplot and okular KDE snaps, and asks for some testing of them. We are given details on how to contact Jonathan via Matrix.

https://jriddell.org/2021/03/05/updated-snaps-for-kde-apps/

Hirsute Yaru Call for Testing

Alan Pope advises that release 21.04 enters User Interface Freeze on March 18th! Alan provides a list of the changes in the Yaru theme and pronounces "it needs testing by a wider audience". Links and directions are given to install the new image and the GitHub theme. As well is the link to the Yaru team GitHub issue tracker to report any issues.

https://popey.com/blog/2021/03/hirsute-yaru-call-for-testing/

Other Community News

GRUB2SecureBootBypass2021

The Security Team KnowledgeBase article covers multiple vulnerabilities in GNU GRUB listing the many CVEs and describes the potential security threat that exists. Remediation plans are provided, including a list of proposed fixes currently sitting in proposed repositories for various supported releases.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/GRUB2SecureBootBypass2021

Action:

Media attention:

Canonical News

In the Press

High severity Linux network security holes found, fixed

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes that Alexander Popov discovered and fixed a set of holes in the Linux kernel covered in CVE-2021-26708. The flaw exists in kernels 5.5 through 5.11-rc6. Alexander's fix was accepted and merged into 5.11-rc7 and backported to stable trees. Links to the relevant Ubuntu CVE are provided.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-network-security-holes-found-fixed/#ftag=RSSbaffb68

In the Blogosphere

Canonical Chooses Google’s Flutter UI SDK to Build Future Ubuntu Apps

Marius Nestor reminds us what Flutter is, and then tells us that Canonical has announced they will use the Flutter UI framework for their own Ubuntu apps. Marius quotes Canonical's Ken VanDine, who gave a talk on 3 March 2021 at Google's Flutter Engage event, with embedded video provided.

https://9to5linux.com/canonical-chooses-googles-flutter-ui-sdk-to-build-future-ubuntu-apps

Looks Like Ubuntu 21.04 Will Offer a Hybrid GNOME 3.38 Desktop with GNOME 40 Apps

Marius Nestor gives the opinion that Ubuntu 21.04 will likely come with some GNOME 40 desktop apps on the hybrid GNOME 3.38-based desktop. Marius provides a list of the GNOME 40 apps: those currently found in installed Ubuntu hirsute systems, other GNOME 40 stack applications available in the repositories but not automatically included, those that haven't received any updates (yet) for GNOME 40, plus those not available. Marius' conclusion is Ubuntu 21.04 offers a more modern experience due to these inclusions.

https://9to5linux.com/looks-like-ubuntu-21-04-will-offer-a-hybrid-gnome-3-38-desktop-with-gnome-40-apps

In Other News

Google and Debian work together to make COVID-19 researchers' lives easier

A Bazel Blog update tells us that it is easy to install a package distributed for Debian and Ubuntu, that delivers "Tensorflow Machine Learning functionality for COVID-19 researchers". The package is needed to support the medical community to help with the COVID-19 pandemic in getting better tools to the medical professionals. We are given a brief history of how this happened, and with the joint effort of Debian and Google, the work will continue.

https://blog.bazel.build/2021/03/04/bazel-debian-packaging.html

Ubuntu Security Podcast: Episode 106

"This week we talk about more BootHole-like vulnerabilities in GRUB2, a Spectre exploit found in-the-wild, security updates for xterm, screen, Python, wpa_supplicant and more."

https://ubuntusecuritypodcast.org/episode-106/

Ubuntu Portugal Podcast: 132 - Rabilho, atum rabilho

"Em vésperas do colapso – ou pelo menos de algumas dores de cabeça – de parte da Internet à conta dos certificados da Multicert, estivemos a olhar para cameras virtuais, nextcloud, Thuderbird, Let’s Encrypt, Ubuntu core e muito mais."

https://podcastubuntuportugal.org/e132/

Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

  • Developer Membership Board: Mon, March 8, 3pm – 4pm
  • Desktop Team: Tue, March 9, 2:30pm – 3:30pm
  • Ubuntu Women: Tue, March 9, 6pm – 7pm
  • Technical Board: Tue, March 9, 8pm – 9pm
  • Ubuntu Foundations: Thu, March 11, 4pm – 5pm

Times shown are UTC. For more details and farther dates please visit: https://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/

Updates and Security for 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 16.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2021

Ubuntu 18.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2023

Ubuntu 20.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2025

Ubuntu 20.10 Updates

End of life: July 2021

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Archive

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Further News

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Conclusion

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See you next week!

Credits

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Glossary of Terms

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UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue673 (last edited 2021-03-14 21:01:11 by torsten.franz)