Issue68

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 68 for the week November 25th - December 2nd, 2007. In this issue we cover ...

UWN Translations

In This Issue

General Community News

MOTU

We're pleased to announce that [http://launchpad.net/~apachelogger Harald Sitter] now is a MOTU. After putting a lot of work into Kubuntu, everybody's happy to have him in the team now!

Full Circle #7

Issue #7 Summary:

  • Step-by-Step Ubuntu Studio install
  • How-To : Simply Install SSH, A Terminal on your Desktop, Easily
  • Convert from Windows and Learning Scribus pt.7.
  • Review : Wubi Installer
  • Top 5 - Audio/Video Apps.
  • Interview with Howard County Library.

  • News, Letters, Q&A, MyDesktop and more!

Catch it while it's hot! http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-7/

Hug Day

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2007-November/131094.html

Hardy Alpha 1 Out

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyHeron/Alpha1 include usual precautions about not using in production systems

Ubuntu JeOS 7.10 Released

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2007-November/000106.html

Newly CC approved members

LoCo News

Newly CC approved LoCos

New in Gutsy Gibbon

Launchpad News

Launchpad 1.1.11 Released

Launchpad has two big pieces of news this month!

  • Personal Package Archives are now out of beta and available to all Launchpad users and teams. Find out more in our quick-start guide at https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart

  • Launchpad Translations is now much quicker and rock-solid. Expect exports and imports in half the time and next to no timeouts.

Read the full announcement here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2007-November/002768.html

Ubuntu Forum News

New sub-forums

Two new sub-forums have been set up:

UF members interviews

23meg is under the spotlights this week. He contributes to Ubuntu in many different ways, via the Forums Ambassadors team, moderating sub-forums, triaging bugs with the Bug Squad, transations, documentation, etc. The whole article is here: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/12/01/an-interview-with-23meg/

In The Press

New Xubuntu Remix: MPPA University Toolkit, PeerWatch

There is a new Xubuntu Remix/Derivative that is getting a lot of attention in the press these days called "PeerWatch" or simply the "University Toolkit". "The Motion Picture of Association of America is urging some of the nation's largest universities to deploy custom software designed to pinpoint students who may be using the schools' networks to illegally download pirated movies." reports Brian Krebs on Computer Security at the Washington Post; "The University Toolkit is essentially [the Xubuntu Operating System] with some powerful, open-source network monitoring tools, including Snort, which captures detailed information about all traffic flowing across a network; as well as ntop - a tool used to take data feeds from tools like Snort and display the data in more user-friendly graphics and charts."

Although Piracy is illegal in most industrialized countries, there has been overwhelming dislike for how certain copyright players like the RIAA and the MPAA are dealing with the crisis of the shifting market. Naturally, a number of articles and stories have popped up in the media giving this new software a hard look over. Sadly, the verdict isn't stellar: "A closer look at the MPAA's software, however, raises some serious privacy and security concerns for both the entertainment industry and the schools that choose to deploy the technology." Along with serious privacy and security concerns, there has also been some calls suggesting that the MPAA has violated the Canonical trademark policy for Xubuntu by not re-branding (Xubuntu logo, splash screens, etc. have not been changed) and that they are violating the GPL by not distributing modification they have made to certain GPL applications nor the source code for their distribution. Canonical has yet to comment on the status of the MPAA's compliance with their trademark policies.

It seems that this interesting use of Technology has turned into a storm of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). Hopefully more details will be released shortly to put an end to the furry of speculations. Cody A.W. Somerville of the Xubuntu project had the following to say: "I'm excited to see the use of the Xubuntu distribution and I see this as an excellent opportunity to push a positive Xubuntu agenda; the MPAA is entitled to use Open Source Software like anyone else. Although I can not speak to the certainty of some of the claims leveled against the MPAA (copyright, trademark, privacy/security concerns), I do hope that if there are problems present that they can be resolved quickly and satisfactorily."

For more information about this emerging story, see: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/11/mpaa_university_toolkit_opens_1.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07331/836964-28.stm

http://www.cfnews13.com/Technology/YourTechnology/2007/11/16/ubuntu__the_39other39_windows.html

In The Blogosphere

In Other News

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-marketing-submissions/2007-November/000206.html

Meetings and Events

Community Spotlight

Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Bug Stats

  • Open (#) +/- # over last week
  • Critical (#) +/- # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
  • Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # over last week

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

Infamous Bugs

Translation Stats

  1. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  2. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  3. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  4. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  5. Language (#) +/- # over last week

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

UWN #: A sneak peek

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:

and

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Cody A.W. Somerville
  • 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.