Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Hardy Alpha 5 Released
    2. Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
    3. 5-a-Day
    4. Newly Approved LoCos
    5. Newly Approved Members
    6. Review of Developer Week
  3. Interview with Nick Barcet, Ubuntu Server Product Manager
  4. Launchpad News
    1. Launchpad 1.2.2: faster PPA builds, enhanced bug subscriptions and more karma!
  5. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Forums Interviews
    2. Tutorials Of The Week
  6. In The Press
  7. In The Blogosphere
  8. In Other News
    1. Canadian Availability of Dell machines
    2. Zenbuntu
    3. Canonical to resell IBM DB2 Express-C as software, virtual appliances
  9. Meeting Summaries
    1. Ubuntu Studio
    2. Documentation Team
    3. Installer Team
    4. Kubuntu Team
    5. Wine Team
  10. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, February 25, 2008
      1. Hugs for Bugs Day
    2. Tuesday, February 26, 2008
      1. Hugs for Bugs Day
    3. Wednesday, February 27, 2008
      1. Hugs for Bugs Day
      2. Marketing Team Meeting
      3. Launchpad users meeting
      4. Platform Team Meeting
      5. Education Team Meeting
      6. Server Team Meeting
    4. Thursday, February 28, 2008
      1. Desktop Team Meeting
    5. Friday, February 29, 2008
      1. MOTU Meeting
  11. Community Spotlight
    1. Florida Team Rocks the Florida Linux Show
  12. Updates and Security for 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates
    3. Ubuntu 6.10 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 7.04 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 7.10 Updates
  13. Bug Stats
  14. Translation Stats - Gutsy Gibbon
  15. Translation Stats - Hardy Heron
  16. Archives and RSS Feed
  17. Additional Ubuntu News
  18. Conclusion
  19. Credits
  20. Glossary of Terms
  21. Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 79 for the weeks February 17th - February 23rd, 2008. In this issue we cover the release of Hardy Alpha 5, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, Ubuntu Developer Week, newly approved LoCos and members, interview with the Ubuntu Server Product Manager, and, as always, much, much more!

UWN Translations

In This Issue

General Community News

Hardy Alpha 5 Released

Another Hardy Heron pre-release is available for testing. Alpha 5 is the fifth in a series of six milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Hardy development cycle. Alpha 5 includes several new features that are ready for large-scale testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/alpha5 for information on changes in Ubuntu and https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardyHeron/Alpha5/Kubuntu for changes in Kubuntu. Pre-releases of Hardy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-February/000387.html

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Hardy is now past feature-freeze and it's time to start planning features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is released in April. The release which is planned for October 2008, will be named "Intrepid Ibex", and will most likely be version 8.10. The desktop will once again be a focal point as the team works to re-engineer the users interaction model so that Ubuntu works as well on a high-end workstation as well as it does on a sub-notebook. A particular focus will be pervasive internet access, the ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to be. The ability to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way will be a top priority. Ubuntu 8.10 will be the ninth release, and the fourth anniversary of the first release - 4.10.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2008-February/025136.html

5-a-Day

What is 5-A-Day? 5-A-Day is a blitz of the community to fix bugs. A simplified explanation, but if everyone pitches in and helps on just 5 bugs, think of the results. Not sure you have to ability to fix bugs? No problem! This program has been set up to let everyone contribute in some way. Follow the link to find out how you can help! And remember help to spread the news of this worth while bug blitz, by adding it to your blog. Get busy, get involved, and help get rid of those pesky bugs. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day

Newly Approved LoCos

Newly Approved Members

Review of Developer Week

The first ever Ubuntu Developer Week was a success. Session covered a wide array of topics like learning how to triage bugs, different packaging techniques, Ubuntu derivatives, MOTU processes, hosting code on Launchpad, and packaging Firefox 3 extensions. IRC logs and details can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek. To read summaries of sessions from each day, see Daniel Holbach's blog:

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=88

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=91

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=92

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=94

Interview with Nick Barcet, Ubuntu Server Product Manager

UWN: Who are you? What do you do at Canonical?

I'm Nick Barcet, an almost 40 years old geek that started programming on a TRS-80 quite a long time ago. I joined Canonical in September 2007 to fill the role of Ubuntu Server Product Manager. The role of a product manager is to be the interface between the technical team and the rest of the company. This implies

UWN: How long have you used Linux and what was your first distro? And how long have you been using Ubuntu?

I started with Linux with SuSE in 1998 as a hobby, which became handy when Novell bought SuSE while I was working there. I switched to Ubuntu end of 2005 on my Desktop and with Dapper on my servers (I had left Novell at that time).

UWN: Virtualization is in the news more and more nowadays. The Server Team has been focusing on KVM, and VMware has been in the commercial repository for almost a year, and OpenVZ was just added. How is the relationship with VMware progressing? What has been the reaction to JeOS? Are ISVs putting it to use? Is there any more planned collaboration?

We do have a great relationship with VMWare, which is progressing very well. As you have noticed, we also started working with Parallels (ex SWSoft) and they are providing OpenVZ in Universe, which is another great option to Ubuntu users. As each of these technologies are providing answers to different use cases, I think that we are starting to have a great virtualization story on Ubuntu Server Edition.

JeOS has generated a lot of attention and the number of Virtual Appliances built on it are growing every day. JeOS is updated to work also with KVM in version 8.04, and we've also improved the VMWare ESX support. This will certainly increase the momentum that we are already observing. We're confident that 8.04, will see numerous ISVs certify on it and bringing many more options, both virtualised or not, to Ubuntu users.

UWN: Are there plans to get involved with "cloud" computing, similar to how RHEL is directly available on Amazon's EC2 services?

Ubuntu Server Edition works very well on EC2 already and there are quite a few how-to published on the subject, pre-built images posted by the community [1] and even virtual appliances available, such Paul Dowman's "EC2 on Rails" [2]. As you know, Canonical's business model is to sell Technical Support, not to sell the "maintenance" as other distribution do. We're watching the RH/Amazon tie up and it is definitely an interesting way of delivering the server product to the market. As we only charge for support and not maintenance we would have to deliver it a different way but it is too soon to talk about specifics or any deals.

As a side note, there is currently quite a bit of confusion in what is support and maintenance. What I refer to as maintenance is the is the commitment Ubuntu has on providing security updates for the packages that are defined in seed whatever dependencies are necessary to make them work. More precisely our commitment is to provide free maintenance for Ubuntu products as follow:

As you see, this is quite different from support, where this only covers the activity to provide various types of answers to customer over the phone, web or email which Canonical offers for a fee.

[1] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EC2 http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=116

[2] http://ec2onrails.rubyforge.org/

UWN: Many businesses use Active Directory or some form of LDAP extensively. How is the Windows AD integration coming along for Hardy and what are the future plans?

Thanks to the great work from Jerry Carter producing likewise-open, and of Rick Clark packaging it in Ubuntu, the package has been uploaded just before Feature Freeze. On Ubuntu desktop, it provides a graphical interface to integrate into AD, while on Ubuntu Server Edition a single command line will allow the joining. Once this is done, all authentications are seamlessly redirected to AD.

It looks good at fulfilling its promise of very easy integration into an AD domain, but it now needs some extensive testing before 8.04 is released. If you have access to an AD domain and can run a few tests with Hardy, now is the right time to do so and it is a great way to contribute to Ubuntu Server Edition.

UWN: Landscape is systems management tool provided by Canonical with a support contract. What does it do? Are there other applications provided at the commercial level?

Landscape is a systems management tool that provides grouped management, inventory, user management and monitoring of multiple servers in a centralized way. With Landscape it is possible to simultaneously request and installation, update or removal of a package on all or some of your managed at the same time. The same can be done for users. You also get a very clear summary of resources consumption on you servers over time with very smart graphs grouping the info for multiple servers. More information and screen shots are available on Canonical's web site [1].

Landscape is the only application we provide specifically for commercial support users right now. We intend to improve and expand it over time to become even more valuable to them as it is a compelling reason to use our support. These customers are also encouraged to use Launchpad and Bazaar if appropriate. I don't know if we will add more applications for commercial customers. We will where and when it make sense.

[1]http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscape

Launchpad News

Launchpad 1.2.2: faster PPA builds, enhanced bug subscriptions and more karma!

It's time for another Launchpad release and this is one with something for just about everyone!

There's also exciting news for Launchpad beta testers! You can now apply to use Launchpad to run a mailing list for a team you're involved with. Find out more at https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp

Not a beta tester yet? You're missing out on first looks at new features and the chance to shape the future of Launchpad. Learn more at https://help.launchpad.net/BetaTesting

For more details, see https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2008-February/003233.html

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums Interviews

Interviews with the following Forums members are now available:

Tutorials Of The Week

Here are the tutorials that have been selected for the past few weeks:

In The Press

In The Blogosphere

In Other News

Canadian Availability of Dell machines

Dell has increased the availability of their systems. Now you can purchase the same machines in Canada that are available in the United States. A new machine is also available: the Inspiron 1525 (available in various colors). To keep up to date on all the Dell/Ubuntu offerings, bookmark: http://www.ubuntu.com/dell - this is the Ubuntu page for everything Dell/Ubuntu and will be updated as new products become available.

Zenbuntu

Zebuntu: http://zebuntu.com/ - is a new Xfce-based Ubuntu distribution with heavy Zeta influences. Bernd Korz explains the goals of Zebuntu in the project's announcement: http://zebuntu.com/component/content/article/25-das-projekt/46-zebuntu-sagt-qguten-tagq.html (in German): "Our goal is to use BlueEyedOS to offer a new platform for our former Zeta customers. In the future, Zeta, BeOS, as well as any future Haiku applications, will run natively on Zebuntu. This also offers a distinct advantage for developers for these platforms; they can use Zebuntu to develop for their platforms while utilising the performance and versatility of Linux." In other words, run BeOS applications on Linux.

http://osnews.com/story/19359/Zebuntu_Debuts

Canonical to resell IBM DB2 Express-C as software, virtual appliances

Canonical announced the availability of IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5 through the Ubuntu Partner Repository and as a virtual appliance running on VMware. IBM DB2 Express-C is a no-charge edition of the DB2 database server. Ideal for small businesses and multi-branch companies, DB2 Express-C can be set up quickly, is easy-to-use, and includes self-managing capabilities. "IBM DB2 Express-C is a great example of how we are bringing business-class applications to the Ubuntu community. Users have more access than ever before to the tools they need," said Mark Murphy, Canonical alliances manager. Canonical is also making an annual support contract for IBM DB2 Express-C available to its users through shop.canonical.com. This announcement marks the first time that Ubuntu users will be able to buy an annual subscription service directly from the company. "Allowing for the purchase of annual subscriptions directly from Canonical is also part of a larger commitment to mid-size enterprises that we will continue to build upon this year."

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ibm-db2-ubuntu-virtual-appliance

Meeting Summaries

Ubuntu Studio

Documentation Team

Installer Team

Kubuntu Team

Wine Team

For more information, see Team Reports: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/February2008

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, February 25, 2008

Hugs for Bugs Day

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Hugs for Bugs Day

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hugs for Bugs Day

Marketing Team Meeting

Launchpad users meeting

Platform Team Meeting

Education Team Meeting

Server Team Meeting

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Desktop Team Meeting

Friday, February 29, 2008

MOTU Meeting

Community Spotlight

Florida Team Rocks the Florida Linux Show

The Florida LoCo Team joined together for the 1st Annual FLorida Linux Show. The exhibit booth experienced tremendous traffic, and provided support for both installation and application issues as they arose. It was refreshing to the team to see how many people were actively using ubuntu, and to listen to their experiences both positive and negative. The Florida LoCo team gained some new members and spent some time getting to know each other better in RL. See pics of Florida Loco Team Events: http://florida.ubuntu-us.org/content/blogcategory/25/67/

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

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

Ubuntu 6.10 Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Bug Stats

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

Translation Stats - Gutsy Gibbon

  1. Spanish (12390) +1 # over last week
  2. English-UK (24948) +1 # over last week
  3. French (37624) -104 # over last week
  4. Swedish (49177) +1 # over last week
  5. Brazilian Portuguese (65435) -194 # over last week

Translation Stats - Hardy Heron

This establishes the base-line for future weeks.

  1. Spanish (14508)
  2. English-UK (41221)
  3. French (44082)
  4. Swedish (53857)
  5. Brazilian Portuguese (67443)

Remaining string to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy

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:

Glossary of Terms

  1. AD - (Windows AD) Active Directory
  2. CLI - Command Line Interface
  3. FL/OSS - Free Libre/Open Source Software
  4. LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
  5. LUKS - Linux Unified Key Setup
  6. RL - Real Life
  7. SFD - Software Freedom Day

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.

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue79 (last edited 2008-08-06 17:01:31 by localhost)