Issue85

Contents

  1. In This Issue
  2. General Community News
    1. Hardy FinalFreeze approaching
    2. MOTU (New Members)
    3. Ubuntu Live registration information
    4. Hardy Release Party Promotional Flyers
  3. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Hardy
  4. Launchpad News
    1. Launchpad now OpenId Provider
  5. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Forums Interview
    2. Tutorial of the Week
    3. April Fools Days at UF
  6. In The Press
  7. In The Blogosphere
  8. In Other News
    1. Matt Zimmerman Interview(Ubuntu Live Conference)
    2. New Ubuntu related sites
  9. Meeting Summaries
    1. Ubuntu Documentation Team
    2. Wine Team
  10. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Tuesday, April 8, 2008
      1. Marketing meeting
    2. Wednesday, April 9, 2008
      1. Marketing meeting
      2. Server Team Meeting
    3. Thursday, April 10, 2008
      1. Security Team Meeting
  11. 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
  12. Archives and RSS Feed
  13. Additional Ubuntu News
  14. Conclusion
  15. Credits
  16. Glossary of Terms
  17. Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 85 for the weeks March 30th - April 5th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Hardy FinalFreeze approaching, New MOTU members, Ubuntu Live registration info, Hardy Release Party Flyers, Launchpad OpenID, Forum News, Matt Zimmerman Interview, New Ubuntu related websites, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

In This Issue

  • Hardy FinalFreeze approaching

  • New MOTU members
  • Ubuntu Live registration info
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Launchpad OpenID
  • Ubuntu Forums News

  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • Matt Zimmerman Interview
  • Meeting Summaries

  • Upcoming Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

General Community News

Hardy FinalFreeze approaching

FinalFreeze will impact on April, 10th. During FinalFreeze, every upload to universe/multiverse will need to be approved by motu-release. To enforce this, no uploads will pass the queue of the archive admins, unless a proper granted exception is present.

Also, please prepare any uploads avoiding all unnecessary changes. Among these are:

  • General package cleanups, like bumping standards-version.
  • Adding a patch system for packages, which don't have one already.
  • Changing text files (in regards to translations), including fixing minor typographical errors.
  • Switching build systems.

To see the full message, please go to https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2008-April/025259.html

MOTU (New Members)

  • In just 6 short months of being involved in the MOTU process, Andrea has displayed what it takes to be an outstanding member of the MOTU community. With an interest in games and science, Andrea wasn't fulfilled and has since then taken a liking to the QA process, spending countless amount of hours fixing FTBFS, unmetdeps, as well as library transitions, stuff you typically see seasoned MOTUs go after. It is this dedication that makes Andrea Colangelo a member of the MOTU community.

  • After outstanding feedback from all people Morten Kjeldgaard worked with, he was deemed ready for MOTU membership.

Ubuntu Live registration information

Registration is now open for the second Ubuntu Live conference taking place July 21-22 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.

Ubuntu Live is a vibrant and important gathering of IT professionals, government and business leaders, educators, community leaders, enterprise and business users. The two day event will allow participants to share their Ubuntu experiences, learn from each other, and catch up with the latest developments from Ubuntu, our partners, and the free software and open source ecosystem. Ubuntu Live is the meeting place for enterprise users and community developers to come together to exchange ideas and discuss projects face to face. http://en.oreilly.com/ubuntu2008/public/content/home

Register now through June 2 and you'll save $150. Just go to: https://www.ubuntulive.com/register.
See https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-us/2008-April/000342.html for more information.

Hardy Release Party Promotional Flyers

Local community (LoCo) teams work together to advocate and promote Ubuntu. Through the 76er program, System76 aims to help LoCo's promote events with free professionally printed flyers and 'Powered by Ubuntu' stickers. The 76er program is only available to US LoCo teams at this time.
For more information, see http://knowledge76.com/index.php/76er_Program

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (41686) +697 # over last week
  • Critical (29) +12 # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (19985) +302 # over last week
  • Unassigned (32254) +600 # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (168370) +2855 # 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 Hardy

This is the top 5, not specific languages, so the languages might change week to week.

  • Spanish (17408)
  • French (40734)
  • Swedish (54923)
  • English-UK (58736)
  • Brazilian Portuguese (65886)

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

Launchpad News

Launchpad now OpenId Provider

This month Launchpad needs your help in testing the new OpenID feature.

OpenID is an open standard that lets you use one username and password to access many different websites. You can use your Launchpad account to log into websites that work with OpenID, including:

  • Blogger - to post blog comments
  • Zoomr - photo sharing

  • LiveJournal

  • ma.gnolia.com - social bookmarking.

The OpenID Directory - http://openiddirectory.com/ - has links to more sites.

As Launchpad's OpenID support is still in beta, you may come across bugs. If so, please report them here, tag them with "openid" and assign them to me (flacoste): https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+filebug

You can also find a list of known bugs here:https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad-project/+bugs?field.tag=openid

If you have any questions or feedback about this beta, please email me directly. You can also take a look at our user guide, which is on this page: https://help.launchpad.net/OpenID

Barry Warsaw - who ran last month's mailing list beta test - wants to thank everyone who took part. As you've probably already seen, mailing lists are now available to all teams in Launchpad!

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums Interview

handy, from the "Oz" country, as he calls it, agreed to talk a little bit of himself. What a journey! Please discover the whole article here: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/an-interview-with-handy/

Tutorial of the Week

Offline users or systems with weak Internet access might find this week's Tutorial of the Week helpful -- it's epimeteo's "Howto: NoNetDebs - upgrade Ubuntu without Internet (or with low-bandwidth connection)". If you've ever been stranded offline with an Ubuntu machine and wanted to install or upgrade your system, this tutorial might be useful to you. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=572819

April Fools Days at UF

There was a whole series of obnoxious color schemes (that green olive theme with pink fonts will be remembered!), and Staff exchanged their avatars, title, locations, signature, all the visual elements that our eyes depend upon to identify someone. Some got really confused.. We had a lot of fun. Matthew has a summary of what happened, with screenshots. See here: http://matthewhelmke.net/index.php/2008/04/01/47-ubuntu-forums-and-april-fool-s-day-part-2

As a relapse, the Backyard sub-forum kept the April 1st, 2008, renaming and color scheme. You'll find it labeled "OMG pInK pOnIeS" with a bright pink default font color. See you next year!

In The Press

  • Linux: 9000 PCs in Swiss schools will switch to Ubuntu only - Geneva newspaper Tribune de Geneve reports that from September 2008 all computers at schools that currently are dual-boot MS Windows and Linux will have MS Windows removed and become FOSS (Free Open Source Software) only. Besides lower costs for the administration, students will also profit from the use of Ubuntu, as they then will be able to use the same applications at home without any additional cost. Manuel Grandjean, director for the schools (Ecoles-Médias) IT services pointed out that the use of FOSS “…encourages participation and the democratization of knowledge and provides product independent competences…“. http://www.duvet-dayz.com/archives/2008/04/04/654/

  • Ubuntu to be Sun certified - Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux, said on Wednesday that Sun Microsystems Inc would soon certify that his software is compatible with some Sun products. Sun is the first of the world's major server computer makers to certify that its hardware works with Ubuntu Linux, Shuttleworth told Reuters in an interview. http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0236534620080403

  • Ubuntu 8.04 'Hardy Heron' review - The beta of the next version of the Ubuntu Linux operating system has arrived, although judging by its stability and polish you'd be hard pressed to tell it's a testing release. Ubuntu 8.04, code-named "Hardy Heron", is scheduled to be an LTS (Long Term Support) edition, and you can tell its developers have worked diligently to make it worthy of the title. Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is shaping up to be a worthy upgrade for existing users and a good jumping-on point for new ones. Wubi, in particular, makes it ideal for anyone who has hesitated to give Linux a try before now. Look for the final version to be available in April. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=1881&pn=2

In The Blogosphere

  • Sun and Canonical to bring Ubuntu 8.04 to x86 Servers - Even thought Ubuntu 8.04 will no longer officially support SUN's SPARC processor line, Canonical's CTO Matt Zimmerman has announced that: "The SPARC port will continue to be provided with build infrastructure, and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, 7.04 and 7.10 will continue to enable SPARC deployments well into the future, but there will not be an official Ubuntu 8.04 release for SPARC." With this shift, Sun is making a strong commitment to Ubuntu on its AMD server family. Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Ubuntu and Ubuntu Linux's founder, said that "Sun will be certifying Ubuntu on a range of Sun x86 servers, not SPARC servers." The two companies are doing more than just officially certifying and supporting Ubuntu on Sun's AMD-based servers. In an e-mail to Linux-Watch, Shuttleworth said, "In addition to the x86 server certification effort, we have done extensive work around the Java stack in Ubuntu. 8.04 LTS will include packages of OpenJDK, and we expect it to be fully TCK [Technology Compatibility Kit]-certified as a basis for additional work we are doing around Glassfish, NetBeans and other Java components. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3548185347.html

  • The Real Sun Ubuntu Linux Connection (and why Reuters got it wrong) - Sun and Ubuntu are hardly strangers, and in fact, Sun has certified Ubuntu to run on its hardware since at least November of 2006. Perhaps they meant to say that Sun would be the first to certify hardware for the new upcoming version of Ubuntu. In a revision from Sun spokesperson Terri Molini: "Sun and Canonical have been working closely together since 2006. The first Sun systems certified for Ubuntu was on their first long term release, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Sun systems have been certified on every release since then. Sun software first appeared as a part of the distro a year ago with the release of Ubuntu 7.04. At that time the "Java Stack" debuted in the multiverse repository. The Java Stack is comprised of: Java SE (JDK), GlassFish, NetBeans and JavaDB." http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/04/the-real-sun-ubuntu-linux-conn.html

  • Ubuntu + Sun = Very good idea - Sun is "preparing to certify more of its servers for Canonical's Ubuntu Linux." It will be excellent for both parties. Sun has far more to gain by embracing Linux and, in particular, Ubuntu, than it stands to lose. Sun can put its exceptional engineering team on innovating in and around Linux, building great hardware (and software) to go with it. With MySQL and Ubuntu in its court, it's hard to see how it could possibly be less sexy in the market.http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9911332-16.html

  • Is Ubuntu becoming the generic Linux distro? - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes starts off his article with, "Has anyone else noticed an increasing number of Linux newbies who seem to think that Ubuntu is Linux and Linux is Ubuntu?" He goes on to touch on his own experience, briefly, and his thoughts on why people may be interchanging the two. "I’m of the opinion that the evolution of Ubuntu into the generic Linux distro isn’t a bad thing. My opinion is that when it comes to a beginner entering the world of Linux, the staggering array of distros available is off-putting . . . A single distro offers those wanting to dabble in Linux a place to start . . ." http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1641

  • Small Business on Ubuntu - Ubuntu-Id Pekalongan, Pekalongan Indonesia, decided to make an Ubuntu equiped box productive by creating a small business utilizing the Ubuntu OS. The business is called Digital Printing Service, and is a small outlet serving consumers with printed matter. i.e. photo printing (from digital camera and/or mobile phone), business cards, invitations, pins, T-shirts, mugs, etc. The outlet is located at the Mega Plaza - Pekalongan. The business runs on a Ubuntu box, that is connected to a multi-purpose Heat Transfer Printer. All design and image manipulation is done using XaraXtreme, Ikscape and Gimp. Visit the link for pics of the booth and some of the swag. http://opotumon.blogspot.com/2008/04/small-business-on-ubuntu.html

  • Ubuntu Hardy: The latest and greatest or a total mess? - Ubuntu has become so popular, so quickly, that it is almost synonymous with the word "Linux". It is the easiest to use, simplest, and most stable Linux based OS out there, and it is the best hope for "Linux on the Desktop." Ubuntu comes loaded with a spiffy update manager that is capable of cleanly upgrading to a new release. The Nautilus file manager now supports the Windows icon standard, so if you insert, say, the Diablo II play disc, it actually shows the Diablo icon for the CD instead of just a picture of a CD. After a week of use though, random crashes are the norm. Firefox 3 is still incompatible with Blogsmith, and the default fonts are an eyesore. Betas are supposed to be finished products going through last minute testing. This is clearly a late alpha, not a beta. There seems to have been a real lack of quality control ever since Dapper Drake came out. Ubuntu has had a remarkable, larger than life rise to fame, but one can't help but wonder if they are getting a little careless. http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/01/ubuntu-hardy-the-latest-and-greatest-or-a-total-mess/

  • My first impressions of Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) Beta - Hardy features some visual changes from its predecessor. The GNOME theme has been subtly altered. There is also a new default desktop background, which features an artistic rendering of a heron in the Ubuntu color scheme. The installer is very much like its predecessor. It is reasonably simple to understand, minus the usual, unavoidable confusion that partitioning will cause. The wired network connection that was available to Ubuntu didn’t work straight out of the box. Hardy Heron looks very promising. There are plenty of changes to the architecture underneath the distro that bring it up to date with some of the developments in other distributions (PulseAudio, for example), but the experience from the user’s point of view remains one of the best and easiest of any Linux distribution available. http://fosswire.com/2008/04/01/my-first-impressions-of-ubuntu-hardy-heron-804-beta/

  • First Impressions: Ubuntu 8.04 Beta - The Ubuntu team has made a concerted effort to make it as easy as possible to get Ubuntu on your computer. The standard installation is dead simple and now you can install Ubuntu through Windows, using Wubi, like it is any other application. You can also use a third (and probably the longest) method, and upgraded from 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). This took some time to do all the downloading and upgrading, but the process worked perfectly on the first try and just required a few clicks in the Update Manager. Whichever way you decide to do it, the installation is extremely slick, painless, and problem-free this time around. http://www.geek.com/first-impressions-ubuntu-804-beta/

  • Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu 8.04(Including a possible Ubuntu PDA) - Mark Shuttleworth is making regular stops in Boston these days following the acquisition of a company developing software for Linux-based handheld devices. The Ubuntu plan, which may include their own personal digital assistant, reminds Shuttleworth of the development of the personal computer. The development of more powerful, and power conserving CPUs, the open platform, touch screens and applications being developed for mobile applications places the hand-held market in a strong growth position this year. According Shuttleworth: "We're working on our own PDA", which will help round out the Ubuntu product line that also includes desktop and server versions of the the company's software. http://blogs.eweek.com/lundquist/content/mark_shuttleworth_and_ubuntu_804.html

  • Is Ubuntu ready for the mainstream? - Jeff has been using Ubuntu 7.10 64 bit for AMD for the past two weeks on his desktop PC. Installation was quick and compared to a Windows installation it was very impressive. His first impression upon booting to his new install was "“Wow. It recognized my wireless card.” As for printing, after a few attempts it was clear that Ubuntu simply did not want to see his network printer, which was frustrating. He could enable Compiz but not without some headaches. So, is Ubuntu ready for the mainstream: "Ubuntu 7.10 is my main Operating System at home. I enjoy it and won’t be using Vista or Windows XP as my main system any longer. I have made the switch to Ubuntu. I feel that Linux has come far enough that it is very usable for me. However, I do not feel that Ubuntu or any other Linux distro that I have ever used is ready for the masses. Why? Because no one should ever need to go into the terminal to install something, ever." Ubuntu is moving in the right direction, and with a 6 month release cycle, he anticipates great strides within the next couple of years. In his opinion, "Microsoft should be very concerned about Linux now". http://www.thebristows.com/blog/tech/is-ubuntu-ready-for-the-mainstream

  • Ubuntu Linux: My First Experience - Jyothi M John says: "Ubuntu Linux is the Best Desktop Solution from linux that I have ever seen." Installation is very smooth, and the live cd allows you to preview the OS before installation. All the hardware was automatically recognized, and with preloaded apps like OpenOffice, Firefox, Evolution, and Gimp, not to mention Samba integration, makes the basic setup easy to use. Automatic installation of most restricted drivers(if you choose) is another plus that is helping to ease the transition for Windows users. http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/04/03/ubuntu-linux-my-first-experience/

  • Why I Ubuntu - Like a lot of us, Canuck has tried many Linux distributions and continues to do so even today. His main Linux distribution though is Ubuntu 7.10, code name Gutsy Gibbon. He is also playing with the new Hardy Beta, and thinks the dev team deserves lots of credit in meeting its target and making such a exciting release. He uses Ubuntu because it's dependable, fast and full featured. It also has the largest community of the current Linux distro's and is drawing many of the new converts to Linux. He states, "Linux is a community as much as anything. As the community grows and gets stronger, then we all benefit. That is why I Ubuntu." http://linuxcanuck.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/why-i-ubuntu/

In Other News

Matt Zimmerman Interview(Ubuntu Live Conference)

Matt Zimmerman is the CTO of Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd., and has been involved with Ubuntu since the beginning, and led the team which created the Ubuntu distribution. In this audio interview, with integrated slides from Matt's presentation at the Ubuntu Live Conference, he explains the Ubuntu Technical Roadmap. Beginning with a discussion of the development cycles, the importance of continuous community participation, and the completely open development process. Ubuntu's focus remains firmly on the desktop, and Zimmerman discusses the enhancements that Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 provide with improved support for wireless networks, Windows settings migration, codec installation, and additional features that desktop users have asked for. He also touches on the development of the server edition of Ubuntu to address the needs of business users and Ubuntu's recent exploration of the mobile environment in cooperation with Intel. He clarifies the rationale behind the regular six-month releases as compared to the LTS (long term support) releases and how each serves a different segment of the Ubuntu community. He concludes with a look at what's coming for Ubuntu and the role that the growing community of users and developers plays in accelerating innovation. http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3523.html

  • UbuntuHCL is setup to provide a forum for Ubuntu users to share their experiences with different hardware, to ease the transition of new users to Ubuntu, as well as help users pick the right hardware for their Linux system. http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/

  • Ubuntupoint is a news gathering point for everything Ubuntu. Anyone can join and submit, or just read up on the latest Ubuntu news. http://ubuntupoint.com/

Meeting Summaries

Ubuntu Documentation Team

  • Kubuntu documentation complete and uploaded for translations
  • Kubuntu Firefox startpage received a decent amount of new translations
  • Translation templates generated and uploaded to bzr for the Ubuntu documentation (now string-frozen)
  • Lots of bug-fixing!
  • Welcome to the new documentation mentoring students who joined us this month
  • Milo Casagrande and Andrew Stabeno have nearly finished writing the documentation for Brasero (upstream), and members of the Doc Team have started writing for another upstream project (Empathy) under Milo's mentorship

Wine Team

  • Wine 0.9.58 will be the version in Hardy, as 0.9.59 comes out a day after full freeze

  • Wine's built in Tahoma (and other) fonts should support glyphs from most languages now. If a language is still missing, there is still time to fix it for Hardy. Please report it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/188368

  • We are looking for testers for Wine on the lpia arch. So far all we know is that it compiles.
  • Upstream work on Console Configuration has started so in the future we will be able to configure Wine from new GUI tools such as a gnome applet.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Marketing meeting

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Marketing meeting

Server Team Meeting

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Security Team Meeting

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

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:

  • Nick Ali
  • Isabelle Duchatelle
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • John Crawford
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

  1. FTBFS - Fails To Build From Source
  2. unmetdeps - unmet dependencies

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.

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