Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #92 for the week May 18th - May 24th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu Developer Summit Intrepid Ibex, Ubuntu Live canceled, new Ubuntu Membership Approval Boards to meet, new Ubuntu Universe Contributors, a new Launchpad podcast, and much, much more!
UWN Translations
- Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information you need.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations
In This Issue
- UDS Intrepid Ibex
- Ubuntu Live Canceled
- New Ubuntu Membership Approval Boards to Meet
- New Ubuntu Universe Contributors
- Ubuntu Stats
- Launchpad News
- Ubuntu Forums News
In the Press & Blogosphere
- In Other News
- Meeting Summaries
Upcoming Meetings & Events
Updates & Security
General Community News
Ubuntu Developer Summit Intrepid Ibex
At the beginning of a new development cycle, Ubuntu developers from around the world gather to help shape and scope the next release of Ubuntu. The summit is open to the public, but it is not a conference, exhibition or other audience-oriented event. Rather, it is an opportunity for Ubuntu developers -- who usually collaborate online -- to work together in person on specific tasks. This year you too can get a feel for what went on during the fast paced week of UDS by watching the 19 videos available on YouTube. The link is your portal to what developers, including Mark Shuttleworth, have to say about the next Ubuntu release, "Intrepid Ibex." http://www.youtube.com/ubuntudevelopers
UDS Group Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nxvl/2515647319/sizes/o/
UDS Flickr Album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/udsintrepid/
Martijn van de Streek UDS pics: http://foodfight.org/fotos/2008/05-22%20UDS-Intrepid,%20Prague/
Ubuntu Developer Summit was broken down into tracks: community, server, platform, QA, desktop, kernel, and mobile. Sessions in each track discussed new features and processes, and ways to improve for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex release cycle. The community track had sessions covering how to improve the Brainstorm site, investigating how the new LoCo Council could support teams better, and figuring out ways non-English speaking developers could get involved. Server track discussed providing GUIs for administrative tasks, possible integration with OpenChange (potential Exchange server replacement), and various J2EE servlet containers to add in Intrepid. The Platform track covered faster boot cycles and OpenOffice 3 upload schedules. Sessions about bug response times and escalation, and upstream bug workflow were handled by the QA track. Single Sign On and Kubuntu related requirements were on topic for the Desktop track.
More details about discussions and plans that took place at UDS in Prague can be found below (more information will be added in the coming week as well):
Community Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Community
Server Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Server
Platform Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Platform
Desktop Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Desktop
Kernel Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Kernel
Mobile Track: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Mobile
Please remember these are simply discussions. There is no guarantee any mentioned features or suggestions will appear in 8.10.
Ubuntu Live Canceled
The Ubuntu Live conference, which was scheduled to take place July 21-22 in Portland, OR has been canceled. Canonical is planning to include Ubuntu content in the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), also happening July 21-25 in Portland, Oregon. Those interested in future Ubuntu events and developments should watch www.ubuntu.com. http://en.oreilly.com/ubuntu2008/public/content/home
New Ubuntu Membership Approval Boards to Meet
The EMEA(Europe, Middle East and Africa) and the Americas Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting are scheduled to take place this week to review and approve pending Ubuntu Member applicants. This will be the first new members approval for each board and everyone is welcome to attend and watch the process. Membership in the Ubuntu community means recognition of significant and sustained contribution to Ubuntu and the Ubuntu community, and expected future involvement. Contributions in all areas are welcome, from support to advocacy, programming to artwork and documentation, Loco Teams activities to core packaging. The meetings will be held in #ubuntu-meeting, and you can find the date, time and agenda by following the links to the corresponding boards.
New Ubuntu Universe Contributors
The MOTU Council has determined that Emanuele Gentili has met the requirements to become Ubuntu Universe Contributors. Responsibilities include the maintenance of most of the packages in Ubuntu (the universe and multiverse components), merge of new versions from Debian, sponsored uploads of bugfixes and new packages, technical discussions with other Ubuntu developers, and the possibility to become a MOTU through the demonstration of technical skills and understanding of Ubuntu development processes. You can find his applications, feedback, and the vote at the links below.
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (46907) +617 # over last week
- Critical (32) +/-0 # over last week
- Unconfirmed (23205) +347 # over last week
- Unassigned (37268) +544 # over last week
- All bugs ever reported (185055) +1367 # 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 (14217)
- French (39362)
- English (United Kingdom) (49699)
- Swedish (53033)
- Brazilian Portuguese (64718)
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/
Launchpad News
The Launchpad team have started a new podcast, with the superb name Launchpod!
Each week the podcast will provide the latest news from the Launchpad team, have interviews with people who've done interesting things with Launchpad and answer questions from listeners.
The two episodes so far:
http://news.launchpad.net/podcast/launchpod-episode-1-rescuetime
http://news.launchpad.net/podcast/launchpod-episode-2-uds-prague
Send your questions or feature suggestions to feedback@launchpad.net
Subscribe to the podcast feed at http://news.launchpad.net/category/podcast/feed
Ubuntu Forums News
Ubuntu Forums Interview
CptPicard, from Finland, is another member active in the Programming Talk section (we already had LaRoza and Wybiral in the past weeks). A former Gentoo user, his Linux journey started with Slackware 3.4.0. As he says it: "I try to enlighten people about the general, universal nature of computation." Please read the whole interview here: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/an-interview-with-cptpicard/
Tutorial of the Week
If you have a small home network or manage an Ubuntu lab, you might be interested in this week's tutorial pick: coolen's "HOWTO: Share updates across multiple machines."
This is a well-built and well-designed howto that gives plenty of information about the apt-cacher tool and how to set it up right. It also mentions how to reverse the changes, and coolen is updating his instructions quite frequently -- both hallmarks of a superior howto.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=564301
In The Press
Linux is a platform for people, not just specialists - In a future not dominated by Windows, Ubuntu hopes to be the provider of a service ecosystem for free software. The Guardian of the UK recently sat down with Ubuntu Chief, Mark Shuttleworth to talk about himself, Canonical and its business model, the Dell/Ubuntu deal, the ultraportable sector(Netbook Remix), GNU/Linux position in the market, his stance on the ISO's handling of the Microsoft OOXML situation, and how Ubuntu has an increased responsibility to speak out as it gains importance in the computing world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/22/internet.software
Ubuntu to announce its mobile Linux in June - Canonical will announce a Netbook Remix, a version of Ubuntu tailored for mobile devices, in two weeks, Mark Shuttleworth said in an interview with the Guardian. "We're working with Intel, which produces chips custom-made for this sector." Ubuntu has been working on a mobile version of its operating system for months. In an April interview about the release of the new Hardy Heron version of Ubuntu, Mark said the mobile version is sufficiently important that developing it is worth pushing back the company's move to profitability. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-9950552-39.html
Why Linux isn't yet ready for synchronized release cycles - This discussion is likely to continue for some time as the major stakeholders articulate their various perspectives. Communication has already moved the debate forward in many ways and brought to the surface some alternatives and variations on the initial proposal. The final outcome could have some broad implications for how open-source software programs and distributions handle release management, but right now none of the proposed ideas are mature enough for widespread implementation. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080521-why-linux-isnt-yet-ready-for-synchronized-release-cycles.html
Linux on the desktop? Why not? - The out-of-the-box experience is incredible. Ubuntu comes with everything one needs to work -- an email reader, the Firefox browser, instant messaging client, softphone, and the Open Office productivity suite. It includes tools for managing and playing music and movies, for managing and editing photos, and for burning CDs and DVDs. It even includes several games for when you need a little play time. http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/21/linux-desktop-why-not
Schools set to go open source(Tender seeks suppliers for an £80m framework deal) - Officially sanctioned open source and free-to-use software could be in use across the UK education system within months after government education agency Becta issued a tender for a four-year framework agreement. Becta is looking for up to 10 software suppliers to participate in the £80m framework that will launch in October. Ian Lynch, a member of the Open Schools Alliance, said: “Canonical with Ubuntu, perhaps Mandriva, Sun Microsystems or Novell/Suse might bid, as all have integrated open source software solutions that could satisfy the framework requirements." http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2217224/schools-set-open-source-4017531
In The Blogosphere
Transition to the GNU/Linux Ubuntu Operating System - In 2007, The Garfield Guest House set up up a computer with Internet access, in the breakfast room for guests to use. To help keep costs down and to reduce maintenance they installed the Ubuntu 7.04. It has been a great success, with guests commenting regularly about how useful it is to have quick and easy internet access while staying at The Garfield Guest House. They also switched their office computer to Ubuntu at the same time, and have been very happy to find that they have had no issues with viruses, malware or spyware since switching. Computer maintenance time has been drastically reduced - maintenance now consisting of installing Ubuntu updates when notified by the update manager. Since installing Ubuntu, the computers have run flawlessly. Last week they decided to upgrade both the office and breakfast room computers to the latests version of Ubuntu. http://garfieldguesthouse.blogspot.com/2008/05/transition-to-using-gnulinux-ubuntu.html
Ubuntu Developer Summit(Prague) - On Monday this week Barton(Sun representative) attended the first day of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Prague. The summit which just ended, is intended to drive plans and decisions for the next Ubuntu release "Intrepid Ibex" which is due out on October 30th. Sun had about 12 folks there representing Glass Fish, Open JDK, Net Beans, Hudson, Sun Studio and MySQL. They attended sessions, had side meetings, and had a big Canonical/Sun sync up at the end of the day to talk about the slew of software they hope to get into Intrepid. See some pics of the event by following the link to Barton's blog. http://blogs.sun.com/barton808/entry/ubuntu_developer_summit_prague
Ubuntu - 8.04 (Review) - Ubuntu seems to be on the doorstep of mainstream acceptance, gets better and better with each release. Their latest release 8.04 is certainly no exception and in fact is the most polished release to date. Hardy Heron is the second ever “LTS” (long term support) release from Ubuntu which entails 3 years of support for desktop versions and 5 years of support for server versions. With that in mind, it seems the developers from Ubuntu concentrated squarely on stability for Hardy Heron. http://techpark6.com/ubuntu-804-review.html
Ubuntu 8.04 behaving itself quite nicely(all of my issues have been resolved) - Steven Rosenberg says adding software, updating, and adding repositories is made easy with Ubuntu. Best of all though is that with Ubuntu 8.04, he can now use his flash drive as a plug and play device, something he had problems with in earlier versions. His other problem with Suspend/Resume is also fixed. All in all, Steven is a happy camper. You should also check out the link to see his idea of an Ubuntu twelve pack. http://blogs.dailynews.com/click/2008/05/ubuntu-804-behaving-itself-qui.html
Don battles the monster Ubuntu - 2 weeks ago or so, Don did the obligatory upgrade from Gutsy to Hardy. This proved to be both a good and a bad thing. His system really really didn't like it. Evolution ground to a halt - checking email would take ~ 1/2 hour to retrieve a single email, highlighting a message would take ~ 3 minutes and max the CPU. Epiphany/Firefox just hogged the CPU to the point of uselessness. Programs would randomly crash or fail to start. However, even now this has turned into a good thing. he's been using the same base system since Dapper and it was beginning to age a little. The fancy desktop effects finally work and are sane enough to try using (they're not annoying me yet). Everything feels faster, more responsive. All in all, he's liking his new system. Even if he had to spend hours and hours rebuilding jhbuild, setting up all his applications to be perfect and teaching the panel to know how he likes his system. http://donscorgie.livejournal.com/13790.html
In Other News
Will Every Linux Distro Soon Look the Same?
A flurry of release news this week led to the recurring question: Is Linux growing homogeneous? If it is, is that such a bad thing? In the end, "the fact that there are so many distros shows the strength of the Free Software ecosystem," Dean concluded. "The fact that so many exist, and are staying alive, indicates that different peoples needs are being met. Release schedules notwithstanding, "there's very little desire to make a SINGLE appearance of GNU/Linux -- in fact, it's just the opposite," says blogger Kevin Dean. Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth played a role, suggesting that perhaps the distros should coordinate their release cycles to all hit at the same time. http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Will-Every-Linux-Distro-Soon-Look-the-Same-63048.html
Distribution Release: UbuntuME 8.04(Muslim Edition)
UbuntuME 8.04(Ubuntu Muslim Edition), an Ubuntu-based derivative distribution featuring Islamic software, a Quran study tool and a web content filtering utility, has been released. It includes an installable live desktop CD, a second CD with additional software (OpenOffice.org, Arabic language packs, Quran recitations, etc.), an installable DVD (with more Quran recitations), and a script to convert standard Ubuntu installations to UbuntuME. http://www.e-linux.it/news_detail.php?id=5224
New group advocates for FOSS in libraries
A new advocacy group, the Public Software Foundation (PSF)[1], is working to make free and open source software available to local libraries so it can be checked out and used just like a book or video. The premise is simple: hand out one CD and maybe you've taught one person; make it available in a library and perhaps you'll reach hundreds or thousands. Future plans call for the PSF plans to increase the number of software titles it offers, but currently it provides four Linux distributions -- Edubuntu, Fedora, Knoppix, and Ubuntu -- and the Open Office.org office suite. http://www.linux.com/feature/134393
[1] http://publicsoftwarefoundation.org/
Meeting Summaries
Community Council
- Meeting 2008/05/06:
- Recent problems in the Ubuntu IRC world were discussed with members of the Ubuntu Community, members of the IRC Council, members of the Freenode staff.
- Core issues that were identified and possible solutions that were pointed out:
- Unacceptable behaviour by some ops was complained about and everybody agreed that the Ubuntu Code of Conduct should be upheld, especially by leaders of the community.
- The team of Ubuntu Ops is understaffed.
- More regular IRC Council meetings
- More transparency about escalation processes.
The advertisement of the ##ubuntu-uncensored channel was discussed.
- The IRC Council was asked to deal with the complaints about the IRSeek service first.
MOTU Council
- Established the Universe Contributors launchpad group, allowing separation of the grant of Ubuntu Membership from the grant of Ubuntu Developer.
- Recommended Till Kamppeter for Ubuntu Core Developer
- Recommended Jamie Strandboge for Ubuntu Core Developer
Rick Clark (a.k.a. dendrobates on IRC) is the newest addition to the MOTU team. Rick is also the technical lead of the Ubuntu Server team. https://launchpad.net/~dendrobates
- MC 'Call' May 7th 2008:
Improved Ubuntu Developers: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopers to:
mention the general Membership: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership requirements
- ask to add the name to the Subject line of applications
- specifically mention to organise the sponsors to give feedback
setting up MOTU/Council/Team Report: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Council/TeamReport and MOTU/Council/Attic: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Council/Attic
- MC 'Call' May 14th 2008:
- Existing discussion of ubuntu-bugs@ thread regarding use of Malone for workflow bugs highlighted for focus at UDS
- Review of updated MC reporting practices (Team Report + Email report)
Full Circle Magazine
- Unfortunately Matthew Rossi no longer has the time to devote to the podcast so the podcast is now defunct.
- #13 is finished its second round of proof-reading and the marketing preview will be sent out on Monday 26th with release date set at Friday 30th May.
- #11 in both Chinese traditional and simplified, and #11 Italian are up for download.
Robert Clipsham has had to devote some of his time to real-life 'stuff' so as of #14 will hand over his Q&A section to Tommy Alsemgeest.
- The Brazilian magazine Command.com (which covers both Windows and Linux) has asked if they could include some issues of FCM on their cover CD which we have of course agreed to.
- We always welcome new articles especially My Opinion, My Story and/or Reviews.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
EMEA Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting
- Start: 20:00 UTC
- End: 21:30 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/EMEA
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Platform Team Meeting
- Start: 06:00 UTC
- End: 07:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication
Launchpad users meeting
- Start: 17:00 UTC
- End: 18:00
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Server Team Meeting
- Start: 21:00 UTC
- End: 22:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Americas Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting
- Start: 20:00 America/EST
- End: 21:30 America/EST
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/Americas
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Desktop Team Meeting
- Start: 13:00 UTC
- End: 14:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Friday, May 30, 2008
MOTU Meeting
- Start: 12:00 UTC
- End: 13:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04
Security Updates
[USN-612-7] OpenSSH update - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-May/000711.html
[USN-613-1] GnuTLS vulnerabilities - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-May/000712.html
[USN-612-8] openssl-blacklist update - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-May/000713.html
Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
openssh-blacklist 0.1-1ubuntu0.6.06.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-May/012698.html
openssh_4.2p1-7ubuntu3.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-May/012699.html
openssl-blacklist 0.1-0ubuntu0.6.06.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-May/012700.html
gnutls12 1.2.9-2ubuntu1.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-May/012701.html
Ubuntu 7.04 Updates
openssl-blacklist 0.1-0ubuntu0.7.04.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2008-May/008932.html
gnutls13_1.4.4-3ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2008-May/008933.html
Ubuntu 7.10 Updates
openssl-blacklist 0.1-0ubuntu0.7.10.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-May/010232.html
gnutls13_1.6.3-1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-May/010233.html
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
evolution-data-server 2.22.1.1-0ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011537.html
audacious 1.5.0-2ubuntu2~hardy1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011538.html
apport 0.108.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011539.html
gnome-keyring 2.22.1-1ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011540.html
openssl-blacklist 0.1-0ubuntu0.8.04.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011541.html
gtk-vnc 0.3.4-0ubuntu2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011542.html
xorg-server 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu9.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011543.html
base-installer 1.86ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011545.html
apt-setup 1:0.31ubuntu8 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011544.html
gnutls13_2.0.4-1ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011546.html
gdm 2.20.6-0ubuntu2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011547.html
xserver-xorg-video-geode 2.9.0-1ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-May/011548.html
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Additional Ubuntu News
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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
- John Crawford
- Isabelle Duchatelle
- Craig A. Eddy
- And many others
Glossary of Terms
- ISO - International Standards Organization
- OOXML - Microsoft's Office Open eXtensible Markup Language
Feedback
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