Issue96

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. How to Run a Bug Jam?
    2. French Live CD Derivative
    3. New Core Developers
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Hardy
  5. LoCo News
    1. Bet on the future
    2. Pennsylvania LoCo on local radio show
    3. Ubuntu Ireland gets Office Space
  6. Technical Update
    1. Ubuntu in the Debian Packages Tracking System
  7. Launchpad News
    1. Launchpod episode 4: BeeSeek open source search engine
  8. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Forums Interview
    2. Tutorial of the Week
  9. In The Press
  10. In The Blogosphere
  11. In Other News
    1. The Official Ubuntu Book
  12. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, June 23, 2008
      1. Bugs for Hugs Day
    2. Tuesday, June 24, 2008
      1. Bugs for Hugs Day
      2. Server Team Meeting
      3. LoCo Council Meeting
    3. Wednesday, June 25, 2008
      1. Bugs for Hugs Day
      2. QA Team Meeting
      3. Platform Team Meeting
    4. Thursday, June 26, 2008
      1. MOTU School Session - Apport retraces
      2. Desktop Team Meeting
  13. Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 7.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 7.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
  14. Archives and RSS Feed
  15. Additional Ubuntu News
  16. Conclusion
  17. Credits
  18. Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #96 for the week June 15th - June 21st, 2008. In this issue we cover: how to run a Bug Jam, French Live CD derivative, new core developers, Jalapa (Nicaragua) government migrates to Ubuntu, Pennsylvania LoCo featured on local radio, Ubuntu in the Debian Packages Tracking System, Launchpod episode #4, new edition of the Official Ubuntu Book, 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

  • How to Run a Bug Jam
  • French Live CD Derivative
  • New Core Developers
  • Ubuntu Stats

  • LoCo News

  • Ubuntu in the Debian Packages Tracking System
  • Launchpad News
  • Forum News

  • In the Press & Blogosphere

  • In Other News

  • Upcoming Meetings & Events

  • Updates & Security

General Community News

How to Run a Bug Jam?

Global Bug Jam, full steam ahead! Some bug jams are scheduled already, but there’s a lot more potential. What about YOU? Don’t you want to have the time of your life at a Bug Jam nearby?

We have good news for you. We’ll have a bunch of “How to run a Bug Jam” IRC sessions in #ubuntu-meeting in the next few weeks. The main aim of these sessions is going to be to:

  • get together
  • find out what’s required to make your local Bug Jam kick arse
  • coordinate the planning
  • come up with great ideas on how to take the Global Bug Jam even further

See the article for the scheduled dates and times of the meetings: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1528

French Live CD Derivative

Started in April 2008, the Live CD thorough French localization has been completed. You'll find the download torrent link, French forum and wiki pages here: http://blog.kagou.fr/post/2008/06/19/Hardy-in-french

Other Ubuntu Live CD localizations, including Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Baltic-Lithuanian, Kiwi (Hungarian and Romanian), Polish, Nordic and German can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/derivatives

New Core Developers

The MOTU council has approved Richard Johnson (nixternal) for core-dev membership. Among other things Richard updated every KDE 4 package when KDE 4.04 was released. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-June/001230.html

The MOTU council has approved Stefan Potyra (sistpoty) for core-dev membership. Stefan is a generalist and will fix bugs wherever they are found. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-June/001229.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (47242) +364 # over last week
  • Critical (32) +1 # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (23197) +85 # over last week
  • Unassigned (37817) +289 # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (190935) +1355 # 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 (13101)
  • French (39227)
  • English (United Kingdom) (49696)
  • Swedish (52861)
  • Brazilian Portuguese (55405)

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

LoCo News

Bet on the future

Jalapa is a municipality in the Nueva Segovia Department of Nicaragua, located on the border of Honduras. The local government of Jalapa is making a strong bet on the future, migrating their workstations and servers to FOSS, specifically Ubuntu. It’s an unique opportunity to narrow the digital divide and bring progress to the rural communities. A big ‘Thank You’ to the members of Nicaraguan Team that have been working hard for several months to make this initiative come true.

The full article, including pictures: http://leogg.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/bet-on-the-future/

Pennsylvania LoCo on local radio show

On the 12th of June, Alex Launi and Elizabeth Bevilacqua appeared on radio station WCOJ 1420 AM's Computer Corner. Representing the Pennsylvania LoCo, they talked about some of the features in the 8.04 release, and how to get free CDs from Canonical. http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1256, podcast available at http://www.chinnodog.com/files/cc061408.mp3.

Ubuntu Ireland gets Office Space

Ubuntu Ireland has decided to work closely with Camara, and we were offered an office space for our LoCo meet-ups and future events like: workshops, presentations, tutorials etc. Big thanks for that goes to Eoghan at Camara!

The office will be open on Saturdays 11am - 4pm.

  • Address:
    The Digital Hub
    10-13 Thomas Street
    Dublin 8
    Ireland

Read more at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2008-June/002265.html

Technical Update

Ubuntu in the Debian Packages Tracking System

There’s now an “Ubuntu” box on the Packages Tracking System, giving the current version in Ubuntu, a link to the Ubuntu patch (if any), and the number of open bugs. An Ubuntu column has also been added to the Debian Developer Packages Overview by Christoph Berg, with the current version in Ubuntu and the number of open bugs. It’s hidden by default: click on Display Configuration to enable it (then it’s stored in a cookie).

Find the rest of the story at: http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=295

Launchpad News

Launchpod episode 4: BeeSeek open source search engine

The latest from the Launchpad developers, questions from Launchpad users and stories from people who’ve found Launchpad useful.

Hosts: Matthew Revell, Joey Stanford and Elliot Murphy. Theme: Obscurity by Barry Warsaw.

  • Matthew interviews Andrea Colangelo, Community Manager of the BeeSeek open source search engine project.

  • Joey previews his OSCON talk about Launchpad.
  • Joey talks about the QA opening in the Launchpad team.
  • Elliot talks about Twisted’s umbrella Launchpad project for community code.
  • Joey replies to Philip Newborough’s comments about Launchpod.
  • Joey’s numbers of the week! This time it’s all about the bug tracker.

The ogg vorbis file and podcast feed are available at: http://news.launchpad.net/podcast/launchpod-episode-4-beeseek-open-source-search-engine

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums Interview

dmizer is a dedicated member of the forum's Unanswered Posts Team, the task force trying to help lower the number of unanswered questions. Not only being one of the helpful souls on the UF, dmizer is also an adventurer who sold everything to move to Japan when the dart landed on that part of the world map.. http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/an-interview-with-dmizer/

Tutorial of the Week

For this, the 25th tutorial of the week, the pick is another long-standing classic -- "Howto : GfxBoot ( Grub like suse )" by PingunZ. While somewhat dated, it still gets attention quite frequently, and might be something you're interested in. A prettier Grub boot is an embellishment commonly sought after by Ubuntu users. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208855

In The Press

  • Inside the Internet Archives (Gordon Mohr) - In this interview, James Turner of O'Reilly Media talks with Gordon Mohr who is the Chief Technologist for Web Projects at Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library that focuses on digitally created items and the web. The archive uses a lot of open source and in house developed software, and they use Ubuntu almost exclusively to power their operations. http://news.oreilly.com/2008/06/gordon-mohr-takes-us-inside-th.html

  • Secret weapon - The Boston Celtics, won the NBA championship this year, and they had a secret battle cry—one that many Linux users already know. The word was “Ubuntu,” an African word that roughly translates to ‘humanity to others,’ or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are.’ The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.” The philosophy seems to have worked for the operating system as well as the basketball team. Ubuntu’s popularity has climbed steadily since it was released in 2004 and the founder of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, estimates there were at least eight million Ubuntu users at the end of 2006. The Ubuntu Forums, in particular, are extremely helpful in solving problems as they cropped up. Forums, are not new of course, but the Ubuntu community is a standout because experienced users are genuinely helpful and very patient with newcomers. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_june17_2008

  • Testing Linux With a Live CD - You can give the Linux operating system a workout without actually installing it on your hard drive by running the system from what’s called a Live CD. To make, use and run a Live CD, you need a few things: a copy of Linux, a CD burner, a blank disc and a computer that can start up from its disc drive. If you are new to Linux, you might want to try Ubuntu, which has a familiar graphical user interface and a large amount of helpful documentation written by other users at help.ubuntu.com/community. Live CDs are usually saved as disc images with an .iso file extension. Once you have downloaded the .iso file, you need to burn it to a bootable CD. Once you have your burned CD in your disc drive, tell the computer to boot up from the CD. Once you start up from the CD, Ubuntu is yours to explore. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/personaltech/19askk-001.html?_r=2&ref=personaltech&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

  • Ubuntu — Beyond the Hype - Ubuntu has been hyped in many discussions about Linux for the masses, and is often proposed as 'the first Linux distribution to get things right' along with other similar claims. Though many (often as baseless as they are bold) claims are still repeated all around, Ubuntu has come a long way. In addition, the Ubuntu forums are filled with useful comments, and the wikis and other websites are likewise full with useful information, not just about Ubuntu and derivatives, but also Linux in general. All in all, Ubuntu is a solid Linux distribution. If it can be done on Linux, it can be done on Ubuntu. http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/ubuntubeyondthehype.html

In The Blogosphere

  • Testing Linux Ubuntu - Ashley Highfield of the BBC has been testing an Ubuntu laptop for the last couple of months. He is comparing it with his usual Sony laptop running XP, and his new MacBook Pro. In addition to the advantages of being a free operating system, he is intrigued at how well Ubuntu stacks up next to Windows and MacOS. With only a few setbacks, Ubuntu has a simplicity and elegance that he likes and some great features that other OSes don't have. Conclusion: "As a day to day operating system, would I change from Windows or MacOS for it? Not yet, perhaps in a year or two. I think the BBC can, and should, do more to support the Free and Open Source community." http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/06/linux_ubuntu_blog.html

  • Fri 2008/Jun/20(Claudio Saavedra) - Claudio tells us that for the last few months, his dad has been using Ubuntu on his new desktop computer, and he is a happy user. He now listens to his music with Rhythmbox, and also has set up a Last.fm account. During the first weeks, Claudio had to help him installing the software updates. Recently Claudio realized that his dad wasn't asking about for help as much. When he brought this up, it was pleasant to hear that his dad has been doing all the software updates without needing any help at all. People may think that GNU/Linux is only for geeks, but seeing someone enjoying their computer without worrying about viruses, or being afraid of messing with the system, and still being able to do their daily routine, was a proud moment. We all should feel proud. http://www.gnome.org/~csaavedra/news-2008-06.html#D20

In Other News

The Official Ubuntu Book

The third edition of the book is due out on July 15, 2008 and pre-orders are being accepted by Barnes and Noble. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Official-Ubuntu-Book/Benjamin-Mako-Hill/e/9780137151028 The edition sold at B&N will include a bonus chapter on the half million strong Ubuntu Forums. It gives a tour of the forums, the people, the process and the rules. Don't wait, pre-order yours today. http://matthewhelmke.net/wordpress/2008/06/19/the-official-ubuntu-book-third-edition-special-barnes-noble-custom-edition/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, June 23, 2008

Bugs for Hugs Day

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Bugs for Hugs Day

Server Team Meeting

LoCo Council Meeting

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Bugs for Hugs Day

QA Team Meeting

Platform Team Meeting

  • Start: 22:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not Listed as of Publication

Thursday, June 26, 2008

MOTU School Session - Apport retraces

  • Start: 10:00 UTC
  • End: 11:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom
  • Agenda: Effectively using and interpreting apport retraces.

Desktop Team Meeting

Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 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
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • Isabelle Duchatelle
  • John Crawford
  • And many others

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Ideas. 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 them to ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue96 (last edited 2008-08-06 17:00:49 by localhost)