Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #97 for the week June 22nd - June 28th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu 8.04.1 freeze proposed, Intrepid Alpha 1 released, a new Universe contributor, Brainstorm updates, Ubuntu Women project status, new Ubuntu members, LoCo news, Launchpad news, Ubuntu Forums news, Full Circle Magazine #14, UK podcast #8, 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

• Ubuntu 8.04.1 Freeze Proposed
• Intrepid Alpha 1 Released
• New Ubuntu Universe Contributor
• New Ubuntu Members
• Ubuntu Brainstorm News
• Ubuntu Women Project Status

• Maryland LoCo Summer Plans

• Ubuntu Stats

• LoCo News

• Launchpad Downtime
• Ubuntu Forums News

• In the Press & Blogosphere

• In Other News
• Team Meeting Summaries

• Upcoming Meeting & Events

• Updates & Security

General Community News

Ubuntu 8.04.1 Freeze Proposed

The release schedule at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseSchedule, shows we're now just two short weeks away from the scheduled release of 8.04.1, the first point release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. As such, the hardy-proposed queue is now frozen with respect to packages that are included on any of our ISO images. The only uploads that are being accepted for these packages are those fixing bugs that have already been approved as targets for the 8.04.1 point release. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-June/000439.html

Intrepid Alpha 1 Released

Alpha 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Intrepid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD builds or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Intrepid. The primary changes from Hardy have been the re-merging of changes from Debian and the upgrade of the Linux kernel to a pre-release version of 2.6.26. Pre-releases of Intrepid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-June/000440.html

New Ubuntu Universe Contributor

Pedro Fragoso has been approved as an Ubuntu Universe Contributor. Pedro has been working with the Desktop and Accessibility teams for some time now, and has been a welcome help in maintaining packages. Please give him a warm welcome to the development team. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-motu/2008-June/004126.html

Ubuntu Brainstorm News

Assigning Ideas to Projects, Tags, and User Contact

• Assigning ideas to a project: You can now link ideas to projects. Projects include not only software projects, but also Ubuntu websites, and Ubuntu editions! That will make the job easier for people tracking ideas for their favorite projects. We recommend every idea author should review their ideas and link them to a project! This feature is the first step before we can make the project-specific sub-brainstorm websites.
• Tags: You can now tag an idea, mark ideas with your own tags, and make groups of related ideas! This has been a long standing popular request.
• Contact a Brainstormer: You have seen people willing to work on an idea, and you want to participate too? As requested, you can now contact each other using the "contact" area in the user page.

Overall, you should find Brainstorm faster. The only exception is the search function, which is having a hard time looking at all your ideas! That should be fixed in the next update. http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/16

Developer Responses for 25 June

Ubuntu developer Martin Pitt (pitti on irc) has responded to some of your ideas:

• Easy file sharing between local users: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/3916/

• Warn on shutdown when muliple users are logged on: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/3859/

• gksudo if you try to do an action you don't have access to: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4347/

• Work on printer drivers: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/190/

• Codec Manager: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/316/

• Tease programming on Ubuntu: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4354/

• Password strength: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5682/

• Easy GUI creation and handling of encrypted partitions: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/214/

• Offer to create a separate /home partition and use existing ones: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5390/

http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/22

Ubuntu Women Project Status - Mid 2008

Thanks to a considerable amount of work by emmajane the Ubuntu Women's Project now has a roadmap. They've also transferred their Course program into a partnership with Ubuntu Classroom, which is working on formation and hosting of regular classes. The overall participation of women in the Ubuntu community and in leadership positions has grown over the past year. Ubuntu Women is focusing more on helping women and getting involved with core projects (like Ubuntu Classroom) rather than striking out on their own initiatives. In keeping with a return to their core, they've worked to make the website and wiki documentation be more specific to their goals and easier to navigate. They’ve also committed to a monthly article in Full Circle Magazine. There has been considerable interest for Ubuntu Women mentoring, but they’d like to see the program become more successful. http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1257

New Ubuntu Members

The America's Membership Board

Chuck Frain is the leader of the approved US Maryland LoCo team. He has also done bug work, and helping drive the organization of a BugJam with his LoCo team and intends to expand his bug involvement in the future. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ChuckFrain Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~chuckfrain

Federico Torres is the leader of the Mexican LoCo team. In addition to being the administrator of the project and several of the project resources, he has worked with other LoCo teams as a mentor. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FedericoTorres Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~fetova

Justin Dugger is a member of the toshiba-tablet team, works with xorg bug triage and is the bug contact for several packages. He plans on expanding his involvement in bugs, with a focus on resolving outstanding issues for tablet users. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JustinDugger Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~jldugger

The America's board is happy to welcome these fantastic folks to the project!

The AsiaOceanic Membership Board

Nicholas Ng Boon Liang has been with Ubuntu Malaysia Team since its inception and has contributed in conducting various awareness programs to take Ubuntu to the people of Malaysia. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/nbliang Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~nbliang

Khairul Aizat Kamarudzzaman is also part of Malaysian Ubuntu Team. His notable contribution include activities to take Ubuntu to the officials in Malaysian Government. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/fenris Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~malaysianteam

The AsiaOceanic board is proud to welcome these new members!

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (47192) -50 # over last week
• Critical (32) +/-0 # over last week
• Unconfirmed (23348) +151 # over last week
• Unassigned (37846) +29 # over last week
• All bugs ever reported (192277) +1342 # 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 (12656)
• French (39133)
• English (United Kingdom) (49696)
• Swedish (52861)
• Brazilian Portuguese (54938)

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

LoCo News

Maryland Summer 2008 Plans

Lots of things are on the agenda for the Ubuntu Maryland team this summer and into the fall. It starts with the July 9th meeting of the Columbia Area Linux Users group, where there will be a presentation on the basic usage of GnuPG. On July 17th the Ubuntu Maryland LoCo team meeting will be open to the CALug members and anyone else to bring their laptops and/or questions about GnuPG for a hands on help session. Next up will be working with Celeste Lyn Paul on doing a usability study around Kubuntu. Currently she is working up the details of what will be tested. Following that will be their field trip to the NSA Crypto Museum & GnuPG keysigning on August 2nd. On August 9th the team will participate in the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam at the Loyola College Center for Community Informatics in Columbia, MD. To rap it all up, Software Freedom Day on September 20th. Great work Maryland!http://www.chuckfrain.net/2008/06/22/ubuntu-maryland-summer-08

Launchpad News

Launchpod episode #5

In this episode:

• An interview GnomeDo's David Siegel

• An interview with our sysadmins, Tom and Herb
• Joey's number of the week, this time covering translations!

You can find it here: http://news.launchpad.net/podcast/launchpod-episode-5-gnomedo-and-launchpad-sysadmins

Launchpad to be Offline

Launchpad has delayed the release of 1.2.6 until the first of July in order to make further performance tweaks to the database. The release is now scheduled for the early hours of Tuesday July 1st. The roll-out will require a couple of hours of down-time listed below.

• 00.00 UTC 1st July: Launchpad goes offline
• 02.00 UTC 1st July: Launchpad expected back online

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2008-June/003841.html

Greasemonkey-ing around with Launchpad

There is a small group of Ubuntu developers[0] who have been using greasemonkey[1] to customize the way Launchpad looks and behaves. They have created a bzr tree of the scripts they've written hosted on Launchpad[2]. They thought that these greasemonkey scripts might be useful for other projects using Launchpad who are interested in other ways of using greasemonkey. The scripts include ones that identify attachments flagged as patches in a bug page, that append karma and team participation to a Launchpad user, that provide a standard reply mechanism and one that makes tagging bug reports more accessible. More details can be found in the README in the bzr tree.

• [0] https://launchpad.net/~gm-dev-launchpad

• [1] http://www.greasespot.net/

• [2] https://code.launchpad.net/launchpad-gm-scripts

Ubuntu Forums News

Tutorial of the Week

This week's tutorial pick is aimed at the housekeeper in all of us -- WackToMack's nifty "HOWTO: Cleaning up all those unnecessary junk files..."

If you ever get an itch to throw out all the old, unused files on your system, WackToMack can show you how to do it safely and comprehensively. Software experimenters will be pleased to learn how to clean up after themselves, and long-running systems can win back a little space too. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=140920

In The Press

• Making the right Linux choice - A growing number of computer users are considering switching to the open source Linux operating system. Ubuntu, founded by Mark Shuttleworth, is one of the best choices for first-time users of Linux. It is designed to be easy to use and includes above-average hardware support and provides a clean desktop free of clutter. Ubuntu is also one of the most popular versions of Linux, which means that there is a huge community providing support for new users. Finding help with most aspects of Ubuntu set-up is usually as simple as doing a search on Google. http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/4293.html

• Ten sticking points for new Ubuntu users - With Ubuntu, Canonical has had notable success in convincing people to switch from other platforms, but potential Ubuntu users are still running into trouble. Having spent some time on Ubuntu's forums, Michael Reed has identified 10 points that seem to be common sticking points for new users. The problems span the entire Ubuntu experience, but they all have two things in common: they are all serious enough to evoke the dreaded "I tried Linux but it didn't work" excuse, and they are all solvable. The problems he focuses on are screen setup, boot management, mounting, installation, sound configuration, networking (IPv6 support), power and hibernation, email migration, documentation, and building from source. He offers arguments for his point of view, and suggestions for making the end user experience better. http://www.linux.com/articles/139214

In The Blogosphere

• Ubuntu’s role in bug management for the whole free software stack (By Mark Shuttleworth) - A distribution occupies a very specific niche in the free software ecosystem. Among other things, they need to accept some responsibility for ALL the software defects (”bugs”) that users actually experience across the entire stack. More often than not users will report the issue to their distribution, and the way we respond to it is important, because it represents an opportunity to make the whole ecosystem more robust. Ubuntu gets as many bugs reported against it as OpenOffice, Mozilla, Gnome, and KDE combined. Our primary goals should be to ensure that fixes we produce, and information we generate in the QA process, make their way upstream where they will benefit the broadest cross-section of the community. Separately, we want to ensure that each Ubuntu release ships without major issues, regardless of where those issues originated. We need to improve the tools that support these kinds of cross-project conversations. Launchpad does currently allow us to track the status of a bug in many different bug trackers, and there are quite a few distributions and upstreams that are now either using Launchpad directly or exchanging data efficiently. http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/145

• Ubuntu Linux - Truth Seeker has been a user of the Linux operating system since 1994. He's watched it improve steadily over that time, but there was always some function or application missing that meant he had to keep at least one pc around with a current version of Windows on it. Those days now appear to be over for him. He recently installed Ubuntu 8.04 on two of his home PCs and it is exceeding all his expectations. He can do anything with Ubuntu that he could with Windows, and everything worked out of the box. He will happily recommend Ubuntu 8.04 to anyone. http://truthseekernz.blogspot.com/2008/06/ubuntu-linux.html

• Networking with Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows Part 1 - Can't seem to find the shares of Ubuntu machines from My Network Places or Network in Windows? You'll soon find out it's not a hide-and-seek game you'll win unless you start playing with features that are available, rather than chasing those you imagine are installed and setup. Though Ubuntu can see the shared files and printers of Windows machines out-of-the-box, Windows can't see Ubuntu shares by default. In part 1, Eric Geier goes into the procedure for installing and setting up Samba in Ubuntu. He supplies step-by-step directions, as well as graphics for each phase of the procedure. Included in this part are "Installing the Samba Package for Ubuntu," "Creating a SMB Password in Ubuntu," "Allowing Ubuntu Desktop Users to Share," and "Changing the Computer Name in Ubuntu." http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6495/1/

• The Ubuntu Project: Is Linux Right For Word Workers? - Tom Chandler's six year-old HP laptop has never failed him, but lately, it has been making him wait. The laptop is not his main work machine, and is used mostly for web browsing. He decided it was the perfect test machine to try a new operating system, Ubuntu. Installation was straightforward and easy. Within 40 minutes he was looking at a new desktop, complete with a word processor, spreadsheet, IM software, and plenty of other goodies. Best of all, it ran much faster than his previous OS. He then decided to install Ubuntu on his work station to see if he could make the transition complete. It turns out that Ubuntu is faster than his old OS on his work station, not by a factor of several times, but noticeably faster. http://copywriterunderground.com/2008/06/22/the-ubuntu-project-is-linux-right-for-word-workers/

• Contributing non-technically to open source - A lot of people don't realize they CAN contribute. A widespread assumption is that software is technically hard and that you need advanced coding skills to do anything to contribute. It simply isn't true. And in fact if people think that way, it holds FOSS back from its true potential. For Ubuntu, there are probably infinite areas where locating the right upstream person and hooking them up with the right MOTU or core-dev person can advance a bug a LONG way. http://bryceharrington.org/drupal/node/53

• Neuf Telecom is offering a LiveCD based on Xubuntu Gutsy 7.10 to connect and configure their router - The liveCD contains documentation and tutorials in PDF format to help configure the hardware, a direct link to watch TV on the computer and a few games (including FrozenBubble) . The LiveCD can also be downloaded directly from their site. Article in French: http://www.actuneuf.com/2008/04/16/388/neuf-propose-un-kit-de-connexion-livecd/

In Other News

Full Circle Magazine - Issue #14

Full Circle - the Independent Magazine for the Ubuntu Linux Community are proud to announce the release of our fourteenth issue.

This month:

• Command and Conquer - Man pages, and what not to type.
• How-To : Create an Ubuntu Plug 'n' Play Zone, Create Your Own Server Part 6, Using GIMP Part 3 and Put Photos on your iPod.
• My Opinion - Excited About Ubuntu in South East India
• MOTU Interview - Soren Hansen

• Letters, Q&A, MyDesktop, Top5 and more!

Get it while it's hot! http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-14/

Ubuntu UK Podcast Episode 8

Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore and Ciemon Dunville present the eighth episode of the Ubuntu UK Podcast.

In this episode:

• The last of our interviews from the Ubuntu Developer Summit:
  • Matt Oquist talks about Software Freedom Day
  • KDE contributor Celeste Lyn Paul talks in depth about human-computer interaction (HCI) and enlightens us on the (KDE) human interface guidelines.
  • Utahs best export, Mike Basinger talks about his passion for the Ubuntu Forums, and his calming influence on the Ubuntu Community Council.
  • A very informative interview with Kurt von Finck about the Canonical Support operation, where to get the best deal on Ubuntu support and some stories from the trenches.

  • An interview with the “King of Bling”, Mirco “MacSlow” Müller talks about lowfat, GDM, face browser, cheese, memaker, clutter, avant window navigator, mpx in xorg.

• Competition
  • We set a new competition, which will end on the 12th July. (we have extended the competition due to this episode being late).

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2008/06/26/s01e08-doncha-think-its-time/

Team Meeting Summaries

Full Circle Magazine

• Issue #13 was released on Fri. 30th May and has received nearly 20,000 downloads in three weeks.
• #14 has reached the second and final preview stage and is being given a final proof-read and check by the marketing team.
• In translations: #11 French, #12 Italian and #12 Chinese (traditional and simplified) are all on site for download.

• Robin Catling has been investigating the creation of an HTML edition of FCM. A preview has been upload to: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/html/ - the process to get each issue from raw text to HTML edition is quite lengthy so more investigation is needed to streamline/automate the process.

• Matthew Rossi has been unable to produce the podcast due to real-life stuff, but Emmanuel Morales has expressed an interest in taking over the podcast.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/June2008

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Server Team Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

QA Team Meeting

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Meetings/

Platform Team Meeting

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

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Desktop Team Meeting

• Start: 13:00 UTC
• End: 14:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting

Friday, July 4, 2008

How to run a Bug Jam

• Start: 16:00 UTC
• End: 17:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RunningBugJam

Saturday, July 5, 2008

How to run a Bug Jam

• Start: 19:00 UTC
• End:
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RunningBugJam

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

Security Updates

• [USN-620-1] OpenSSL vulnerabilities - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-June/000722.html

• [USN-621-1] Ruby vulnerabilities - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-June/000723.html

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

• ruby1.8 1.8.4-1ubuntu1.5 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-June/012717.html

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

• ruby1.8 1.8.5-4ubuntu2.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2008-June/008961.html

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

• ruby1.8 1.8.6.36-1ubuntu3.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-June/010262.html

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

• apache2 2.2.8-1ubuntu0.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011753.html

• xorg 1:7.3+10ubuntu10.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011754.html

• apache2-mpm-itk 2.2.6-01-1build3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011755.html

• openssl_0.9.8g-4ubuntu3.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011756.html

• xserver-xorg-video-nsc 1:2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011757.html

• linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24.13-19.43 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011758.html

• xserver-xorg-video-geode 2.9.0-1ubuntu2.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011759.html

• ruby1.8 1.8.6.111-2ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011760.html

• casper 1.132ubuntu0.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011761.html

• linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24.13-19.44 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011762.html

• xserver-xorg-video-geode 2.9.0-1ubuntu2.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-June/011763.html

Archives and RSS Feed

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Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/news

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• http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

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
• John Crawford
• Isabelle Duchatelle
• And many others

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