What's cooking in Ubuntu
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1 [04:01] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/01/30/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.
2 [04:05] <jcastro> ok
3 [04:05] <jcastro> we'll run this one unmoderated and less formal
4 [04:05] <jcastro> so we can go deeper into discussions and Q+A without worrying about the bot
5 [04:05] <jcastro> I'm Jorge Castro and I'll be your host!
6 [04:05] <jcastro> So for this session basically I'd like to answer your questions about what's going on around Ubuntu for 11.04
7 [04:06] <jcastro> so we can really have this session be whatever you guys want to ask questions about
8 [04:06] <jcastro> wether it's new features coming in 11.04
9 [04:06] <jcastro> or specific questions about the distro in general
10 [04:07] <Sashin> So, what are the plans in regard to the software centre changes, have we seen them all (ratings and reviews) or is there more to come? (interface changes, new icon, features etc)
11 [04:07] <mhall119> is there any chance of the server-side of Ubuntu One being opened?
12 [04:07] <jcastro> ok so let's start off with the software center
13 [04:07] <jcastro> In case you didn't know, they uploaded a new USC this week that let's people rate and review software
14 [04:08] <jcastro> you can rate things from 1-5 stars, and leave comments
15 [04:08] <jcastro> I asked mvo (one of the developers) if this was going to be backported to 10.10
16 [04:08] <jcastro> and he tells me that they're still looking at doing that, depending on how complicated it is to backport what they need
17 [04:09] <jcastro> as far as the look and feel and icon and all that, 24 March is the userinterface and beta freeze
18 [04:09] <jcastro> so I expect any changes would have to land by then. I am not sure what the design team is cooking up for USC though
19 [04:09] <jcastro> (I wonder if the yellow color for the comments is on purpose for example)
20 [04:10] <jcastro> mhall119: No change in that policy as far as I know
21 [04:10] <mhall119> is there an Ubuntu One webservice API?
22 [04:10] <jcastro> you're in luck
23 [04:10] <mhall119> or any way to integrate webapps with a user's U1 data
24 [04:10] <jcastro> "soon" is what they tell me
25 [04:11] <mhall119> yay!
26 [04:11] * jcastro searches for a sec
27 [04:12] <jcastro> can't find anything
28 [04:12] <jcastro> but last I heard there will be a full API and SDK and all that jazz
29 [04:12] <mhall119> it's okay, I know where to find you for updates
30 [04:12] <mhall119> I also know where to find U1 devs
31 [04:13] <jcastro> so another thing coming for 11.04 will be the 2.6.38 kernel
32 [04:13] <jcastro> which is starting to land in natty itself right now
33 [04:13] <jcastro> this does include the "200 line magic patch" thing everyone was talking about
34 [04:14] <Habeouscorpus> wow, that alone makes it worth the upgrade
35 [04:14] <jcastro> there are also 2 new programs in the default install
36 [04:14] <jcastro> the first one is the switch from openoffice.org to LibreOffice
37 [04:14] <jcastro> which has already been uploaded this past week
38 === abhijain is now known as abhishek
39 [04:14] <jcastro> and the second is that Banshee is now the default music player
40 [04:15] <jcastro> (feel free to jump in with any questions at any time)
41 [04:15] <Habeouscorpus> does libre office still support all that open office does?
42 [04:15] <jcastro> yep
43 [04:15] <jcastro> and more
44 [04:15] <Sashin> Anything else apart from unity planned as a part of the Ayatana initiative landing in Natty?
45 [04:16] <jcastro> in fact libreoffice derives from "go-ooo", which was a patchset of improvements to openoffice
46 [04:16] <gpc> What does the future hold for the "classic desktop" in Ubuntu?
47 [04:16] <jcastro> so for ubuntu users it's just a continuation of improvements from the past
48 [04:16] <jcastro> Sashin: good question
49 [04:16] <jcastro> suport for the global menu in Firefox and Thunderbird will land
50 [04:17] <jcastro> as far as the classic desktop
51 [04:17] <jcastro> I suspect it won't be going anywhere for a while
52 [04:18] <sebsebseb> Why is Banshee default?
53 [04:18] <Pendulum> so it should still be an option when Unity 2D starts to really be pushed (which I'm under the impression will happen in O-cycle)
54 [04:18] <jcastro> Sashin: as far as the rest of ayatana, this cycle is mostly maintenance, so instead of improvements to them we'll see more work being done on apps, etc.
55 [04:18] <Sashin> Any planned changed to the installer ubiquity?
56 [04:18] <gpc> jcastro: I would hope until at least 12.04
57 [04:18] <Sashin> ah I see
58 [04:19] <jcastro> Banshee by default mostly because of it's healthy improvement upstream
59 [04:19] <sebsebseb> yeah Unity 2D probably the default fallback option for 11.10?
60 [04:19] <jcastro> I have more detail on why Banshee here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/10911/why-is-banshee-becoming-the-default/10963#10963
61 [04:20] <jcastro> Sashin: on the installer front mostly all bug fixing
62 [04:20] <jcastro> 10.10 was the big one featurewise for the installer
63 === abhijain is now known as ajain
64 [04:20] <jcastro> in 10.10 they made it so it installed in the background while you answered the questions
65 [04:20] <jcastro> which really makes for a fast install
66 [04:21] <jcastro> I suspect our decision to use Unity 2D in the future as a fallback will depend on how long GNOME 2.x is maintained upstream
67 [04:21] <jcastro> but as with anything, we make those decisions at UDS, and it's much to early to determine something like that
68 [04:21] <jcastro> especially when Unity 2D isn't finished yet, and GNOME 2.x is very mature code that's been rocking for us for going on 6 years.
69 [04:21] <Sashin> Isn't unity going to be a shell over gnome 3?
70 [04:22] <jcastro> yes
71 [04:22] <sebsebseb> Maybe the encrypted home should be in an advanced option or something? I remember people in #ubuntu with issues after re installs or whatever it was, because they had used encryption
72 [04:22] <jcastro> yeah, that'd be a nice wishlist bug
73 [04:22] <sebsebseb> was that at me?
74 [04:22] <jcastro> yes
75 [04:22] <sebsebseb> ok :)
76 [04:22] <jcastro> on the server side there are some cool improvements
77 [04:22] <jcastro> this release will mark the debut of cobbler in ubuntu
78 [04:22] <sebsebseb> What's cobbler?
79 [04:23] <jcastro> cobbler is a deployment server from the guys at Red Hat
80 [04:23] <jcastro> basically you have a server
81 [04:23] <jcastro> and you tell it "I want ubuntu desktop 10.10, server 10.04, and these other isos"
82 [04:23] <jcastro> it then imports them
83 [04:23] <jcastro> and then you just start net booting machines and installing it
84 [04:24] <jcastro> it's like an out of the box PXE installer with management features
85 [04:24] <jcastro> http://www.ubuntu-user.com/Online/Blogs/Amber-Graner-You-in-Ubuntu/Chuck-Short-Discusses-Cobbler-On-Ubuntu
86 [04:24] <jcastro> http://zulcss.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/using-cobbler-on-ubuntu/
87 [04:24] <gpc> ohh, that sounds nice
88 [04:24] <sebsebseb> oh ok so cobbler for more than one distro? So they can be installed eaiser on a server?
89 [04:24] <jcastro> https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/
90 [04:24] <jcastro> basically, most sysadmins set up their own kickstart server anyway
91 [04:25] <jcastro> this one just comes out of the box
92 [04:25] <jcastro> something else in the tasksel, like we do for LAMP, DNS, etc.
93 [04:25] <jcastro> you just check the box and voila!
94 [04:26] <jcastro> hmm, let's see what else
95 [04:26] <LeGambitteur> what about the web browser ? will Minefield be ready ?
96 [04:26] <jcastro> yep, it'll be firefox 4
97 [04:26] <jcastro> which is already in natty
98 [04:26] <jcastro> (with the global menu as I said earlier)
99 [04:26] <jcastro> oh, here's one
100 [04:26] <jcastro> we finally fixed the resizing of windows
101 [04:27] <jcastro> so instead of that stupid 1 pixel target, you'll be able to basically grab any part of the "shadow" around a window to resize it
102 [04:27] <jcastro> and on top of that there will be a little grippie on the bottom right corner of every window
103 [04:27] <jcastro> (it's about time we fixed that bug, it was horrible)
104 [04:27] <sebsebseb> Unity 2D probably by default for well versions of Ubuntu after 11.04 right? Gnome 2 is on the verge of dieing after all. Also I think I read that for Ubuntu to do Gnome 3, would need to do the whole thing so no Gnome 2 fall back option. Which is planned for 11.10?
105 [04:28] <jcastro> like I said before it's much to early to tell
106 [04:28] <jcastro> at this point in the cycle all we're thinking about is 11.04
107 [04:28] <jcastro> it's not until UDS where we start to think about 11.10
108 [04:28] <jcastro> so, ask me in May. :)
109 === abhijain is now known as abhijain1
110 [04:29] <Pendulum> sebsebseb: if you have a strong opinion either way, you might want to consider attending UDS either in person or remotely :)
111 === abhijain1 is now known as ajain
112 === ajain is now known as aajain
113 [04:29] <Sashin> Gnome shell will still be in the repos?
114 [04:29] <jcastro> we had to move gnome shell to a PPA
115 [04:29] <jcastro> for a number of reasons
116 [04:29] <sebsebseb> Pendulum: I did attend some sessions for not the last UDS, but the one before, remotely
117 [04:29] <jcastro> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2011-January/002740.html
118 [04:30] <jcastro> here's the full summary
119 [04:30] <jcastro> but basically, since we're using GNOME 2.x as the fallback
120 === aajain is now known as abhijain1
121 [04:30] <jcastro> we can't ship parts of GNOME 3 on the disc
122 [04:30] <jcastro> so we're moving -shell and other parts onto a PPA
123 [04:30] <sebsebseb> jcastro: yeah bingo, that's the one I read
124 [04:31] <jcastro> that will let anyone work on -shell for ubuntu, since they don't have to have permissions to do that in the archive
125 === abhijain1 is now known as ajain
126 [04:31] <sebsebseb> yep and the PPA can be updated after the 11.04 release as well and all that
127 [04:31] <jcastro> and this way too they don't have to worry about freezes, etc. in the distro
128 [04:31] <jcastro> so they'll be able to keep putting in fresh snapshots in the PPA while the rest of the distro freezes
129 [04:31] <Sashin> makes sense
130 [04:31] <jcastro> if we kept it in the archive by the time we released it would be old
131 [04:31] <jcastro> anyone is more than welcome to join that team
132 [04:32] <jcastro> it has ricotz and some of the other people who have been running gnome 3 ppa's
133 [04:32] <jcastro> https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team
134 [04:32] <sebsebseb> yes it will be interesting to see how distros deal with Gnome 3 :)
135 [04:32] <Sashin> ohh, I have that installed but it doesn't have the new interface...
136 [04:32] <jcastro> it's just the way that the archive is organized it makes more sense to kick fast moving projects out of the distro and then bring it back in
137 [04:32] <Sashin> still has the old gnome 3.
138 [04:32] <jcastro> right
139 [04:33] <sebsebseb> I think the way Ubuntu are doing it for 11.04 makes sense though, even though I wasn't that sure when I first read it was going to a ppa
140 [04:33] <jcastro> we have feature freeze coming up in about a month
141 [04:33] <jcastro> if -shell was in the archive then effectively whatever -shell was in the archive at that time would be what we would release
142 [04:33] <jcastro> this way you can just run natty + the ppa and run the freshest shell
143 [04:34] <jcastro> hmm, lets see, what else
144 === abhijain is now known as abhijain1
145 [04:34] <Sashin> Is there any more desktop integration with internet planned?
146 [04:34] <sebsebseb> jcastro: yeah and maybe a bit easier then doing it the current Gnome 3 site way, but at the moment, I haven't tried either, for the later Gnome Shell's
147 [04:34] <jcastro> oh, dunno if you guys saw but network manager is now a proper indicator
148 [04:34] <Sashin> (like gwibber ubuntu one, etc)
149 [04:34] <jcastro> so no more old icons in the "tray"
150 === abhijain1 is now known as xyz
151 [04:35] <Sashin> that'll make things alot smoother.
152 [04:35] <jcastro> oh, let me see if ken's around for gwibber
153 [04:35] <gpc> cyphermox has been working hard on n-m
154 === xyz is now known as abhijain
155 === abhijain is now known as akash
156 [04:36] <stefano-palazzo_> This may be a bit technical. Will this 200-line kernel patch business be disabled by default on the server?
157 [04:36] <days_of_ruin> Must you change your name constantly?
158 [04:36] <jcastro> stefano-palazzo_: we don't ship the patch, we ship what's in 2.6.38, which iirc has whatever linus approved
159 [04:36] <jcastro> I don't expect it will suck on servers
160 [04:36] <gpc> !nickspam > akash
161 [04:36] <ubot2> akash, please see my private message
162 [04:37] <Sashin> it would be cool if we could right click a picture and upload it to flickr or tinypic or something...
163 [04:37] <jcastro> ken tells me that the improvements for gwibber this cycle are error handling and stability, and not much else.
164 [04:37] <ikt> a lot of people think the changes to the desktop are massive, and that a lot of people will have to re-learn how to use the desktop, are there any plans for tutorials or guides or something similar built into ubuntu?
165 === akash is now known as ajain
166 === ajain is now known as abhijain
167 [04:37] <Omega> This was from a while ago, but is still important, Ubuntu used to ship go-ooo, so the switch to Libreoffice is not that radical.
168 [04:37] <jcastro> sure
169 [04:37] <gpc> abhijain: please stop that
170 [04:38] <sebsebseb> ikt: I guess the offical support pages for Ubuntu will get re done for 11.04 or parts of them
171 [04:38] <jcastro> that's part of the reason we have things like feature and UI freeze, to give teams a chance to update documentation
172 [04:39] <sebsebseb> Lubuntu still won't be an offical one in 11.04?
173 [04:39] <jcastro> I'm not sure what the lubuntu progress is lately
174 [04:39] <jcastro> maybe asking on their project mailing list
175 [04:40] <ikt> but I mean going further than standard documentation, like the possibility of having video guides or at worst maybe a youtube channel showing some of the newer features etc (can you tell I'm not a fan of reading :X)
176 [04:40] <sebsebseb> Why isn't it offical already? I have tried it a few times, its quite good really as an Ubuntu based distro.
177 [04:40] <jcastro> I don't know why it's not official
178 [04:40] <jcastro> yeah, I'm sure people will make plenty of videos, etc.
179 [04:41] <jcastro> I'll be making some myself
180 [04:41] <ikt> :>
181 [04:41] <ikt> on youtube or ?
182 [04:42] <sebsebseb> ikt: yeah reading can be quite time consuming, but reading is a good way to find out things :)
183 [04:42] <jcastro> yeah, we always post videos on the ubuntu developer channel
184 [04:42] <jcastro> http://www.youtube.com/user/ubuntudevelopers
185 [04:42] <sebsebseb> videos and audiocasts may be more fun though
186 [04:42] <ikt> yeah :D
187 [04:42] <Omega> If videos are made, do not forget to transcribe them.
188 [04:43] <sebsebseb> Yeah and Jono has his ustream for people who want to ask questions about Ubuntu and such
189 [04:43] <Pendulum> Omega: +1
190 [04:43] <jcastro> right
191 [04:43] <ikt> sebsebseb, yeah I read a lot, but honestly I just prefer watching videos and seeing how things are done
192 [04:44] <sebsebseb> http://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon
193 [04:44] <jcastro> 15 minutes left, what other questions?
194 [04:44] <sebsebseb> ikt: he likes showing Unity at the moment it seems, for example
195 [04:44] <gpc> What is your favorite food?
196 [04:45] <Sashin> Any work being done on empathy or evolution?
197 [04:45] <gpc> :-P
198 [04:45] <jcastro> tacos
199 [04:45] <gpc> haha
200 [04:45] <stefano-palazzo_> How do you see Unity being used in large scale deployments, big companies and that?
201 [04:45] <jcastro> evo and empathy we depend on upstream to do that work
202 [04:45] <jcastro> we just ship it, though we keep in contact with the guys @ collabora for improvements to empathy, etc.
203 [04:46] <jcastro> stefano-palazzo_: I don't suspect most large companies would deploy a non-LTS release
204 [04:46] <jcastro> however when the next LTS is ready for them then Unity will have gone through a bunch of iteration
205 [04:46] <jcastro> by then it will be pretty metal
206 [04:48] <jcastro> anything else?
207 [04:48] <jcastro> no one's asked about btrfs yet!
208 [04:48] <sebsebseb> uhmm sure
209 [04:48] <sebsebseb> ,but
210 [04:48] <sebsebseb> that won't be 11.04 by default I guess
211 [04:48] <Sashin> What are its advantages over ext4?
212 [04:48] <sebsebseb> maybe 11.10 though or at least as an option?
213 [04:49] <sebsebseb> Sashin: snapshots
214 [04:49] <sebsebseb> so can restore the system to an earlier state or something, if a problem, but I don't know much about btrfs right now at all
215 [04:49] <jcastro> it's in 11.04 now as an option
216 [04:49] <stefano-palazzo_> What are the limitations of an install on btrfs going to be on release day?
217 [04:49] <gpc> how stable is it?
218 [04:49] <jcastro> but it'll take some time for things like being able to snapshot back after an apt-get install, etc.
219 [04:49] <sebsebseb> jcastro: oh yeah it was in 10.10 as an option as well if I remember correctly
220 [04:49] <jcastro> gpc: I won't be using it. :)
221 [04:50] <jcastro> sebsebseb: yeah but you couldn't boot into it
222 [04:50] <jcastro> you had to make /boot ext2/3/4
223 [04:50] <gpc> jcastro: neither will I in that case :)
224 [04:50] <sebsebseb> unless a seperate boot partition or whatever
225 [04:50] <jcastro> now the support is there in grub2 and the installer
226 [04:50] <jcastro> so you'll be able to install it with just pure btrfs if you want
227 [04:50] <jcastro> but to me it won't really be useful until it's integrated with dpkg and all that
228 [04:51] <sebsebseb> Ext4 will be good enough for many of us, for quite a while yet I guess
229 [04:51] <jcastro> imagine being able to say "you know what, I liked 12.04 better than 12.10"
230 [04:51] <jcastro> and then just roll back
231 [04:51] <ClassBot> There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
232 [04:51] <gpc> I like the idea of rollback
233 [04:51] <sebsebseb> jcastro: well yeah, but the snapshots will take up quite a lot of space or?
234 [04:51] <jcastro> but it'll be there if people want to play with it
235 [04:51] <gpc> but it has to be absolutely stable and not wipe all my data
236 [04:51] <jcastro> not really, that's the best part
237 [04:51] <jcastro> snapshots are very cheap
238 [04:51] <sebsebseb> gpc: you and others may get more lonely in #ubuntu when btrfs becomes default :D
239 [04:52] <jcastro> actually, I found a good video on btrfs, one sec
240 [04:52] <sebsebseb> gpc: since most problems, can be fixed by a rollback I guess
241 [04:52] <gpc> sebsebseb: I long for the day we can close #ubuntu or maybe just keep it open as a chat channel and not a support channel .
242 [04:52] <sebsebseb> that there will be then I mean
243 [04:53] <jcastro> gpc: I've wanted that closed since 2004. :)
244 [04:53] <jcastro> http://video.linux.com/video/1608
245 [04:53] <gpc> haha
246 [04:53] <jcastro> here you go, this is a good video for btrfs
247 [04:53] <sebsebseb> jcastro: yeah heh heh I guess
248 [04:53] <jcastro> from the main upstream guy. :)
249 [04:54] <sebsebseb> what about ZFS? maybe that will come properly later on as well? :D
250 [04:54] <jcastro> that'll catch you up on btrfs in like 45 minutes
251 [04:54] <Omega> support for ZFS already landed in grub
252 [04:54] <sebsebseb> Omega: well yeah I read something about that
253 [04:54] <sebsebseb> ,but I did say more properly above :D
254 [04:54] <ikt> is there an ubuntu dev website coming along? a la this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT5fUcMUfYg <- ~6:45 in
255 [04:54] <jcastro> I'm keeping ext4 for a while.
256 [04:54] <jcastro> http://developer.ubuntu.com/
257 [04:55] <Omega> I've always been fond of reiserfs myself.
258 [04:55] <jcastro> this is coming together
259 [04:55] <ikt> ^_^
260 [04:55] <jcastro> it'll be following the same release as the distro, so the website will be ready for 11.04
261 [04:55] <sebsebseb> Omega: Why?
262 [04:55] <ikt> that's awesome :D
263 [04:55] <Omega> sebsebseb: I've never had problems with it, except yesterday :(
264 [04:56] <sebsebseb> oh, and what problem yesterday?
265 [04:56] <ClassBot> There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
266 [04:56] <Omega> We can talk about it later, it's kind of off-topic for here
267 [04:56] <jcastro> ok awesome, well it's midnight here, and we're about out of time
268 [04:56] <sebsebseb> Omega: true
269 [04:56] <jcastro> thanks so much everyone for joining in
270 [04:56] <Omega> Thank you jcastro.
271 [04:56] <jcastro> you can always keep abreast of changes going in 11.04 by following this list
272 [04:56] <stefano-palazzo_> jcastro, this has been awesome, thanks a lot
273 [04:56] <LeGambitteur> thanks to you all guys
274 [04:56] <jcastro> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/natty-changes/
275 [04:57] <Omega> Thank you for everyone who gave sessions.
276 [04:57] <gpc> thank you jcastro
277 [04:57] <Omega> to*
278 [04:57] <jcastro> and this forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=394
279 [04:57] <sebsebseb> Longer user days, the better in a way, I guess
280 [04:57] <pleia2> thanks jcastro :)
281 [04:57] <ikt> ty jcastro and to all the teachers :>
282 [04:57] <LeGambitteur> till the end sebsebseb
283 [04:57] <gpc> thank you pleia2 nhandler Pendulum nigelb and everybody else :)
284 [04:57] <jcastro> and if you have any questions about ubuntu in general feel free to ask us on http://askubuntu.com/
285 [04:57] <gpc> thank you ClassBot
286 [04:57] <jcastro> (though we stick to stable releases on ask ubuntu)
287 [04:57] <gpc> :)
288 [04:58] <jcastro> cheers, and goodnight everyone!
UserDays/01302011/What's cooking in Ubuntu (last edited 2011-01-30 05:04:21 by ptr)