Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #101
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #101 for the week July 20th - July 26th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Intrepid Alpha 3 release, MOTU school sessions, Ubuntu screencasts, LoCo team approvals, Global Bug Jam, Ubuntu Massachusetts press release, Colombian team activity, Launchpod episode #8, New Forums staff members, Forums tutorial, Full Circle Magazine #15, 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/UbuntuWeekly...r/Translations
In This Issue
- Intrepid Alpha 3 released
- MOTU school session: Maintainer Scripts
- Ubuntu Screencasts
- LoCo team Approvals
- Global Bug Jam
- Ubuntu Stats
- LoCo News
- Launchpod episode #8
- Ubuntu Forums News
- In the Press & Blogosphere
- Full Circle Magazine #15
- Meeting Summaries
- Upcoming Meetings & Events
- Updates & Security
General Community News
Intrepid Alpha 3 released
Alpha 3 is the third 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 show stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Intrepid. 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. You can download it here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ly/000459.html
MOTU school session: Maintainer Scripts
The MOTU school is in session, and this time it's Maintainer Scripts. Cesare Tirabassi is offering a beginners session in maintainer scripts on the 28th July at 14:00 UTC, in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.ubuntu.com. This will be a great session for anyone starting out with packaging, or anyone looking for a refresher on this topic. Maintainer scripts are important parts of a package, so this should be a useful session. If you can't attend, logs of the session will be available, afterwards. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ly/004252.html
Ubuntu Screencasts
Mixing A Podcast In Ardour - - The UK LoCo Team has released the first 6 installments of a 13 part series outlining how to mix a podcast in Ardour. It is their hope that it will benefit others with editing podcasts, or even just editing in general. The original was recorded at 2560 X 1024 resolution so those with smaller screens may want to select a lower resolution available at the links.
Be sure to check out all the Ubuntu screencasts here: http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/
LoCo Team Approvals
Lithuania - The Ubuntu Lithuania LoCo team was founded in July 2005 they are most active in Installfests, presentations, collaboration with other LoCo teams, printed press and radio, CD distribution, and translations. Their roadmap shows that they want to be more active in development, education, GreenPC, and Ubucon Baltic. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LithuanianTe...valApplication
Tunisia - The Ubuntu Tunisia LoCo team has been most active in Installfests, SFD Tunisia, various local conferences, and CD distribution. Their road map indicates that they want to take part in SIB 2008(Tunisia computer exposition), build a working relationship with local universities, and creating a local ubuntu mirror. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TunisianTeam...valApplication
Japan - The Ubuntu Japanese LoCo team has successfully completed the review process for a previously approved team. They are most active in managing bugs submitted in Japanese, promoting Ubuntu with Japanese businesses, a Japanese version of the Official Ubuntu Book, written articles for print and online local magazines, local conferences, and deploying new archive mirrors. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JapaneseTeam...valApplication
The LoCo council is happy to welcome these teams to the growing list of officially approved LoCo teams. Great job!
Global Bug Jam
Don't forget to mark you calendars for the Ubuntu global bug jam days set for August 8th - 10th, 2008. Global bug jam is like Ubuntu bug day, only on a global basis. You can find out how you and your LoCo team can participate, look over the teams already signed up, see what you need to be ready on the day of the event, and all about upstream participation at the link. Don't miss out, get your plan and your team together now and enjoy a rockin' day of global bug fixing. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (47351) +261 # over last week
- Critical (24) +/-0 # over last week
- Unconfirmed (23528) -94 # over last week
- Unassigned (38300) +193 # over last week
- All bugs ever reported (197383) +1282 # 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
- Spanish (12066)
- French (39177)
- English-UK (46967)
- Swedish (52861)
- Brazilian Portuguese (54195)
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/
LoCo News
Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo Press Release
Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo team has been working with the South End Technical Center since January 2008, installing Ubuntu on center and user machines and providing weekly training sessions for experienced and novice users alike. On August 2nd the group will be hosting their fourth free Exploration Ubuntu event to demonstrate what this easy-to-use Linux system has to offer. Join the team from 10am to 5pm at the MIT Media Lab, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA. Contact event coordinator Mike Rushton (leftyfb), or visit http://ubuntu-ma.us for more details. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ly/000103.html
Colombian Team Recent Activity
The Colombian Team has been busy, recently. In addition to the Campus Party Colombia [1] for which they have photos [2], they also engaged in an Installfest on SENA Bogotá [3], and have photos of the setup [4] and some of the activities [5]. In addition, they got together with Cali Underground [6] to share free software with Rock. A concert and Linux demonstrations were also held there.
[1] http://www.campus-party.com.co/ [[BR]]
[2] http://picasaweb.google.com/noticias...otColombia2008 [[BR]]
[3] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ColombianTea...enfestSENA2008 [[BR]]
[4] http://picasaweb.google.com/noticias...adaSLSENABogot [[BR]]
[5] http://picasaweb.google.com/noticias...adaSLSENABogot [[BR]]
[6] http://ubuntu-co.com/node/14
Launchpad News
Launchpod episode 8: developer interview with Curtis Hovey and chat about Landscape
Launchpod: the Launchpad team podcast! The latest from the Launchpad developers, questions from Launchpad users and stories from people who’ve found Launchpad useful.
Hosts: Matthew Revell, Joey Stanford, Barry Warsaw and Graham Binns
Theme: Obscurity by Barry Warsaw.
- 00:45: Introducing Graham Binns, Launchpad Bug Tracker developer.
- 06.20: Curtis Hovey, from the Launchpad Foundations team, talks about Launchpad’s community support application, Answers.
- 20.15: Joey’s number of the week!
- 22.50: Jamu Kakar talks about Landscape, Canonical’s remote management tool for Ubuntu machines.
Send us your ideas and questions to feedback@launchpad.net
ogg download: http://www.archive.org/download/Laun...8-20080716.ogg
Podcast feed: http://news.launchpad.net/category/podcast/feed
http://news.launchpad.net/podcast/la...bout-landscape
Ubuntu Forums News
New Staff members
Please welcome all the great new moderators on UF. They have shown a constant, good natured and welcoming spirit and have made substantial contributions to the forums. You can find their forum member and Launchpad page below:
- Oldsoldier2003 is based in Oklahoma and is much involved in the UF Unanswered Posts and Beginners Teams. In addition to the forums, you can also find his contributions on Launchpad and the Ubuntu wiki. He is the developer maintainer and packager of boucft ("Best of the Ubuntu Community Forums Tutorials"), a project providing tutorials from the Ubuntu Community Forums readable in the Yelp browser. Forum account: http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=487991 - Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~oldsoldier-gmail
Tutorial of the Week
This week's star is another oldie-but-goody -- tseliot's "HOWTO: Kernel Compilation for Newbies."
This is one of the longest-running kernel compilation threads in the forum, and it comes from a highly reputable and knowledgeable member. It's a great place to start learning about the core element of your Ubuntu system, and how to modify it to your liking. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56835
In The Press
- Mark Shuttleworth: Ubuntu in emerging markets - Mark Shuttleworth sees the greatest potential for growth in emerging markets and in mobile, where he believes that software freedom has the most to offer. His mission is to bring Linux to new audiences, not to displace the other major distributions. He notes that the sub notebook market offers a unique opportunity for Linux vendors, where there is real room for linux to be a commercial success. Shuttleworth's presentation offered a compelling glimpse at the man behind one of the most successful Linux distributions. His dynamic style of expression and obvious enthusiasm for Linux captivated the audience. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...g-markets.html
- OSCON, Pt. 2.1: A Few Words With Mark Shuttleworth - For many people, Ubuntu is Linux, and Mark Shuttleworth is Ubuntu. It might come as a surprise to learn that the prime mover behind one of the most successful and visible Linux distributions isn't entirely comfortable with that. Ubuntu celebrates everyone else's work, and we focus our energy to deliver their thinking to the world wide community. This interview also gives us insight into Mark's thinking on how to draw people to Ubuntu as contributors, and how to get continued participation from developers. You can also see a video of Mark talking about who his personal heroes are and why, by visiting the link. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...pt_21_a_f.html
- Legion of Talk Event Podcast | Mark Shuttleworth on Ubuntu and Space Travel - Hazelnut Tech Talk presents the full 84 minute audio recording of the presentation that Mark Shuttleworth made at McMenamins Mission Theater, in Portland, Oregon. This is the talk that was sponsored by Strands and Legion of Tech. http://oakhazelnut.com/2008/07/22/le...-space-travel/
- Shuttleworth: Make Desktop Linux Better than Apple - Darryl K. Taft reports on a talk that Mark Shuttleworth made at OSCON. During the talk, Mark said he thought the greatest task in front of us over the next two years is to lift the experience of the Linux desktop from something that is stable, robust and not so pretty, into something that is art. There is need to invest in making the desktop beautiful and useful, because now more than any other time in history, software matters. The iPhone is a great example of effective use of the pure software experience, and it's no accident that over the last 10 years in technology, many of the biggest brands have been built using free software. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-O...er-than-Apple/
In The Blogosphere
- NASA Uses Ubuntu - Mackenzie had the opportunity to visit a Smithsonian Folklife Festival with some friends when NASA had an exhibit going. After looking around, they noticed a demonstration of a robot climbing a wall. They looked at the laptop the man was using to control the webcam attached to the robot, and saw the Hardy Heron wallpaper showing in a corner of the screen. A closer inspection showed that compiz was also running. http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspo...es-ubuntu.html
- Ubuntu VS Other Linux Distributions - There are many things that make Ubuntu different from other Linux distributions. The ease of installation, the APT(Advanced Package Tool) for software management, and the unique use of sudo instead of su. Ubuntu has unique features that have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are far from limiting. Ubuntu has the tools in place to allow you to customize, modify, experiment, and hack to your heart’s content if that is what you want to do. Otherwise, the idea is to be an easily maintainable, secure system with a clear and concise application set which is neither limiting nor overwhelming. This makes Ubuntu a very fluid system allowing you to jump right in and become familiar with it very quickly. http://computingtech.blogspot.com/20...ributions.html
- A Week of Ubuntu - After hearing good things about Ubuntu, oilee decided to give it a try. He first tried installing on an older machine, but had no luck. He then decided to use his main computer and is now dual booting Ubuntu. Initially he was worried about driver issues with his video card and a few other components, but he was pleasantly surprised to see everything worked. He was also a little worried that the UI would be a little clunky, but he actually found it to be very polished. In terms of programs, he didn’t feel deprived at all. He'll still have to get acquainted with Synaptic, but as it stands now, he's really impressed with Ubuntu. http://oilee.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/a-week-of-ubuntu/
- Ubuntu Linux, My Favorite Desktop - amumtaz has used Linux in the past, but he decided to to try Ubuntu to see what all the hoopla was about. He booted the live CD on his laptop and was surprised when it picked up all the needed drivers, including those needed for WiFi. Installing was next, and in less than a hour he was up and running. All the programs were there, and his USB was flash drive mounted first try. He's decided to keep Ubuntu as his default desktop, and will be using it to do all his daily chores. http://amumtaz.wordpress.com/2008/07...orite-desktop/
- A few suggestions to improve Ubuntu - Nicolas Bouliane has had some problems working with Ubuntu, and offers these suggestions for improving it. One, in particular, is the ability to bulk-rename files when file names conflict with existing files. Another is to add a restore button to the trash applet. A third is to improve the options on "autorun" for storage cards. Nonetheless Ubuntu is still excellent and worth a try. See the article at http://nicbou.com/2008/07/21/a-few-s...mprove-ubuntu/
In Other News
Full Circle Magazine - Issue #15
Full Circle - the Independent Magazine for the Ubuntu Linux Community
are proud to announce the release of our fifteenth issue.
This month:
- Command and Conquer - The Ins and Outs of Directories.
- How-To : Separate Home Partition, Create Your Own Server Part 7, Using GIMP Part 4 and GRUB 101.
- My Story - Ubuntu Saves The Day & From Mickey's ABC To Kubuntu
- Review - HP Photosmart C3180 Printer
- MOTU Interview - Mathias Gug
- Letters, Q&A, MyDesktop, Top5 and more!
Get it while it's hot! : http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-15/
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ly/000112.html
Meeting Summaries
Xubuntu
- JMak has completed the GDM theme for Intrepid.
- Final draft of the Xubuntu Strategy Document has been completed. This will be presented to the Community Council at the next meeting.
- Many updates completed on Xubuntu Wiki
- Organized the team for the update of the Xubuntu.org website
- Released Hardy Heron 8.04.01.
- Released Intrepid Alpha 1 and 2 Xubuntu versions
- Added catfish to desktop-recommends.
- Added yelp to desktop-recommends.
- Moved avahi-daemon to desktop-recommends.
- Moved gnome-system-tools to desktop-recommends.
- Moved xfce4-mcs-plugins-extra to desktop-recommends.
- Moved xfce4-terminal to desktop-recommends.
- Added xfce4-mixer to panel by default.
- Set catfish as search command for places plugin.
- Started wiki page on performance and began collecting data.
- Xubuntu Testing is looking for a Team Leader. Please contact Cody Somerville: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CodySomerville if you are interested.
- Xubuntu is in need of people skilled in Artwork, CSS and HTML for the update of the Xubuntu.org website.
- Xubuntu website project status information is available on the Special Projects page.
- Held a community meeting on July 12, 2008. Draft plan to update the website was discussed. Status of xfce4.6 was agreed upon.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Monday, July 28, 2008
==== MOTU School Session: Maintainer scripts ====
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
==== Server Team Meeting ====
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
==== 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, July 31, 2008
==== Desktop Team Meeting ====
==== Mentoring Reception Meeting ====
==== Ubuntu Mobile Meeting ====
- Start: 16:00 UTC
- End: 17:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: Not listed as of publication
Saturday, August 02, 2008
==== Xubuntu Community Meeting ====
Sunday, August 03, 2008
==== Mozilla Team Meeting ====
- Start: 18:00 UTC
- End: 19:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: Not listed as of publication
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
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Additional Ubuntu News
As always you can find more news and announcements at:
http://www.ubuntu.com/news
and
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
- John Crawford
- Craig A. Eddy
- Isabelle Duchatelle
- Dave Bush
- Arlan Vennefron
- And many others
Glossary of Terms
1. GDM - Gnome Display Manager
1. GIMP - Gnu Image Manipulation Program
1. GRUB - GRand Unified Bootloader
1. MOTU - Master Of The Universe (Developers approved for submitting to the repos)
1. OSCON - Open Source Convention
1. OSS - Open Source Software
1. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1. SFD - Software Freedom Day
1. UF - Ubuntu Forums
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/lis...untu-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.
