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    Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #83

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 83 for the weeks March 16th - March 22nd, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu and Kubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta releases, interview with Jerome Gotangco (former Community Council member), 8.04 release parties, Launchpad logo contest, Ubuntu Forum News, Document Freedom Day, and much, much more!

    In This Issue
    • Ubuntu & Kubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta Releases
    • Ubuntu 8.04 Release Parties
    • Interview with Jerome Gotangco, former Community Council member
    • Launchpad News
    • Ubuntu Forum News
    • In the Press & Blogosphere
    • In Other News
    • Team Meeting Summaries
    • Upcoming Meetings & Events
    • Updates & Security
    • Bug & Translation Stats
    Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta Release

    The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 8.04 LT (Long-Term Support) on desktop and server. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition features incremental improvements to familiar applications, with an emphasis on stability for this second Ubuntu long-term support release. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server follows in the footsteps of Ubuntu 7.10 with even more virtualization support and security enhancements - enabling AppArmor for more applications by default, improving protection of kernel memory against attacks, and supporting KVM and iSCSI technologies out of the box. Kubuntu, Xubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu also available in Beta. Visit the link for more info on the various releases, mirror, and torrent links.
    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ch/000108.html

    Kubuntu 8.04 Beta Release

    Kubuntu 8.04 will consist of two different releases, one featuring the stable KDE 3.5.9 desktop and a remix featuring the latest release of KDE 4.0. The following is a list of just some of the features you can expect with the beta release:
    • Easier scheduling in KOrganizer
    • KGeography and Kig fixes in the KDE Edu module
    • KPDF fixes
    • Improved support for the iPhone and iPod Touch
    • Fixes to the PostgreSQL backend
    • Automatic Codecs installation when opening a Kaffeine file
    • Wubi installer for Windows users
    • File system encryption
    • Read and write to NTFS partions using Dolphin
    • Bulletproof X
    • And much, much, more
    https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardyHeron/Beta/Kubuntu

    Ubuntu 8.04 Release Parties

    With Hardy being released on 24th April 2008, it is time for the community to plan release parties.

    Go and read this guide for running a release party: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingComm...ngReleaseParty

    Work with your local Ubuntu LoCo Team, Linux User Group or just work by yourself to get everything in place and organise a party.

    Update the following page with the dates and location of your party: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseParties

    Interview with Jerome Gotangco, former Community Council member

    This week the UWN interviews Jerome Gotangco. Jerome is from the Philippines and founder of the Philippines Team. Till recently, he was a member of the Community Council. Jerome is also the co-author of the upcoming book "Ubuntu Server in Action."

    UWN: How did you get introduced to Linux and Ubuntu?

    JG: I think it was around 1997 when I got my first real taste of Linux
    with a CD made by a local ISP, but I've read about it in the local
    magazines and BBS earlier. But it wasn't until 1998 that I did give
    Linux a spin in a dual Pentium Pro server machine and I couldn't
    really figure out what to do with it - I was a server admin that was
    given a task to eliminate NT and evaluate other systems that can be
    used as a file server. I was being trained with HP-UX so that I could
    support a test system and had some experience with AS/400 so some of
    the stuff was familiar.

    I got exposed to desktop linux with Caldera Open Linux (yes, the one
    that eventually became SCO) and pretty much fell in love with it and
    checked out other stuff like Linux Mandrake, Storm Linux, etc. But I
    think the one that really impacted me the most was something that was
    based on RedHat 6.2. I think it was by VA Systems and it had
    Enlightenment and boy it looked really good. I must say from the
    start, I didn't buy much of the Free/Open source software philosophies
    but was more interested in the functionality that it provided. Like
    discovering the Lost City of Gold and couldn't think of what to do
    with all the stuff you just discovered. In an instant, almost all the
    software tools I needed to do my work were at my disposal and it
    started my career with F/OSS.

    I was contributing small stuff to various projects that didn't really
    made an impact. I remember volunteering for KDE-zine and doing a bunch
    of skins for the OZ project (OpenZaurus). I was particularly
    interested in embedded systems because my employer back then was an
    EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) provider so I get to read
    sites and journals that involve embedded systems and a lot of it was
    talking about Linux and eventually stumbled upon no-name-yet.com
    (which eventually became Ubuntu). After Warty, I thought that this was
    a good project to get involved with and just went to the chatrooms and
    asked :)

    UWN: What are the different areas of the Ubuntu community you've been involved with?

    JG: Oh I went to lots of areas early in the game. Having been part of
    previous developer sprints (Sydney and Paris), local initiatives and
    even some helping hand on little events like the Asia Business Tour,
    I've been exposed to a lot of parts into the community. I did writing
    for the Doc Team, seeing Edubuntu from the start, sorting out bugs in
    xorg (which really tested my patience), tried to do sync initiatives
    as well as bluetooth, weeding out bugs in LP, translating to Tagalog
    language, LoCo team, representing the project in a conference in
    Seoul, Laptop testing and even getting the unit for free (and its
    still under warranty), etc...I couldn't recall the rest. But I did
    make sure to see how everything mixed together in the end, either via
    the list or in IRC. My current LP page wouldn't give me justice
    anymore since I removed myself from a bunch of groups/teams to clean
    up my mail and wasn't doing much so no use of staying.

    UWN: How have you been involved with the Philippines Team?

    JG: I started it around 2005 I think with a short email to the PLUG
    (Philippine Linux Users Group) list. A bunch of people responded and
    were already Ubuntu users since Warty and there were people sending
    out CDs to those who couldn't get them at all. I asked jdub to create
    a list specifically for the team, as well as a domain name and some
    hosting space and got cracking on building a small site and a mailing
    list. I don't handle those anymore and it has pretty much grown
    organically to other areas like in the forums, etc.

    The team isn't a strict team in the purest sense; I see it more as a
    bunch of guys from different parts of the country (the Philippines has
    over 7,100+ islands) who got into IRC and the mailing list and decided
    to group together and form a virtual team. I used to get the CD
    shipments but now Zak takes care of that. I rarely get the pressed CDs
    anymore as the iso works fine for me, although I did keep some CDs to
    which I know I have been involved with in one part or another as a
    souvenir.

    UWN: What are the successes and failures that you have experienced in spreading FLOSS and Ubuntu in the Philippines?

    JG: Being part of Ubuntu did open up opportunities for me to spread the
    word, but doing that is only the start and needs to be nurtured until
    there are others to fill up the gaps to make it possible. I believe
    that's one reason why local FLOSS initiatives do not prosper at all.
    It's quite different on the business side of things though. Outside
    Ubuntu, there are numerous locals involved with key open source
    projects in Apache-land and they are success stories in their own
    right. I had one real failure with regards to adoption in education
    and it really shattered my confidence level in doing something similar
    in the future, although I feel that it is more of a management failure
    rather than a technical one.

    UWN: Was the view from the CC different? How?

    JG: It was very different. I learned how things work in between groups (TB
    and CC for instance) and how it affects the overall community. CC
    isn't a very strict group and we always had open discussion on issues
    that come out and settle things quickly. I think the only issue we had
    in the CC was that we aren't the best in terms of scheduling of
    meetings. But then again, the CC isn't something that convenes just to
    approve membership - that's why in the recent meetings there were
    discussions on delegating membership approvals so that the CC can
    focus on governance issues and the direction of the project as a
    whole. We rarely had the chance to do those stuff and I think that is
    one of my regrets, although that wasn't the reason i stepped down
    recently.

    UWN: Why have you decided to step down from the CC?

    JG: It was all about time and I couldn't devote enough to have some sort
    of impact to the community and to the project as a whole. The Code of
    Conduct has something explicit regarding such situations apart from
    the popular ones like "Be Considerate," and "Be Respectful." And that
    is to "Step down considerately." Since I couldn't devote myself
    anymore to something I pledged in the past, there was no need for me
    stay any longer as there are more people now deserving to serve in a
    higher level like the CC.

    I just sent a private email to everyone in the CC (Mark, Mako, Daniel,
    Matthew, James, Corey, Mike) and everyone took it well and gave their
    thanks. Half of the CC I know in person while the others I've worked
    with online since the beginning so it was very casual and simple.
    After that, I removed myself from the team and the list (which
    resulted to a cleaner inbox though lol).

    I've always wanted to go back to basics again and start anew with the
    LoCo and since I've been travelling a lot in my home country lately,
    I want to make the most out of it and meet up with the people who are
    involved, or would like to get involved and just have fun in the
    process. And I'm pretty sure something good will come out of those
    trips in the future.

    UWN: What do you feel has been your best or most important contribution to Ubuntu/Linux/FLOSS so far?

    JG: As Ubuntu literally changed my life as it opened up opportunities in
    my career and personal growth, I've always aimed to open up the same
    to people I know who deserve it. I've been pretty successful so far
    and I'd rather not elaborate (you guys know who you are). I believe
    this is far greater achievement than the technical stuff I made,
    documentation I wrote, bugs triaged, etc. I wish I could give out
    money to developers to do more magic, but I'll leave that to someone I
    know for now.

    UWN: What else have you been doing?

    JG: I've busy lately with my employer Morph Labs, Inc.
    (www.mor.ph) on the SaaS framework built on top of a pure open source
    platform. You might want to check it out if you're heavily involved in
    Rails development or just starting to dive in. A lot of my work
    involve servers and making them do magic with Amazon EC2 and S3. Zak
    (Elep) is part of the team as well so I'm still within the Ubuntu
    Circle of Friends/Trust/etc.

    Family life has been good too with my daughter just finishing prep
    school and moving up to Grade 1 next school year. A lot of stuff
    happened to me since last year it feels like living in dog years
    rather than Human years :)

    Launchpad News

    Logo competition closing soon!

    As the logo competition moves toward it's March 31st deadline, the submissions have picked up a notch, not only in quality, but the number of entries. The contest is a community based competition to design a new logo for Launchpad. If your submission is chosen, you'll receive a Ubuntu Messenger Bag, and bragging rights to the whole Ubuntu community.

    Contest rules: https://help.launchpad.net/logo

    See the logo submissions here: https://help.launchpad.net/logo/submissions

    http://news.launchpad.net/general/lo...n-closing-soon

    Ubuntu Forums News

    Tutorial of the Week

    The tutorial of the week for March 17, 2008, is a simple collection of settings called "HOWTO: Customize terminal header" by PurposeOfReason: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=674446.

    If you'd like to make your terminal a little more attractive, or if you prefer life at the command line, this howto will get you started toward something other than monochrome. Enjoy!

    Other UF News

    Using ubuntuforums can be sometimes confusing to new members. Staff has discussed the issue, raised in different threads, and came up with a reference sticky: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726219. The thread is closed, so that no noise will be added. If you wish to have points added, please see here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726150.

    In The Press
    • Phoronix: Ubuntu Linux Disk Encryption Benchmarks - With the introduction of Disk encrytion in the Hardy alternate CD, phoronix decided to do some bench tests to see how real-world performance was impacted in both gaming and other desktop tasks. These Linux tests included Enemy Territory, Doom 3, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, LAME encoding, Gzip compression, and measuring the time to copy 364 images (amounting to 1.3GB) from a USB flash drive over to the hard drive. Depending upon the situation, the performance impact of using dm-crypt will vary, but for mobile users with sensitive or just personal information, hard disk encryption is becoming a necessity and its benefits should out weigh the small performance impact. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag..._encrypt&num=1
    • Ubuntu's Hardy Heron Receives Its Beta Wings - The latest version of the desktop and server software, which takes about 25 minutes to install, has a full suite of software including the Firefox browser, OpenOffice with Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation, the Evolution e-mail and calendar system, a CD/DVD burning software and the latest version of GNOME. This particular upgrade is certified a Long Term Support (LTS) release -- only the second for the Ubuntu project, which means Canonical will offer commercial support for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. The Ubuntu operating system has quickly become one of the more popular Linux-based offerings because the main development focused entirely on the desktop experience, instead of the commercial server environment. With so many enthusiastic people in the community, the software is under this rapid, progressive development. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/U...ngs-62251.html
    • What is the outlook for Ubuntu Server? - Is Ubuntu getting ready to make a big splash in the Linux server market, just as it has on the desktop? Blogger Matthew McKenzie thinks so. In his article, “Ubuntu Eyes The Linux Server Landscape”[1], he notes that Ubuntu Server is making moves that position it well to compete in the small and midsize business market. McKenzie also cites the release of Landscape — a systems management tool for Ubuntu desktops and servers — that reduces the complexity of similar tools for Red Hat and Novell enterprise systems. There are also deals involving Ubuntu Server with IBM and possibly Sun that signal further forays into the server market. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=185 [1]http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/ubuntu_eyes_the.html
    • Sun to start distributing pre-installed Ubuntu Linux servers - Ubuntu is on the upswing. The signs are everywhere. Canonical, which developed this version of Linux, has been very busy talking with the major server and desktop vendors and is making inroads with both. However, one of the biggest surprises is that Sun Microsystems, one of the server vendors, is getting into the Ubuntu game. Sun also offers Linux distributions from Novell and Red Hat, but its inclusion of Ubuntu is a significant demonstration of Ubuntu's clout. Sun is firmly committed to Solaris, but think about how cool a "Sun-acquires-Ubuntu-Linux" story would sound to buyers. Suddenly, there would be real competition in the Linux market--competition based on product quality, not on cheap support.http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9897872-16.html
    In The Blogosphere
    • Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 Beta Screenshot Tour - The title says it all. Visit the link to see 31 screen shots of Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 Beta release. The tour includes internet, multimedia, graphics, system applications, network application and many others. If you've been wondering what the new Ubuntu release looks like, here's your chance. http://debianadmin.com/copper/displa....php?pos=-1213
    In Other News

    What Are You Doing For Document Freedom Day?

    The Free Software community has a certain level of “activist” within it, always pushing those around it towards the ideals that it cherishes. Ideals such as freedom of communication, freedom of data, freedom of choice. March 26th is Document Freedom Day, another occasion where we can band together and help promote Open Document Standards. DocumentFreedom.org is a site that works to promote the use of Open Document standards. To find out how you can participate this year, visit http://documentfreedom.org/ There you'll be able to find a team (or start a team!) near you. Even if the best you can do is blog about it, please feel free to do so. One more person reached is one more “Open” mind. http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2008/03/...t-freedom-day/

    Meeting Summaries

    Full Circle Magazine
    • Full Circle Podcast #1 finally released. Comments mostly positive.
    • Full Circle Magazine #10 released and doing well. Over 22,400 downloads in just three weeks.
    • Full Circle Magazine #11 almost complete, preview will be released to Marketing Team by Mon 23rd March.
    • Full Circle Magazine #12 is our first anniversary and I (Ronnie) have written an article detailing how FCM got started and included statistics on downloads and readership done using Google Analytics.
    • New French translation team working on #10
    • From #12 onwards, regular contributors are required to submit a short 30 word bio which should not contain any business promo's/URL's
    • We now have several dozen proof-readers working.
    • We are planning a Gameathon where the community selects an open source, online, game and we have monthly and yearly winners.
    • Full Circle Magazine #9 Italian is up. As is #9 in Chinese.
    Mobile Team
    • Modified Open Office to be able to export documents to PDF from the command line. The reason behind this is to allow evince to view MS Office documents.
    • Firefox 3.0 beta2 Chinese language pack was patched and made to work with Midbrowser and we added all the internationalization support back into moblin-applets and enabled mobile-basic-flash to display multi-language icon texts.
    • Prepared elisa (a project to create an open source media center solution for GNU/Linux) packages which will need testing.
    • UME control panel was documented and a sample applet is being created to demonstrate best practice.
    • Discovered that changing kernel configure options could let Moblin kernel boot faster. Setting "no" to several options could save as many as 3 seconds. We also saved another 6 seconds for normal boot by removing some "unnecessary" services and moving some services to be started after hildon desktop is launched.
    • A need for additional documentation was identified for the tarball release + ppa upload process, the patch addition process and bug tagging process.
    Ubuntu Studio
    • Artwork completed.
    • Continue testing and fixing bugs.
    • Working on release notes.
    • Reading website updates for release.
    Upcoming Meetings and Events

    Wednesday, March 26, 2008

    ==== Launchpad users meeting ======== Server Team Meeting ====Friday, March 28, 2008

    ==== MOTU Meeting ====Updates and Security for 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10

    Security UpdatesUbuntu 6.06 LTS UpdatesUbuntu 6.10 UpdatesUbuntu 7.04 UpdatesUbuntu 7.10 UpdatesBug Stats
    • Open (40228) +294 # over last week
    • Critical (19) -3 # over last week
    • Unconfirmed (19545) +198 # over last week
    • Unassigned (31027) +321 # over last week
    • All bugs ever reported (162500) +2068 # 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 (13351)
    • French (39022)
    • English-UK (42515)
    • Swedish (52271)
    • Brazilian Portuguese (54053)
    Remaining string to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/

    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:

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

    If you would like to submit an idea or story you think is worth appearing on the UWN, please send them to ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com.
    This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team Contact Information Page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam). 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 then ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.
    Last edited by boredandblogging.com; March 24th, 2008 at 02:45 PM.
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