Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #112

[johnc4510]

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #112 for the week October 5th - October 11th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu Countdown banner for WordPress, Follow up: Xubuntu Hug Day, Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase Winners, New Ubuntu Members, Getting help from the Launchpad Team, Launchpad to be off-line, Server Team meeting summary, 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

• Ubuntu Countdown banner for WordPress
• Follow up: Xubuntu Hug Day
• Ubuntu Free Culture Winners announced
• New Ubuntu Members
• Ubuntu Stats
• Getting help from the Launchpad team
• Launchpad to be off-line
• In the Press & Blogosphere
• Server team meeting summary
• Upcoming Meetings & Events
• Updates & Security

General Community News

Ubuntu Countdown to Intrepid modified for WordPress users

There has been an update to the Ubuntu Countdown to Intrepid. It has been modified for use with WordPress blog sites. WordPress and other blogs block javascripts, which the original Countdown uses. The method provided by Peng however, has no javascript. Two links are provided, as well as the graphics themselves. Save the graphics to your hard drive, upload them to your blog site, and change the "src=" to match your permanent link. http://nancib.wordpress.com/2008/10/...rdpress-users/

Follow up: Xubuntu Hug Day

Xubuntu Hug Day was a *huge* success. Xfce4 developers, Xubuntu developers, Debian folk, and members of the Xubuntu and Ubuntu community all came out to help test and iron out bugs in the Xubuntu beta. An impressive number of folks turned out to tackle bugs. The most exciting part of it all is that a number of folks who used hug day as an opportunity to get involved for the first time, haven’t stopped! Seeing such growth in the contributing Xubuntu community is exciting and very encouraging. http://cody.zapto.org/?p=47

Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase Winners Announced!

Jono Bacon has announced the winners of the Free Culture Showcase. This showcase is to honor the artists for each new release. The winners were chosen from a "slew of entries" to a competition, winnowed down by a carefully chosen panel of creative types, then finally selected by the Community Council. The winners are:
Andrés Vidau (Audio Winner)
Andrew Higginson (Video WInner)

Full details can be found at the link. http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1312

New Ubuntu Members

==== Asia Oceania Board ====

ArcRiley has been active within the New Hampshire LoCo by helping the LoCo to resolve conflicts at crucial times. He has also been active conducting installfests, and has shown interest in packaging games, and educational softwares. Arc also started a computer recycling program in Ithaca, NY in 2001 called, the "Yellow Box Project". The original premise was that many families in Ithaca were without computers, while hundreds were being thrown away at the city dump which needed only minor work, or software to be useful. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~arcriley Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArcRiley

The Asia Oceania Board is happy to introduce this new Ubuntu member!

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (46597) +3 # over last week
• Critical (2 +1 # over last week
• Unconfirmed (20401) -445 # over last week
• Unassigned (38401) +192 # over last week
• All bugs ever reported (218129) +2728 # 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 (11869) +/-0 # over last week
• English-UK (30771) +/-0 # over last week
• French (38902) -5 # over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (49862) +/-0 # over last week
• Swedish (53189) +/-1 # over last week

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

5-a-day bug stats

Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days

• crimsun (674)
• apachelogger (373)
• txwikinger (18
• chrisccoulson (63)
• maco.m (50)

Top 5 teams for the past 7 days

• dcteam (730)
• kubuntu-de.org (576)
• ubuntu-uk (190)
• ubuntu-ca (18
• indian-team (20)

5-A-Day stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/

Launchpad News

Getting help from the Launchpad team

Matthew Revell has reported that it's now easier to get help from the Launchpad team. Each weekday, a member of the team is taking time out to answer questions in #launchpad in IRC, and answer emails to Help at Launchpad[1]. The members of the team however, are scattered all over the globe, but are only pulling 8 hour shifts. You can find out who's on duty, and what time zone they're in, by go to HelpRotation [2]. Be sure to give the Launchpad team your feedback on this new service they are offering.

[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/lis...aunchpad-users <<BR>>
[2] https://help.launchpad.net/HelpRotation

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/la...er/004282.html

==== Launchpad to be off-line ====

The Launchpad team is releasing Launchpad 2.1.10 on the 16th of October. While they roll-out the new code, Launchpad will be unavailable for up to two hours.

• Launchpad off-line: 00:00 UTC - Thursday October 16th
• Expected back before: 02:00 UTC - Thursday October 16th

See the Launchpad News blog after the roll-out for details of what’s new. http://news.launchpad.net/

http://news.launchpad.net/notificati...-0000-0200-utc

In The Press

• Ubuntu Confirms Linux Netbook Returns Higher than Anticipated - Joanna Stern reports on remarks made by MSI concerning a higher rate of return on Linux installed netbooks than with Windows XP installed netbooks. Gerry Carr, marketing manager at Canonical has confirmed that the rate of return appears to be higher than average. There are still some questions about what manufacturers, what distributions, and most of all what figures are actually involved. Carr highlighted a few reasons why Ubuntu-running netbooks are returned more often. "Unclear selling is happening, typically online. The customer will get their netbook sent to their home, and they expect to find something like a Microsoft desktop, but they see a brown Ubuntu version.” Carr stressed that, in these cases, it doesn’t matter how good, or bad the Linux OS is. These customers just don’t want to try something new. http://blog.laptopmag.com/ubuntu-con...han-anticpated

• Xtreme fuels expansion with open source-based video recording - Advertising intelligence company Xtreme Information, plans to add Ubuntu-based DVRs in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane to expand the reach of its monitoring service. It's services are used by businesses to spy on a competitor’s advertising, check if the concept for an advertisement has been done before, or make sure that a TV channel, is running advertisements in the paid-for slot positions. It currently monitors advertising on nine TV stations in Sydney and Melbourne, using digital video recorders running Ubuntu and proprietary recognition software developed in Germany. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/86374,...en-source.aspx

• New Linux Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers arrive - Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that, along with the improvement to Wi-Fi drivers in general, Broadcom has come through with better support for Linux. Specifically, Broadcom has added Linux support for its NetXtreme, NetXtreme II, NetLink and 4401 product lines. There also is support now, due to reverse-engineering, for the Broadcom B43 chipsets in the Linux 2.6.24 kernel. Dell, with Broadcom and Canonical, have also just released a Linux friendly Broadcom Wi-Fi driver for both 32 bit and 64 bit Linuxes for the 4311, 4312, 4321 and 4322 chipsets. This means support for the Dell 1490, 1395, 1397 and 1510 wireless cards. http://blogs.computerworld.com/new_l...drivers_arrive

• Wikipedia simplifies IT infrastructure - Wikipedia has been mixture of Linux based IT infrastructure since it's beginning in 2001. That meant that often it was haphazardly expanded by tossing in a new server with a different operating system each time. In a few months, Wikipedia will finish a major transformation by moving from a combination of versions of Red Hat products to Ubuntu Linux Version 8.04 on all 400 of its servers that support the Web site. The move to all-Ubuntu, was primarily done with the goal of making their administration and maintenance simpler. http://www.computerworld.com/action/...4&pageNumber=1

NOTE: In a side note to the above, not everyone thinks this is a major win, since the move was a sideways one, from a variety of RedHat versions to Ubuntu. The goal should be to move IT away from proprietary and towards open source. The goal being "Freedom" http://www.outflux.net/blog/archives...al-is-freedom/

• Ubuntu's Balancing Act - One thing that has always struck Glyn Moody about the free software world, is the power of example. Once it emerged that Google ran on GNU/Linux, there could be no more argument about the latter's suitability for the enterprise. Similarly, MySQL's adoption by just about every Web 2.0 company meant that it, too, could no longer be dismissed as underpowered. With the move of Wikipedia to Ubuntu, it could mark a similar milestone for business uses to Ubuntu. It will be interesting to see how Canonical/Ubuntu manages the balancing act of meeting the particular needs of business – ease of administration and maintenance - while maintaining its reputation as an innovator on the desktop. http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolb...1391&blogid=14

In The Blogosphere

• Ubuntu, Sanctuary, and Big Buck Bunny - Blogger John Nugent tells us how his writing computer, which was running Windows, had what he calls a meltdown. Although he has had an aversion to Linux for a long time, he gave Ubuntu a chance on that computer. The results are that his writing computer is now a faster, leaner, meaner system, that is a much better pairing for his MacBook. He's now thrilled to be free of Windows, and have a computer system that has been reborn. http://jnugent.wordpress.com/2008/10...ig-buck-bunny/

• Dell Inspiron Mini’s custom Ubuntu interface: A closer look - The folks at the official Direct2Dell blog sat down with Doug Anson, to discuss the custom interface Dell designed to use with the Ubuntu 8.04 Linux operating system used on the Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. The most noticeable thing that Dell did was create a new menu bar that hangs out on the desktop. This includes buttons for Entertainment, Games, Learning, Productivity, and Web. Clicking on any section brings up a group of icons for launching programs that fall under that category. The bar does not interfere with the Gnome panel, and it can be removed if the user chooses to do so. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface can also be manually installed if desired. In addition to other tweaks, Dell has also offering, through a partnership with Box.net, 2 GB of free online storage. http://tellycomm.com/2008/10/10/dell...a-closer-look/ There is also a great video of Doug showing the interface of the Ubuntu powered Mini 9 at: http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/10/lo...interface.html

• What should the next version of Ubuntu bring us? - The guys at the How-To Geek have compiled a list of the seven most requested features that did not make it into Intrepid. By the numbers: 1.) A better user interface - integrate Compiz and screenlets into the default install. 2.) A unified hardware driver database - a central repository for obscure hardware drivers. 3.) More out of the box applications pre-installed - flash, java, Skype, Wine, and Picasa to name a few. 4.) Easy to configure multi-monitor support. 5.) Better power management. 6.) A better sound engine. 7.) Reader's Choice - many comments are posted, some helpful, some not, all are entertaining. Take a look. http://blogs.howtogeek.com/tuxgeek/2...untu-bring-us/

• My switch to Ubuntu - Jim of the Jim Report, tells his tale of switching to Ubuntu. About four months ago he finally took the plunge and changed his laptop OS from XP, to Ubuntu. Jim does admit to being able to rely on a friend who was well-versed in Linux if he ran into problems. Once a couple of small annoyances were ironed out, Jim began to really appreciate Ubuntu. The three things that were particularly of interest were Synaptic, the cost of Ubuntu (FREE!) and the fact that Ubuntu grays-out a window when a program hangs or is busy for an inordinate amount of time. Jim also highlights the Live-CD functionality. Welcome aboard, Jim! http://aintnounionshop.wordpress.com...tch-to-ubuntu/

Meeting Summaries

Server Team Meeting

On October 7th, the Ubuntu Server Team met in IRC where they assigned several actions to be taken, and discussed the following topics.

• Review ServerGuide for Intrepid
• Ubuntu vm builder
• KVM
• Ubuntu Server Survey
• DRBD
• Bacula SRU

Visit the link for details of the above topics: http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/20...eting-minutes/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

==== Server Team Meeting ====

• Start: 15:00 - UTC
• End: 16:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

==== Kernel Team Meeting ====

• Start: 17:00 - UTC
• End: 18:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

==== Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo Team Meeting ====

• Start: 08:30 - EDT
• End: 09:30 - EDT
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-pa
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== 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, October 16, 2008

==== Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting ====

• Start: 12:00 - UTC
• End: 13:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== Desktop Team Meeting ====

• Start: 13:00 - UTC
• End: 14:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting

==== Ubuntu Java Meeting ====

• Start: 14:00 - UTC
• End: 15:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

==== EMEA Membership Board Meeting ====

• Start: 20:00 - UTC
• End: 21:30 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/EMEA

==== Americas Membership Board ====

• Start: 23:00 - UTC
• End: 00:00 - UTC October 17, 2008
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/R...oards/Americas

Friday, October 17, 2008

==== Tunisian LoCo Team IRC Meeting ====

• Start: 19:00 - UTC
• End: 21:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-tn
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Saturday, October 18, 2008

==== Xubuntu Community Meeting ====

• Start: 13:00 - UTC
• End: 15:00 - UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Meetings

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

Security Updates

• [USN-651-1] Ruby vulnerabilities - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...er/000759.html

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

• faad2 2.0.0+cvs20040908+mp4v2+bmp-0ubuntu3.6.06.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...er/012757.html
• langpack-locales 2.3.18.14 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...er/012758.html
• ruby1.8 1.8.4-1ubuntu1.6 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...er/012759.html

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 will reach the end of its support period on Sunday, October 19, 2008. After that date, no further listing for it will be posted here. You are encouraged to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10.

• faad2 2.0.0+cvs20040908+mp4v2+bmp-0ubuntu3.7.04.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/fe...er/009005.html
• tzdata 2008g-0ubuntu0.7.04 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/fe...er/009006.html
• ruby1.8 1.8.5-4ubuntu2.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/fe...er/009007.html

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

• faad2 2.0.0+cvs20040908+mp4v2+bmp-0ubuntu5.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gu...er/010312.html
• tzdata 2008g-0ubuntu0.7.10 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gu...er/010313.html
• logrotate 3.7.1-3ubuntu0.7.10 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gu...er/010314.html
• ruby1.8 1.8.6.36-1ubuntu3.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gu...er/010315.html

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

• dynamips 0.2.7-0.2.8RC2-1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012039.html
• dynagen 0.10.1-1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012038.html
• cdrw-taper 0.4-2ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012037.html
• module-init-tools 3.3-pre11-4ubuntu5.8.04.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012040.html
• vsftpd 2.0.6-1ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012041.html
• fastjar 2:0.95-1ubuntu2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012042.html
• vlc_0.8.6.release.e+x264svn20071224+faad2.6.1-0ubuntu3.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012043.html
• seamonkey 1.1.12+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012044.html
• faad2 2.6.1-2ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012045.html
• tzdata 2008g-0ubuntu0.8.04 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012046.html
• linux-backports-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24-21.27 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012047.html
• chkrootkit_0.47-1.1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012048.html
• jockey 0.3.3-0ubuntu8.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012049.html
• gpaint 0.3.3-1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012050.html
• logrotate 3.7.1-3ubuntu0.8.04 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012051.html
• adept 2.1.3ubuntu25.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012052.html
• ruby1.8 1.8.6.111-2ubuntu1.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012053.html
• samba 3.0.28a-1ubuntu4.7 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012054.html
• bind9 1:9.4.2.dfsg.P2-2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012055.html
• linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24.14-21.51 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012056.html
• gnat-4.2 4.2.4-1ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012058.html
• gcc-4.2 4.2.4-1ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012059.html
• gcj-4.2 4.2.4-1ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-October/012057.html`
• dbus 1.1.20-1ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ha...er/012060.html

Archives and RSS Feed

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Additional Ubuntu News

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http://www.ubuntu.com/news

and

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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
• Dave Bush
• Arlan Vennefron
• And many others

Glossary of Terms

1. DRBD - a block device which is designed to build high availability clusters.
1. KVM - Kernel based Virtual Machine
1. SRU - Stable Release Update

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.