Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #37

**Jenda** · April 23rd, 2007

Disclaimer:I'm not the author of the UWN, the full credits are listed below.
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #37

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #37 for the week April
15th - April 21st, 2007. In this issue we cover the release of Ubuntu
7.04 and related press coverage, a week long series of events to
introduce the diverse Ubuntu community, and a friendly competition
where individuals and Lo``Cos can win money and prizes.

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In This Issue

Ubuntu 7.04 released and related press coverage
The Funky Feisty Competition
Ubuntu Open Week
Bolivian Lo``Co co-hosting a Latin American install fest.

Ubuntu 7.04 Released

With much fanfare in the press and blogosphere, the new version of
Ubuntu, 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" was released April 19th.

This new release includes many new features like the Windows migration
assistant, easy installation of multimedia codecs, and networking
improvements. More features and other changes are documented at
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/704tour. The release
notes can be found at
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/704. Want to update?
Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading.

Of course, not just Ubuntu 7.04 was released. Kubuntu, Edubuntu,
Xubuntu and Ubuntu Server Edition were also released. The Kubuntu 7.04
release notes can be read at
http://kubuntu.org/announcements/7.04-release.php, Edubuntu's at
http://www.edubuntu.org/news/7.04-release, Xubuntu's at
http://www.xubuntu.org/feisty_release. Ubuntu Server Edition's release
notes can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntuserver704.

7.04 Press Coverage

As with all Ubuntu releases, the initial press coverage has been strong.

Zdnet reports the release of 7.04 with much fanfare. It talks about
features, the ensuing server slowdown due to heavy traffic, Ubuntu's
foray into the server market share, and possible Dell consideration of
Ubuntu. Read more at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6177641.html.
You can read InformationWeek's take at
http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=199102409.

Ubuntu 7.04's advanced server support did not go unnoticed at
Linuxinsider, which discusses how the server and desktop editions are
different. Read more at
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/56993.html.

The press has also been covering 7.04's inclusion of KVM and
paravirt-ops, designed to help run VMware. You can read more at
http://news.com.com/Ubuntus+feisty+s...3-6176175.html,
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/open-sour...ity-001206.php
and http://www.computerworld.com.au/inde...4194304;fpid;1

One area of Ubuntu that has traditionally been seen as weak is the
server support. With 7.04, major press coverage of the Ubuntu Server
Edition has started, with Search Enterprise Linux interviewing Jane
Silber, Canonical director of operation at
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtar...251602,00.html
and OpenSPF trumpted support for SPF in Postfix at
http://www.openspf.org/News/2007-04-19.

Several news outlets noticed the amazing strain Ubuntu resources took
as the release happened, with the replacement of the main Ubuntu
website with a placeholder. Edward N. Albro of PCworld commented on it
at http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004166.html, as did The
Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04..._website_down/

The press has also covered Sun's inclusion of a full Java stack and
related tools 7.04. It is the first time so many of Sun's tools have
been integrated into a distribution, making the Java technology
extremely accessible to Linux developers. While the stack resides in
multiverse for 7.04, they are expected to move to the main repository
once Java becomes fully open source. You can read more about it at
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/...ntuties_1.html,
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/newss/6380/1/, and
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news...le.php/3672751.

General Community News

Ubuntu Open Week
Ever wanted to know how Ubuntu is related to Canonical? Or what
exactly the MOTUs do and how they do it? Canonical, is holding a
series of workshops, in IRC, where you can find out the answers to all
these questions and much more. There is a week long menu of events
that cover topics from packaging applications, Lo``Co teams, Ubuntu
Women, an introduction to Launchpad, and a Q&A with Mark Shuttleworth.
For more information: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek

LoCo News

The Funky Feisty Competition
Take a picture of yourself or your group (LoCo team, LUG, family,
class or any other group) celebrating the release of Feisty in an
interesting way. Be inventive! How about a picture of you in front of
a famous landmark? Use your imagination - the most interesting
pictures win! First prize wins $500USD, signed 7.04 CD by Mark
Shuttleworth, an Ubuntu t-shirt, and the Ubuntu book and the runner-up
wins $250USD, Ubuntu t-shirt, and the Ubuntu book. The deadline for
submissions is May 19th. More details at:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TheFunkyFeistyCompetition

Argentina Local Community Team

The Argentina LoCo es participating in FLISOL (Festival
Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre) on Saturday 28th of
April in Buenos Aires. Anyone is welcome to come, and we'd love to
meet any ubunteros who happen to be close by. For more information
visit: http://www.installfest.info/FLISOL20...CapitalFederal

Bolivian Local Community Team

The recently started BolivianTeam is co-hosting this year's
FLISOL Festival
Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre (latin american
free software install fest) at the city of Cochabamba. This year the
BolivianTeam will be installing and configuring Ubuntu's latest
release Feisty Fawn. There will be also some talks about Free
Software and Linux.

Ohio Local Community Team
For the release of Feisty, the Ohio Lo``Co had their party in Columbus
on April 21st. Brady Merriweather recorded the event and has posted a
video of the party on You``Tube. To see the video, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMk_opMcWJk

In The Press

Stephen Shankland, for CNET, talks about the virtualization

technologies that will be part of Feisty: paravirt-ops, a layer that
lets Ubuntu work with VMware; and KVM, which lets Linux host other
operating systems. Ubuntu is taking a different path from other well
known distributions who are using Xen. Xen requires a separate kernel,
while the other technologies can use an ordinary Ubuntu kernel. Read
the full article:
http://news.com.com/Ubuntus+feisty+s...l?tag=nefd.top

Neal Krawetz, at ExtremeTech, has an extensive overview of Ubuntu.

He discusses the different parts of the filesystem, along with a
tutorial of what processes are and what can be done to them. Memory
usage, network throughput, boot scripts, and schedulers like cron are
also covered. Read the full article:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2114115,00.asp

Andreas Proschofsky, at the Austrian derStandard, interviews Mark

Shuttleworth. Many topics are covered including how Mark thinks Ubuntu
is on the cutting edge with the integration of Apport. Mark believes
that even though Ubuntu lacks applications to provide large
deployments through centralized management, like SUSE does with YAST
and Zenworks, it is not an obstacle to adopting Ubuntu. He mentions
that Ubuntu is making inroads in large companies, like Google
developers using it on their desktops, and Lufthansa pilots using it
on their laptops. On the commercial side, 70% of Canonical's business
is from servers and 60% is from North America. Read the full
interview: http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2845484

Sean Michael Kerner, at internetnews.com, writes that Sun and

Canonical consider the inclusion of Java technologies like the
NetBeans IDE, Glassfish Java Application Server, Java SE and Java DB
10.2, an important milestone. "We see the Ubuntu developer community
as a key constituency for a lot of the higher level Sun platform
technology," says Ian Murdock, chief operating platforms officer at
Sun, and founder of Debian. While the Sun tools are in the multiverse
repository, Mark Shuttleworth expects them to move to the main
repository when Java is fully open source. Read the full article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news...le.php/3672751

"La Repubblica" one of the most popular Italian newspaper wrote an

article in its on-line version announcing the release of Feisty. In
the article, the ease of installation, the migration tool and the
absence of costs to use Ubuntu are highlighted. The author explains
that Ubuntu could exploit the recently announced delay in next Mac OS
X release and also mentions the fact that Dell has been asked to
switch back to Windows XP by some user segments. Here is the full
article (in italian)
http://www.repubblica.it/2005/i/sezi...cerbiatto.html

Canonical has joined the GNOME Foundation's advisory board. The

board allows members to communicate with and help the overall
direction of Gnome. Jane Sibler, Canonical's director of operations,
will represent Ubuntu on the board. Dave Neary, former chairman of the
GNOME Foundation, says "Since launching the Ubuntu distribution,
Canonical has been a great proponent of the GNOME desktop and
community partner. The changes which Ubuntu has brought to the project
have made the free software user experience better for all GNOME
users." Read the full article:
http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/canonicaljoins.html

In The Blogosphere

*Abhishek, at Desicritics.org, says that users should look at Ubuntu
since XP will be retired soon so it does'nt cannibalize the sales of
Vista. He mentions all the usual support venues like the wiki, forums,
and IRC. Abhishek also points out the active India Lo``Co. Read more:
http://desicritics.org/2007/04/16/001741.php

*Eric Brown at his personal blog writes about the great experience he
had with installing and using Xubuntu on his old Dell laptop when
compared to using MS Vista. He gushes over features like easy software
install, great community that helps with any problems, rock hard
stability, and ease of use while using minimal resources. He concludes
with claiming that he has become a convert. Read more at
http://ericbrownpm.com/2007/04/17/re...ux-via-ubuntu/

*Joe Barr, at Linux.com, describes how to use the StartUp Manager
(SUM) to change bootloader and splash screen settings in Ubuntu. SUM
provides an easy-to-use GUI that lets allows advanced users to make
their Ubuntu installations unique. Read more at:
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/10/1830249

*Allison Randal, at O'Reilly, witnesses an act of grassroots Ubuntu
evangelism when a Starbucks customer asks the manager for help with
his Feisty upgrade. Read more at:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/20...u_word_on.html

*Brian Proffit, the managing editor at Linux Today, comments about
the big stories of the week including the release of Feisty Fawn. He
says the Ubuntu sites received a large spike in traffic which caused
them slow down. Either this shows how popular Ubuntu has become or the
servers need some work. Read more:
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story...0-018-26-OP-SW

*Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, at ZDNet, says "I don't want to overhype
anything but I can say with all honesty that Ubuntu 7.04 is by far the
best and easiest version of Linux that I've used." Adrian does think
the descriptions of available updates is too detailed for the average
user. But still, "Ubuntu represents a huge step in the right direction
for Linux and offers PC owners a simple (and safe) way to experiment
with Linux." Read more: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=367

Meetings and Events

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

==== Technical Board Meeting ====

Start: 20:00
End: 22:00
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

==== Edubuntu Meeting ====

Start: 20:00
End: 22:00
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda

Thursday, April 26, 2007

==== MOTU Meeting ====

Start: 20:00
End: 21:00
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Meetings

==== Ubuntu Development Team Meeting ====

Start: 21:00
End: 23:00
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

Updates and security for 6.06 and 6.10

Security Updates

USN-453-1: X.org vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-453-1

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

cacti 0.8.6h-1ubuntu3.1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...il/012407.html

langpack-locales 2.3.18.3~prop1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...il/012408.html

app-install-data-commercial 5.5 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...il/012409.html

libx11 2:1.0.0-0ubuntu9.1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...il/012410.html

langpack-locales 2.3.18.3 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/da...il/012411.html

Ubuntu 6.10 Updates

tzdata 2007e-0ubuntu0.6.10~prop1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008308.html

python-xlib 0.12-5.1ubuntu0.1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008309.html

firestarter 1.0.3-1.2ubuntu3.1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008310.html

libx11 2:1.0.3-0ubuntu4.1 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008311.html

tzdata 2007e-0ubuntu0.6.10 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008312.html

digikam 1:0.8.2-2ubuntu1.2 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008313.html

update-manager-core 0.56~edgy4 -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008314.html

update-manager 0.45.3 (source) -

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ed...il/008315.html

Bug Stats

Open (28130) +626 # over last week
Critical (18) +1 # over last week
Unconfirmed (13745) +375 # over last week
Unassigned (20880) +839 # over last week
All bugs ever reported (95642) +2050 # over last week

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started,
please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs

Check out the bug statistics: http://people.ubuntu-in.org/~carthik/bugstats/

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:
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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:

Martin Albisetti
Nick Ali
Gabriele Monti
Corey Burger
And many others

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Feedback

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free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either
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support questions, please send then ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com

**Jenda** · April 24th, 2007

267 views and not a single comment? Come on, people!

If we didn't want you to comment on the UWN, we wouldn't have put it on the forums!
(Well, in fact, we hope to draw some more attention even to its actual editing... you know, it's open to anyone - it gets created on the wiki and all that... just read the footer!

)

**Vorian** · April 24th, 2007

Wooo Hooo!

Go feisty!

That video is awesome of the Ohio Team!

**jmagsho** · April 25th, 2007

More press coverage here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...x/article.html

Matthew Newton at PC World has been singing Ubuntu's praises for well over a year now. His articles are what got me interested way back in 2005. Feisty, for the most part is as usual very good stuff. A few hiccups here and there, but no show stoppers for me at this point. All I can say is keep up the good work, and thanks!

**YetAnotherNoob** · April 25th, 2007

Would be so fantastic if Dell began shipping Ubuntu. I still get annoyed by the forced purchase of Windows XP Home Edition when buying my notebook.
yeccch!

**m0rph** · April 25th, 2007

Here in Australia nearly all laptops that cannot run Vista are sold with Windows Home Edition it would be great if they packaged a Ubuntu CD with a FAT 32 formatted hard drive and said "go for it,just run the cd and install" maybe then alot more people would relise alot more of microsoft floors and start learning themselves how good linux really is.........

**YetAnotherNoob** · April 26th, 2007

Yes, once the vendors/makers embrace it, getting critical mass becomes much easier. Drivers and support suddenly become a smaller issue.

**gamma** · April 26th, 2007

Originally Posted by YetAnotherNoob

Would be so fantastic if Dell began shipping Ubuntu. I still get annoyed by the forced purchase of Windows XP Home Edition when buying my notebook.
yeccch!

Yea I'd love to see Dell start shipping Ubuntu as their choice of Linux. There's been a lot of news about Michael Dell trying Ubuntu so hopefully that influences his decision. Hopefully they don't decide to include crapware though, just a default install of the distro. I'd hate to see Nero, Real, Adobe and whatever other proprietary products out there on the laptops.