[NEWS] Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #106
komu...@ubuntu-id.org
- August 30th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Second Ubuntu Developers Week,
Intrepid feature freeze - Alpha 5 freeze ahead, Call for testing of 2.6.27
kernel(Intrepid), Xfce 4.6-beta now available for Intrepid users, Asia Oceania
board, Using identi.ca for Ubuntu information, Ubucon El Salvador, This week in
Launchpad's web API, Full Circle Magazine #16, Ubuntu Christian 4.0, Post your
Xfce news on reddit, 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/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations
== In This Issue ==
* Second Ubuntu Developers Week!
* Intrepid feature freeze - Alpha 5 freeze ahead
* Call for testing of 2.6.27 kernel(Intrepid)
* Xfce 4.6-beta now available for Intrepid users
* Asia Oceania board
* MOTU News
* Using identi.ca for Ubuntu information
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubucon El Salvador
* This week in Launchpad's web API
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Full Circle Magazine #16
* Ubuntu Christian Edition 4.0
* Post your Xfce news on reddit
* Server team meeting
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
== General Community News ==
=== Second Ubuntu Developer Week! ===
The second Ubuntu Developer Week will be held from Sept. 1st to Sept. 5th in
#ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net. There are Wiki docs, MOTU Videos, MOTU
Interviews, and the developers are seeing more and more contributors each day.
This is all great, but there's nothing like talking to real people, and asking
real questions in a real-time environment. The Ubuntu Developer Week is designed
to give you an overview of what's going on in the Ubuntu Developer world. Speak
to the developers, learn, ask questions and finally realize: ?It's true, I can
make a difference by helping out here."
A partial listing of some of the fantastic sessions are: Packaging 101, Upstream
bug linkages, Introduction to MOTU, How do I fix and Ubuntu bug, Using Launchpad
web service API, Updating a package properly, Introduction to PPAs, Ask Matt
Zimmerman, and many, many more!
* Ubuntu Developer Week Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek
* How to join in on the fun: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek/JoiningIn
* Ubuntu Developer Guidelines: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek/Rules
Full details at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1629
=== Intrepid Feature Freeze - Alpha 5 freeze ahead ===
The Feature Freeze is now in effect for Intrepid. From now until release, the
focus is on polishing and bug fixing. If you do believe that a new package, a
new upstream version of a package, or a new feature is needed for the release,
and will not introduce more problems than it fixes, please follow the Freeze
Exception Process by filing bugs and subscribing to ubuntu-release or
motu-release as appropriate. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess
The next testing milestone, Intrepid Alpha 5, is scheduled for next Thursday,
September 4th. Intrepid Alpha 5 will again use a "soft freeze" for main. This
means that developers are asked to refrain from uploading packages between
Tuesday and Thursday which don't bring us closer to releasing the alpha. These
days can then be used for settling the archive and fixing any remaining show
stoppers.
* The list of bugs targeted for alpha-5 can be found at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1323
More information can be found at:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000477.html
=== Call for testing of 2.6.27 kernel(Intrepid) ===
As you may have noticed, the kernel team moved to the 2.6.27 kernel in Intrepid
this week. They would like to ask everyone to really give it a good testing to
ensure they aren't introducing any major regressions from 2.6.26. If you have
problems with this kernel, and the problem didn't exist in 2.6.26, please note
that in any bug reports you file.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-August/000476.html
=== Xfce 4.6-beta is now available for Intrepid users ===
Ubuntu new Xubuntu developer, Michael Casadevall, has been working to package
Xfce 4.6-beta (4.5.80) for Intrepid. He feels it has reached the point where its
worth announcing an open beta test, both to find Xubuntu bugs, and any Xfce
release issues. It has been a fairly massive rewrite of some major sections of
Xfce, so now is a good time for a shakedown cruise to find any issues with this
release, and work towards filing the bugs upstream. In addition, the team has
used this opportunity to port some of the Xubuntu specific patches such as the
unified logout screen.
It should be stressed that these packages are still extremely experimental, and
are not recommended for day-to-day use yet, or by non-developers. If you are
running Intrepid, you can install Xfce 4.6-beta by adding the following line to
your sources.list: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/ubuntu intrepid main
You can learn more about how to help on this new project by visiting the link.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2008-August/006494.html
=== New Ubuntu Member ===
==== Asia Oceania Board ====
Aanjhan from Chennai, India has been a regular contributor for Ubuntu India Team
and has conducted various awareness sessions across Universities/Events, the
notable being Ubuntu/Debian Day at foss in 2007. Launchpad:
https://launchpad.net/~aanjhan Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Aanjhan
The Asia Oceania board is happy to welcome this new Ubuntu Member!
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000165.html
=== MOTU News ===
Iain Lane has been involved in bug triage for the past six months, and active in
development for the past two. He has been helping out with all sorts of MOTU
work, and MOTU Council has determined he meets the requirements for Contributing
Developer. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~laney Wiki:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IainLane
* MOTU application:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-August/001400.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000167.html
=== Using identi.ca for Ubuntu information ===
Jorge Castro has written about the possibility of using identi.ca for Ubuntu
related things. First, in discussion with Mike Basinger, then with Nick Ali,
Jorge has created the first of many to come identi.ca accounts at
http://identi.ca/ubuntunews. He has managed to include, by RSS feeds: The
Fridge, QA/Brainstorm Blog, the Canonical Blog, Ubuntu website news, Ubuntu
Screen casts, the Ubuntu-UK, and Fresh Ubuntu podcast feeds. He would like your
feedback on how useful the idea is.
http://stompbox.typepad.com/blog/2008/08/using-identica.html
== Ubuntu Stats ==
=== Bug Stats ===
* Open (46433) +63 # over last week
* Critical (28) +/-0 # over last week
* Unconfirmed (21342) -79 # over last week
* Unassigned (37909) +92 # over last week
* All bugs ever reported (206030) +1488 # 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 (11889) -3 # over last week
* English-UK (30836) +/-0 # over last week
* French (39040) -2 # over last week
* Brazilian Portuguese (50047) -49 # over last week
* Swedish (52880) +/-0 # 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 (146)
* maco.m (113)
* dholbach (97)
* chrisccoulson (57)
* bdrung (55)
Top 5 teams for the past 7 days
* ubuntu-berlin (152)
* dcteam (113)
* kubuntu-de.org (37)
* ubuntu-michigan (29)
* ubuntu-chicago (29)
5-A-Day stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/
== LoCo News ==
=== Ubucon El Salvador ===
Saturday September 6th the Ubuntu El Salvador LoCo team will be hosting an
Ubucon at Universidad Evangelica de El Salvador from 9:00 AM to 2:15 PM local
time. Ubucon is a community driven, community organized event that is all about
Ubuntu. These events often include a number of speakers, BOF sessions, demos,
social events and more, and they are excellent ways to grow the Ubuntu community
in your area, and to build an interesting and fun event. Ubucons are different
from large Linux expos and conferences. They are uniquely community focused and
driven, and uniquely Ubuntu.
http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/archives/2008/08/27/ubucon-san-salvador-on-saturday-sept-6th-save-the-date/
== Launchpad News ==
=== This week in Launchpad's web API ===
Last week the Launchpad web service didn?t change because the source tree was
frozen pending a Launchpad release. This week however, Launchpad landed the
branches they wrote last week, as well as some new ones. Edwin Grubbs continued
his work on publishing the Launchpad registry, and launchpad.projects is now
open for business. You can now get basic information about Launchpad projects,
their milestones and branches. Finally, launchpadlib has some new code that uses
the client-side cache to avoid the ?lost update problem.? This happens when two
people modify the same object without coordinating, and the second one
unknowingly overwrites the first person's changes.
Next week there will be more of the Launchpad registry exposed, and some
long-awaited aspects of Launchpad's bug tracker. Then on Tuesday, Barry Warsaw
and Leonard Richardson will be talking about Launchpad's web service API as part
of Ubuntu Developer Week. That's at 1900 UTC, in #ubuntu-classroom on
irc.freenode.net.
You can find the complete summary at:
http://news.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/this-week-in-launchpads-web-api
== In The Press ==
* Dell's new low-end strategy for emerging markets includes Linux - Jacqueline
Emigh of BetaNews reports that emerging markets are about to get some help. Dell
has come up with 2 new desktops and 2 new laptops, loaded with Ubuntu, to meet
the needs of governmental and educational organizations, and small businesses.
These products will be available world-wide. According to Kirk Schell of Dell's
commercial products division, Dell's new Vostros for emerging markets have been
specifically designed in accordance with customer requests for low cost, and
easy of operation.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Dells_new_lowend_strategy_for_emerging_markets_includes_Linux/1219962684
* Really free Linux takes hold - Bill Snyder, of InfoWorld, describes how a
German television and radio station have switched to a community driven Linux
distribution, rather than a commercially supported one for it's servers.
Cutting costs was one factor, but a rise in internal expertise was just as
important. Distributions like Ubuntu are gaining ground on the desktop, and
could gain an edge in the server market soon. Snyder feels that this could be
the beginning of a move toward community supported distributions.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/08/really_free_lin.html
== In The Blogosphere ==
* Making Intrepid Solid - James Westby discusses how everyone can get involved
and help prepare the next release of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex) for the October
release. Those with the technical skills to troubleshoot problems that could
result in a system not booting properly are encouraged to install Intrepid now,
and report any bugs that they may experience. Triaging bugs is extremely helpful
because it helps the developers focus their efforts on the more release-critical
items. Everyone is encouraged to participate so that Intrepid Ibex is the best
release of Ubuntu yet!
http://jameswestby.net/weblog/ubuntu/02-making-intrepid-solid.html
* New Low-Cost Ubuntu Linux equipped Dell PCs and Laptops Arriving - On August
27th Dell announced the Vostro A100 and A180 desktop PCs, as well as the Vostro
A840 and A860 laptops, which will come pre-installed with Ubuntu Hardy Heron.
These systems are targeted for small business users in countries that until
recently haven't had many PCs of these specs available. Customers in these
countries are demanding affordable systems that are high-quality, and highly
reliable. To deliver that affordable, high-quality, and highly reliable system,
Dell turned to Ubuntu. Pricing has not yet been announced, but all of these
computers will be available by early November.
http://practical-tech.com/operating-system/new-low-cost-ubuntu-linux-equipped-dell-pcs-and-laptops-arriving
* Boosting the translation process - Blogger Syntux (aka Jad) has been involved
with translations in Arabic. He offers some opinions concerning why people
would help out with translation, such as if they have passion for it, if they
need it, if it's fun doing it, or if they are making some money out of it. His
reasons for analyzing the process is to find a way to increase the number of
translators by making the process something that people would want to do. His
analysis of the situation, and conclusion, can be seen at
http://syntux.net/blog/2008/08/28/boosting-the-translation-process/
* Calling All Ubuntu Linux Users and Administrators ? Works With U is offering
an on-line survey in order to track the following: Does Ubuntu have an
increasing and faithful installation base, momentum on both servers and desktops
worldwide, VAR's, integrators, and solution providers who could greatly increase
deployments, and finally the fact that Ubuntu can be used for mission critical
applications. Organizations who complete the survey will be included in the
Works With U 1000 list and a report with be provided to all at no cost showing
how Ubuntu is seeing increased use in specific markets, regions, etc.
http://www.workswithu.com/2008/08/27/calling-all-ubuntu-linux-users-and-administrators/
* 5 Factors Making Ubuntu Server Business Ready ? Works With U shows that
Canonical is becoming increasingly serious about the server market by developing
essential core OS services and collaborating with 3rd providers for server
applications. Listed in this article are five specific items that which
demonstrate Canonical's increased focus. First is the highly available and fault
tolerant technology through backups, OS clustering, disk replication, data
integrity, etc. Second are the central administration tools which include patch
deployment, systems warnings, instance start-stop, etc. The third encompasses
Ubuntu's large community of experts. Fourth highlights green technology and the
fact that Ubuntu can be run on a server without a GUI saving energy in large
server farms deployments. Finally, Ubuntu server is becoming
application-friendly given simple installation, comprehensive documentation,
fanatical support and solid benchmark results.
http://www.workswithu.com/2008/08/25/5-factors-making-ubuntu-server-business-ready/#more-222
== In Other News ==
=== Full Circle Magazine Issue #16 ===
Full Circle Magazine Issue #16 is now available from their web site. Articles
include:
* Command and Conquer - Creating And Moving Files.
* How-To : Create Your Own Ubuntu, Create Your Own Server Part 8, Using GIMP
Part 5 and GNOME-Look Guide.
* My Story - Out With The New, In With The Old
* My Opinion - GNOME And KDE Themes
* MOTU Interview - Jamie Strandboge
* Top 5 - Twitter Clients
Get it while it's hot: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-16/
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2008-August/000172.html
=== Ubuntu Christian Edition 4.0 ===
Ubuntu Christian Edition is back, with BibleTime and a bunch of resources for
BibleTime and GnomeSword. Also, it's replaced OpenOffice.org with GNOME Office
to keep the ISO size down. A new, cleaner website has also been created. The
distribution can be downloaded from
http://mirror.oc.edu/lfc/Ubuntu_8.04_i386_Christian_Edition_v4.0.iso. More
information can be found at http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05053
=== Post your Xfce news on reddit ===
While there are many sites devoted to news about Gnome and KDE, there's almost
no way to get news about Xfce short of subscribing to the mailing list. The
Xubuntu Blog hasn't posted a new article in a month. The Xfce Dev Blog hasn't
posted in five months. And there's no Planet Xfce like there is a Planet Gnome
or Planet KDE. At least, there wasn't. Now, however, there's an Xfce Reddit
devoted to all news Xfce/Xubuntu. Of course, aggregators like Xfce Reddit only
work if users submit news to them. So start submitting!
http://www.reddit.com/r/xfce/
== Meeting Summaries ==
=== Server Team meeting ===
The Server Team held a meeting on August 26, 2008. The log of the meeting can
be viewed at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Server/20080826. Highlights of
the meeting are:
* Ubuntu VM builder
* Review ServerGuide for Intrepid
* Tomcat6 server stack support
* UFW Package Integration
* Rails and Rubygems
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 2, at 15:00 UTC in the
#ubuntu-meeting channel.
http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/server-team-20080826-meeting-minutes/
== Upcoming Meetings and Events ==
=== Tuesday, September 02, 2008 ===
==== Server Team Meeting ====
* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting
==== Community Council Meeting ====
* Start: 21:00 - UTC
* End: 23:00 - UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda
=== Wednesday, September 3, 2008 ===
==== 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: None listed as of publication
=== Thursday, September 04, 2008 ===
==== Maryland LoCo IRC Meeting ====
* Start: 00:00 - UTC
* End: 01:00 - UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-md
* Agenda: Not listed as of publication
==== Desktop Team Meeting ====
* Start: 13:00 UTC
* End: 14:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting
=== Friday, September 05, 2008 ===
==== MOTU Meeting ====
* Start: 20:00 - UTC
* End: 21:00 - 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 ===
* [USN-637-1] Linux kernel vulnerabilities -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-August/000742.html
* [USN-638-1] Yelp vulnerability -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2008-August/000743.html
=== Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===
* linux-source-2.6.15 2.6.15-52.71 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2008-August/012743.html
=== Ubuntu 7.04 Updates ===
* linux-source-2.6.20 2.6.20-17.39 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2008-August/008991.html
=== Ubuntu 7.10 Updates ===
* linux-source-2.6.22 2.6.22-15.58 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-August/010296.html
* yelp_2.20.0-0ubuntu3.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-August/010297.html
=== Ubuntu 8.04 Updates ===
* linux 2.6.24-21.42 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011971.html
* linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24 2.6.24-21.32 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011972.html
* linux 2.6.24-19.41 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011973.html
* virtualbox-ose-modules 24.0.6 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011974.html
* kio-umountwrapper 0.2-0ubuntu6.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011975.html
* yelp_2.22.1-0ubuntu2.8.04.3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-August/011976.html
== 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:
and
== 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 ==
* API - Application Programming Interface
* GUI - Graphic User Interface
* ISO - Disk image archive. The name is from the ISO 9660 file system standard
* MOTU - Master Of The Universe
* OS - Operating System
* PPA - Personal Package Archive
* SSH - Secure SHell
* UFW - Ubuntu FireWall
== 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/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit
it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at
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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...@lists.ubuntu.com.
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