Ubuntu Open Week - Xubuntu - Cody A.W. Somerville - Fri, Apr 27, 2007

TZ UCT-4

(03:01:09 PM) maxamillion: hello every, my name is Adam Miller and I will be standing in for Cody Somerville today for he has unfortunately fallen ill
(03:01:45 PM) maxamillion: I have worked along side Cody for some time now and for those parties interested, my credentials are listed https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AdamMiller
(03:02:32 PM) maxamillion: I would also like to introduce Jim Campbell, lead of our xubuntu-iso testing team and heavily involved with many aspects of the community aside from bug traige and his wiki page is located: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/j1mc
(03:03:57 PM) maxamillion: now there are a few things we would like to cover for the day: community involvement, myths to be put to rest, our structure, future plans, and some others along the way
(03:05:02 PM) maxamillion: to start I would like to put to rest that Xubuntu is only for those with computers of lesser hardware, while we do attempt to always keep the distribution lightweight while keeping a level of feature set that is up to par, that doesn't mean Xubuntu is only for low end hardware
(03:05:33 PM) maxamillion: I personally run Xubuntu on my work desktop that has the following specifications: AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+, 2gb DDR2 XMS2 Pro Ram, XFX nv7900gtx
(03:06:29 PM) maxamillion: Another myth that seems to continue to come up is that Xubuntu isn't affiliated with Ubuntu and is more of a pseudo-fork like Fluxbuntu, which is false
(03:07:12 PM) maxamillion: our developers work along side the ubuntu core devs, our website shares server space with ubuntu among many other aspects of our project that works in coordination with the main Ubuntu project
(03:08:17 PM) maxamillion: Next, I would like to speak about our community involvement (Details can be found: http://www.xubuntu.org/devel)
(03:08:38 PM) maxamillion: (please forgive our current CSS issues, we are in the works of a complete website overhaul)
(03:09:21 PM) maxamillion: We would like to encourage to joining of the Users-mailing list (https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users)
(03:10:38 PM) maxamillion: One of the biggest things we are noticing is that users who are newer or that don't have technical or programming skills tend to feel a little offset by joining up with the contribution to the project and we would like to invite everyone at any skill level to join our community
(03:11:51 PM) maxamillion: for those who lack programming skills documentation and bug traige/testing is a very positive contribution to the project that we are constantly looking for new members to help with and those who are rather new and are interested in getting involved might benefit from working along side those with more experience
(03:13:10 PM) maxamillion: for a moment, i am going to give the floor to j1mc as he is the head of our testing team and i have started to cover that aspect of the Xubuntu project
(03:13:38 PM) j1mc: hi all.  as maxamillion said, there are a lot of ways to get involved with the xubuntu project.
(03:13:56 PM) j1mc: one way, is through ISO testing.
(03:14:08 PM) j1mc: what is ISO testing, and why do we need it?
(03:14:46 PM) j1mc: as the ubuntu community has grown, there has been a lot more activity for our core developers to focus on, and so they have started to shift iso testing to the community.
(03:15:26 PM) j1mc: so prior to releases (or release milestones), community testers perform test installations of the soon-to-be-released ISOs.
(03:15:48 PM) j1mc: it's a great way to get involved, and it only requires a spare hard drive, a few CD's, and a bit of your time.
(03:16:39 PM) j1mc: i'll provide links for that in a moment, but another way to get involved, is through documentation work.
(03:17:13 PM) ***maxamillion lends a helping hand ...
(03:17:27 PM) maxamillion: testing information for Xubuntu can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Testing
(03:17:49 PM) maxamillion: some examples of past testing and how the process occurs can be found: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Testing/Feisty
(03:18:10 PM) j1mc: thanks, max
(03:18:22 PM) maxamillion: we also converse about testing alot in the xubuntu developers mailing lists along with use of launchpad for bug triage
(03:18:25 PM) j1mc: there's also a great forum section pertaining just to ISO testing: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=201
(03:18:26 PM) maxamillion: j1mc: anytime :)
(03:19:46 PM) j1mc: documentation is another area where people can get involved.  even if you don't know docbook-xml
(03:20:25 PM) j1mc: one of the ways in which people can get involved is through simply proofreading the documentation, and providing bug reports off of the documentaiton packages.
(03:20:52 PM) j1mc: perhaps the best thing about xubuntu is that those who want to get involved, can do so easily.
(03:21:08 PM) j1mc: all you have to do is make yourself known, step up, and not be afraid to get your hands dirty  :-)
(03:21:57 PM) j1mc: for end users, i think that most people find it a bit refreshing that the #xubuntu irc channel isn't as "hectic" as the #ubuntu channel, and it's easy to get your questions answered there.  :-)
(03:21:58 PM) maxamillion: another thing we are currently working on within the community as kind of a "case study" for documentation presentation is the Xubuntu-Welcome-Center
(03:22:54 PM) maxamillion: information on that can be found at https://launchpad.net/xubuntu-welcome-centre and one of the developers has hosted a wiki that represents the basic layout of the application along with some content (but note the wiki lacks a scroll bar for the content) which is found here http://welcome.sheep.art.pl/
(03:24:37 PM) j1mc: ok...   at this time, we'd like to open it up to questions

<sampbar> QUESTION: do you have a mentoring team where people get appointed to a mentor to help guide them through?

• <maxamillion> we have actually recently had the project adopted and recieve some support and packaging (and i believe inclusion) in the baltix linux distribution which has shown to be positive feedback that the project might find its way into feisty+1

  <j1mc> i'll take that... we don't currently have a mentoring team as such, but... a number of the devs and key contributors have been very helpful to those wishing to help out. it depends on what you're looking for, though . . . if you're looking for a mentor in terms of helping out with something non-xubuntu-specific, we may direct you to that person to lead your way...

(03:27:01 PM) ***maxamillion will make note that a mentoring program should be concidered for creation
(03:27:09 PM) ***somerville32 is open to mentoring individuals who are interested.
(03:27:45 PM) j1mc: heh . . . thanks, cody.  :)
(03:27:54 PM) maxamillion: Everyone, i would like to introduce the man of the hour ... Cody Somerville
(03:28:11 PM) maxamillion: somerville32: i'm glad you were able to make it even though you aren't feeling well

(03:29:01 PM) Amaranth: <MRjinx> QUESTION: Are there any plans to include programs capable of browsing smb shares by default in future releases?

• <j1mc> this is something that we want very badly. we are looking at ways to accomplish this, but don't have a definite plan for how it will be implemented yet, though.

  <Amaranth> gvfs ftw

  <j1mc> i even asked a question about it during today's ubuntu-desktop session, and we think that we may have an option... yes,... gvfs

  <maxamillion> there has been talk of possibly including pyNeighborhood as a secondary program that would allow them to be mounted and then browsed from within Thunar but at the same time there is a group of developers that is looking into the creation of a smb share browser plugin for Thunar using fusesmb and if the latter were to occur, we aren't entirely sure about when it would be completed and released stable [maxamillion will take note of gvfs as an alternative as well]

<somerville32> QUESTION: What are some of the latest cool features in the Xfce 4.4 stable desktop environment release?

• <maxamillion> well, that's a very good question and i would love to walk everyone through the official xfce tour at this time: http://www.xfce.org/about/tour. there is the addition of desktop icons (by popular demand). a substantial amount of the latest Thunar features we were actually able to include since dapper due to the Xubuntu inclusion of xfce4.4 release candidates (with modification for optimal stability). many of the issues that the mousepad text editor has had have been resolved. another thing i would like to announce is that the xfwm4 now has compositing by defualt. for those who are unaware of compisiting, that is the "transparent window" feature that so many users post in screenshots. xfwm4 (which is the window manager by default for the xfce desktop environment) has this capability built in along with "3d shadow casting." this is all built in and all that is needed is for your x11 configuration to have the compositor extention enabled. another thing is that the panel is rather confurable and extendable, its completely gnome-plugin compliant (though the gnome-libs overhead discourages the use of this feature in many instances) and there is even a python implementation so for all those python programmers out there, here's your panel plugin development platform and i think that pretty much sums it up

<illu45> QUESTION: Are there any plans to make theme installation simpler/more user-friendly?

• <j1mc> hmmmm... you mean it's not very user friendly to install icon packages into your /usr/share/icons folder? :-P this is certainly something that we'd like to have, but we don't have specific plans for implementation at this time. thank you very much for the suggestion, though. one thing i'd like to note is that xfce can use most gnome themes... at this time, they just need to be manually placed intot he proper folders. we are looking at implementing a themes wizard for feisty +1, though.

  <maxamillion> that is another thing we have found to be a popular topic in the irc channels and i think there might be a spec put out to write a simply pyGTK application in order to assist with theme installation

<BFTD> QUESTION: Are there any plans that will put documentation for installed app's and features in easy access for user on the desktop or in the start menu?

• <maxamillion> yes, as i mentioned earlier we are working on the Xubuntu-Welcome-Center which is essentially the "welcome to xubuntu, find help and help info here" application that would probably suite your needs ... information can be found: https://launchpad.net/xubuntu-welcome-centre and the wiki here: http://welcome.sheep.art.pl/

<Monika|K> QUESTION: Is Xubuntu usage really increasing a lot faster than Ubuntu and Kubuntu usage?

• <j1mc> without access to the download stats, it's difficult to say. just looking at the distrowatch stats, though...

  <maxamillion> no, not entirely... we have actually started to gain steam as more and more users want more speed from their computers in retrospect

< MRjinx> QUESTION: While it is not difficult to install from the repos, will a network manager such wifi-radar or netwrok manager be included by default for wireless networks?

• <j1mc> we are doing fairly well.

  <maxamillion> i am glad the wifi question was asked, we are actually currently looking at two different wifi manager projects that are in consideration for inclusion into the distro, one is being developed by an actual xfce developer and is called airtool, information here: http://spuriousinterrupt.org/projects/airconfig. the other one... well the other one is called WiCD, but their website appears to be down at the moment... the link is http://compwiz18.blackhole.cx/wicd/wb/. we would include network-manager-gnome if it didn't weigh do heavy on so many gnome libraries so for now we will be looking for alternatives and we hope to have a wireless application installed by default in feisty+1

<Belutz> QUESTION: i haven't tried xubuntu 7.04 yet, does it have the features in ubuntu 7.04 like desktop effects and restricted drivers manager?

• <j1mc> Xubuntu does support beryl, and does include the same restricted drivers manager that is included in ubuntu and kubuntu. *beryl or compiz... or whatever they decide to call it since they have merged.

  <maxamillion> heh... "merged". anyhoo, yes... we include the same drivers and the restricted driver manager [***nixternal notes there is no restricted driver manager in Kubuntu (GNU/Linux) :)]

QUESTION: What are your plans for gutsy? gutsy+1?

• <somerville32> Over the next two releases, we are looking forward to working towards providing a more functional desktop while maintaining our light-weight mandate. As always, we will continue the offer the cutting edge development offered from the development branch while ensuring integrity and stability.

  <maxamillion> currently the main plans the have been speced out for gutsy is 1)smb browse support in some form or fasion 2)wifi manager inclusion 3)theme installer 4)possible addition of some default games 5)possible inclusion of claws-mail given their feature spec meets ours by release time. but at the same time, we havent hosted the developers meeting to make these concreate and are more likely than not subject to change over the next couple of weeks

(03:57:24 PM) maxamillion: it seems we are out of time, I would like to personally thank everyone on behalf of the Xubuntu team(s) for coming to our open week session and if anyone has any more questions we would be more than happy to have you in #xubuntu where we can further answer your queries
(03:59:03 PM) j1mc: We have several irc channels, including #xubuntu, #xubuntu-devel,
(03:59:26 PM) somerville32: Aas already started, we're very interested in getting users involved in contributing back to Xubuntu.
(03:59:35 PM) maxamillion: also, user mailing lists: http://www.xubuntu.org/help and developer mailing lists http://www.xubuntu.org/devel
(03:59:35 PM) somerville32: There are two mailing lists available: xubuntu-users and xubuntu-devel
(03:59:49 PM) maxamillion: :)
(04:00:01 PM) somerville32: See links above.
(04:00:10 PM) maxamillion: further information on both topics (help and devel) are available via the links posted
(04:00:26 PM) somerville32: Furthermore, there is a comprehensive page available at http://xubuntu.org/devel on how to get involved.
(04:01:06 PM) Amaranth: Thanks guys, I'll have to try Xubuntu now. :)
(04:01:06 PM) maxamillion: feel free to post questions on the mailing lists, our community is wide spread accross different time zones, there is normally someone always there for a quick reply on the mailing lists or in the irc channels willing to help
(04:01:19 PM) maxamillion: Amaranth: thank you :)
(04:01:40 PM) maxamillion: once again ... thank you all and feel free to come to #xubuntu for further questions