Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #119 for the week November 23rd - November 29th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase II, Archive of Interviews, New MOTU: Onkar Shinde, Ubuntu Tamil Team, Ubuntu Tunisia Team, Ubuntu-NL release party, Launchpad 2.1.11 and Open ID Support, RSS feeds for Ubuntu Forums, Ubuntu Podcast #13, Full Circle Magazine #19, Community Interview of Nicolas Valcárcel, Hardening the Linux Desktop, Coming Soon: Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference, 50 amazing Ubunt time-saving tips, 50 of the best looking Gnome/Ubuntu desktop themes, Team meeting summaries, 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

• Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase II
• Archive of Interviews
• New MOTU: Onkar Shinde
• Ubuntu Stats
• Ubuntu Tamil Team
• Ubuntu Tunisia Team
• Ubuntu-NL release party
• Launchpad 2.1.11 and Open ID support
• RSS feeds for Ubuntu forums

• In the Press & Blogosphere

• Ubuntu Podcast #13
• Full Circle Magazine #19
• Community Interview of Nicolas Valcárcel
• Hardening the Linux Desktop

• Coming Soon: Ubuntu Pocket Guide & Reference

• 50 amazing Ubuntu time-saving tips
• 50 of the best looking Gnome/Ubuntu desktop themes
• Team Meeting summaries

• Upcoming Meetings & Events

• Updates & Security

Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase II

Jono Bacon has announced the Second Free Culture Showcase, your opportunity to show off your creativity in Jaunty Jackalope. The winning entries will be available in the Examples/ folder in the home directory of shipped CDs and download images of the Ubuntu 9.04 release. Entering the showcase is simple:

• Your submission must be one of the following:
  • Audio Entries - no larger than 1MB in size - made available in Ogg Vorbis format.
  • Video Entries - no larger than 2.5MB in size - made available in Ogg Theora format.
  • Photo/Graphic Entries - no larger than 0.5MB in size - made available in PNG or JPG formats.

• All entries must be licensed and distributable under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

• Upload your submission somewhere online (there are lots of free hosting solutions available such as archive.org). Do not email any of the organizers or judges with your submissions.

• Add your entry to one of the submission tables at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase.

• When the deadline for submissions closes, our panel of judges will pick a shortlist, and the Community Council will then pick the final winners from the shortlist.

The deadline is February 6, 2009. http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1427

Archive of Interviews

Daniel Holbach has started an archive of Developer Interviews[1] in order to showcase all the exciting things that people in the community have been, or are involved in. At this point, it is a "work in progress" but he would like to have more interviews of Ubuntu Members added to it. Daniel is also thinking of adding a box with the latest interviews to the Hall of Fame.[2] Drop by either link to learn more about some of the great people in our community.

• [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Interviews

  [2] http://hall-of-fame.ubuntu.com/

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=282

New MOTU: Onkar Shinde

We're very pleased to announce that Onkar Shinde (slytherin) joined the MOTU team. His outstanding work in the area of Java packaging and maintenance made our choice easy.

Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~onkarshinde

Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OnkarShinde

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (48498)+42 over last week
• Critical (18)-1 over last week
• Unconfirmed (19578)-97 over last week
• Unassigned (40346)+47 over last week
• All bugs ever reported (234122)+1884 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 Intrepid

• Spanish (18543)-364 over last week
• French (61913)-21 over last week
• Swedish (75422)-1110 over last week
• English (UK) (81459) +/-0 over last week
• Brazilian Portuguese (81715)-792 over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/

5-a-day bug stats

Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days

• crimsun (747)
• chrisccoulson (81)
• alessandro-ghersi (55)
• hew (45)
• jibel (41)

Top 5 teams for the past 7 days

• dcteam (749)
• ubuntu-cl (135)
• ubuntu-berlin (54)
• ubuntu-de-locoteam (52)
• ubuntu-au (45)

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

LoCo News

Ubuntu Tamil Team

Tiruppur, Nov 22nd. The Textile Town of TamilNadu, India - Tiruppur[1] witnessed the Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex release in a demonstration given by its IT Association - TITA[2]. Members of Tiruppur IT Association demonstrated Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, and its various features including Tamil Language support, Multimedia Capabilities, Office Suites, Package Management techniques, Wine, etc.

The Ubuntu Tamil Team proposed, that a one day Monthly Training program on Ubuntu, be organized for people who purchase computers through the Association Members. This should motivate people to switch over to Free Software with confidence. Sri Ramadoss and Siva from the Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event. The secoond day of the event explored the Ubuntu Server capabilities for the TITA members. More demand were made on the Server segment.

It was a memorable event, and the team wishes to thank the Tiruppur IT Association for providing the team with this opportunity. Special thanks also to Mr. Ravichadran, President of IT association, Mr. Babu, Mr. Thiyagu, Mr. Senthil, and others for their backing and helping with this event.

Photos soon at: http://amachu.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/tiruppur-intrepid-lauch/

• [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirupur

  [2] http://tita.in

Tunisia Team

The Tunisian Team held an install party and conference on November 15th at the Multimedia and Computer Science Institute of Sfax, Tunisia. Held in conjunction with the local cell of the Tunisian Association Young and Sciences, they started the day with a booth of about 10 laptops powered by Ubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Ubuntu Muslim Edition. They distributed about 40 CDs, burned iso images, and did some USB installations. The team also made 2 presentations, one to introduce FOSS and Ubuntu, and the other to talk about UbuntuStudio. http://rafiiik.blogspot.com/2008/11/ubuntu-install-party-et-confrences.html

Ubuntu-Netherlands release party

The Netherlands Team held a release party in Groningen, and it was quite successful according to Herman Bos. The team had about 50 people stay through the whole program. Herman felt that the size of the party was good, and that a good time was had by all in attendance. Two talks were given during the party, too.

• http://dev.osso.nl/herman/blog/2008/11/27/report-ubuntu-releaseparty-groningen/ (in English)

  http://prikbord.ubuntu-nl.org/blog/2008/11/27/verslag-releaseparty-groningen-door-laacque/ (in Dutch)

Launchpad News

Launchpad 2.1.11 and Open ID support

Launchpad 2.1.11 has just been released, and includes two major features. First, OpenID, that lets you access many different websites, such as SourceForge, Blogger, LiveJournal and thousands of others,just got better. Second is the ability to contact other Launchpad users when their email address is hidden. By using the new "Contact this user/team" link you can email up to three users/teams per day. For more information on this, go to the Launchpad "Contacting People" page. https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount/ContactingPeople

http://news.launchpad.net/releases/launchpad-2111-openid-support-and-now-easier-to-contact-other-people

Ubuntu Forums News

RSS Feeds for Ubuntuforums

bapoumba has a solution for those looking for RSS feeds of the Ubuntuforums. The dedicated page for the feeds was lost in the last big upgrade of the Ubuntuforums software. It may come back, but in the meantime here is a work-around. By clicking on a sub-forum thread in the Ubuntuforums front page and looking at the address bar, you will see a number at the very end. This is the forum-id number. So, for example, the URL for Absolute Beginner's Talk (ABT) would be http://ubuntuforums.org/external.php?forumids=326. The one for the complete forums RSS would be http://ubuntuforums.org/external.php.

http://bapoumba.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/rss-feeds-for-ubuntuforums/

In The Press

• Local hero: Stefan Lesicnik on Linux and Ubuntu - South African web site Tectonic interviewed Stefan Lesicnik on various aspects of how he got involved with Linux and Ubuntu. Stefan points out that Ubuntu contributing developers, are contributors to Ubuntu that do so on a more technical level. Ubuntu contributors typically handle more complicated tasks such as merging new packages from Debian, debugging software, or packaging software from scratch. Stefan has been working with the security team, and part of his responsibilities will be to merge security fixes from vendors or the community, into supported versions of Ubuntu. Stefan was this week confirmed as an Ubuntu contributing developer. http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3692

• Ubuntu vs. OpenSolaris vs. FreeBSD Benchmarks - Over the past few weeks Phoronix has been providing several in-depth articles looking at the performance of Ubuntu Linux. They first compared Ubuntu 7.04 to 8.10 benchmarks, then Mac OS X 10.5 vs. Ubuntu 8.10 benchmarks, and in this article they compared the 64-bit performance of Ubuntu 8.10 against the latest test releases of OpenSolaris 2008.11 and FreeBSD 7.1. The tests included LAME MP3 encoding, 7-Zip Compression, Gzip compression, GnuPG, BYTE Unix Benchmark, Tandem XML, Bork File Encryption, Java SciMark, Bonnie++, OpenSSL, and Sunflow Rendering System. The Phoronix Test Suite, which is Phoronix's advanced GPLv3 testing software that is compatible with Linux, BSD, OpenSolaris, and Mac OS X platforms, powered all of these tests. In the end if simply counting which operating system was in first place most frequently, it would be Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64 was in first place eight times, OpenSolaris 2008.11 RC2 was in first place seven times, and FreeBSD 7.1 Beta 2 AMD64 was in first just three tests. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=os_threeway_2008&num=8

• Fedora 10 vs. Ubuntu 8.10 Benchmarks - With the Fedora 10 release earlier this week, Phoronix performed benchmarks comparing the performance of Ubuntu 8.10, and Fedora 10. In their testing they used both the 32-bit and 64-bit builds of each distribution, and then ran a series of automated tests through their Phoronix Test Suite. After testing both the x86 and x86_64 editions, performances were nearly identical. In fact, the results were so close that it was hard to call a winner. There were a few slight deviations in tests like the timed Gzip compression and BYTE Unix Benchmark, but nothing conclusive on the hardware configuration Phoronix used, or the real-world tests conducted. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_810_vs_fedora_10&num=6

• First Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04) alpha hops into view - Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 1, the first pre-release version. Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope, is scheduled for official release in April. In addition to the ongoing long-term usability enhancement efforts, Canonical and the Ubuntu development community, are focusing on several specific technical goals for 9.04. Some of these improvements include performance, boot time, and integrating web services more tightly with the desktop. Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 1 is available for download from the Ubuntu web site, although only the server CD image and the text-based "alternate" CD image were built for the alpha release. The next major alpha release is scheduled for December 18th, shortly after the Ubuntu Developers Summit(UDS). The final Debian package import freeze for 9.04 will be on Christmas day. Additional pre-releases will follow until the final release arrives on April 23rd. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081124-first-jaunty-jackalope-ubuntu-9-04-alpha-hops-into-view.html

In The Blogosphere

• When Ubuntu Breaks, Who’s to Blame? - Blogger Christopher Tozzi tells us that as a regular participant in support threads on ubuntuforums.org, he's exposed frequently to people who might be fairly characterized as ‘dissatisfied customers’ of the Ubuntu experience. Something doesn’t work as well as it’s supposed to—no out-of-the-box wireless or dual-monitor support are two of the most popular complaints—and these new users condemn Ubuntu and Linux in their entirety as a result. But are these charges justified, and how should Ubuntu respond? Canonical has to assume responsibility for shortcomings in software beyond its control. Microsoft and Apple may not have to answer for the problems of third-party applications, but if Ubuntu really aspires to become a Linux for the masses, its developers and community members need to understand the point-of-view of ordinary users and stop placing blame elsewhere, even when it does rightly lie elsewhere. Accepting blame for someone else’s faults is neither pleasant nor fair. But it’s a reality that Ubuntu has to accept if it truly aspires to bring desktop Linux to the masses. http://www.workswithu.com/2008/11/22/when-ubuntu-breaks-whos-to-blame/

• More Ubuntu Kung Fu - Keir Thomas, author of the new book Ubuntu Kung Fu, stopped by lifehacker to share some of the best material from his book. Tips in this article include how to optimize startup for faster boot times, running boot-time scripts in parallel, building a read-ahead profile personalized to your computer, and trimming the gnome startup programs. Keir also explains network time protocol, getting more data onto CD-R discs through over-burning, and installing all the multimedia playback codecs you’ll ever need. You'll learn how to get better dvd movie playback, create zip files using maximum compression, and how to get a high-quality (and free) command-line word processor with Microsoft word. Top it all off by learning how to add drop shadows to screenshots, stop the cursor from blinking, how to play MP3/OGG files at the command line, and adding RAR file compression support to Ubuntu. http://lifehacker.com/5098369/more-ubuntu-kung-fu

• Xavier School Deploys 600 Ubuntu Linux Desktops - Joe Panettieri of WorksWithU reports that Xavier School in San Juan, Philippines has deployed more than 600 Ubuntu desktops. The switch from Windows was brought about due to a budget issue based on Microsoft's base licenses and subscription licenses. Ubuntu was chosen because of its ease of use as a desktop, and because of the availability of Edubuntu. http://www.workswithu.com/2008/11/25/xavier-school-deploys-600-ubuntu-linux-desktops/

In Other News

Ubuntu Podcast #13

Josh Chase and Nick Ali from the Georgia US LoCo released episode #13. Some topics covered:

• Release of Jaunty Alpha 1
• Ubuntu US shop is open for business
• Ubuntu Hall of Fame
• New theme on help.ubuntu.com

• Lots of LoCos had 8.10 release parties

• Linux Identity magazine covering Ubuntu 8.10
• Ubuntu onto the ARM architecture
• Aaron Seigo, a KDE developer, has a podcast on UStream

  http://ubuntupodcast.net/2008/11/25/ubuntu-podcast-episode-13/

Full Circle Magazine: Issue #19

Full Circle - the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community are proud to announce the release of our nineteenth issue.

This month:

• Command and Conquer - Lost and Found.

• How-To : Program in C - Part 3, Make a WiFi Access Point, Using GIMP - Part 8, and Create Mobile Multimedia.

• My Story - Ubuntu John
• Book Review - Beginning Ubuntu Linux 3rd Ed.
• MOTU Interview - Emilio Monfort
• Top 5 - Virtualization Tools
• NEW FEATURE! Ubuntu Games - Open Arena

Get it while it's hot! http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-19/

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-marketing/2008-November/003462.html

Community Interview of Nicolas Valcárcel

Matthew Helmke interviewed Nicolas Valcárcel Scerpella for the Ubuntu Community Interviews. From an early start with computers at the age of 4, Nicolas has gone on to become a Security Engineer in the OEM Solutions Group for Canonical. A part of the Peruvian LoCo team council and MOTU, he is focusing on bringing more people into packaging. He would like to see more hardware manufacturers writing drivers for Linux and more proprietary software migrating to Linux. http://matthewhelmke.net/wordpress/2008/11/26/an-interview-with-nicolas-valcarcel/

Hardening the Linux Desktop

Jeffrey Orloff has developed a 2 hour tutorial posted on the developerWorks section of IBM.com. The tutorial covers: protection from malware attacks, firewall configuration, system backup, updates, and password protecting the bootloader. Registration is required to access this information. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/edu/l-dw-linux-harden-desktop-i.html

Coming soon: Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference

Due to be released in mid-January, the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is a succinct, yet comprehensive guide allowing readers to understand core competencies without wading through volumes. Available from Amazon or a free PDF version will be also be available. http://www.ubuntukungfu.org/blog/2008/11/coming-soon-ubuntu-pocket-guide-and-reference/

50 amazing Ubuntu time-saving tips

techradar.com brings us 50 hints on how to speed up your Ubuntu 8.10 installation. With 50 tips most everyone should be able to find something to improve their installation. Click the link and have a look to see how you can improve your installation! http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/50-amazing-ubuntu-time-saving-tips-482714

50 of the Best Looking Linux Gnome/Ubuntu Themes

Some people never change their theme or wallpaper, while others are constantly tinkering with the look of their desktops. The folks at TechieSouls.com have put together what they believe are the 50 best looking Gnome/Ubuntu themes. It's like a one stop shop for making your desktop eye appealing. http://www.techiesouls.com/2008/11/27/collection-of-50-best-looking-linux-gnomeubuntu-themes-to-download/

Meeting Summaries

Community Council

• CC Meeting 08-11-18:

  • Quick update on Ubuntero being inappropriate for female contributors: the decision is to get rid of the term Ubuntero and generalize the CoC. https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad-registry/+bug/272826

  • The Asia Oceania board asked for an expansion of their team of 2-4 members. They will send nominations to the CC and a poll will be set up.
  • Quick update on the TB situation: Mark is waiting for more nominations to have a run-off election.
  • Quick update on the IRC Council situation: nominations have reached the TB. Daniel will chase missing voters of the CC.

Documentation Team

• help website updated to include 8.10 documentation https://help.ubuntu.com

• New theme introduced throughout help website and help wiki. https://help.ubuntu.com & https://help.ubuntu.com/community

• Presentation given during the OpenWeek by Dougie Richardson

• Improvements made to help wiki guide. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide

• Discussion of reworking the mentoring program. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-doc/2008-November/012209.html

MOTU Council

• Andrew Starr-Bochicchio became a contributing developer
• Michael Casadevall became a MOTU
• MC Meeting 2008-11-12
  • Open Applications:
    • UUC: Charlie Smotherman, Stefan Lesicnik
    • MOTU: Stéphane Graber, David Futcher, Stefan Ebner, Nathan Handler
    • Core-Dev: Dustin Kirkland
  • Discussion of possible procedure for per-package upload request administration
    • No conclusion was sought or obtained.
  • Discussion of techniques to better trigger MC members to start voting when an application is complete.
    • The proposal under review is to ask that endorsements for a given applicant be included on wiki pages prior to the application being sent to the MOTU Council mailing list.
  • Discussion on MOTU Council meeting format
    • Consensus is to remain with the current structure for the time being.
• Charlie Smotherman became a contributing developer
• Stefan Lesicnik became a contributing developer
• MC Meeting 2008-11-19:
  • Open Applications
    • MOTU: slytherin, nhandler, sebner, bobbo, stgraber
    • core-dev: kirkland
  • Discussion of improvements of the application processes. Expect RFC soon.
• MC Meeting 2008-11-26:
  • Open Applications: MOTU: iulian, koon, slytherin, nhandler, bobbo, sebner, stgraber
  • Application process discussion.
• Onkar Shinde became a MOTU.

Mythbuntu

• Discuss focus points for 9.04
• Ported entire live disk build process to be livecd-rootfs friendly
• Canceled alternate disk builds

Training Team

• Our primary project is updating the Ubutnu Desktop Course materials from 7.10 to the 8.04 LTS version. Many contributors have reviewed the existing material and suggested edits. To see the status of our progress, see the Getting Involved section of the wiki. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training/GettingInvolved

• The Training Team is now holding weekly mentoring sessions. These sessions cover using the tools (Docbook editing via OO.org v. 3, Bzr and Launchpad)to help update the Ubuntu Desktop Course. Sessions are held every Wednesday in #ubuntu-training at 20:00 UTC. Starting next year we hope to add North America evening times as there have been several requests for this.

• Emmajane and Popey have created several screencasts and updated the Knowledge Base to help new users contribute. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training/KnowledgeBase

LoCo Council

• Meeting 10-11-18:
  • South Africa Team reviewed and reapproved.

  • Discussed encouraging LoCos to do their Team Reports. Decided that the LoCo Council will not make an official push, but will see if the News Teams publicity of the Team Reports has any impact.

  • The idea of LoCos having their IRC meetings in #ubuntu-meeting was discussed. The reasoning involved making LoCo members feel part of the greater Ubuntu community, not just their LoCo. It was deemed unnecessary since it would cause major scheduling headaches and require LoCo members to join a separate channel just for a meeting.

Austrian Team

New Austrian Team launched their new forum here. http://www.ubuntu-at.org/ They also started to get into the "LoCo Community Process" and as a result are posting here.

Plans for the future:

• Setting up a Wiki for better structure of information around our LoCo activities.

• Planning a come together each month
• Planning workshops
• After tools like the forum and wiki are ok, they will focus on getting as much members as possible in their new community

Danish Team

Yet another nice month for the danish team, and a range of great projects has been planned for the next couple of months.

General:

• The 8.10 Release Party was the biggest event for the danish team yet. Feedback has been great, and they feel it was a success. Planning has started for the next one or two release parties.
• Appeared in National TV (DR1) equivalent to English BBC in a 20 min. long show about Ubuntu and Open Source.

• Increased the average daily visitor number on the LoCo site by a stunning 71% in 2 months due to heavy marketing campaign. A similar increase in the registered forum user number has been counted.

• A good general increase in the number of active members and participants in the LoCo team.

Projects:

• A new project has been started to redesign/plan out website, from the bottom up. A LP group has been created to the project.
• A danish Ubuntu Podcast is being planned.
• More focus has been put on marketing for Ubuntu in Denmark, both for private and governmental institutions. Discussions about distribution Ubuntu CDs from public libraries and the likes, together with home-made flyers has been taken, and the flyers are being worked out.

German Team(Berlin)

• The team had a fantastic release party. http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=269

  • Translation of the officially unofficial party report as posted on the ubuntu-berlin mailing list: The "Ubuntu Berlin" user group successfully accomplished the 6th release party in Berlin on November 1st to celebrate the latest Ubuntu version "Intrepid Ibex". For the fourth time the party took place at the Berlin culture project "c-base e.V." establishing a fine tradition. Once again around 150-200 people took part in the celebration during the night. The agenda consisted of 6 presentations about new features in Ubuntu, the network manager, an initiative for free wireless networks "Freifunk", the semantic Desktop DeepaMehta, tips and tricks for newbies, KDE 4 and of course personal support and demonstrations on the demo computers. To prepare the party the media agency Area42 kindly sponsored 1000 leaflets that were dispersed all over the town, and for the second time the Berlin subway TV "Berliner Fenster" promoted the Ubuntu release and the party to thousands of travellers. Some high profile blogs like netzpolitik.org as well as the popular radiostation "Radio Fritz" made a good point about the event in their news coverage. Amongst the supporting musical program covering a variety of tastes and styles were DJ HighEnergy with live electronic music and the rockband "Hankyfour", while booths for Ubuntu brownies, Ubuntu apparel and Ubuntu origami contributed to the rich variety of activities. As before dozens of still warm [k|x]ubuntu CD's were spread amongst the party people... Our special thanks goes out to Area42, Berlin subway TV "Berliner Fenster", ubuntu Deutschland e.V., c-base e.V. and all volunteers taking part in the preparation and wrap-up of the party.

• Workshop held on 2008-11-20: working with Ubuntu - users show their applications for the daily work (organized as an open talk). There were about 20 people in the audience. More infos in german language at http://www.ubuntu-berlin.de/node/90.

Irish Team

• 30th October Intrepid Ibex Release Party. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IrishTeam/IntrepidReleaseParty

Jordan Team

• Meeting to discuss the teams plans for Ubuntu Week at Jordan University as part of FLOSS week (During December).

Romanian Team

• Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu Romanian Team presentation in Targu Mures. http://www.softwareliber.ro/2008/11/04/prezentare-ubuntu-la-targu-mures/

  • Adi Roiban talked about launchpad, the Romanian team role, and what should be done in the future (translations, bug fixing, etc). Jani Monoses gave a talk about Kiwi Linux, and how it was created. http://kiwilinux.org/ Marius Popa talked abou the new features in Ubuntu that included a live demo of the 3g networking, new compiz effects, openoffice 3.0 from PPA, new gnome empathy, nautilus tabs, new 2.7.27 kernel, a movie made with Ubuntu, and a new game made by szaby. http://www.szabster.net/2008/10/17/autumn/ A new local LUG has been created. http://www.lug-mures.org/ The team did an interview for a local radio station. http://www.radiomures.ro/ Full report: http://mapopa.blogspot.com/2008/11/ubuntu-8.html Pictures: http://gallery.razius.org/main.php?g2_itemId=13

• Romanian Ubuntu web services migrate to a new server.
• thanks to Stas, forum.ubuntu.ro and www.ubuntu.ro were updated. Note they are now easier to use.
• the first meetings between the local Ubuntu Romanian Team members, and Romanian users in a series of sessions named Ubuntu Romania Open evenings.

The meetings took place on #ubuntu-ro IRC channel. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RomanianTeam/Proiecte/Suport/SerileDeschiseNov2008

Tunisian Team

• Participation to the Tunisia SFD'2008 : Presentation in the UWN #115 and an abstract here. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TunisianTeam/TeamReporting#Ubuntu at The software Freedom Day 2008

• Ubuntu at The CLLFST Virtualization Day. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TunisianTeam/TeamReporting#Ubuntu at The CLLFST Virtualization Day

• Ubuntu's day in Sfax. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TunisianTeam/TeamReporting#Ubuntu%27s%20day%20in%20Sfax

• 5th regular IRC meeting. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TunisianTeam/Meetings

Zimbabwean Team

The Zimbabwean Team had an active and fulfilling month:

• The team held their first ever Ubuntu Release Party in Zimbabwe, and it was a great success. They also incorporated an installfest, but didn't get many takers since the crowd was quite small, being as this was their first release party. A few demonstrations were given on Intrepid Ibex, and they were well received by those present. Full report available at http://www.ubuntu.org.zw/node/12.

• The teams monthly face-to-face meeting was held on 12-11-08.

• The local Zimbabwean Web site was launched later in the month. http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

• Monthly article on Ubuntu in Zimbabwe was submitted on 20-11-08 for inclusion in the Computer Society of Zimbabwe's newsletter.

• The ICT Director for the Parliament of Zimbabwe, who is also a Team Member, was invited to speak at this year's World e-Parliament Conference in Brussels http://www.ictparliament.org/worldeparliamentconference2008/, and will be giving a presentation on the plans for Ubuntu, and open source in the Zimbabwe Parliament. Since the conference is taking place very late in the month, the team will not be able to give a full report until next month.

New Mexico Team

11/25/2008

• New developments in the teams EPC project. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Endorphin_Power_Company_Ubuntu_Install_and_Support

• Discussions about a wiring plan, cost, and execution. The team will be upgrading the lab to LTS on December 20th and 21st. Eric purchased some mesh routers and the team will use those to test a wireless solution for the dorm rooms.

11/12/2008

• Pictures of the Intrepid Ibex Release Party are on the wiki check them out. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewMexicoTeam/IntrepidIbexParty

11/8/2008

• Intrepid Ibex Release Party News, and pictures coming soon. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewMexicoTeam/IntrepidIbexParty

11/3/2008

• New Mexico LinuxFest web site started. http://www.newmexicolinuxfest.org/

• New Mexico Ubuntu News Archive. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/New_Mexico_Ubuntu_News_Archive

Italian Team

• The Italian Gruppo sviluppo, the Italian counterpart of the development team, is organizing a BugDay in Bologna for the second Saturday of December. It will not be a feature-complete BugDay, it's a test to understand what needs to be done, and what are the necessities for organizing for future BugDay. The plan is to hold one in June, always in Bologna. For more information, visit the Italian wiki at: http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/GruppoSviluppo/BugDay

• The Italian Gruppo web, the team responsible for Ubuntu Italian web site, worked on restructuring the home page that now has a new section for rapid access to the contents.

PuertoRican Team

• Organizing FreeCD Activity for December 4th.
• Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Launch Party (Pendent)
• Distribution Ubuntu CDs, and focus on provide Ubunto CDs/DVDs on University of Puerto Rico bookstores.

SouthDakota Team

• Ownership of the team transfered to MTecknology.

• Complete redesign of our wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SouthDakotaTeam

• First Meeting - Set road maps and goals.
• Joined forces with 1/2 of state LUGs.
• Hopefully we can achieve much more.

Full Circle Magazine

• Issue 18 released and doing well, almost 20,000 downloads between 1st Nov and 24th Nov.
• Issue 16 Italian and 17 Hungarian now available for download.
• No Starch Press (via FCM) are sending a book, for review in a future issue, to a member of the Ubuntu Women team.
• FCM has had enquiries from Brazilian and Turkish translators. Let's hope they take up the challenge...
• Brett Alton will begin writing a Web Dev series from FCM#20 onwards.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Server Team Meeting

• Start: 16:00 UTC
• End: 17:00 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

Community Council Meeting

• Start: 21:00 UTC
• End: 23:00 UTC
• Location: #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda

Forum Council Meeting

• Start: 23:00 UTC
• End: 00:00 UTC (Wednesday, December 3, 2008)
• Location: #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Ubuntu Classroom Meeting

• Start: 01:00 UTC
• End: 02:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom/MeetingAgenda2008Dec3

Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo team Meeting

• Start: 12:30 UTC
• End: 13:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-pa
• Agenda: None as of publication

Foundation Team Meeting

• Start: 16:00 UTC
• End: 17:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None 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/

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Maryland LoCo IRC Meeting

• Start: 00:00 UTC
• End: 01:00 UTC
• Location: #ubuntu-us-md
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

• Start: 12:00 UTC
• End: 13:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None 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

Ubuntu Java Meeting

• Start: 14:00 UTC
• End: 15:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.10, 8.04, and 8.10

Security Updates

• USN-674-2: HPLIP vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-674-2

• USN-675-1: Pidgin vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-675-1

• USN-675-2: Gaim vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-675-2

• USN-676-1: WebKit vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-676-1

• USN-677-1: OpenOffice.org vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-677-1

• USN-668-1: Thunderbird vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-668-1

• USN-678-1: GnuTLS vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-678-1

• USN-680-1: Samba vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-680-1

• USN-679-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-679-1

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

• None Reported

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

• compiz-fusion-plugins-main 0.5.2+git20070928-0ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gutsy-changes/2008-November/010325.html

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

• hal-info 20081124-0ubuntu1~hardy - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012125.html

• compiz-fusion-plugins-main 0.7.4-0ubuntu4.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012126.html

• bacula 2.2.8-5ubuntu7.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012127.html

• compiz-fusion-plugins-main 0.7.4-0ubuntu6.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012128.html

• php5 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012129.html

• cupsys 1.3.7-1ubuntu3.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012130.html

• linux 2.6.24-23.46 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012131.html

• console-setup 1.21ubuntu9 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2008-November/012132.html

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

• hal-info 20081124-0ubuntu1~intrepid - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009511.html

• linux-restricted-modules 2.6.27-10.14 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009512.html

• linux-backports-modules-2.6.27 2.6.27-10.8 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009513.html

• debian-installer 20080522ubuntu24 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009514.html

• compiz-fusion-plugins-main 0.7.8-0ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009515.html

• libgnomecanvas 2.20.1.1-1ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009516.html

• kde4-style-qtcurve 0.59.3-0ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009517.html

• linux-meta 2.6.27.10.13 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009518.html

• debian-installer 20080522ubuntu25 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009519.html

• opencryptoki 2.2.6+dfsg-1ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009520.html

• gedit 2.24.2-0ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009521.html

• gnome-settings-daemon 2.24.0-0ubuntu3.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009522.html

• evolution-exchange 2.24.2-0ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009524.html

• evolution-data-server 2.24.2-0ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009523.html

• evolution 2.24.2-0ubuntu1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009525.html

• open-vm-tools 2008.08.08-109361-1ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009526.html

• alsa-utils 1.0.17-0ubuntu3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009527.html

• cups 1.3.9-2ubuntu4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009528.html

• splix 2.0.0~rc2-0ubuntu2.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009529.html

• libv4l 0.5.6-1~intrepid1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009530.html

• console-setup 1.25ubuntu4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009531.html

• tracker 0.6.6-1ubuntu5.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009532.html

• network-manager 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1.8.10.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009533.html

• knetworkmanager 1:0.7svn864988-0ubuntu1.8.10.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2008-November/009534.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:

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
• John Crawford
• Craig A. Eddy
• Arlan Vennefron

• Kenny McHenry

• Dave Bush
• Liraz Siri
• And many others

Glossary of Terms

1. LTS - Long Term Support
2. MOTU - Master Of The Universe: Those developers entrusted with overseeing the Universe and Multiverse repositories.
3. OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer

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 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.

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