Issue139
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #139 for the week April 19th - April 25th, 2009. In this issue we cover ...
UWN Translations
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In This Issue
General Community News
Ubuntu 9.04 released
As announced on the Ubuntu Announcements mailing list, Ubuntu 9.04 has been released. Release notes for the various flavors of Ubuntu 9.04 can be found at:
Desktop edition: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop
Server edition: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-server
Netbook Remix: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-unr
Kubuntu: http://kubuntu.org/news/9.04-release
Xubuntu: http://xubuntu.org/news/9.04-release
Edubuntu: http://edubuntu.org/news/9.04-release
Mythbuntu: http://mythbuntu.org/9.04/release
Ubuntu Studio: http://ubuntustudio.org/downloads
To download Ubuntu 9.04, or obtain CDs, visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu
More information is available at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2009-April/000122.html
Announcing Ubuntu 9.04 for ARM
Steve Langasek announces the release of Ubuntu 9.04 for ARM architecture. This release is meant for imx51, ixp4xx, and versatile subarchitectures, and Desktop installation images are available for the i.MX 51 Babbage development board, and netboot installation images for other subarchitectures.
To download Ubuntu 9.04 images for the Babbage development board, visit: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/jaunty/release
To download netboot images for other subarchitectures, visit: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/jaunty/release
As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.
Further information can be found at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-April/000563.html
MOTU Council News
Pedro Fragoso joined the MOTU team. He has been working with the Ubuntu Desktop Team, and he has performed Gnome updates, bugfixes, merges and even LPI changes. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~ember Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PedroFragoso
Benjamin Drung joined the ranks of the Ubuntu Contributing Developers. He has looked after xmms2 and its clients, and is an active member of the Berlin LoCo. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~bdrung Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BenjaminDrung
Brandon Holtsclaw rejoined the MOTU team. He plans to resume working on the mono (apache and cli) packages as well as universe SRU and SWAT stuff. Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~imbrandon Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/imbrandon
Ubuntu Stats
Bug Stats
- Open (#) +/- # over last week
- Critical (#) +/- # over last week
- Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
- Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
- All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # over last week
As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
Infamous Bugs
Translation Stats Jaunty
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/
Translation Stats Intrepid
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
- Language (#) +/- # over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/
# NEEDS UPDATING. # #=== 5-a-day bug stats === # #==== Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days ==== # # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # #==== Top 5 teams for the past 7 days ==== # # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # #5-A-Day stats provided by Daniel Holbach. See http://daniel.holba.ch/5-a-day-stats/
Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
Newly added hard drive - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19328/
Decreased performance in LiveCD - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19382/
Thumbnails of images in the filebrowser of webrowsers - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19396/
Re-spin CDs with bugfix/security updates for all stable releases after 6 months - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19402/
OEM style first boot - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19327/
Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/
LoCo News
German LoCo-Team launches a new portal
Just in time for the Jaunty release, the German LoCo-Team launched a new portal site on ubuntu-de.org. It integrates all the different projects from the German Ubuntu-Community and so will make it more easy for beginners to find their way into the Community or the correct place to ask for help. http://ikhaya.ubuntuusers.de/2009/04/23/start-frei-fuer-ubuntu-de-org/, http://www.kubuntu-de.org/nachrichten/sonstiges/start-frei-fuer-ubuntu-de-org
New in Intrepid Ibex
Launchpad News
Ubuntu Forums News
The Planet
Edward A. Robinson: Limited edition Jaunty Jackalope t-shirts
http://www.earobinson.org/2009/04/24/limited-edition-jaunty-jackalope-t-shirts/
Danny Piccirillo: Announcing Ubuntu Gaming Team
http://pinstack.blogspot.com/2009/04/announcing-ubuntu-gaming-team.html
Ruben Romero: Spread Ubuntu to go live soon
http://huayra.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/spreadubuntu-to-go-live-soon/
New US LoCo Teams Website
http://johnc4510.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/new-ubuntu-us-loco-teams-website/
Miguel Ruiz: FLiSoL
http://mruiz.openminds.cl/blog/index.php/2009/04/24/flisol-2009/
In The Press
Ubuntu 9.04 as slick as Windows 7, Mac OS X
Renai LeMay of Cnet News says there's something that the official press release for Ubuntu 9.04 won't tell you: its designers have polished the hell out of its user interface since the last release in October. So much so, in fact, that he is starting to prefer using his Ubuntu "Jaunty Jackalope" desktop over the similarly slick Windows 7 beta and Mac OS X Leopard operating systems, which he uses regularly. Looking back to the genesis of Ubuntu 9.04 six months ago, LeMay suspects that Jaunty's subtle but powerful changes are due to the new user interface team that Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said at the time he would put in place. If so, that team has already earned its paychecks and even more, and we're looking forward to seeing what another six months of development will produce. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10226746-92.html
Ubuntu 'Jaunty Jackalope' Jumps Linux Forward
Internet News' Sean Michael Kerner reports that Canonical's Ubuntu, known for its quirky animal named Linux releases, came out with its 9.04 release, codenamed the "Jaunty Jackalope", on Thursday. This release includes new versions for netbooks, desktops and servers and features faster boot times and cloud computing capabilities. "This our 10th release and we've really come quite a long way both in demonstrating the success of a model where a business can work together with the community to produce a great product, and in the open source realm in really honing this concept of a strict time based process," Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman said during a press conference announcing the new release. "It ensures we always have a fresh product on the market with all the greatest improvements that are available in free software." http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3816866/Ubuntu+Jaunty+Jackalope+Jumps+Linux+Forward.htm
Ubuntu 9.04 frankenreview
TuxRadar says it's official: Ubuntu has taken over the Linux world. TuxRadar has been using Jaunty for some time now and so far they are very impressed: it's solid as a rock, substantially faster and even has some new features. There's no doubt about it: Ubuntu 9.04 is short on killer features, but so what? This is the slow and steady, release early and often approach that has served Ubuntu well so far. When something is faster than what you had and more stable than what you had, clearly it's a lot better. But when you factor in that it also includes hundreds of new features in every conceivable part of the desktop, it becomes clear that Ubuntu 9.04 is a truly worthy update to what was already a technically impeccable Linux distribution. http://www.tuxradar.com/content/ubuntu-904-frankenreview
Ubuntu Users Looking a Bit Jaunty Today
Justin Ryan of Linux Journal says it's that time again, ladies and gents — time for the biannual release of a new Ubuntu version. This time it's the Jaunty Jackalope, officially Ubuntu 9.04, rolling off the line, and bringing with it a fresh new set of features users have been longing for. Prime among the features being touted by the Ubuntu camp are improvements in speed, perhaps rather fitting for a release named for the jackalope. Boot speed is reportedly greatly improved, as low as twenty-five seconds in some cases. Overall Ubuntu 9.04 has lived up to its promised impressiveness. All that remains is to get down to using — and, of course, to developing 9.10. http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/ubuntu-users-looking-bit-jaunty-today
Canonical punts Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope
Timothy Prickett Morgan of Channel Register reports that on Thursday Canonical debuted its Ubuntu 9.04 release of Linux, the tenth release since the company founded the Ubuntu project in October 2004. This iteration of Ubuntu, code-named “Jaunty Jackalope,” comes with mixes designed specifically for three platforms: netbooks, desktops, and servers. Even though Ubuntu 9.04 is not a so-called Long Term Support release, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has pretty high hopes for it. “It is an extraordinary release, and we expect it to be very popular,” said Shuttleworth in a conference call announcing the release. "We think it is our best release ever." http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/04/20/ubuntu_9_04_released/
Crash Testing ext4 on Ubuntu
One of the more controversial aspects of the Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope release is the use of the ext4 filesystem. Users have apparently lost important data already while testing Ubuntu on their desktop. The advantages of ext4 are increased filesystem support for volumes up to 1 exabyte with files up to 16 terabytes, as well as increased performance. In the tests BeginLinux.com performed, no data was lost after a number of forced crashes. The tests were done over the period of a day, and they warn that before you bet the farm on ext4 you will want to do several things. Migrate slowly to ext4 to verify for yourself that the option of performance is worth the risks. Always use UPS and do regular backups. If you want to use ext4 on the desktop you must also follow that procedure. Last, there are applications, especially on the desktop, that really are not created for ext4 so they add additional risks. http://beginlinux.com/server_training/8-ubuntuadmin/1255-crash-testing-ext4-on-ubuntu/
In The Blogosphere
First Look at Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
Lifehacker writer Keir Thomas, reviews the 9.04 release of the Ubuntu desktop. Thomas covers the installation, desktop wallpaper improvements, the new notification system, Brasero CD / DVD Creator, OpenOffice 3.0, and the improvements to the Synaptic package manager. Thomas sums up the article with Ubuntu 9.04 as being "light years ahead of any other desktop version of Linux". "Linux simply doesn't get any better than this right now for ordinary users, and Ubuntu is the only serious choice if you're tired of Windows or OS X ". Kier Thomas is award-winning Ubuntu author of the Ubuntu Pocket Guide.
http://lifehacker.com/5224586/first-look-at-ubuntu-904-jaunty-jackalope
Ubuntu 9.04 review
TechCombo weighs the pros and cons of the Ubuntu 9.04 release and the scales tip in favor of the pros. Ubuntu 9.04 includes the latest 2.6.28.8 kernel as well as many other features, including faster boot times, X.Org 1.6, the latest Adobe Flash, and many other pros. Noting the lack of (Windows) game support, notification controls in the preferences menu, and the lack of "new features" as the only cons in this review. " ... Ubuntu is still miles ahead of any other desktop version of Linux, and this release does have some significant server platform developments. Personally, I think Ubuntu is on the same level as Windows and OS X."
http://techcombo.com/ubuntu-904-review
Ubuntu 9.04: Installs and Upgrades reportedly great so far
Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04: Progress with HP
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/04/20/ubuntu-server-edition-904-the-coming-hp-deal/
Canonical Partners Launching Ubuntu Server Training
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/04/22/canonical-partners-launching-ubuntu-server-training/
Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04: Progress with HP
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/04/20/ubuntu-server-edition-904-the-coming-hp-deal/
In Other News
Shuttleworth: Oracle's Sun buy validates open source
According to Mark Shuttleworth, it's very hard to name a large proprietary software company which has been created since the 1990's. He argued that the major sources in software today are either free software or powered by free software, Google Yahoo etc. "The fact that Oracle has just announced a multi-billion dollar acquisition of a company that describes itself as the world's biggest Free Software and Open Source company to me is enormously instructive," Shuttleworth said. "To me it suggests that open source and free software are the big game in town. And everyone is trying to figure out what that means and how they integrate it, what they can't do is ignore it."
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/04/shuttleworth-oracles-sun-buy-v.html
Ubuntu Podcast #25: Dustin Kirkland
Nick and Josh bring us another Ubuntu Podcast. In this episode:
CDs for LoCos
- Ubuntu Open Week
- Jono Bacon on ustream
- Dustin Kirkland Interview
- Screen Profiles
- Ubuntu Man Pages
- Encrypted private directories
http://ubuntupodcast.net/2009/04/23/ubuntu-podcast-episode-25-dustin-kirkland/
Full Circle Magazine #24
Full Circle - the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community are proud to announce the release of our twenty-fourth issue.
This month: It's FCM's birthday!
... and a redesign!
- Command and Conquer - Cron.
- How-To : Program in C - Part 8, Create a MAME Machine, and Spreading Ubuntu - Part 3 and Inkscape - Part 1.
- My Story - Great-grandma Goes Shopping and Chinese Translations
- Book Review - Ubuntu Unleashed, three copies up for grabs!
- MOTU Interview - James Westby
- Top 10 - Best of Top5, 2007-'09
- PLUS: all the usual goodness, doubled!
Get it here: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-24
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2009-April/000520.html
60 Beautiful Ubuntu Desktop wallpapers
Hongkiat dot com decided it was time to give the Ubuntu users their version of the 60 best Ubuntu wallpapers to wear proudly on their desktops. Putting together 60 nice looking Ubuntu wallpapers was challenging but they managed to give a great representation of desktop eyecandy in the form of wallpapers. See this great collection at the link.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/60-most-execellent-ubuntu-wallpapers/
Meeting Summaries
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Ubuntu-us-az LoCo Team Meeting
- Start: 04:00 UTC
- End: 04:30 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-az irc.freenode.net
Monday, April 27, 2009
- None listed as of publication
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Server Team Meeting
- Start: 15:00 UTC
- End: 16:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Desktop Team Meeting
- Start: 16:30 UTC
- End: 17:30 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-desktop
Kernel Team Meeting
- Start: 17:00 UTC
- End: 18:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: Not listed as of publication
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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: 16:00 UTC
- End: 17:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Packaging Training: Getting Started with Ubuntu Development
- Start: 06:00 UTC
- End: 07:00 UTC
- Location IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom
Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
- Start: 12:00 UTC
- End: 13:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: None listed as of publication
Ubuntu Java Meeting
- Start: 14:00 UTC
- End: 15:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
- Agenda: None listed as of publication
Friday, May 1, 2009
- None listed as of publication
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Documentation Team Meeting
- Start: 19:00 UTC
- End: 20:00 UTC
- Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/MeetingAgenda
Community Spotlight
Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
Security Updates
Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
UWN #: A sneak peek
Archives and RSS Feed
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Additional Ubuntu News
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Conclusion
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Glossary of Terms
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