Issue153

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## This document contains numerous comments to help make getting
## involved with the UWN easy and to help set some guidelines/standards.

## By contributing, you understand that your contribution may be appended to,
## modified, deleted, moved, copied, and redistributed without further
## consultation. Please feel free to add comments to help explain changes
## and/or additions to the UWN to other editors.

## Final revision will be approved and mailed by John Crawford (johnc4510), or
## Craig A. Eddy (tyche).

## For more information, please contact ubuntu-news@lists.ubuntu.com or
## visit #ubuntu-news on irc.freenode.net

## Good Luck from John Crawford, Craig A. Eddy, and the UWN Team.
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## Edit the following to include issue number, date info, and a short list
## of the top articles in this release.
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## Make each article a subsection, via ===
## These are big articles that don't fit within another section		 === Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support and Services ===

Canonical, the founder of the Ubuntu project, announced that it has launched new support services for individuals using Ubuntu desktop – and small businesses looking for cost effective alternatives to Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac.

“Canonical's Desktop Support Services (http://www.ubuntu.com/services) provides an easy, inexpensive way to get Ubuntu up and running in the home, home office and small business – reaching the vast majority of computer users,” said Steve George, director of Canonical's Corporate Services division. “With our team supporting them, Ubuntu is ideal for people who just want their computer to work, where the goal is to get up and running with no fuss, focusing on the things they want to accomplish.”

Canonical's Desktop Support Services includes three offerings: Starter, Advanced and Professional:

 * The Starter Desktop Service provides support for installation, set-up and basic functionality – such as Internet, creating documents and playing music and videos.
 * The Advanced Desktop Service is for more experienced users who need help migrating files and settings from a previously used operating system or assistance with desktop publishing and personal accounting.
 * The Professional Desktop Service is for the business user who uses Ubuntu as their main environment. Installation support ensures the Ubuntu machine is set up on the corporate network and integrated into existing IT services. The Professional Desktop Service also helps set up desktop virtualization and ongoing support provides professional users with quicker access to support personnel.

Canonical’s individual and small business Desktop Services are available now and can be purchased from the Ubuntu shop at https://shop.canonical.com/.

For details, prices and what to expect from these services visit http://www.ubuntu.com/services

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/canonical-ubuntu-desktop-support-services

Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support and Services
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Infamous Bugs
    3. Translation Stats Jaunty
    4. Translation Stats Karmic
    5. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
  6. New in Karmic Koala
  7. Launchpad News
  8. Ubuntu Forums News
  9. In The Press
    1. Canonical Announces Inexpensive Phone Support
    2. Dell’s Inspiron 15n With Ubuntu: My Thoughts
    3. Intel Linux Graphics On Ubuntu Still Flaky
    4. Ubuntu Plans New System for Installing Applications
    5. What Canonical’s Launchpad Move to Open Source Means to Developers
  10. In The Blogosphere
    1. Canonical Launching “Switch to Ubuntu” Desktop Migration Services
    2. Canonical’s Ubuntu Partner Program: Moves Worth Watching
    3. Dell: New Ubuntu Desktop PC Within Days
    4. Canonical-IBM: Virtual Ubuntu Desktops vs. Windows 7
    5. Launchpad Open-Sourced. Now What?
    6. Review of the System76 Starling Netbook
    7. Ubuntu 9.10 Preview: GRUB 2
    8. Ubuntu Netbooks: Strong Demand at System76
    9. Ubuntu Server Edition and Alfresco: A Sign of Things to Come
    10. Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support
  11. In Other News
  12. Meeting Summaries
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Sunday, August 2, 2009
      1. Ubuntu IRC Council meeting
      2. Ubuntu Doc Team Meeting
    2. Monday, August 3, 2009
      1. Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint
    3. Tuesday, August 4, 2009
      1. Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint
      2. Server Team Meeting
      3. Desktop Team Meeting
      4. Kernel Team Meeting
      5. LoCo Teams Meeting
      6. EMEA Membership Meeting
      7. Community Council Meeting
    4. Wednesday, August 5, 2009
      1. Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint
      2. Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo Team Meeting
      3. Cameroonian LoCoTeam monthly IRC meeting
      4. Foundation Team Meeting
      5. QA Team Meeting
    5. Thursday, August 6, 2009
      1. Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint
      2. Ubuntu Java Meeting
      3. MC Meeting
      4. Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting
    6. Friday, August 7, 2009
      1. Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint
      2. Karmic Weekly Release Meeting
      3. Launchpad LoCo Tools Discussion
    7. Saturday, August 8, 2009
  14. Community Spotlight
  15. Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
  16. UWN #: A sneak peek
  17. Archives and RSS Feed
  18. Additional Ubuntu News
  19. Conclusion
  20. Credits
  21. Glossary of Terms
  22. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  23. Feedback

newspaper-icon3.jpg 

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #153 for the week July 26th - August 1st, 2009. In this issue we cover ...

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

General Community News

Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support and Services

Canonical, the founder of the Ubuntu project, announced that it has launched new support services for individuals using Ubuntu desktop – and small businesses looking for cost effective alternatives to Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac.

“Canonical's Desktop Support Services (http://www.ubuntu.com/services) provides an easy, inexpensive way to get Ubuntu up and running in the home, home office and small business – reaching the vast majority of computer users,” said Steve George, director of Canonical's Corporate Services division. “With our team supporting them, Ubuntu is ideal for people who just want their computer to work, where the goal is to get up and running with no fuss, focusing on the things they want to accomplish.”

Canonical's Desktop Support Services includes three offerings: Starter, Advanced and Professional:

  • The Starter Desktop Service provides support for installation, set-up and basic functionality – such as Internet, creating documents and playing music and videos.
  • The Advanced Desktop Service is for more experienced users who need help migrating files and settings from a previously used operating system or assistance with desktop publishing and personal accounting.
  • The Professional Desktop Service is for the business user who uses Ubuntu as their main environment. Installation support ensures the Ubuntu machine is set up on the corporate network and integrated into existing IT services. The Professional Desktop Service also helps set up desktop virtualization and ongoing support provides professional users with quicker access to support personnel.

Canonical’s individual and small business Desktop Services are available now and can be purchased from the Ubuntu shop at https://shop.canonical.com/.

For details, prices and what to expect from these services visit http://www.ubuntu.com/services

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/canonical-ubuntu-desktop-support-services

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (59388) +120 over last week
  • Critical (30) +1 over last week
  • Unconfirmed (27536) +98 over last week
  • Unassigned (51141) +59 over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (299560) +1854 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

  • Spanish (12726) -69 over last week
  • French (39723) -6 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (48891) -76 over last week
  • Swedish (53831) -393 over last week
  • English (United Kingdom) (55729) +/-0 over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/

Translation Stats Karmic

  • Spanish (23991) +1421 over last week
  • French (55984) +533 over last week
  • Swedish (66063) -1298 over last week
  • Brazilian Portuguese (75674) +5920 over last week
  • English (Uk) (78933) +561 over last week

1. Language (#) +/- # over last week Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

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

New in Karmic Koala

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Forums News

In The Press

Canonical Announces Inexpensive Phone Support

The Linux Loop tells us that Canonical has announced consumer-oriented phone and email support for Ubuntu Desktop Edition. Ubuntu offered phone support before, however it was priced for enterprises managing large install bases. The new support plans are targeted at consumers and start at about $50 per year. There are three tiers of this new support plan: starter, advanced, and professional. All three tiers offer support for installation and basic tasks, such as e-mail, web browsing, and OpenOffice. The advanced tier, which costs $115 per year ($65 more than starter) additionally offers support for Windows migration and a broader set of applications. Finally, the professional tier, which costs over $200 per year, adds support for topics such as virtualization and remote desktop. This new support offering potentially offers a familiar bridge for new users. The Linux Loop's only complaint is that the minimum support length is a year. Many people may only need a few months of support, so a cheper and shorter option would be ideal. http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/07/31/canonical-announces-inexpensive-phone-support/

Dell’s Inspiron 15n With Ubuntu: My Thoughts

Jeremy LaCroix of IT News Today tells us that his current laptop was falling apart, and he found himself in the market for a new one sooner than he'd planned. He decided to get a Dell and ended up with an Inspiron 15n. LaCroix ordered the system on Wednesday July 15th, and he received it Saturday July 25th. Packed in with the laptop Inside the box was an Ubuntu DVD, a CD for reinstalling the media playback software, and the usual instruction booklet and warranty/safety inserts. What we have here is a VERY good laptop with excellent features, that only suffers from a completely braindead default Ubuntu install. That’s probably going to be no big deal to most of you reading this as you’ll probably either install Ubuntu 9.04 or another distribution and customize it yourself anyway. Jeremy says he would definitely recommend this to everyone looking for a great machine, but there may be some post purchase work to do once you get it. http://www.itnewstoday.com/?p=690

Intel Linux Graphics On Ubuntu Still Flaky

Phoronix's Michael Larabel recalls that back in May he shared that the Ubuntu Intel graphics performance was still in bad shape after testing out very early Ubuntu 9.10 packages. The netbook experience was killed in Ubuntu 9.04 after a buggy Intel Linux graphics stack led to slow performance, stability issues, screen corruption, and other problems. Months have passed since he last exhaustively looked at the Intel Linux graphics stack, and he has just carried out some new tests using Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3. This new development release of Ubuntu carries the latest kernel, Mesa, and Intel driver packages as we see how the graphics performance is with an Intel 945 and G43 chipsets. In two of the eight tests, the newer release of Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3 did better than Ubuntu 9.04. However, in the other six tests, Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 3 was running slower than Ubuntu 9.04, which was already a release ridden with Intel graphics problems. Clearly, even with the xf86-video-intel 2.8.0 DDX and Linux 2.6.31 kernel, there are still problems at hand to be addressed. Hopefully these Intel 2D/3D performance problems will be fixed within the next three months for Ubuntu 9.10. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_q309_flakes&num=1

Ubuntu Plans New System for Installing Applications

The Linux Loops reports that Launchpad spec targeting Karmic Koala (the next release of Ubuntu) describes specifications for a unified application for installing software on Ubuntu. To be clear, everything will still be based on Apt, so this isn’t a significant backend change, but rather a focus on a better user layer. In the short term, this new application, currently called AppCenter, will basically be a cleaner Add/Remove Programs with an update manager built in. Synaptic and the other software installation tools will still be avaliable in Karmic. If AppCenter becomes a marketplace for all applications, it will revolutionize application installation on computers. Yes, the idea may be inspired by the iPhone app store, but an app store on a tightly locked-down phone and an app store on computers are very different things. http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/07/25/ubuntu-plans-new-system-for-installing-applications/

What Canonical’s Launchpad Move to Open Source Means to Developers

Linux.com's Todd R. Weiss says now that the code for Canonical Ltd.’s Launchpad open source development hosting community was released as open source last week, the company hopes that developers who may have stayed away from Launchpad in the past will take a new look. Canonical’s new mission is to try to change attitudes so developers who may have been skeptical before will join Launchpad now, said Karl Fogel, Canonical’s Launchpad Ombudsman. “We knew that there were projects that would not host on Launchpad because it was not open source, so we just decided to just remove that barrier and remove that problem,” Fogel said. There has been a “spike” of new projects opened on Launchpad since its move last week to open source, but Fogel didn’t have any estimates on how many came over due to the change. “I don’t know if they are new projects or if they are coming from somewhere else, but they had to be somewhere else because there’s no way someone could start up a new project and have all their code together in such a short time.” http://www.linux.com/news/software/developer/30701-what-canonicals-launchpad-move-to-open-source-means-to-software-developers

In The Blogosphere

Canonical Launching “Switch to Ubuntu” Desktop Migration Services

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/30/canonical-launching-switch-to-ubuntu-migration-services/

Canonical’s Ubuntu Partner Program: Moves Worth Watching

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/canonicals-ubuntu-partner-program-moves-worth-watching/

Dell: New Ubuntu Desktop PC Within Days

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/29/dell-new-ubuntu-desktop-pc-within-days/

Canonical-IBM: Virtual Ubuntu Desktops vs. Windows 7

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/30/canonical-ibm-virtual-ubuntu-desktops-vs-windows-7/

Launchpad Open-Sourced. Now What?

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/launchpad-open-sourced-now-what/

Review of the System76 Starling Netbook

http://janehadley.net/Starling_Review/starling_review.html

Ubuntu 9.10 Preview: GRUB 2

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/29/ubuntu-910-preview-grub-2/

Ubuntu Netbooks: Strong Demand at System76

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/27/ubuntu-netbooks-strong-demand-at-system76/

Ubuntu Server Edition and Alfresco: A Sign of Things to Come

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/07/28/ubuntu-server-edition-and-alfresco-a-sign-of-things-to-come/

Canonical to Offer Ubuntu Desktop Support

Computerworld's resident Cyber Synic, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, asks, "Do you want to save desktop support money? Do you have Windows and Mac-using friends or co-workers who want to try desktop Linux? Well, in either case, you're going to want to check out Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, latest desktop support offerings: Starter, Advanced and Professional." Canonical announced these new support services for the Ubuntu desktop for individuals and small businesses on July 31st in London. These services are particularly designed for small business owners who are looking for cost effective alternatives to Windows and Apple Mac. If you've been thinking about saving money by switching to desktop Linux, but the lack of an individual or SMB support plan was stopping you, you can take your foot off the brake now. Canonical is ready to get your Ubuntu desktop Linux rolling. http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/31444-canonical-to-offer-ubuntu-desktop-support

In Other News

Meeting Summaries

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Ubuntu IRC Council meeting

  • Start: 07:00 UTC
  • End: 08:00 UTC
  • Location: Not listed as of publication
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

Ubuntu Doc Team Meeting

Monday, August 3, 2009

Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint

Server Team Meeting

Desktop Team Meeting

Kernel Team Meeting

  • Start: 17:00 UTC
  • End: 18:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

LoCo Teams Meeting

  • Start: 17:00 UTC
  • End: 18:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-locoteams
  • Agenda: Not listed as of publication

EMEA Membership Meeting

Community Council Meeting

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint

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

Cameroonian LoCoTeam monthly IRC meeting

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

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint

Ubuntu Java Meeting

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

MC Meeting

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

  • Start: 21:00 UTC
  • End: 22:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Friday, August 7, 2009

Karmic Developer (Distro) Sprint

Karmic Weekly Release Meeting

Launchpad LoCo Tools Discussion

  • Start: 22:00 UTC
  • End: 23:00 UTC
  • Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
  • Agenda: None listed as of publication

Saturday, August 8, 2009

  • None listed as of publication

Community Spotlight

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

  • None Reported

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

UWN #: A sneak peek

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:

  • John Crawford
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • Dave Bush
  • Sayak Banerjee
  • Your Name Here
  • Liraz Siri
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate

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.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License CCL.png Creative Commons License 3.0 BY SA

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue153 (last edited 2009-08-02 21:28:56 by ip24-255-61-232)