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WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 209 for the week August 29th - September 4th, 2010.

In This Issue

General Community News

New Ubuntu Lucid Proposed Kernel

Steve Conklin, Canonical Kernel Engineer, announced on September 1, 2010 that a new Ubuntu Lucid proposed kernel was available. The Ubuntu kernel team has prepared a new proposed kernel for Lucid (2.6.32-25.43), containing a large number of fixes. This is a larger number of updates than we would usually push at one time, but processing of the upstream stable updates was delayed by a couple of security updates.

This kernel should fix a lot of issues, including this one that people have been asking about a lot. You will get this automatically if you have updates from lucid-proposed enabled. Note that if it breaks you get to keep all the pieces, so don’t try this on production machines. Please test against your favorite bugs in the changelog and provide feedback.

http://www.illruminations.com/post/1048745747/new-ubuntu-lucid-proposed-kernel

Welcome New Members

The approval results from the May 28th Asia-Oceanic Membership meeting are as follows:

Allan 'Wers' Caeg

https://launchpad.net/~allancaeg

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AllanCaeg

Wers is a member of the Philippine Open Source Network where he organises Ubuntu release parties and is part of the Gnome Asia Committee. He is currently focused on one sabfls pet projects; Ayatana-UX which works on improving Ubuntu's design direction.

Ryan 'nisshh' Macnish

https://launchpad.net/~nisshh

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RyanMacnish

Nissh is an active member of a pile of teams; Ubuntu Manual, Ubuntu Developer Manual, BugSquad, and is part of the BugSquad Mentoring team. Rick Spencer is looking forward to his continued improvements to the Ubuntu Developers Manual and PyTask! We look forward to seeing what more Nissh has planned.

Welcome to all of our new members!

Why do you use Ubuntu?

Alejandra Obregon, Canonical Design Blog - We’ve been looking at making developments to the Ubuntu website that explore and highlight the reasons for using Ubuntu above and beyond the features of the products. One idea we had was to invite community members and Ubuntu users to tweet or post about why they use Ubuntu and display this on the site. The community’s voice on the website would demonstrate one of the key drivers for using Ubuntu: showing the strength and commitment of the community, not just telling visitors about it. Adding the voice and personality of the community to the websites will enable members and users to participate in our site’s messaging and to share their passion for the concept and principles on which Ubuntu is based.

More can be found here: #iloveubuntubecause

Please post your own and raise awareness so we can get a broader response.

Have you got any other ideas for how we can bring this to the fore on our websites?

For more information as well as to view the favorite post so far go to:

http://design.canonical.com/2010/09/why-do-you-use-ubuntu/

Ubuntu in Education

http://dindafoss.wordpress.com/?p=16

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

• Open (#) +/- # over last week
• Critical (#) +/- # over last week
• Unconfirmed (#) +/- # 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 Lucid

1. Language (#) +/- # over last week
2. Language (#) +/- # over last week
3. Language (#) +/- # over last week
4. Language (#) +/- # over last week
5. Language (#) +/- # over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

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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

LoCo Team banners for Approved teams

Following on from my post last week regarding the up to date conference packs and the new banners for APPROVED teams, we have created a new wiki page we need the team contact to fill in. Again, a big thank you goes to Canonical for making this possible!

The wiki pages lists the teams at present who are approved at present, please do not add any more teams in there without consulting the LoCo Council. Team contacts need to update the wiki AND mail shipit with the relevant information on the wiki page. The banners are not ready as of yet but will be soon, and we need to have this information at hand when we have them in stock. Remember when updating the wiki to check if someone else is editing it to avoid wiki conflicts!

For more information go to:

http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=898

LoCo Testing Team HowTo

Paolo Sammicheli gives an update to the Italian LoCo Teams ISO Testing experience - I finally completed the wiki page about the Italian experience in ISO Testing: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/LoCoTeam I would really love if other LoCos would like to start ISO TESTING contributing in making Ubuntu everyday better. I also ask you to continue improving that page sharing your experiences as well.

The original post can be found to:

http://xdatap1.wordpress.com/?p=177

Global Jam, Columbus Postgame

http://blog.pault.ag/?p=425

Ubuntu Global Jam - Nicaragua

http://josernestodavila.blogspot.com/2010/08/ubuntu-global-jam-nicaragua.html

Ubuntu (Berlin) Global Jam at c-base and Daniel

http://www.screenage.de/blog/?p=256

Montevideo’s Global Jam

http://pablorubianes.wordpress.com/?p=106

Ubuntu Global Jam in Rio de Janeiro

http://en.andregondim.eti.br/?p=179

Ubuntu Global Jam in Catalonia

http://blogs.fsfe.org/rcarreras/?p=102

Reporting from Ubuntu Global Jam Novosibirsk

http://lucidfox.org/posts/view/612

Ubuntu Global Jam Ireland a great success

http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=884

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Forums News

The Planet

Ara Pulido: Testing your multitouch device

Maverick is coming with multitouch & gestures support!

OK, right, this is not news, a lot of people have been already been talking about it, inside the Ubuntu community, and also outside the community. I cannot express how excited I am about multitouch support and the possibilities it opens (phones?, tablets?, the-next-great-small-device?). But, first, we need to test it!

So, maybe, you have a multitouch device. OK, maybe you don’t. Maybe you just have a single touch device (a touchpad, a tablet). OK, maybe you don’t. Maybe you just have a mouse. In all those cases we need your help. Obviously, our main interest is in getting feedback from people with multitouch devices, but, we also need to see if regressions were introduced in the process.

To read the post in full and find out how you can help with testing go to:

http://ubuntutesting.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/testing-your-multitouch-device/

Jono Bacon: Incredible Stories Of Free Software and Open Source

Jono writes - In a continuation of that theme I am keen to talk about stories.

I have talked about stories quite a bit in my writings on community management (particularly so in my book The Art of Community). Stories are important entities in communities – they are vessels in which we share ideas, lessons we have learned, our experience and more. Many stories come laced with these underlining nuggets of wisdom that we then take aware and help us to refine and improve how we interface with the world and the people around us.

Stories though encompass another significant benefit: they allow us to inspire and encourage others via real-world practical examples of our ethos being put into practice.

Jono asks - What are the most inspiring and encouraging stories of Free Software and community that you have heard? Which story have made those little hairs on the back of your neck stand on end?

To read this post in full go to:

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/08/30/incredible-stories-of-free-software-and-open-source/

Rick Spencer: Why I Have Nothing Interesting to Say

Inspired by Jono's post - On Visibility and Change - Rick Spencer, Director of Ubuntu Engineering, discusses Changes to Canonical Organizational Structure, his new role as Director of Ubuntu Engineering, being part of the community and transparency. Rick also discusses the partnership between Canonical and Ubuntu.

To read learn more about Rick and see what he's been up to go to:

http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-i-have-nothing-interesting-to-say.html

Raphaël Hertzog: Understanding Membership Structures in Debian and Ubuntu

Debian and Ubuntu have a set of official membership roles that can be granted to regular contributors. Those roles come with rights that enable the contributors to do their work and to participate in the project governance (elections and other official decision-making processes). It’s also a way for the distributions to acknowledge the work done: most contributors are proud of the status they reached.

The membership structure plays an important role in the development of a distribution: it defines the kind of contributors that are welcome in the project, it sets expectations of the project towards its contributors and defines their rights. In the end, this shapes the project’s ability to recruit new contributors to keep the project alive and kicking. This article introduces the existing statuses in Debian and Ubuntu, and defines the — sometimes confusing — jargon associated with them.

For more information on these membership structures go to:

http://raphaelhertzog.com/?p=723

Daniel Holbach's: What I do

Daniel Holbach, Ubuntu Community Team, talks about what his thoughts about his job, Ubuntu and the community were 6 years ago when he started with Canonical, what all he has worked on, and what he continues to work on now.

A few of his observations back then were:

• how friendly, encouraging and motivating people were: in a very short time I made lots of friends, people who are always there for me and I’d always be there for (extended family – kind of)
• how much I learned in a very short period of time (a state of constant “a-ha! moments”)
• the incredibly strong sense of opportunity: “if I fix this bug, I not only fix it for myself, but for millions of users”

If you want to know more about Daniel go to:

http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/?p=776

Dustin Kirkland: How My Work Benefits Free Software

Dustin Kirkland, Canonical Server Team, says - I'm personally offended when Canonical and Ubuntu are dogged about a perceived lack of contribution to the Free Software ecosystem.

So I'd like to talk about the work I have been doing at Canonical on Ubuntu, and how I believe it benefits Free Software in 7 important ways:

1. Packaging
2. Documentation
3. Communication
4. Conferences
5. Upstream Contributions
6. Being an Upstream
7. Bringing Free Software to the Masses

To read Dustin's post in full and see what he has to say about these 7 areas go to:

http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2010/08/how-work-i-do-benefits-free-software.html

In The Press

Canonical's X Gesture Extension Being Re-Evaluated

Earlier this month Canonical introduced its own multi-touch framework for Ubuntu that is set to premiere with Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" and it's called UTouch and is joined by their own gesture/touch language. That same day as announcing UTouch for Ubuntu that will support devices like the Apple Magic TrackPad and Dell XT2, Canonical proposed the X.Org Gesture Extension to the X.Org development community. While it's good to see Canonical making more contributions to upstream projects that it depends upon for Ubuntu Linux, the X.Org Gesture Extension is already being re-evaluated and may in fact not be needed.

For more information go to:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODU1MQ

Choose a Desktop Linux Distribution

Katherine Noyes, with ITWorld writes - With all the many reasons to use Linux today--particularly in a business setting--it's often a relatively easy decision to give Windows the boot. What can be more difficult, however, is deciding which of the hundreds of Linux distributions out there is best for you and your business.

Judging by popularity statistics, as tracked both by Distrowatch and in a recent study at LinuxTrends, Ubuntu is clearly the most popular distribution, or "distro." There's no denying that Ubuntu has many benefits for business users; at the same time, there are many, many other possibilities, each offering its own twist on Linux.

For more information go to:

http://www.itworld.com/open-source/118921/choose-a-desktop-linux-distribution?

StackApplet Displays Your Ubuntu Stack Exchange Reputation On The GNOME Panel

StackApplet is a simple GNOME Panel applet which checks your Stack Exchange reputation every X minutes and displays it on the panel. StackApplet works with any Stack Exchange website and in fact, it can display your reputation across multiple websites at once.

Besides displaying your reputation, StackApplet also notifies you when comments are posted to you.

For more information go to:

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/stackapplet-displays-your-ubuntu-stack.html

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu One Blog: New Ubuntu One Android app and greater device support

We have some great news to share about Ubuntu One support for Android devices. Ubuntu One Contacts for Android

We recently released an Android version of the Ubuntu One Contacts sync application. This app will sync your phone address book with your Ubuntu One personal cloud to help keep your digital life together. An Ubuntu One account is required. Ubuntu One Contacts is based on the existing Funambol application but we’ve made a few enhancements.

For more information on Ubuntu One and Android apps go to:

http://voices.canonical.com/ubuntuone/?p=554

In Other News

HCI at Canonical

Duncan McGreggor, Canonical ???? - In this post Duncan discusses human-computer interaction (HCI) at Canonical. He gives links to some of the great posts about the work and effort that is being put in HCI and points to an exciting future ahead.

If you want to know more about HCI at Canonical go to:

http://oubiwann.blogspot.com/2010/09/hci-at-canonical-one-crazy-ass-ride.html

Thinking different at Canonical

Matt Asay, Canonical COO, notes the following on his blog - Canonical really needs to be different, because Ubuntu is different. Ubuntu is a user phenomenon, not necessarily an enterprise phenomenon. We have a great deal of enterprise adoption (tops in both development and deployment according to recent surveys), but that adoption came through individual developers choosing to use Ubuntu, and not through some heavy-handed corporate decision to do so.

He also asks at the end of this post - What do you think? What would you do if you worked in Canonical’s marketing department?

For more information and to read the post in full go to:

http://voices.canonical.com/matt.asay/2010/08/31/thinking-different-at-canonical/

Building Apps for the Cloud: How KnowledgeTree Used Ubuntu for Rapid Development of Its SaaS Offering

Would you like to find out about how Ubuntu is being deployed in the cloud space? Would you like to see how KnowledgeTree uses Ubuntu for its SaaS offering? If so, please join KnowledgeTree and Canonical on Wednesday 8 September 2010 at 11 am Pacific (2 pm Eastern) for a joint webinar.

For more information about this webinar go to:

http://blog.canonical.com/?p=424

GUADEC 2010 Videos

Ara Pulida, of the Canonical QA Team, reviews and recommends viewing Videos from this years GUADEC.

With thanks to Flumotion, the videos are now available for download.

http://ubuntutesting.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/guadec-2010-videos/

IBM DB2 on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

All IBM DB2 Editions are validated on Ubuntu 10.04. This is an important validation for Ubuntu as it demonstrates that the IBM DB2 team believes Ubuntu is an important platform to validate against. IBM previously validated 8.04 LTS. This shows IBM’s long-term commitment to Ubuntu. Check out the DB2 Enterprise-C virtual appliances on Amazon EC2. These appliances enable developers who are already using DB2 on Ubuntu to have an option on the Amazon cloud.

http://slgeorge.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/ibm-db2-on-ubuntu-10-04-lts/

Featured Podcasts

Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: Sharp Shooters

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/?p=1484

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

• Ubuntu Desktop Team Meeting Minutes for August 31, 2010 -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting/2010-08-31

• Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting Minutes from August 31, 1010 -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileTeam/Meeting/2010/20100831

• Ubuntu Server Team Meeting Minutes for August 31, 2010 -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Server/20100831

• Ubuntu Kernel Team Meeting Minutes for August 31, 2010 -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Meeting/2010-08-31

• Ubuntu Foundations Team Meeting Minutes for September 1st, 2010 -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/Meetings/2010/0901

Monthly Team Reports: <MONTH> <YEAR>

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting

• Start: 13:00 UTC
• End: 14:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileTeam/Meeting ==== Technical Board Meeting ====

• Start: 14:00 UTC
• End: 15:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication ==== Desktop Team Meeting ====
• Start: 16:30 UTC
• End: 17:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-desktop

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting ==== Kernel Team Meeting ====

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

  ==== LoCo Health Check ====

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC
• Location: IRC Chanel - #ubuntu-locoteams

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncil/LoCoHealthCheck ==== EMEA Membership Meeting ====

• Start: 20:00 UTC
• End: 21:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/EMEA ==== Community Council Meeting ====

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

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

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Weekly Ubuntu Foundations team meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam ==== QA Team Meeting ====

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 18:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-quality

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Meetings/ ==== Jono Bacon @ Home Videocast : Various Topics and Q+A ====

• Start: 18:00 UTC
• End: 19:00 UTC

• Location: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon

• Agenda: This is a weekly videocast by the Ubuntu Community Manager, Jono Bacon in which he discusses a range of topics and also provides a regular weekly Q+A. ==== Edubuntu Meeting ====
• Start: 19:00 UTC
• End: 20:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Edubuntu/Meetings/Agenda

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Ayatana UX team meeting

• Start: 12:00 UTC
• End: 12:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: * Introductions * Review team charter * Organize first UX activity * Brainstorm future UX activities

Friday, 10 September 2010

Maverick Weekly Release Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseTeam/Meeting/Agenda

Saturday, 11 September 2010

BugJam

• Start: 20:00 UTC
• End: 22:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-dc Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-bugs
• Agenda: None listed as of publication
  • ==== Ubuntu IRC Council Meeting ====
• Start: 20:00 UTC
• End: 21:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IrcTeam/IrcCouncil/MeetingAgenda ==== DC Loco IRC meeting ====

• Start: 22:00 UTC
• End: 23:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-dc
• Agenda: None listed as of publication

Sunday, 12 September 2010

Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Posts Team Meeting

• Start: 21:00 UTC
• End: 22:00 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntuforums-unanswered

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPostsTeam/Meetings

Monday, 13 September 2010

Security Team Catch-up

• Start: 17:00 UTC
• End: 17:30 UTC
• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: nothing formal, just a weekly catch-up. Weekly Ubuntu Security Team catch-up meeting. Anyone is welcome to join if they want to watch, contribute, etc.

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 9.04, 9.10, and 10.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

Ubuntu 9.10 Updates

Ubuntu 10.04 Updates

Ubuntu 10.10 Updates

UWN Translations

• Note to translators and our readers please follow the link below for the information you need.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

UWN Sneak Peek

• Best Practices with sudo on Linux - http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7165/1/

• Install web applications locally on Ubuntu - http://blog.lynxworks.eu/20100902/install-web-applications-locally-on-ubuntu

• Handicap accessibility meeting for open communities webmasters - http://kinouchoulittleangel.homelinux.org/?post/2010/08/31/handicap-accessibility-meeting-for-open-communities-webmasters

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Additional Ubuntu News

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Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

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• Amber Graner
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Glossary of Terms

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Ubuntu - Get Involved

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