Issue269
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 269 for the week June 4 - 10, 2012.
In This Issue
General Community News
12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1 Released!
Kate Stewart announced Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1 release. Stewart reminds users that Quantal Quetzal pre- releases are not recommended for those users who want stability and that are not comfortable with occasional breakage. She highly recommends it for developers and everyone else who is willing to test and report bugs due to development improvements.
Images of Quantal Quetzal can be downloaded from the following links:
For more detailed informations about testing and Quantal Quetzal status Stewart recommends the following link: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/
She also recommends http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce for following the Quantal Quetzal development and other events/news related to it.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2012-June/000962.html
Ubuntu on Microsoft’s Windows Azure IAAS
Mark Shuttleworth announces a partnership with Microsoft: Ubuntu is now available on Microsoft’s IAAS Azure. Shuttleworth states: “Microsoft has built and impressive new entrant to the Infrastructure-as-a-Service market and Ubuntu is there for customers who want to run workloads on Azure that are best suited for Linux.”
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1158
More information is also available on the Canonical blog: http://blog.canonical.com/2012/06/07/official-ubuntu-images-now-available-on-windows-azure/
Welcome New Members
Stefano Rivera announced that Jeremy Bicha (https://launchpad.net/~jbicha) has been accepted as a new MOTU by the Developer Membership Board at their meeting on June 4, 2012.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news-team/2012-June/001573.html
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 Precise
- 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 12.04 "Precise Pangolin", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/ and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations
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/
Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions this week
Ask (and answer!) your own questions at http://askubuntu.com
Launchpad News
Launchpad for textual, graphical, and interactive browsers
Curtis Hovey gives a thorough review of Launchpad visibility issues (textual, graphical and interactive) in different browsers. Hovey stated: ”There are inconsistencies in pages you might visit. Some parts might not work because Launchpad does not have a ‘proven way’ to solve a problem.” Hovey highly recommends that users should use interactive browsers since they provide information as needed and best performance to complete the task.
http://blog.launchpad.net/general/launchpad-for-textual-graphical-and-interactive-browsers
Ubuntu Cloud News
Scaling a 2000-node Hadoop cluster on EC2/Ubuntu with Juju
Mark Mims and James Page share their scalability test framework on Hadoop using Juju Charms. They also share their scalability testing process steps in a very detailed manner.
Their framework plan includes:
- pick service that scales
- spin up a cluster of units for this service
- try to run it in a way that actively engages all units of a cluster
- repeat: instrument, profile, optimize, grow
http://markmims.com/cloud/2012/06/04/juju-at-scale.html
The Planet
Daniel Holbach: You can help: code review
Daniel Holbach puts out a call to the Ubuntu community for help with code review. Holbach states: ”What we need most though is that if you can review code and upload changes you head over to the sponsoring queue and help reviewing.”
http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/2012/06/you-can-help-code-review/
Ubuntu App Developer Blog: Humble Indie Bundle: a few days later and Help Earn the Humble Indie Bundle More Money!
As announced last week, the Humble Indie Bundle 5 has arrived at the Ubuntu Software Center, and nearly 10000 downloads has been made in the first 72 hours. You can help raising money for the Humble Bundle, simply by giving the games a Facebook “Like” at their apps.ubuntu.pages.
http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/06/humble-indie-bundle-a-few-days-later/
http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/06/help-earn-the-humble-indie-bundle-more-money/
IRC Council: New IRC Operators
Ubuntu IRC Council has published results from their recent call for operators and listed out and congratulated some of their new operators:
- kkathman (op at #kubuntu-offtopic)
- cproffit, bkerensa and djones (ops at #ubuntu)
- holstein, astraljava and scottl (ops at #ubuntustudio)
- darkwing (op at #ubuntu-devel)
http://ubottu.com/ircc/2012/06/05/new-irc-operators/
Ubuntu App Developer Blog: Top 10 Ubuntu app downloads for May 2012
Ubuntu App developers states on their blog: “If we were to choose a theme for the most downloaded Ubuntu apps in May it would have to be games.”
They lists out 10 most downloaded apps in May (paid and free):
- Paid: Braid, Oil Rush, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, World of Goo, Linux Format Magazine - Issue 158 - Beat the CIA, Steel Storm: Burning retribution, Fluendo DVD player, The journey down: chapter one, Linux Format Magazine - Issue 159 - Ubuntu vs. Windows and Family Farm
Free: Lord of Ultima, Command & Conquer Tibberium Alliances, CrossOver (Trial), Ryzom, Full circle magazine #60, Venedetta online, Tropical Stormfront LITE, Marble Arena 2, PDF Studio 7 Demo and Tribal Trouble 2
Mentioned list above include “only those applications submitted through my My Apps and Ubuntu App.”
http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/06/top-10-ubuntu-app-downloads-for-may-2012/
Jono Bacon: ‘Download for Ubuntu’ Button Campaign
Jono Bacon shares the new “Download for Ubuntu” button campaign to make it easier for users to find Ubuntu download on game and developer websites.
http://www.jonobacon.org/2012/06/06/download-for-ubuntu-button-campaign/
Michael Hall: Contributing to Ubuntu: A better Pkgme
Michael Hall calls for backend contributors to James Westby’s pkgme utility, giving very detailed instructions for new contributors. Hall states: “Currently there is a support for apps using Python and Distutils, apps compiled by cmake and apps written in Vala. But there are still many, many applications out there that aren’t covered with these backends, including: Qt apps, HTML5 apps, Flash apps and more. That’s where you, dear contributor, come in.”
http://mhall119.com/2012/06/contributing-to-ubuntu-a-better-pkgme/
Thorsten Wilms: Switches in Unity menus
Thorsten Wilms shares plans considering switch widgets in Unity’s network status menu. He notes that enabling/disabling could be handled differently in style and placement of the widgets and that the adoption of “light-switch” style widgets in point and click interfaces is a mistake as they are often unclear about whether labels refer to the current state or the state to change to.
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/switches-in-unity-menus/
Ubuntu Classroom: A few instructor spots left for Ubuntu User Days on June 23-24th 2012
Elizabeth Krumbach of the Ubuntu Classroom team reminds the community that Ubuntu User Days will be held in June 23-24th 2012 and that there are still some available spots left for instructors. Anyone interested for being an instructor at Ubuntu user days can send an e-mail to lyz@ubuntu.com, ubuntu-classroom@lists.ubuntu.com or contact the team on irc.freenode.net in #ubuntu-classroom-backstage.
More detailed information about Ubuntu User Days can be found at the following link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays
Ubuntu Women: Ubuntu Women at UDS-Q
Elizabeth Krumbach shares notes related to Ubuntu Women project which held a session at UDS-Q on May 10th 2012. A video of the entire session is now online and can be viewed on Youtube. Ideas from that session are now in the blueprint for this cycle. Members of the team also attended an Ubuntu Women dinner in downtown San Franicisco that evening.
http://blog.ubuntu-women.org/2012/06/ubuntu-women-at-uds-q/
In The Press
Ubuntu for smartphones may come next year
Ubuntu for smartphones might arrive as early as later this year or early next year, Computerworld says. No official date has been set, but the global marketing manager at Canonical, John Barnard, has hinted that an announcement will come later this year.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227704/Ubuntu_OS_for_smartphones_may_come_next_year
Press coverage of Ubuntu on Azure
The biggest news this week was the announcement that Microsoft would be offering SUSE and Ubuntu on their cloud service, Windows Azure. The following are a small selection of the articles discussing the news.
SUSE Linux and Canonical invade Windows Azure - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/07/suse_canonical_linux_azure/
Canonical partners with Microsoft to support Ubuntu on Azure - http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/canonical-partners-with-microsoft-to-support-ubuntu-on-azure/
Ubuntu, CentOS, & SUSE Linux comes to Windows Azure - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/ubuntu-centos-suse-linux-comes-to-windows-azure/11176
Microsoft to offer Ubuntu 12.04 on Windows Azure - http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2182854/microsoft-offer-ubuntu-1204-windows-azure
Eight New Features in Ubuntu Linux 12.10 'Quantal Quetzal' Alpha 1
Katherine Noyes pointed out new features that Ubuntu 12.10, (Quantal Quetzal), brings. These features include:
- Linux kernel 3.4
- A single 800 MB image
- A new look for update manager
- GNOME updates
- Firefox and Thunderbird
- No more migration assistant
- GCC 4.7
- Python 3.0
In The Blogosphere
In Other News
Other Articles of Interest
Linux Silverlight plugin Moonlight ‘Abandoned’ - http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/linux-silverlight-plugin-moonlight-abandoned
Is Linux Maturing as a Gaming Platform? Humble Thinks So... - http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/is-linux-maturing-as-a-gaming-platform-humble-thinks-so....html
Linux Drives Cadillac Into the Infotainment Era - https://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mobile-linux/586164:linux-drives-cadillac-into-the-infotainment-era
Testing Linux Code - http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/231903171
Samsung becomes Linux Foundation platinum member, takes a seat on board - http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/samsung-becomes-linux-foundation-platinum-member-takes-a-seat-on-board/
Open relief launches open source disaster relief drone - https://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/586942-openrelief-launches-open-source-disaster-relief-drone-
HPC Research Projects find Muscle in Linux lab partner - https://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/high-performance/147-high-performance/587313-hpc-research-projects-find-muscle-in-linux-lab-partner
US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/08/us_navy_linux_drones/
Featured Podcasts
Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings
# Edubuntu Team, Lubuntu, Studio and Xubuntu currently (01/2012) have active regular meetings.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
For upcoming meetings and events please visit the calendars at fridge.ubuntu.com: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/
Updates and Security for 8.04, 10.04, 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04
Security Updates
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
Ubuntu 11.04 Updates
Ubuntu 11.10 Updates
Ubuntu 12.04 Updates
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