Issue308
WORK IN PROGRESS
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 308 for the week March 11 - 17, 2013.
In This Issue
General Community News
13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 1 Released!
Stéphane Graber, on behalf of the Ubuntu release team, announces the release of the 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 1.
Beta 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a more detailed description of the changes in the Beta 1 release and the known bugs (which can save you the effort of reporting a duplicate bug, or help you find proven workarounds), please see:
http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/
Full announcement here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2013-March/001024.html
Several press outlets also covered this beta1 release, the following is a sampling of those:
Ubuntu 13.04 'Raring Ringtail': Beta 1 preview - http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-13-04-raring-ringtail-beta-1-preview-7000012602/
Ubuntu development hits 13.04 beta 1 milestone - http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Ubuntu-development-hits-13-04-beta-1-milestone-1823627.html
Ubuntu Linux 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' hits beta 1 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031031/ubuntu-linux-13-04-raring-ringtail-hits-beta-1.html
Ubuntu GNOME is approved as an official flavour
Tim Lunn announces on behalf of the Ubuntu GNOME developers that their flavour, which aims to provide an “aims to bring a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience to Ubuntu.Ubuntu GNOME Remix” has been accepted as an official flavour by the Ubuntu Technical Board.
Congratulations to the Ubuntu GNOME developers!
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-gnome/2013-March/000035.html
Community Acknowledgments and Success Stories
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 Quantal
- 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 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/quantal/ 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
LoCo News
LoCo Team Portal Improvements Released
Elizabeth Krumbach writes about Adnane Belmadiaf’s work on a large number of bug fixes come to the LoCo Team portal, including many "low priority bugs" and wishlist items. Also, a new events page is introduced.
http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=7766
And There Was Jam
Randall Ross writes about the Vancouver team at the Ubuntu Global Jam and shares some facts which had lead to grow the community against the assumptions that the Ubuntu community is struggling.
http://randall.executiv.es/raring-global-jam-10
This Is Ubuntu Community!
Randall Ross expresses what he thinks about the Ubuntu community around the "we are all one.” ethos and invites others to start sharing its passion about their own local community.
http://randall.executiv.es/this-is-ubuntu-community
Launchpad News
Errors for Launchpad Users
Brian Murray reports that new features have landed into the Ubuntu Error Tracking system allowing to search for crashes at specific applications, subscribing by name and improving share queries.
http://www.murraytwins.com/blog/?p=125
Ubuntu Cloud News
Node.js, Django, and Rails updates for cloud users
Jorge Castro gives an overview of the latest developments related to Juju and “platform charms.” Among the work done you can find updates to the Django charm, master/slave replication for the Postgres charm and other work related to the Django, Rails and Node.js charms.
http://www.jorgecastro.org/2013/03/13/juju-charm-updates-for-march/
The Planet
Serge Hallyn: Qemu updates in raring
Serge Hallyn reports that the qemu-linaro and qemu-kvm packages have been merged into qemu thanks to a combined effort by the Ubuntu and Debian teams. The latest qemu also integrates qemu-kvm-spice, and adds support for transparent hugepages and automatic hugetlbfs mount.
http://s3hh.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/qemu-updates-in-raring/
Robert Ancell: More information on Mir
Robert Ancell shares some links to articles by Christopher Halse Rogers with answers to common questions about Mir: why Mir and not Wayland/Weston, what does this mean for other desktops on Ubuntu and what does this mean for Linux graphics drivers.
http://bobthegnome.blogspot.com/2013/03/with-recent-announcement-of-mir-theres.html
Xubuntu: Want to help out Xubuntu? Test Raring!
The Xubuntu Team puts a call out for testing the latest Xubuntu beta images. Detailed instructions has been published introducing the steps needed.
http://xubuntu.org/news/want-to-help-out-xubuntu-test-raring/
Mark Shuttleworth: Let’s go faster while preserving what works best
Mark Shuttleworth reflects on recent discussions about the rolling release proposal and offers a new proposal: Strengthening the LTS point releases, reducing the amount of release management, and duration of support, for interim releases and designating the tip of development as a Rolling Release.
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1246
Michael Hall: Ubuntu SDK Apps are coming
Michael Hall gives an overview of the latest developments related to the SDK core apps for Ubuntu touch, which includes, a calculator, calendar, clock and weather applications. Updates for non core apps are also shared including: a more less, an alternative to the weather app, gwibber, sudoku, akari, samegame, a chess engine, the Novacut first application, OMG! Ubuntu! Reader Google reader, WhosThere and the Jono head program.
http://mhall119.com/2013/03/ubuntu-sdk-apps-are-coming/
Lubuntu Blog: Community wallpaper contest results
The five winners of the Lubuntu 13.04 Community Wallpaper Contest have been announced.
http://lubuntublog.blogspot.com/2013/03/community-wallpaper-contest-results.html
Michael Hall: Coming Soon: Unity 7
Michael Hall writes that a Feature Freeze Exception has been filed to get Unity 7 into Ubuntu Raring. New features include server-side Smart Scopes that run on-demand, many additional scopes, and more fine-grained privacy controls.
http://mhall119.com/2013/03/coming-soon-unity-7/
James Hunt: Upstart Cookbook updated for Upstart 1.7
James Hunt shares that the Upstart Cookbook has been updated to include the new features of Upstart 1.7.
http://ifdeflinux.blogspot.com/2013/03/upstart-cookbook-updated-for-upstart-17.html
Nicholas Skaggs: Kick-starting quality for Ubuntu Touch
Nicholas Skaggs discusses testing on the new mobile distribution and what testers and developers can do to help ensure its quality.
http://www.theorangenotebook.com/2013/03/kick-starting-quality-for-ubuntu-touch.html
Christopher James Halse Rogers: Mir and YOU!
Christopher James Halse Rogers discusses how Mir could integrate with other projects and what future changes might bring.
http://blog.cooperteam.net/2013/03/mir-and-you.html
Jono Bacon: Refining and Improving Virtual UDS
Jono Bacon writes about the first virtual UDS and seeks feedback from the community about how they can make the next event better.
http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/03/14/refining-and-improving-virtual-uds/
Elizabeth Krumbach: You can help the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter!
Elizabeth Krumbach makes a call out for volunteers interested in helping to keep running the UWN. Summary writers and Editors are some of the positions where most help is required.
http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=7806
Scott Kitterman: Kubuntu vUDS
The Kubuntu project holds their mid-cycle virtual developer summit and agreed on their position regarding release management.
http://skitterman.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/kubuntu-vuds/
Canonical News
Canonical and Dell expand joint PowerEdge Server engineering and support
Canonical announces PowerEdge server certification and Ubuntu Advantage support, while Dell adds Ubuntu Server to their Linux OS Support Matrix. Various updates have also been made to fully validate Ubuntu Server on Dell PowerEdge servers.
http://blog.canonical.com/2013/03/11/dell-poweredge-ubuntu-supported/
In The Press
Ubuntu Linux developer squabbles go public
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet follows the latest debates over rolling releases and the Unity interface, which have moved from developer mailing lists onto public blogs.
http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-linux-developer-squabbles-go-public-7000012295/
Ubuntu Display Server Fallout
Matt Hartley of Datamation explores the official reasoning for Ubuntu to switch to Mir over Wayland, and examines less frequently discussed considerations.
http://www.datamation.com/open-source/ubuntu-display-server-fallout-1.html
In The Blogosphere
Ubuntu 13.04 Updates Nautilus, Update Tool Icons
Joey-Elijah Sneddon from OMG! Ubuntu! writes about the new Unity-styled shutdown and logoff dialogs recently brought into Ubuntu 13.04.
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/03/new-unity-shutdown-dialogs-on-way-to-ubuntu-13-04
Benchmarking Ubuntu Linux On The Google Nexus 7
Michael Larabel from Phoronix builds upon previous benchmarks and brings an update which tests Ubuntu Touch on Texas Instruments OMAP, NVIDIA Tegra, and ARM Exynos hardware families.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_nexus_7&num=1
Canonical Targets Mobile Market with Ubuntu Mir
Christopher Tozzi shares his opinion about the recent announcement of the Mir project, he states that “Mir is another reflection of Canonical’s deep commitment to making Ubuntu a truly cross-platform operating system that works as well on servers and traditional PCs as it does on mobile devices”.
http://www.thevarguy.com/2013/03/15/canonical-targets-mobile-market-with-ubuntu-mir/
‘New Unity Stack’ Approved for Ubuntu 13.04, Will Bring ‘Smarter’ Search to the Desktop
Joey-Elijah Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! writes about the new “Smart Scopes” features in Unity 7, which will arrive in Ubuntu 13.04.
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/03/unity-7-approved-raring-bound
Celebrate Ubuntu (but keep an eye on what they're up to...)
Perry Helion of OSNews writes about the “decent amount of flack over the past few months” that Ubuntu has been receiving and suggests use of the 12.04 version which “has none of the hoohah that their most recent ... has brought along with it.” Helion also discusses reception of the shopping lens and privacy concerns that users have had and guarded concerns over what may be next.
http://www.osnews.com/story/26866/Celebrate_Ubuntu_but_keep_an_eye_on_what_they_re_up_to_/
In Other News
Other Articles of Interest
Kernel Rootkits and Countermeasures - http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Kernel-Rootkits-and-Countermeasures
Chrome OS holds firm against hackers at Pwnium 3 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030521/chrome-os-holds-firm-against-hackers-at-pwnium-2013.html
Enterprise Desktops and Linux - http://ostatic.com/blog/enterprise-desktops-and-linux
Fedora Project's Robyn Bergeron: The Linux Desktop Is Almost Ready for Its Close-Up - http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/77499.html
openSUSE 12.3 – Awesome as 1-2-3 - http://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/13/opensuse-12-3-free-open-and-awesome/
Comment: Fragments of win - http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Comment-Fragments-of-win-1821908.html
Featured Audio and Video
Ubuntu Ohio - Burning Circle: Burning Circle Episode 105 - http://ohio.ubuntu-us.org/node/138
Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: S06E03 – The Pope Must Ubuntu - http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2013/03/14/s06e03-the-pope-must-ubuntu/
Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings
- Kernel Team - March 12, 2013 -
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Meeting/2013-03-12
Desktop Team - March 12, 2013 - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting/2013-03-12
Security Team - March 11, 2013 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Security/20130311
Monthly Team Reports: February 2013
See here for the team report for February 2013: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports/February2013
If your team is not producing monthly reports, see this page to get your team started: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting
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, 11.10, 12.04 and 12.10
Security Updates
Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
Ubuntu 10.04 Updates
Ubuntu 11.10 Updates
Ubuntu 12.04 Updates
Ubuntu 12.10 Updates
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Conclusion
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Credits
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- Elizabeth Krumbach
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- Caleb Majeski
- Javier Lopez
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Glossary of Terms
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