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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #61 for the week October 7th - October 13th, 2007. In this issue we cover...

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In This Issue

General Community News

Announcing the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 7.10

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Release Candidate for version 7.10 of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Gobuntu, and Xubuntu codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon". The Release Candidate includes installable live Desktop CDs, server images, alternate text-mode installation CDs, and an upgrade wizard for users of the current stable release. Desktop highlights: Compiz Fusion, Printer installation, Free Flash support with Gnash, and Automated Firefox plugin Installation. While this release candidate is considered complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user, it should not be used for production machines. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2007-October/000104.html

Ubuntu Open Week

Ubuntu is a freely available, simple to use Linux desktop and server. The Ubuntu project has developed a strong reputation for technical excellence and a commitment to the free software community, and we are always keen to grow and extend our community where possible. In just two years, Ubuntu has become the most popular Linux distribution in the world with millions of users and a spot regularly at the top of Distrowatch. Ever wondered what all the fuss is about? How we've achieved such a great feat in such a short space of time? Here's where you can find out. Ubuntu Open Week is a series of online workshops where you can:

• learn about the Ubuntu landscape
• talk to some of the key developers from the Ubuntu project
• find out about the Community and its relationship with Canonical

• participate in an open Q & A with Mark Shuttleworth, founder fo Ubuntu

• and much, much more

Click on the link to see the time table of the programs you can participate in during Ubuntu Open Week. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek

MOTU

• Having been away for a while, [https://launchpad.net/~jpatrick Jonathan Patrick Davies] finally has time for doing work in the ["MOTU"] team again, so his MOTU membership was re-activated. Welcome back!

• The ["Telepathy"] team has brought us a new ["MOTU"] team member: [https://launchpad.net/~bigon Laurent Bigonville] who has done kick-ass work already, and will make ["Telepathy"] rock even harder in the Hardy cycle.

Ubuntu Gutsy Release Parties

Leaving in Anchorage? Want to join the Release Party in Marseille? No problem at all, please find all the relevant infos in GutsyReleaseParties page. Feel free to add the release party you have scheduled in your area, and spread the fever, once again!

LoCo News

New in Gutsy Gibbon

Launchpad News

Launchpad bug statuses

With the janitor glitch that happened earlier, it became obvious the bug statuses in Launchpad were not used and seen the same way by LP developers, project teams and users. Please read the LP blog post to find out about all the 9 different statuses for bugs. http://news.launchpad.net/general/of-bugs-and-statuses

Restoring the status of automatically expired bugs

Shortly after we released Launchpad 1.1.9 (on 21 September), Launchpad's housekeeping system - the Launchpad Janitor - expired 2,862 Incomplete bugs. We estimate that around 900 of these bugs should not have been expired. We're sorry for the confusion and inconvenience that this caused. We will restore the "Incomplete" status of all bugs that the Launchpad Janitor expired. This process will begin at 12.00 UTC on 10th October. To find out the details of what went wrong and how Launchpad plans to fix this problem, follow the link. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2007-October/002458.html

In The Press

• How to install Ubuntu Linux 7.04 (Linux is no longer Windows' scary alternative) - You can download a complete version of Ubuntu Linux from the Ubuntu website. The ISO (or CD) image is around 700MB. Two versions of Ubuntu are supported: 6.06 and 7.04 - we're using 7.04 for this walk through. To follow suit, select Desktop Edition, Ubuntu 7.04. Create a CD containing the downloaded image file, and then follow these instructions to install and configure Ubuntu on your computer today. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=10971

• Get down and dirty with Linux (Package managers make getting to grips with Linux easier) - Package managers have become more powerful and user-friendly. Under Ubuntu Linux, there's no need to search the web for an instant-messaging program, a DVD-burning tool or pretty much anything else; the package manager will download it along with any components the new app requires. Free software is an ecosystem where all the code is shared, so new apps are almost always built on top of existing foundational layers. The package manager tracks all layers and the relationships among them, grabs everything required and installs it. For the most part, getting software on to a Linux system is as straightforward as it sounds. The one exception is with upgrades. With Linux, everything gets upgraded at once, so when an incremental upgrade (or distribution) appears, you get new versions of the associated software as well as the Linux kernel. The package manager only recognises applications that work with its own generation of Linux. Newer versions of the add-on software are recognised only when the Linux version itself is updated, along with its list of software iterations. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=10970

• Ubuntu's "Gutsy Gibbon 7.10" release Oct 18 with a full 3D GUI - Gutsy Gibbon will bring new support for simplified Xorg configurations (making it easier to setup video cards, graphics modes, etc.) and it will be the first to include a full mobile or embedded edition. It will also carry with it what many feel is the biggest addition to Linux: Compiz Fusion. It's an enhanced 3D GUI which many believe greatly exceeds Windows Vista in presence, friendliness, ease of use and configuration. The Ubuntu management and development groups have begun focusing on giving users more of what they want in a Windows-like OS. It's primarily that rich, multi-media experience that's being injected into Gibbon today, one which will definitely raise the face of Linux. Gutsy Gibbon will include a full mobile/embedded version is the rich graphics and trend toward flashier mobile devices. Intel is looking to use Ubuntu as its de facto mobile OS, for MIDs, notebooks, PDAs, and all small devices. This changing face of Ubuntu, from standard GUI to the uber-graphical GUI, will help make Gibbon a more desirable alternative to Windows on every platform. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34293/144/

• Russian schools move to Linux - Schoolchildren in Russia are to be taught using the free, open-source Linux software in an effort to cut the cost of teaching information technology. By 2009, all computers in Russian schools are to be run on Linux - which means they will not have to pay for a licence for software, such as Microsoft's Windows. The Linux software is to be tested first in three pilot regions, while others will have the option of installing it as a second operating system. These pilot schools will then get the option to choose either the free software or to pay for something else. Mr Smirnov said that teachers will need to be trained to use the software and prepare new exercises for the children to do, and that this will entail increased costs in the short term. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7034828.stm

• Shuttleworth on Ballmer - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has once more claimed that Linux and open source violates Microsoft's intellectual property and patents. Canonical's CEO Mark Shuttleworth thinks Ballmer has it all wrong. For starters, Shuttleworth said, Ballmer is implying that open-source developers don't take IP seriously. Nothing could be further from the truth, he said. "Intellectual property is something the free software community takes very, very seriously," said the software leader and first African national in space. "There is a perception that the free software is somehow riding on the coattails of the real industry or somehow avoids intellectual property laws." If Microsoft has any real IP issues, Shuttleworth said that he "would be delighted to work with Microsoft to resolve any IP issues they might have." Of course, "That requires them to tell us what these infringements are," "Ballmer is saying that Linux is not a safe neighborhood for users. He's implying that simply using open source is somehow dangerous. They need to back off on those claims. They're simply not true. Microsoft must actually state what the infringements are." "Microsoft settles an average of one billion dollars in IP claims a year. Microsoft trades on IP violations all the time. It seems to wrong for them to use that same framework against open source." http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6358901134.html

• The LXer Interview: John Hull of Dell - Embracing Ubuntu Linux on our desktops and laptops seems to have really raised Dell's visibility within the Linux community. We have been supporting, testing, developing for, and selling Linux for 8+ years here at Dell, but before the Ubuntu announcement, a lot of people didn't know that we did any of that. The announcement certainly opened people's eyes, and there seems to be much more awareness now that Dell is serious about supporting Linux. What has not changed is our overarching philosophy and trying to make Linux "just work" on all of Dell's systems. Previous to our Ubuntu product announcement, it was much more difficult to extend this model to consumer desktop and laptop technologies. We would have a conversations with vendors about pushing Linux support for their hardware, but without a Linux product offering from Dell for that hardware, it was very difficult to convince them to release Linux drivers. That has certainly changed now that we offer Ubuntu Linux, and we are making much more progress in our vendor discussions. The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu. Ubuntu is already a great Linux distribution, so we try to only make changes where we can add value. Our primary focus is to get all necessary hardware support and bug fixes into the distribution itself, so that we don't have to make any changes to the shipping code. We don't currently have any plans to offer other distributions for home users. We're constantly listening to customer feedback on how we're doing, and right now Ubuntu seems to be the most popular by a fair margin. http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/91429/index.html

In The Blogosphere

http://techiqmag.com/2007/10/08/dell-preps-for-next-linux-desktop-release/

http://blogs.sun.com/SDNChannel/ (interviews with Mark, Jane Siber, Tim Gardner, Daniel Holbach, Jono Bacon, Matt Zimmerman)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/04/open_season_four_shuttleworth/

Meetings and Events

Community Spotlight

Ubuntu Forums Interviews

bapoumba has accepted to be next (see UWN #60 for details). Read the whole interview here: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/10/07/an-interview-with-bapoumba/.

Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04

Security Updates

• USN-527-1: xen-3.0 vulnerability - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-October/000604.html

• USN-528-1: MySQL vulnerabilities - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-October/000605.html

• USN-529-1: Tk vulnerability - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-October/000606.html

• USN-530-1: hplip vulnerability - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-October/000607.html

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

• dircproxy 1.0.5-4ubuntu0.6.06.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012537.html

• mysql-dfsg-5.0 5.0.22-0ubuntu6.06.5 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012538.html

• sun-java5 1.5.0-13-0ubuntu0.6.06 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012539.html

• firehol 1.231-4ubuntu0.6.06 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012540.html

• tk8.3 8.3.5-4ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012541.html

• tk8.4 8.4.12-0ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-October/012542.html

Ubuntu 6.10 LTS Updates

• mysql-dfsg-5.0 5.0.24a-9ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008434.html

• dircproxy 1.0.5-4ubuntu0.6.10.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008435.html

• firehol 1.231-4ubuntu0.6.10 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008436.html

• tk8.3 8.3.5-6ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008437.html

• tk8.4 8.4.12-1ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008438.html

• hplip 1.6.9-0ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-October/008439.html

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

• mysql-dfsg-5.0 5.0.38-0ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008758.html

• dircproxy 1.0.5-5ubuntu0.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008759.html

• tk8.3 8.3.5-6ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008760.html

• tk8.4 8.4.14-0ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008761.html

• subversion 1.4.3dfsg1-1ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008762.html

• hplip 1.7.3-0ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-October/008763.html

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

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 string to translate in Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/

UWN #: A sneak peek

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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

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Nick Ali
• Isabelle Duchatelle
• Dawid van Wyngaard
• John Crawford
• And many others

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If you would like to submit an idea or story you think is worth appearing on the UWN, please send them to ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com. This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team Contact Information Page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam). 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 then ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.