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Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #62 for the week October 14th - October 20th, 2007. In this issue we cover...

UWN Translations

• Deutsch - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/De

• Español - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Es

• Français - http://www.ubuntu-fr.org/lettre/

• Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana

• Português - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Pt

In This Issue

General Community News

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2007-October/000347.html (UDS schedule)

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/10/16/31817.aspx (dell plans around 7.10)

LoCo News

New in Gutsy Gibbon

Launchpad News

In The Press

• Ubuntu Gets Gutsy, But Is Linux Ready? - While Ubuntu continues to release user-friendly products, Rodne* y Gedda, at Computerworld, thinks the "real test will be how well it is adopted by non-technical consumers". Among the various improvements, the Firefox plug-in finder wizard and reduced power consumption in notebook computers, provide a better user experience. Australian IT consulting firm Look Glass Solutions Ashley Flynn encourages businesses to use Ubuntu over Windows, since there is support for the latest Dell hardware. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138625-c,linux/article.html

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/14860/53/1/0/

• The "ooww" stops now - goodbye Windows, hello Ubuntu - Adam Turner, at ITWire, discusses his transition from Windows XP to Ubuntu. His main reason for investigating Ubuntu is that "Ubuntu won't grind to a halt every now and then for no particular reason" and he needs "something that just works and, so far, Ubuntu hasn't disappointed me." Synaptic has impressed Adam the most and learned that "no question seems to be too stupid and they've all been answered in places like ubuntuforums.org." http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/14856/1086/

• Canonical's new Ubuntu paves way for server push - Stephen Shankland covers the work done so far by the Ubuntu Server Team and its upcoming features. Canonical "is expanding support and development staff for the server push" and upcoming LTS release. Rick Clark, who leads the Server Team of eight employees, comes from a financial services background, giving him experience with performance, reliability, and virtualization. The Server Team is working with vendors to support servers not only that are available when Hardy Heron is released, but also new servers that will be released during its five-year support cycle. Unlike Red Hat and Novell who sell fee-only versions of their respective distributions, Mark Shuttleworth says there will be no separate fee-only version of Ubuntu. http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9797909-39.html

• CICT to computerize 320 public high schools - With the help of the Department of Education and state-run universities and colleges, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology in the Philippines plans to provide 20 desktop PCS, a server, wireless networking equipment, LCD projector, and a multifunction printer to 320 schools. The PCs will run Edubuntu and include OpenOffice, Apache, MySQL, and Firefox. Each school will be required to create its own website and send at least 18 faculty members to training programs. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=95414

• Dell to ship Ubuntu 7.10 on desktops and laptops - No shipping date has been set, but Anne Camden of Dell corporate communications says preinstalled Ubuntu 7.10 systems will be available soon. John Hull, Dell's manager of Linux OS engineering, says Dell has been working to make the upgrade from 7.04 to 7.10 'just work' when installing on supported hardware. Gathering input from customers, community and media reviews, and Dell and Ubuntu forums, Dell is using the information to "test plans, bug fixing efforts, and product plans." Dell has been actively supporting the Ubuntu community by contributing Dynamic Kernel Module Support, "a method to make driver updates transparent and easy for Linux desktop users," which is in the universe repository. http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS7453108793.html

• The wide world of pre-installed Ubuntu - Started March 2007, Canonical's System Builder Program is making sure that "preinstalled Ubuntu Linux PCs are available throughout the world and not just from Dell." Canonical provides many services to partners: configuration support for system builders, specialized training for technical and sales teams, hardware certification, strong support in the education sector with Edubuntu, and complete customization support for applications, logos, and sound, similar to what was done for Ubuntu Mobile. Examples of companies using Canonical's partner program to pre-install Ubuntu include Excimer and NT Computers in Russia, Navigator in the Ukraine, Inspur in China, and PC House in Sri Lanka, and various other vendors in Brazil, India, and Taiwan. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4371228443.html

• A gutsy new Linux system - Paul Taylor of the Financial Times, has tried various desktop distributions, but always been disappointed "be­cause they have been hard to in­stall or lacked the polished features and interfaces of proprietary operating systems." This time he tries out Ubuntu 7.10 and surprisingly has no issues except with his Nvidia graphics card. Installation of restricted drivers solved that issue quickly. Paul comments that the "latest Ubuntu version includes many improvements designed to make the operating system easier to use, more reliable and more flexible." New users should feel comfortable asking questions on the Ubuntu forums since they are "newbie" friendly and "Ubuntu 7.10 is worth considering if you are looking to minimise costs or join the open source movement." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/988034e6-7d7f-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html

• What's New in Ubuntu 7.10? (a.k.a. Gutsy Gibbon) - Brian DeLacey provides an overview of Ubuntu, including its origins, the community, and latest release. Gerry Carr, the Marketing Manger for Canonical, says that "United States is the largest Ubuntu user base by far, with Germany second, followed by the United Kingdom, France, and Brazil clustered at third." While Ubuntu started as a software project, the community has grown around the world. Installfests organized by volunteer LoCo teams provide a way for people "from remarkably diverse backgrounds and varied interests" to share their common interest in Ubuntu. Even though Ubuntu 7.10 has just been released, the community is already focusing on the upcoming LTS release. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/09/26/whats-new-in-ubuntu-710-aka-gutsy-gibbon.html

In The Blogosphere

• Linux4Coffee comments 7 reasons why Ubuntu is so successful: a vision and a strong background, easy installation, shipit of official CDs, Synaptic Package Manager, ubuntuforums and the community, user promotion, fragmentation of the "competitors" (other Linux distributions) when Warty was released. They are definitively other reasons why Ubuntu remains one of the top Linux distributions, beyond the scope of the article. Read the full story here:

• 7 Reasons why Ubuntu is so Successful - Most people like it, many others don’t, the fact is that Ubuntu is the king of Linux distributions right now - and for some very good reasons. 1) A good start, it had a vision, 2) Easy and straightforward installation, 3)Sharing “official” CD’s with the Ubuntu logo via shipit, 4) If you ask a first-time Ubuntu user to tell you what impressed them most, Synaptic, 5) Ubuntu forums/Community was and still is the best, 6) User advocacy, and 7) Fragmented competitors. http://linux4coffee.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/the-7-reasons-why-ubuntu-is-so-successful/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/ubuntu-plans-eye-candy-for-desktop-computers-and-beyond/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=577927 (former linspire CEO, we need a better place for stuff like this)

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/10/17/dr-shuttleworth-or-how-we-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-op/

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/10/16/mark-shuttleworth-talks-ubuntu-7-10/

http://lunapark6.com/ubuntu-710-gutsy-desktop-edition-review.html

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/10/18/gobuntu-has-already-failed

http://polishlinux.org/linux/ubuntu/ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon-critical-review/

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9799636-7.html

<p>However, several Debian developers commented on an apparent lack of attribution to the great work Debian provides to Ubuntu. Lucas Nussbaum started wondering with his <a href="http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=257">Credit where credits due post</a>. Several other users asked the same question, including <a href="http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2007/10/18#giving-credit">Christian Perrier</a>, before Jose Luis Rivas Contreras correctly pointed out that, in fact, <a ubuntu is still based a> and Stefano Zacchiroli expanded that to say that <a href="http://www.bononia.it/~zack/blog//posts/2007/10/debian_on_ubuntu_com_just_a_bug.html">it is just a bug</a>, which he then filed: <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-website/+bug/154274">Bug 154274</a>. Should be interesting to see what becomes of this.</p> *fix and make wiki friendly*

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-3224.aspx

Meetings and Events

Community Spotlight

Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

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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Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

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