UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue84

Contents

In This Issue
General Community News
Ubuntu Stats
1. Bug Stats
2. Translation Stats Hardy
Launchpad News
1. Launchpad 1.2.3
2. Logo competition closing soon!
Ubuntu Forums News
1. Ubuntu forums Interview
2. Tutorial of the Week
In The Press
In The Blogosphere
In Other News
Upcoming Meetings and Events
1. Friday, April 4, 2008
  1. Server Team Meeting
Updates and Security for 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10
Archives and RSS Feed
Additional Ubuntu News
Conclusion
Credits
Glossary of Terms
Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 84 for the weeks March 23rd - March 29th, 2008. In this issue we cover: new MOTUs, Ubuntu 6.10 End-of-Life, Xubuntu refocuses, Ubuntu countdown graphics, Launchpad 1.2.3, Launchpad logo contest closing, Ubuntu UK Podcast #2, Reside@HOME: Linux Health Care, PWN To OWN (Ubuntu wins), and much, much more!

UWN Translations

Español - http://doc.ubuntu-es.org/NSU/Edicion_Actual
Français - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue84/Fr
Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana
На русском- http://ubunturu.blogspot.com/XXXX/XX/ubuntu-XX.html
Português do Brasil - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/PtBr
Turkish - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Tr
Vietnamese - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/VN
Português - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Pt
Deutsch - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/De

In This Issue

MOTU Team news
Ubuntu Stats
Launchpad news
Ubuntu Forum news
In the Press & Blogosphere
Ubuntu UK Podcast #2
Reside@HOME: Linux for Elderly Health Care
Automatix discontinued
Full circle Magazine #11
CanSecWest PWN2OWN 2008 - Ubuntu Wins!
Meeting & Events
Updates & Security

General Community News

MOTU Team

Scott Ritchie patiently worked on Wine in Ubuntu for a long time. He has demonstrated he has all it takes to become a MOTU and joined the team. https://launchpad.net/~scottritchie
After working for some time on Xubuntu, and recently being confirmed as project leader, Cody Somerville has further demonstrated that he meets the requirements for MOTU. https://launchpad.net/~cody-somerville

Ubuntu 6.10 End-of-Life 26 April 2008

Ubuntu 6.10 will reach end of security and critical updates by Friday April 25th, 2008. Ubuntu 6.10 was released on October 26, 2006, 18 months ago. So long, Edgy!

Xubuntu Refocuses

Cody Somerville, a face we've all associated with Xubuntu, made an announcement on March 16th that an important community meeting, chaired by our community manager Jono Bacon, would be held on March 26th. The objective: Bringing focus to Xubuntu's community and development in an attempt to resolve the recent internal conflict resolving package selection which left the project idling.

Today we'd like to report on the outstanding success of that meeting. Jim Campbell, Xubuntu documentation lead, wrote in an e-mail:

We had roughly two dozen people take part (including old, current, and new faces) and a number of other individuals who sent in e-mails or left a quick IRC message to let us know that they were unable to attend but would be following up with much interest. After just under an hour of constructive discussion led by Jono Bacon and several free form votes, I'm happy to present following mission statement for Xubuntu:
- "To produce an easy to use distribution, based on Ubuntu, using Xfce as the graphical desktop, with a focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on low memory footprint. The integration in Xubuntu is at a configuration level, a toolkit level, and matching the underlying technology beneath the desktop in Ubuntu. Xubuntu will be built and developed as part of the wider Ubuntu community, based around the ideals and values of Ubuntu."

And with that new mission statement, the Xubuntu community also voted in the next Xubuntu Team Leader: Cody Somerville. Jono tasked Cody Somerville with taking the above mission statement and developing a strategy document. Once this document has been prepared, another Xubuntu meeting will take place to continue the impressive growth we're seeing in the Xubuntu project.

The UWN contacted Cody Somerville who told us that he is excited about his new role.

"I'm excited. The meeting was full of energy. People are *excited* about Xubuntu and getting involved. We're going to build off of that."

He also noted that the Xubuntu wiki has undergone a bit of a face lift and encourages our readers to take a look at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu

Finally, we leave you with an excerpt from the meeting:

19:40 <jono> in which case we have made three important steps forward here:
19:40 <jono> 1) picked a leader
19:40 <jono> 2) agreed on a general mission statement of goals
19:40 <jono> 3) agreed that cody-somerville will develop a strategy based on that mission statement

Full meeting log available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Xubuntu_2008-03-26

Ubuntu Countdown

A new countdown script is now available for the upcoming Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS release. The script is meant to be used on your blog or website to further promote the upcoming release. Don't wait another minute to start spreading the word. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

Open (40989) +761 # over last week
Critical (17) -2 # over last week
Unconfirmed (19683) +138 # over last week
Unassigned (31654) +627 # over last week
All bugs ever reported (165515) +3015 # 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 Hardy

Spanish (14441)
French (39221)
English-UK (43768)
Brazilian Portuguese (52094)
Swedish (53562)

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/

Launchpad News

Launchpad 1.2.3

If you run a team in Launchpad, you can request a mailing list straight away on your team's overview page. Once the list is active, each team member will have the option to subscribe. If a loco moved its list to LP, subscribers would also require LP accounts, so its usage may not be appropriate for everyone yet.
PPA searches now allow you to find a package by its name or words in its description.
Each project's files are now available to download from its overview page.
Code hosting now has a "Last commit" column that shows revision number, time since
- commit, the revision author, and the start of the commit message.
In Bug Tracker, you can attach files to a bug report by email.
Translations can now use up to six plural forms.

See the list of all new features at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2008-March/003473.html

Logo competition closing soon!

The Launchpad logo contest is set to end on March 31, 2008, so you only have a couple of days left to get your submission included in the contest. This is a community based competition to design a new logo for Launchpad. If your submission is chosen, you'll receive a Ubuntu Messenger Bag, and bragging rights to the whole Ubuntu community. There have been many new submission in the last week, and everyone should visit the logo link to see all the great community work that has been done. It won't be easy for the judges to make a final choice.

Contest rules: https://help.launchpad.net/logo

See the logo submissions here: https://help.launchpad.net/logo/submissions

http://news.launchpad.net/general/logo-competition-closing-soon

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu forums Interview

Frodon is a ubuntuforums moderator from France, a gamer, documentation and tutorials writer, musician and much much more. He agreed to answer the Nine Simple Questions this week, please read his interview here: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/an-interview-with-frodon/.

Tutorial of the Week

This week's pick from the Tutorials and Tips forum, actually isn't in Tutorials and Tips. This week's top dog is kevdog, who wrote the massive, comprehensive and amazing "How To: Manual Network Configuration without the need for Network Manager". It's a tutorial that's so good and so well composed that it lives as a sticky in the Networking and Wireless section. This is a tutorial that everybody should look at at least once, even if you never need to look at it again. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=684495

In The Press

Ubuntu 8.04 beta: an agile upgrade - The beta of the next version of Ubuntu has arrived, though judging by its stability and polish you’d be hard pressed to tell it’s a testing release. Scheduled to be an LTS (Long Term Support) edition, and you can tell its developers have worked hard to make it worthy of the title. The familiar brown and orange color scheme remains, as does the overall fit and finish of the windows and controls. Under the hood, however, Ubuntu 8.04 has improved considerably. A new optional installation utility called Wubi, a new kernel, a new version of the Gnome desktop, improved window and graphics layers, and a number of default configuration tweaks, makes nearly everything about Hardy Heron feel snappier and more responsive than the previous version. If this first Beta is any indication, Ubuntu 8.04 is shaping up to be a worthy upgrade for existing users, and a good jumping-on point for new converts. http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/24/13TC-ubuntu-beta_1.html
The silent Heron - Ubuntu 8.04, was released for beta testing, with promises of new features, cool software and better performance. After upgrading, Compiz-Fusion still worked, but Emerald window decorations were deactivated. The desktop widgets, called Screenlets, crashed, and the Nautilus file manager gave some video problems in icon view. None of these bugs were as serious as the loss of audio. Ubuntu 8.04 touts the new PulseAudio standard as a way to bring order to the chaotic jumble of sound drivers in Linux. As noble as this objective may be, it is exactly the kind of thing that will send new users running and screaming to get away from Linux. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_mar25_2008
Ubuntu’s Shuttleworth: Linux server, client will be big in the cloud and mobile sectors - In a brief interview with ZDNet after his OSBC panel, Shuttleworth said the Ubuntu Linux server will be a significant platform for hosting thousands of web services and the desktop client will evolve as the best platform for software-as-a-service. “On the [Linux] server side, the cloud is the big thing. It needs connectivity, mobility, and ability to scale up virtual instances. The desktop has key value here. By having a desktop that is network aware, you get the best of both worlds. Linux will be at the heart of the cloud and mobile devices.” OSBC included top open source execs from Ubuntu, MySQL, SugarCRM, Ingres and Acquia discussing future opportunities. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/zdnet/open-source/~3/257857339/

In The Blogosphere

First look at Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” beta - A screen shot tour of the Beta release of Hardy Heron, including Gnome 2.22, Firefox 3, Brasero, International clock, Transmission, Remote desktop, System monitor, Authorizations, and System services. You might also want to notice the new wallpaper shown in several of the screen shots.http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1557&page=1

In Other News

Ubuntu UK Podcast episode two: Stuck on you

Ciemon Dunville, Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore with Dave Murphy present the second episode of the Ubuntu UK Podcast. Available in OGG or MP3 formats, this second episode includes:

Ubuntu Demo day organiser Dianne Reuby talks about what’s planned for the 26th April.
Dave Murphy -talks about Cumbria LUG, schwuk, Canonical, authoring and hardware.
How low can you go - putting Ubuntu on small or low resource hardware.
Pronouncing names associated with Linux.
Would you go back? What would you do if there was no more Ubuntu.
Feedback from the first show.

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2008/03/24/s01e02-stuck-on-you/

Reside@HOME: Linux For Elderly Healthcare

With the projected increase in the elderly population, the rising cost of health-care, and the lack of available resources to those with Alzheimer's and other neuro-degenerative diseases, a new technology start-up is hoping to alleviate some of this burden and create a new opportunity for Linux in the next-generation tele-health market. Reside@HOME is an "aging in place" solution that's designed to keep those with diminished cognitive ability independent and in their own residence for as long as possible. Part of what makes this interesting, however, is that the device is Linux-based -- Ubuntu Linux to be exact. Blue Heron Network LLC, the company behind Reside@HOME, will be formally introducing this solution in the first quarter of 2008, but in this article are some details about this unique Linux-based health-care product. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=904&num=1

Development of Automatix has been discontinued

To clarify, Automatix isn't entirely dead yet. Only development of Automatix2 for Ubuntu has ended. Automatix3 may still be developed at a later date, however it would be a whole new application for the exclusive use of Pioneer Warrior. The reasons for the exclusiveness are, 1. because Technalign has paid for Automatix's server and hosting for the past year and 2. because Automatix can easily work with Technalign's developers. http://www.getautomatix.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2424

See "Automatix: Package Architecture Could Lead to Serious System Problems" https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue51

Full Circle magazine: Issue #11

Included in this issue:

Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu
TrueCrypt on Ubuntu, iPod Classic + Amarok, Introduction to LaTeX, and more!
Lenovo 3000 C200 and Ubuntu
Top 5, My Desktop, and more!

http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-11/

CanSecWest PWN2OWN 2008 - Ubuntu Wins!

CanSecWest PWN2OWN 2008 contest had laptops with various operating systems: VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1, and a MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2. All in typical client configurations with typical user configurations. Anyone who could expose vulnerabilities on one of the machines, could keep it. On day two of the contest, the MacBook Air was the first to successfully compromised. That left only the Vista and the Ubuntu laptops still unscathed. Beginning on day three, the contest scope was opened up beyond the default rules, and by 7:30 PM, the Vista laptop was compromised. At the end of the last day of the contest, only the Sony VAIO laptop running Ubuntu was left standing, and unhacked. http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2008/03/28/pwn-to-own-final-day-and-wrap-up

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Friday, April 4, 2008

Server Team Meeting

Start: 21:00 UTC
End: 22:00 UTC
Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

Updates and Security for 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10

Archives and RSS Feed

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

You can subscribe to the Ubuntu Weekly News via RSS at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news

and

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

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
John Crawford
Isabelle Duchatelle
Craig A. Eddy
And many others

Glossary of Terms

MOTU - Master Of The Universe. Those responsible for the maintenance of the repositories.

Feedback

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.