Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Ubuntu Global Bug Jam!
    2. New Members
      1. The EMEA(Europe, Middle East, and Africa) Board
      2. The Americas (North & South America) Board
    3. Newly Approved LoCos
    4. Canonical Showcases Ubuntu Netbook Remix at Computex
    5. Kubuntu Specs in Full
    6. Learn about Ubuntu at OSCON
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Translation Stats Hardy
  5. LoCo News
    1. Government Award for Ubuntu Indonesia
    2. Michigan LoCo Bug Jam - Summer 2008
  6. Technical Update
    1. Developer Response to Idea 2978 - ATI (now AMD) video card drivers that actually work
    2. Developer response to Idea 322 - Better monitor support and configuration tools
  7. Launchpad News
  8. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Forums Interview
    2. Tutorial of the Week
  9. In The Press
  10. In The Blogosphere
  11. In Other News
    1. Ubuntu Server receives positive reviews
    2. Ubuntu UK podcast: Episode #7 - Do Not Disturb
    3. Acer bets big on Linux
  12. Meeting Summaries
    1. Ubuntu Core Developer application from Till Kamppeter
    2. Ubuntu Core Developer application from Jamie Strandboge
  13. Upcoming Meetings and Events
    1. Monday, June 9, 2008
      1. Michigan LoCo Bug Jam
    2. Tuesday, June 10-2008
      1. Asia and Oceania Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting
      2. Server Team Meeting
    3. Wednesday, June 11, 2008
      1. Platform Team Meeting
      2. QA Team Meeting
      3. Server Team Meeting
    4. Thursday, June 12, 2008
      1. Desktop Team Meeting
    5. Friday, June 13, 2008
      1. Ubuntu-ni Translation Sprint
      2. MOTU Meeting
  14. Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 7.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 7.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
  15. Archives and RSS Feed
  16. Additional Ubuntu News
  17. Conclusion
  18. Credits
  19. Glossary of Terms
  20. Feedback

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #94 for the week June 1st - June 7th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu Global Bug Jam, New Members, Newly Approved LoCos, Canonical Showcases Ubuntu Netbook Remix at Computex, Kubuntu Specs in Full, Ubuntu at OSCON, Ubuntu Server receives positive reviews, Mobile devices driving Ubuntu-Shuttleworth, Ubuntu UK podcast #7, Acer bets big on Linux, and much, much more!

UWN Translations

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

In This Issue

General Community News

Ubuntu Global Bug Jam!

Friday August 8th to Sun August 10th 2008 has been designated as the very first Ubuntu Global Bug Jam. What is the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam? Put simply, it is a world-wide online and face-to-face event to get people together to fix Ubuntu bugs. The idea is to get as many people online fixing bugs, having a great time, and making their contribution for free software. It's going to be a great opportunity to not only contribute to Ubuntu, but to also get together with other Ubuntu fans to make a difference, either via your LoCo team, your LUG, other free software group. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam

If you are in a LoCo Team, the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam it a great opportunity to get together and have a physical bug-jam. To get started there is a Running a Bug Jam guide https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RunningBugJam, which offers some helpful advice for getting your jam organised. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2008-June/002253.html

New Members

The EMEA(Europe, Middle East, and Africa) Board

There was a small invasion from IRC land, three excellent IRC helpers and operators applied for membership and now Matt Darcy, Miia Ranta and Benjamin Rubin are now all Ubuntu members.

Continuing the stream of Italian members we saw in the last meeting, Riccardo Coccioli has been approved as member, he has done good work on the Italian forums. Fellow Italian Devid Filoni is active both in the Italian locoteam and as a MOTU hopeful and now also Ubuntu member.

Jad Madi has been rocking hard in Jordan, promoting Ubuntu on the Jordan University and many other places. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Syntux LP: https://launchpad.net/~jad

Natacha Menjibar is one of the heroes of the Spanish Ubuntu community, working hard in documentation, forums and more. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/kelp LP: https://launchpad.net/~kelp

Vojtěch Trefný is a core contributor of the Czech LoCoTeam and has also managed to collect over 36000 karma points answering questions on launchpad. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Vojt%C4%9BchTrefn%C3%BD LP: https://launchpad.net/~vojtech.trefny

Sayak Banerjee is an active contributor to the forums who has impressed the forum members and staff with his positive and welcoming attitude. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Dave701 LP: http://launchpad.net/~sayakb

Nicolas Barcet is Ubuntu Server Product Manager at Canonical and is working hard to make Ubuntu the #1 choice for servers. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NicolasBarcet LP: https://launchpad.net/~nijaba

The EMEA board is happy to welcome aboard these excellent members! Our next meeting will be on June 10, 18:00 UTC. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/EMEA

The Americas (North & South America) Board

Laudeci Oliveira (Pretto) has been involved with Open Source and the Brazilian Ubuntu community since May 2005 working on projects such as APTonCD and translations. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Pretto LP: https://launchpad.net/~laudeci

Chris Gregan (cgregan) is the Ubuntu Mobile QA Engineer at Canonical since March 2008. He has 10 years of software QA/Testing experience and now works full-time for Canonical's Mobile Solutions Group. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/cgregan LP: https://launchpad.net/~cgregan

Andrew Walton (awalton) is an Ubuntu and GNOME hacker from Kentucky (USA) who has worked on documenting of GIO, implemented the gvfsd-network in GVFS, and is also an active member of both the Ubuntu Kentucky LoCo and the GNOME Foundation. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Awalton LP: https://launchpad.net/~awalton

Norman Garcia Aguilar (n0rman) is the team leader of the Ubuntu Nicaragua LoCo team spending a lot of time supporting and advocating Ubuntu at many of the local conferences as well as having been involved with quite a few television, newspaper, and radio interviews where he represented the Ubuntu community. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/norm LP: https://launchpad.net/~naguilarg

Kurt von Finck (mneptok) is a Senior Ubuntu Systems Support Analyst for Canonical as well as a long standing member of the Ubuntu community. Kurt also spends some of his free time not only working on Ubuntu, but also volunteering as a system administrator for the GNOME Foundation, which he is also a member of. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KurtvonFinck LP: https://launchpad.net/~mneptok

Nick Ellery (nickellery) is an Ubuntu contributor in many areas of the community. Currently you will find Nick working with the Ubuntu Documentation Project, the Launchpad Documentation Team, translations, answer tracking, bug triaging, and more. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Cloudfx LP: https://launchpad.net/~nick.ellery

LaRoza is the Ubuntu Forums master! With more than 10,000 posts, all of which are technical in nature, LaRoza is noted as one of the most outstanding forum moderators in recent time. LaRoza spends time helping forum members with anything from typing in Ubuntu all the way to hard-core hacking with various programming languages, as well as helping to test Intrepid through its development cycle. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaRoza LP: https://launchpad.net/~laroza

Bodhi Zazen (bodhi) started out with Linux by learning from Ubuntu and started contributing back to the community by helping in the forums, founding the Montana (USA) LoCo team, creating excellent documentation, and more. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BodhiZazen LP: https://launchpad.net/~bodhi.zazen

Michael Garrido (Xander21c) has been an Ubuntu user since the days of Dapper and now spends time with the Ubuntu Peru LoCo team where he is the website co-admin, a mailing list moderator, and the master of printing. Michael has worked on getting t-shirts and other materials printed and provided to his local community. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/xander21c LP: https://launchpad.net/~xander21c

Mike Rushton (leftyfb) is a member of the Massachusetts (USA) LoCo team where he helps run and manage the team, it's events, and it's meetings. Mike has started many projects within the LoCo arena as well as started and managed many events. And just when you didn't think Mike was hardcore enough, he went out and got Tux tattooed right on his arm. Don't believe us, look at his wiki page! Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/leftyfb LP: https://launchpad.net/~leftyfb

Brandon Perry (brandonperry) has been working hard trying to get the Dallas-Fort Worth LoCo team up and running as well as working with other members of the LoCo community in Texas (USA). Brandon spends time working on projects such as OCAM and the ClamAV LiveCD. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BrandonPerry LP: https://launchpad.net/~bperry-volatile

Martin Kossick (hacktick) is a worldwide contributor to Ubuntu having been productive working with both the Ubuntu Brasil and the Ubuntu German LoCo teams. Soon he will be heading back to Germany where he plans on increasing his activity with the community and working hard to become a hard-core Ubuntu hacker. Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mkossick LP: https://launchpad.net/~hacktick

The Americas board is happy to welcome aboard these excellent members! Please check our wiki page for the next meeting. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/RegionalBoards/Americas

Newly Approved LoCos

El Salvador - The Ubuntu El Salvador LoCo Team was founded in November 2006. The team is part of the Central American Ubuntu LoCo Team Project, and they are most active in local educational projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of El Salvador. The projects are intended to teach school children and teachers the use of FOSS, specifically Ubuntu.ElSalvadorTeam/ApprovalApplication

Perú - The Ubuntu Peru LoCo Team was founded in September 2006. The team has been most active in installfests, free software festivals, Ubuntu demos, local CD distribution, and Peruvian LoCo Council which is the governing body of their community. PeruvianTeam/ApprovalApplication

Arizona - The Arizona LoCo Team was founded in April 2007. They are most active organizing Ubuntu release and installfest parties, and collaborating with state LUGs to promote open source alternatives in Arizona. Future projects for 2008 include a open source conference in Phoenix ArizonaTeam/ApprovalApplication

Ecuador - The Ecuador LoCo Team was founded in July 2007. They have been most active in national events held by local Open Source and Free Software movements in Ecuador, community awareness, and translations of the UWN into Spanish. They hope to further their advocacy by reaching out to local schools and education centers. EcuadorTeam/ApprovalApplication

Canonical Showcases Ubuntu Netbook Remix at Computex

Computex, Taiwan June 3, 2008: Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, today announced that it will be demonstrating a reworked desktop image of Ubuntu built specifically for a new category of portable Internet-centric devices – netbooks. These affordable, power-efficient, small screen devices, based on the ground breaking low-power micro-architecture of the Intel® Atom™ processor, and Remix will allow consumers to enjoy email, instant messaging, Internet surfing and on-line access to photos, videos or music with an affordable, reliable device. Ubuntu Netbook Remix is built to provide a superb user experience leveraging Ubuntu's reputation for delivering operating systems that 'just work' in the desktop environment. Remix is based on the standard Ubuntu Desktop Edition but with a launcher that allows users to get on-line more quickly and have faster access to their favourite applications. Canonical is already working with a number of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to deliver the software into the market on devices later in 2008. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/netbook-remix

Kubuntu Specs in Full

The Ubuntu Developers Summit finished a week ago in Prague. Unlike conferences, summits have written output in the form of specifications which form the basis for work on Kubuntu for the next six months. You can find the ones for Kubuntu's Intrepid at this wiki page: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KubuntuUDSPragueSpecs

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3494

Learn about Ubuntu at OSCON

OSCON is the Open Source Convention. Now in its tenth year, OSCON returns to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon July 21-25, 2008, bringing together over 2500 experts, visionaries, and hackers in the trenches to explore all that open source has to offer. 2008 promises interesting developments in Linux, Java, Web, and open source infrastructure. OSCON will have tracks for Linux, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Mobile, Databases, Desktop Applications, Web Applications, Administration, Security, People, Business, and Emerging Topics. This year's OSCON has a wealth of Ubuntu information including how to improve your development practices, integrate Ubuntu with Active Directory, reap the benefits of virtualization and of course, the latest tips and tricks. Get information on registration, visit the OSCON website or see the long list of Ubuntu related presentations by visiting this link: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/spotlight/oscon2008

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translation Stats Hardy

This is the top 5, not specific languages, so the languages might change week to week.

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

LoCo News

Government Award for Ubuntu Indonesia

The Indonesian Government honored Ubuntu Indonesia with an award for spreading the open source movement in Indonesia. The award ceremony took place during IGOS(Indonesia Go Open Source) Summit 2. Presenting the award to Ubuntu Indonesia was Mr. Muhammad Nuh, The Minister of Communication and Information Technology of The Republic of Indonesia. Great work Ubuntu Indonesia! http://www.belutz.net/2008/06/01/government-award-for-ubuntu-indonesia/

Michigan LoCo Bug Jam - Summer 2008

When and where is the Michigan Bug Jam? It is Monday June 9th at 6:30pm at the Main branch of the Clinton-Macomb Public Library. The team will be in a conference room with free wifi available to library card holders. People without local library cards can sign up for one in 5 minutes, but if you are planning on doing that, please try to show up a little bit early. Directions and links to how you should prepare can be found by following the link. Join the team and have a great time while doing you part for Ubuntu. http://konsilience.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/michigan-loco-bug-jam-summer-2008/

Technical Update

Developer Response to Idea 2978 - ATI (now AMD) video card drivers that actually work

Ubuntu X.org maintainer Bryce Harrington responds to Brainstorm Idea 2978: Brainstorm 2978 and its comments detail problems with the level of support and quality of available open and proprietary drivers for AMD/ATI hardware. The desire is to have Canonical work more closely with AMD/ATI engineers to change this situation. The short answer is this: AMD/ATI engineers have recently started working with Canonical on both -fglrx and -ati issues, and I anticipate seeing significant improvements in this driver for Intrepid. The full response is much more detailed and can be found here: http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/10

Developer response to Idea 322 - Better monitor support and configuration tools

Ubuntu X.org maintainer Bryce Harrington responds to Brainstorm idea 322: Configuring X has been a long standing issue in Linux, and there's still room to improve. Brainstorm 322 and its comments touch on a bunch of (partly unrelated) problems: mis-detecting monitor resolution/refresh rates, supporting new hardware (and upcoming USB monitors), binary driver issues, Importing Windows .inf/.icc files, and multi-monitor configuration/detection; multi-card support. Xorg upstream's vision is that no configuration should be needed. In the vast bulk of cases, the hardware reports its capabilities and xserver can set things up properly. This is a very good vision, and in fact something like 90-95% of the time it holds true. Yet, there is still that last 5-10% or so that causes our problems. The full response is much more detailed and can be found here: http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/9

Launchpad News

The Launchpad Podcast, which records on Wednesdays, is always looking for user questions. If you have some, please submit them to feedback@launchpad.net.

Archived editions of launchpod can always be found here: http://news.launchpad.net/podcast

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Forums Interview

slavik is from Ukraine, and currently lives in New York City, where he is a graduate student and a junior system administrator in the college’s library. Interestingly, his journey outside the Windows world started with FreeBSD and Lindows, then Breezy. He never looked back and is now fully running Ubuntu (with other OSes in VMWare). http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/an-interview-with-slavik/

Tutorial of the Week

Laptop owners (and some desktop users, perhaps) might be interested in this week's tutorial standout: "HowTo: Undervolt your notebook CPU for longer battery life," by Ares Drake. The tutorial is geared toward newer machines, and walks you gently through the process of testing an undervolt and setting up your system properly. On top of that it's a clean and easy-to-follow thread, and one that's visually appealing as well. Nice work! http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786402

See you in a week!

In The Press

In The Blogosphere

In Other News

Ubuntu Server receives positive reviews

Ubuntu isn’t just for desktops. Behind the scenes, corporate IT managers have put Ubuntu to work on servers. chunter set out to find some IT pros who could talk about Ubuntu Server. He asked, “Who’s using Ubuntu?” in a Search Enterprise Linux newsletter. He got both positive and not-so-positive responses to his inquiry. Follow the link for all the details on what IT managers had to say. http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/06/03/ubuntu-server-receives-positive-reviews/

Ubuntu UK podcast: Episode #7 - Do Not Disturb

Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore and Ciemon Dunville present the seventh episode of the Ubuntu UK Podcast.

In this episode:

Get Ubuntu UK Podcast #7 at: http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2008/06/03/s01e07-do-not-disturb/

Acer bets big on Linux

Acer has stated that it will be pushing Linux aggressively on its laptops and netbooks.. The company is already heavily promoting Linux for its low cost ultra-portable netbook range out later this year, but senior staff have said that Acer will also push Linux on its laptops. According to Gianpiero Morbello, vice president of marketing and brand at Acer: "We have shifted towards Linux because of Microsoft. They have a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market." Acer sees two big advantages to using Linux on computers: operation and cost. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/77636,acer-bets-big-on-linux.aspx

Meeting Summaries

Ubuntu Technical Board meeting, 2008-06-03

Ubuntu Core Developer application from Till Kamppeter

The MOTU council recommended Till Kamppeter for membership in the core development team:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-May/001100.html

In the course of the interview, it was agreed that more limited access privileges would be sufficient and appropriate for Till to continue his work on printing in Ubuntu.

launchpad does not yet provide this type of fine-grained access control, but it is expected in the near future. As such, the board resolved to grant Till membership in ubuntu-core-dev, to be transitioned to the new mechanism once it becomes available. In the meantime, Till agreed to voluntarily limit his use of ubuntu-core-dev privileges to the relevant set of packages (to be agreed with the board separately).

Ubuntu Core Developer application from Jamie Strandboge

The MOTU council recommended Jamie Strandboge for membership in the core development team:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/motu-council/2008-May/001101.html

The board approved Jamie's application and welcomed him to the core development team.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, June 9, 2008

Michigan LoCo Bug Jam

Tuesday, June 10-2008

Asia and Oceania Ubuntu Membership Approval Board Meeting

Server Team Meeting

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Platform Team Meeting

QA Team Meeting

Server Team Meeting

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Desktop Team Meeting

Friday, June 13, 2008

Ubuntu-ni Translation Sprint

MOTU Meeting

Updates and Security for 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

Ubuntu 7.10 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

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:

and

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

Glossary of Terms

  1. CPU - Central Processing Unit
  2. EMEA - Europe, Middle East and African regional approval board
  3. LUG - Linux User's Group
  4. MOTU - Master Of The Universe - those responsible for the repositories
  5. OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
  6. UDS - Ubuntu Developer's Summit

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. Please feel free to contact us to submit an idea, or to voice any concerns or suggestions. Sending your email to ubuntu-news-team-bounces@lists.ubuntu.com. *Please note that you must subscribe to the list to be able to submit. 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.

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