Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue #9 - August 6 - 12, 2006

Sun Aug 13 04:05:51 BST 2006

= Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Issue #9 =

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Issue #9 for the week of August 6 - 12, 2006.

You can always find this and other Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issues at:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

== In This Issue ==
 * The 6.06.1 point release
 * Welcoming Jono Bacon, the new Ubuntu community manager
 * The Ubuntu web universe
 * MOTU School
 * Ubuntu New User Mentors Classroom
 * Security updates
 * New apps in Edgy
 * Updates to 6.06 LTS
 * Summer of Code updates
 * Bug stats
 * Upcoming meetings
 * Feature of the week - Gcompris

== Quote of the Week ==

 Anonymous said...
 "I like the shiny design, I like the community forums, but most of
all I like the fact my grandmother can install it."

== The 6.06.1 point release ==

Colin Watson and the rest of the Ubuntu Development Team have prepared
and released the Ubuntu 6.06.1 point release. This is a first of what
is likely to be several security and update rollups that are going to
be released during the 6.06 LTS life cycle. If you are already running
6.06, there is no need to download and install a new image, as your
machine should have all available security updates and bugfixes
already installed. Now is a good time to make certain you are getting
security updates...

== Welcoming Jono Bacon, the new Ubuntu community manager ==

With the exit of Jeff Waugh comes the entrance of Jono Bacon, recently
hired by Canonical to be the Ubuntu community banager (prononuced
koo-moon-ity man-ager, Swahili for "herder of felines"). While we here
at UWN are not quite sure what he is going to be doing, we are pleased
to have him aboard. He has impeccable credentials, working on such
high-brow shows as LugRadio and such software as Jokosher, which has
been in use for literally ages ;).

== The Ubuntu web universe ==

Being as popular as it is, Ubuntu has spawned a number of
community-run websites. We thought we would cover two of them this
week: Ubuntu Video and the Ubuntu Counter.

=== Ubuntu Video ===

Ubuntu Video, run by John Little, collects and publishes videos about
Ubuntu that can be used for purposes ranging from marketing to
documentation. John and the Ubuntu marketing team have connected, so
watch this space for future collaboration. For now, check out John's
site at http://www.ubuntuvideo.com/

=== The Ubuntu Counter ===

The Ubuntu Counter, run by Melissa Draper, counts Ubuntu users,
nothing more. With almost 7000 registered users, over 9000 machines,
and one digg-ing behind them, the Ubuntu Counter Project is off to a
strong start. Go get yourself counted at
http://ubuntucounter.geekosophical.net/

== MOTU School ==

Have you always wanted to learn about development in Ubuntu?

Now you can enter the world of packaging and development in Ubuntu
with this IRC lecture on "Ubuntu packaging basics" presented by raging
Ubuntu-aholic MOTU [https://launchpad.net/people/mantha/ JordanMantha
(LaserJock)]. It was held at
August 10 01:00 UTC and again at August 11 17:00 UTC in
#ubuntu-motu-school on irc.freenode.net.

Several people from the Ubuntu Forums showed up along with a few new
faces from #ubuntu-motu -- there were even a couple MOTU cameo
appearances! Jordan took the crowd through one of his own packages,
{{{plotdrop}}}, by discussing details of packaging files and ending
with a source package and shiny .deb built via {{{pbuilder}}}. Each
session was well attended and took 2 hours to get through, but in the
end everybody agreed that it was worth their time.

More information on this and other MOTU School sessions, please visit
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/School

== Ubuntu New User Mentors Classroom ==

The Ubuntu New User Mentors will be presenting a class on Saturday,
August 19, 2006 at 18:00 UTC. The class, Introduction to the Command
Line Interface (CLI), will present new users with the basics of the
command line on their Ubuntu systems. Everyone is welcome to attend.
For more information on the Classroom visit
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom

== Security Updates ==

USN-333-1 libwmf vulnerability http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-333-1

== New apps in Edgy ==

The ever busy Sebastian Bacher (described by GNOME hackers as sebuild,
a play on jhbuild, which is used to build bleeding edge GNOME) and
Daniel Holbach have finished uploading '''GNOME 2.15.91''' otherwise
known as GNOME 2.16 Beta 2, which is scheduled for release on
September 6th.

Chuck Short has been busy packaging '''Xen''' for Ubuntu and has
recently uploaded support for amd64.

Per usual, the MOTUs have been busy with other new versions and syncs
from Debian.

== Updates to 6.06 LTS ==

Aside from the 6.06.1 point release, there were no updates to 6.06 LTS
this week.

== Summer of Code updates ==

Ubuntu was awarded 22 projects as part of Google's Summer of Code. We
covered two last week, but here is the lastest information about two
more projects:

'''Consiel''', a GNOME Launchpad front-end by Ploum: This application
has reached version 0.1 and can now read bugs! More information can be
found on his blog at
http://ploum.frimouvy.org/?116-conseil-01-grand-canal

'''py-education/amenity''', a testing/quizzing system for Edubuntu by
Ryan Rousseau: Formerly pyq, this has expanded to be py-education, a
set of educational applications for the GNOME desktop, much as KDE-edu
is for KDE. There are currently two applications being worked on:
Amenity, an activity management system, and Quizzical, a quiz
management system. Both of these have had several releases. More
information can be found at the py-education homepage:
http://py-education.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

== Bug stats ==

Total Bugs: 14028 (an increase of 178 over last week)

As always, the Ubuntu Bug Squad needs help. If you want to help Ubuntu
get the numbers down please see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs

Every other Wednesday, the Ubuntu Bug Squad holds a "Hug-for-a-bug"
Day. For more information please see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay or #ubuntu-bugs

== Upcoming meetings ==

Various groups and teams in the Ubuntu community hold meetings on a
regular basis. These meetings are held in ''#ubuntu-meeting'' on
''irc.freenode.org'' and are open to all. A complete schedule can also
be found in that channel's topic or on the [http://fridge.ubuntu.com
Fridge calendar]. The following teams have scheduled meetings for the
upcoming week:

 * Community Council - Monday, August 14, 2006 at 16:00 UTC.
 * Technical Board - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 20:00 UTC.
 * Ubuntu Development Team - Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 23:00 UTC.
 * Edubuntu Team - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 20:00 UTC.

== Feature of the week - Gcompris ==

Gcompris, French slang for "I understand", is an educational and
entertaining application in Edubuntu. With over 70 different
activities to keep kids ages 2 to 10 entertained, Gcompris forms a
major part of the fun bits of Edubuntu. Of course, it can also be
installed on the other variants of Ubuntu: Simply install the package
{{{gcompris}}}. More information can be found at the Gcompris website,
http://gcompris.net/

The obligatory screenshots:
http://gcompris.net/IMG/png/screenshot_selection.png

== Additional News Resources ==

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 ==

This weeks Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

 * Corey Burger
 * Rich Johnson
 * Jordan Mantha
 * Eldo Varghese
 * Daniel Chen
 * And many others of the Ubuntu Documentation and Marketing teams

== Feedback ==

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Have you
seen something you think should be mentioned? Object to the content?
Drop us an email at ubuntu-marketing at lists.ubuntu.com or by using any
of the other methods on the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam
Ubuntu Marketing Team Page].