Ubuntu Weekly News #25
Cody A.W. Somerville
cody-somerville at ubuntu.com
Wed Dec 20 04:49:44 GMT 2006
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #25 for the week of Dec 4th -
11th, 2006. In this issue we cover upcoming meetings, the Kubuntu Community
Council Meeting, improvements to gdm accessibility, the Ubuntu bug squad,
updates to Feisty, Mark's letter to OpenSUSE, Ubuntu Canada's first meeting,
and much more.
== In This Issue ==
* New High Contrast GDM Theme
* Kubuntu Community Council Meeting
* Mark's Letter to OpenSUSE
* Ubuntu Canada's First Meeting
* Ubuntu on the PS3
* This Week's Quiz
* Kurdish Ubuntu Saga Continues
* LoCo News
* Updates to Feisty
* In the Press
* Ubuntu Crowned "King Distro for 2006"
* Upcoming Meetings and Events
* Community Spotlight
* Updates and Security Fixes
* Bug Stats
== General Community News ==
=== Feisty Herd 1 released ===
The Feisty Fawn Herd 1 release went public December 6th. This is the first
release of the scheduled six Herd releases. As with every first pre-release
in Ubuntu, a massive amount of merges occurred between Debian Unstable and
the Ubuntu development branch (Feisty Fawn). Some of the more notable
differences right now between Feisty and Edgy are the kernel, which is now
2.6.19, and GNOME 2.17. Please review
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-December/000225.htmlfor
more information concerning the Herd 1 release. Herd 2 is scheduled
for
release on January 11, 2007. More information concerning the schedule of the
Feisty Fawn, pleas read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeistyReleaseSchedule
=== New High Contrast GDM Theme ===
Henrick Omma wrote:
"We had a request on the Ubuntu accessibility mailing list about a high
contrast theme for GDM. As it turns out there is no such thing, among the
hundreds of available themes on artgnome.org and gnome-look.org."
Henrik Omma and Stéphane Marguet have worked together to develop a high
contrast GDM Theme. Though work on it continues, it looks like it is turning
out very nicely.
Screenshot:
http://people.ubuntu.com/~henrik/images/blog/Ubuntu-HC-I-small.png
Grab a copy and see more screenshots at
http://people.ubuntu.com/~henrik/gdm/ and read the full blog post at
http://blog.omma.net/?p=20
=== Kubuntu Community Council Meeting ===
A meeting was held of the Kubuntu Council. Notes are at:
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Meetings/Minutes/2006-12-07
We voted Martin Bohm into membership on the strength of his translation and
community work in the Czech community and his spec for a Grub setup tool
which he is currently working on. Congratulations to Martin.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MartinBöhm
=== Ubuntu-devel mailing list split ===
One of the plans that emerged out of the last developer summits was a plan
to split the devel mailing list into two parts, -devel, to which posting
would be reserved for the core developers and the MOTU and -devel-discuss,
which would allow free posting by the community. The entire plan can be read
as part of the
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/devel-listspecification.
This spec has now been implemented, as indicated by an email
by Matt Zimmerman on a email to the developer announce list. You can read
the full email at
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-December/000227.html
.
=== Ubuntu on the PS3 ===
Sony has been very active in supporting Linux on the PS3, which uses the
Cell processor, a derivative of the PowerPC and which used to found in Apple
computers. Hiroyuki Machida of Sony recently emailed Mark Shuttleworth and
they held a conversation about PowerPC support on Ubuntu, as it currently
being reviewed (you can read the full spec for the review at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCReview). Hiroyuki also translated a set of
instructions for getting Ubuntu running on the PS3, which have been moved to
the Ubuntu Help wiki at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/PS3
=== This Week's Trivia Quiz ===
Thanks to Alexander Vassalotti (who has, by the way, recently become an
Ubuntu Member), we had another exciting quiz this week. The prize, an Ubuntu
poster, was donated by last week's winner, Robert Stoffers. Lasse Havelund,
though victorious, has decided to give up his prize in favor of another
quiz, thus becoming its generous sponsor. Next week, the prize is Free as in
Freedom by Richard M. Stallman (it's a book, before you ask).
Quizmaster : Alexander Vassaloti
Champion : Lasse Havelund
Sponsor : Robert Stoffers
Prize: Ubuntu Poster
http://doc.ubuntu.com/~marketing/DIY%20Material/Batch%201,%20Posters/HanZo/poster-layout.jpg
To participate in the quiz, join #ubuntu-trivia on irc.freenode.net on
Friday and Saturday UTC nights - the topic will usually tell you when the
next quiz is scheduled.
To give a quiz, contact AlexanderVassaloti (theCore on IRC) - we will
probably find you a spot.
To donate a prize, please contact JendaVancura (jenda on IRC) - your
generosity is appreciated.
To win the quiz... well... be 1337. The quiz usually has a theme, and the
quizmaster will sometimes tell you what the theme of the quiz will be. If
not, you can always bribe them. By winning the quiz and not accepting the
prize, you donate it for the next quiz in line.
=== Kurdish Ubuntu Saga Continues ===
Last week we told of the public reception of Kurdish Ubuntu in Turkey and
the prosecution of the Kurdish Mayor of Sur. Unfortunately, contrary to what
was published last week, the case against the Mayor of Sur still continues.
We at the UWN apologise for this misinformation. The worldwide Ubuntu
community and Mark Shuttleworth has offered support to those affected.
== LoCo News ==
=== Ubuntu Canada holds first meeting ===
The Ubuntu Canada group had their first meeting on Saturday, December 9th
which was very successful. Topics discussed included Getting Ubuntu
Membership (how the locoteam can help), existing subgroups and projects, new
projects, and partnerships with existing Linux/FLOSS organizations.
You can review the meeting minutes at
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-ca/2006-December/001534.html
=== Ubuntu Nebraska Team holds first IRC meeting ===
DaveThacker wrote:
" The Ubuntu Nebraska LoCo team held their first IRC meeting on Thursday,
December 8. We discussed our first three projects, "Ubuntu Off the Shelf",
"Ubuntu in the Non-Profit Office" and assisting the Omaha Linux Users Group
in their January Installfest. Our next meeting will be January 4th. Our
meeting info is posted at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NebraskaTeam/Meetings "
=== Ubuntu-UK Raises £300 for Children In Need ===
The Ubuntu-UK Team Contact, Nik Butler, wrote to us this week to inform us
of result of the Children In need auction, mentioned previously in UWN 22.
" Following the successful attendance at the Linux World Expo, the UKTeam (
pictured here with Jono Bacon https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/Gallery ) held
a charity auction for Children In Need which raised £300 . The auction
included a White "Ubuntu : Linux for Human Beings" T Shirt signed by the
Team, Canonical staff including Mark Shuttleworth and rather unexpectedly,
but no less welcome, by Jon Maddog Hall himself who commented " What use is
fame if you can't put it to good use". Jono Bacon added a signed copy of an
Ubuntu Book. Details on the auction can be found here
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/CharityWork/ChildrenInNeedTShirt.
=== Kubuntu at the "Rentrée du libre" in Strasbourg (France) ===
On October 28th, the first "Rentrée du libre" - an event for Free and Open
Source Software, organised by the local LUG - took place in Strasbourg
(France), and Kubuntu was present with a booth. A lot of visitors came to
see and try out Kubuntu, get answers to their questions and to chat about
the distribution, Linux and Free Software in general. Frequent questions
concerned the difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu (both, the technical
side and the difference between the two projects), how the project works and
what Kubuntu provides in terms of accessibility.
Photos:
* http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/depot/RDL2006/photos/
*
http://frederic.mossmann.fr/photos/v/Association/StrasbourgSansFils/Rentree-du-Libre-2006/
* http://photos.zerlinna.blogweb.de/v/lrd/
=== First IRC meeting for Ubuntu-Za ===
The 7th of December will go down in the Ubuntu-ZA history books as the day
the Ubuntu South African Team held their first IRC meeting. 22 people
attended this inaugural meeting and stuck with it for 2 hours to find out
more about what a loco team is, how the team communicates and how they could
contribute. The meeting summary at
http://www.ubuntu-za.org/Wiki/LoCoMeetings/Summary7Dec contains further
information.
== Changes In Fiesty ==
=== GNOME ===
gThumb 2.8.1 is an image viewer and browser utility for the GNOME
environment. This small version increment has fixed some performance and UI
bugs.
Guifications is a Gaim plugin that displays msn style "toaster" popups in a
user defined corner of the screen. It's highly configurable, easy to use,
and has theme support. Changes in this version, 2.13~beta4-1, are mainly
focused at making it work with Gaim Beta4.
With the GNOMish iTunes-like Banshee 0.11.3 comes a variety of new features,
performance improvements and bug fixes. Two pod-related fixes are in the
podcasting support - where the podcast plugin would crash - and the iPod
detection and syncing, which should solve all the problems that users had
before. Performance has been increased: import time drastically reduced to a
quarter of what it originally was, and time is now saved when switching
sources. Sorting and searching have been improved, with settings now at
source level so that searches and sorts can be applied to each source
individually, not only globally. There is now a preference for the library
structure, so that people can have opinions; and an option to close that is
not quit, but minimizes to the tray. The final big change is the new, but
experimental - don't say we didn't warn you - support for Rio Karma devices.
Have fun!
We also saw the uploading of ipod-sharp 0.6.2-1, a sub-project of Banshee,
that helped support numerous improvements in Banshee listed above.
ipod-sharp provies support for high level features of Apple's iPod, like
support for audio content, including reading and writing of the iTunes/iPod
database, and syncing music.
The Gnome Control Center 2.17.3 allows you to configure various parts of
your system. The main changes in this release have been some major
translations (es, et, fr, ja, nb, sv), a complete new shell and quite a few
bugs fixed related with themes.
Metacity 2.17.3 is a light-weight (compositing) window manager used by
default in the GNOME desktop environment. The most outstanding bug fix was a
problem about windows flickering in and out of maximized state when dragging
between xineramas.
In this latest version of F-Spot, there have been a number of improvements.
Firstly, there have been massive view mode improvements and new
multiresolution icons, which you could always have a look at if you don't
have any photos. There is a new user guide, and amongst the 50 bug fixes are
fixes for the Picasa web interface.
Seahorse 0.9.8 is a GNOME application for managing encryption keys. It also
integrates with nautilus, gedit and other places for encryption/decryption
operations. Seahorse Daemon has been revamped to start properly, the GUI has
been cleaned up and is more consistent, and a general effort has been made
for the interface to be much more user friendly.
The latest versions of evolution (2.9.3) and evolution-exchange (2.8.2) were
uploaded this week. They both have a large number of bug fixes, not so many
features, but it's all on the way to the 2.10 stable release.
Gnumeric, the GNOME desktop spreadsheet, is now at version 1.7.5, which the
project dubbed, "Testing, testing, 1-2-3, testing". This seems rather
fitting for upload to the testing distribution, but as a result means that
more fixes than features have been added. It is also called this, as they
have now finished their automatic release testing suite, to "prevent further
brown-bad releases".
Gnome-System-Tools 2.17.3 is a collection of tools to simplify configuring
your Gnome desktop. The most noticeable change would be ZeroConf support and
some additional minor bug fixes.
Epiphany(-browser) is the GNOME web browser, the default for the GNOME
desktop environment. Version 2.17.3 was uploaded, and this fixed a number of
bugs, improving compatibility (and usability between this and) other
browsers, and also performance issues.
Contact-Lookup-Applet 0.15-1 is an applet to quickly search your Evolution
address book from the GNOME panel. Changes to these packages where mainly
adding the Portuguese and Macedonian translations.
gnome-btdownload is the GNOME BitTorrent client. 0.0.25-1 includes a number
of bug fixes as well as Dutch and Swedish translations.
gnome-games is the official package of games for the GNOME desktop. As with
most of the updates to GNOME packages, this is also now at version 2.17.3.
This release contains updates and bug fixes to the new games in the set:
glChess and GNOME Sudoku, which are for release with the rest of the GNOME
desktop in 2.18 - the stable release that is to be in Feisty.
Guifications is a Gaim plugin that displays msn style "toaster" popups in a
user defined corner of the screen. It's highly configurable, easy to use,
and has theme support. Changes in this version, 2.13~beta4-1, are mainly
focused at making it work with Gaim Beta4.
Seahorse 0.9.8 is a GNOME application for managing encryption keys. It also
integrates with nautilus, gedit and other places for encryption/decryption
operations. Seahorse Daemon has been revamped to start properly, the GUI has
been cleaned up and is more consistent, and a general effort has been made
for the interface to be much more user friendly.
=== XFCE ===
xfce4-xkb-plugin 0.4.2 is a plugin for the XFCE 4 desktop, it displays the
current keyboard layout, and refreshes when layout changes. Updated include
fixed bugs for the greek layout and various translation updates.
Xarchiver 0.4.6 is a GTK+ 2 front-end for manipulating arj, 7z, zip, rar,
tar, bzip2, gzip, and RPM files. It allows you to create archives and add,
extract, and delete files from them. The most significant change in this
version has been renaming png icons to make them freedesktop.org compliant.
=== KDE ===
KOffice 1.6 was intended, as the release notes say, mainly as a feature
release for the two fastest developed components: Krita (the image editor)
and Kexi (the desktop database), and it also contains a vastly improved
version of KPlato, the project planning application. Krita has now got
support for handling perspective, magnetic selection and layer masks, PDFs
and there are more new filters: random noise, random pick, lens corrections,
amongst others. Kexi has had many all round improvements: database
connectivity, table designer, query designer and macro support, whilst
KSpread has also added scripting. KFormula is now more connected, with
support for OpenDocument and MathML, with OpenDocument being default.
Ktorrent 2.1 beta1 is a KDEish bittorent client. This new release has had a
lot of significant updates like adding support for trackerless torrents with
DHT nodes, a Web-based GUI, it automatically saves peer information so you
can get back on your feet much faster when restarting and switched to IDEAL
style GUI (like KDevelop). There has also been an extensive work done in
fixing GUI bugs and corrupt data handeling.
digikamimage, the digiKam Image Editor and the respective plugins package,
digikamimageplugins, were this week updated to the version 0.9.0~rc2. This
version is mainly a bug-fix release, and has fixes for a number of annoying
bugs, which you can see at http://www.digikam.org/?q=node/200 .
Kerry is a KDE front-end for Beagle, the file indexer. It has a number of
bug fixes for the release of 0.2.1, including fixes to stop resource hogging
and better translations.
Keep is a KDE automatic backup program that allows users to set the
parameters of the backup, including the frequency and the number of backups.
Version 0.4.0 includes features such as the possibility to use an
inclusion/exclusion list when setting up backup source; the possibility to
control rdiff-backup process priority; the display of the last backup date
in the restore backup wizard; and a fix for the backup every hour bug.
K-3D is designed from-the-ground-up to generate motion-picture-quality
animation with RenderMan-compliant render engines. The main changes in this
release (0.6.0.0.ds1-1) are update dependencies to new X.Org packages and
update to new python policy.
QComicBook 0.3.4 is a viewer for rar, zip, cbr, and cbz format comic book
archives containing JPEG or PNG images. The changes for this version where
Drawing/scaling/rotation bugs in two-pages mode when the 1st page is smaller
than the 2nd page were fixed, a problem with opening files with non-ASCII
characters in the filename via command line was fixed and BMP file pattern
was added to the list of supported formats. And as a bonus, the application
icon was changed.
=== Desktop ===
Enigma is a puzzle game similar to Oxyd on the Atari ST or Rock'n'Roll on
the Amiga and good old Marble Madness, in which you control a ball with the
mouse. It is, apparently, addictive, and requires a large amount of
dexterity and wit - which is probably why Toby Smithe has never tried it.
Anyway, this updated version is the beta for version 1.00, and includes over
100 new levels, which are now sorted and grouped in levelpacks, screenshot
viewer, hundreds of other new features; translations into Swedish, Russian,
Hungarian, German and French, and a 100 page reference manual. Give it a
shot! Or a roll...
The newest verison of irda-util (0.9.18-5) was upload by Sivian Greenberg.
The overall goal of this project is to make an implementation of the IrDATM
standards specifications for the Linux kernel. This project aims to
implement open source supplement for IrDATM (Infrared Data Association)
which is an industry standard for infrared wireless communication.
Version 3 of Last Exit the Last.fm radio player was uploaded as well.
This week saw the upload of democracyplayer 0.9.2.1. Democracy Player is an
internet TV client, a video player and a BitTorrent client, built on the
foundation of VLC and XULRunner which are pretty good frameworks themselves.
The new version claims increased speed and as much as 75% less RAM usage.
Up next, some statistics as we look at the new Mono 1.2.2.1! There have been
496 newly implemented methods and 65 and 212 removed NotImplementExceptions
and bogus TODOs. What this means is that Mono has more features, and any
closed source applications will surely benefit from this, as will any open
source ones looking for a feature that hasn't been written. There have been
many fixes to the Visual Basic run-time, and the improvements to GDI+ and
Windows.Forms, as well as ASP.NET, as always.
GPixPod, the iPod photo organiser, has now reached version 0.6.2, and with
it it brings a new right-click context menu, menu clean-ups and fixes for
single folder selection and the iPod Nano.
The Sun Java Platform Standard Edition Runtime Environment (JRE) sun-java5
1.5.0-10 contains the Java virtual machine, runtime class libraries, and
Java application launcher that are necessary to run programs written in the
Java progamming language. Main changes in this release include a number
security bugs fixed, adds iceweasel as a browser alternative, and updates
the german translation.
Version 0.4.0 of convertall, the unit converter, brings a port to QT4 and as
a result an almost complete rewrite of the code.
Gnat GPS 4.0.1-3 is a cutting-edge Free Software IDE that streamlines the
interaction between developers and their software. This release fixes some
minor bugs in the Help context menu and a memory corruption bug.
poEdit 1.3.5 is cross-platform gettext catalogs (.po files) editor. Main
changes in this release have been an initial port for MacOSX, adherence
towards the freedesktop.org standards, changes in icons to Tango and Silk
icons and added new translations (Macedonian, Arabic, Thai and Malay)
Contacts is a small, lightweight addressbook that features advanced vCard
field type handling and is designed for use on hand-held devices, such as
the Nokia 770 or the Sharp Zaurus series of PDAs. Changes in the 0.2-1 where
mainly fixing compiler warnings and implementing multiple import and delete.
The newest verison of irda-util (0.9.18-5) was upload by Sivian Greenberg.
The overall goal of this project is to make an implementation of the IrDATM
standards specifications for the Linux kernel. This project aims to
implement open source supplement for IrDATM (Infrared Data Association)
which is an industry standard for infrared wireless communication.
Uploaded to Feisty this week were new versions of many Telepathy packages.
The Telepathy project aims to provide a unified framework for all forms of
real time conversations, including instant messaging, IRC, voice calls and
video calls. It uses the DBus messaging system to provide a simple interface
for client applications, allowing them to quickly benefit from Telepathy's
functionality. Included in this update was gossip-telepathy, which is now at
version 0.21. Gossip was originally purely a Jabber client, but has taken on
being the current main telepathy client. The Jabber-only version is now at
0.20. There have also been updates to the framework itself, to
telepathy-idle (the IRC connection manager, 0.0.3), telepathy-gabble (the
Jabber client, at 0.5.0), and to telepathy-stream-engine, which handles
streams and is now at version 0.3.16. The new features included are
supported for the latest FreeDesktop specification, and - in the
gossip-telepathy client - a more recent CVS check-out.
Endeavour Mark II is a complete file management suite that comes with a File
Browser, Image Browser, Archiver, Recycled Objects system, and a set of file
& disk management utility programs. This point release included several bug
fixes and improvements to the popup list box.
WavPack is a completely open audio compression format providing lossless,
high-quality lossy, and a unique hybrid compression mode. One of the
features of Wavpack is that unlike MP3 or WMA encoding not a single bit of
the original information is lost, so there's no chance of quality loss. This
makes Wavpack ideal for audio storage or situations where audio quality is
essential. Some of the new features for 4.40.0 include allowing for new
modes which will decodes significantly faster, improved compression of mono
material in stereo files, more robust handling of corrupt files, and a
reorganization to create a more standard library that should more easily
integrate into other applications.
Quarry is a multi-purpose GUI for several board games, at present Go,
Amazons and Reversi (a.k.a. Othello.) It allows users to play against
computer players (third-party programs, e.g. GNU Go or GRhino) or other
humans, view and edit game records. This new version of 0.2.0 contains many
bug fixes, a better, bigger and altogether more helpful manual and updated
translations for en_GB, fr, pl, and ru.
Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic (SLASH'EM) is a role-playing
game where you control a single character. The interface and gameplay are
similar in style to Rogue, ADOM, Angband and, of course, Nethack. You
control the actions through the keyboard and view the world from an overhead
perspective. The changes in 0.0.7E7F2-3 version where adding experimental
GNU autoconf support and splitting GTK interface into a separate package.
Eclipse 3.2.1 is an Open Source programming compiler that is vendor neutral
and aims to be completely open. One popular use of Eclipse is to program in
Java. Some of the changes include adding eclipse-gcj to depend on eclipse,
reenabling 64bit build patches, and a installed patch thanks to the people
at Fedora Core.
"Tux, of Math Command" ("TuxMath," for short) is an educational arcade game
starring Tux, the Linux mascot! Based on the classic arcade game "Missile
Command," Tux must defend his cities. In this case, though, he must do it by
solving math problems. Updates in the 1.0.1-1 version are two simple
bugfixes, documentation updates and freedesktop.org standarization.
GNUMail is a clone of NeXT/Apple's excellent Mail.app application. It uses
the GNUstep development framework (or Apple Cocoa, which is based on the
OpenStep specification provided by NeXT, Inc.). Changes in the
1.2.0~2-1version include: Performance of the maildir code has been
greatly improved,
network I/O code has been optimized on GNUstep and examples of POP3 and SMTP
have been updated.
Linux on Screen Reader was updated to verison lsr 0.3.2-0ubuntu1. Linux on
Screen Reader or LSR is an open source effort to offer accessibility options
for the GNOME desktop. This release is almost exclusively to make public the
change of license for LSR. The new license is the BSD license to make the
project GPL compliant. Some users have reported problems installing lsr,
please see https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/lsr/+bug/75865 and
attempt to confirm if you have some time.
=== Server ===
Samba 3.0.23 provides file and print services to all manner of SMB/CIFS
clients, including the numerous versions of Microsoft Windows operating
systems. In this release of samba is mainly focused on cleaning up Group and
User functions (only unmapped user and group accounts are affected). This
release no longer accepts multiple passdb backends in a chained
configuration. Also be aware that the SQL and XML based passdb modules have
been removed.
PHP is a very well known, widely-used general-purpose scripting language
that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.
This is a pretty exciting jump in new features which include JSON extension
was added and enabled by default, ZIP extension for creating and editing zip
files and New memory manager for the Zend Engine.
Overall their where more then 200 bug fixes and some overflows in various
functions. A more complete report can be found at:
http://www.php.net/releases/5_2_0.php
Bazaar 0.13 is a distributed version control system. There priorities are to
be safe, friendly, free and fast, and to support Windows, Linux, UNIX and
the Mac OS. This release fixes a number of bugs. Some highlights include
ongoing effort on the smart server, improvements to dealing with branches
via http (more robust range handling, keepalive) and extending the help
system to be able to deal with topics that aren't commands.
spamassassin 3.1.7 is a widely used spam filter developed by the Apache
Foundation. This release is a "quick-fix" release; it contains only a fix
for one bug, "5119: if admins had set rule scores in the site configuration
in/etc, sa-update would fail. Back out this change."
The infamous no-ip client, which allows you to update the ip for your
doamins provided by no-ip.com automatically (useful for servers that have
dynamic ip address), was brought up to the latest version, 2.1.3, by Raphael
Pinson. This release includes a few bug fixs.
Apache Tomcat 5.5.20-2 is the servlet container that is used in the official
Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages
technologies. This upgrade is mainly focused on minor bugs and security
enhancements.
=== Call for installer developers ===
Colin Watson has been maintaining maintaining the Ubuntu installer (d-i and
later also ubiquity) for a couple of years now, largely solo although with
help in places from Fabio, Tollef, Jonathan, and others. It's getting to the
point where it's not going to be sustainable for him to keep on doing all of
this by himself. So this is a call for anyone interested in helping out in
the project. The good thing is that you don't have to have a grasp of the
whole of the Ubuntu installer as it stands at the moment; it's fairly
modular, so it should be possible to dive into a specific area without
worrying too much about the rest of it. You will need to know POSIX shell
scripting and C to some level, and if you want to work on Ubiquity you'll
need to know Python.
More information can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallerDevelopment and
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2006-December/023037.html
See https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-installer/ to join the mailing
list.
== In the Press ==
=== Ubuntu: King of Distros for 2006 ===
Ubuntu has been crowned "King Distro for 2006" by Google Trends and
Distrowatch:
"According to Google Trends, but also according to Distrowatch, our own
statistics here at OSNews and overall sense of the industry during 2006,
Ubuntu has a big leap in mind share ahead of its competition (please note
that we don't dare to say "market share", although we are pretty confident
that it's the most used Linux desktop out there today)."
Read the full article at
http://www.osnews.com/story.php/16681/Ubuntu-King-of-Distros-for-2006/
=== Ubuntu Cookies ===
A bit late, but tasty none the less!
"It doesn't really surprise me that the best Linux distribution also has
the logo that translates into the best sugar cookie. Let's face it: Ubuntu
is one sweet distro. I apologize now to Canonical Ltd. for unauthorized use
of their logo. Let's hope that in the spirit of Ubuntu, they will be as
awesome in their forgiveness as they are in their flavor of Linux."
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/files/2006/12/ubcookies.jpg
Get the recipe at http://blog.josephhall.com/2006/11/sugar-cookies.html
=== Art production and the open source paradigm ===
Jozsef Mak is a graphic designer who lives in the Montreal area. He has been
involved with the Xubuntu/Ubuntu art projects since the release of Dapper,
and is currently coordinating the Xubuntu artwork efforts. Mak, in an
article on NewsForge, shares with us his opinion on Art production and the
open source paradigm.
"Art production in an open source environment is more of a challenge than
most people think. I know this from my experience in the Ubuntu interface
design project in past few years. It has become clear to me that it is
impossible to produce high quality visual content in an environment that is
lacking coordination. That insight prompted me to investigate other models
that could be adopted and used in the open source context. I found the
commercial agency to be one of the most efficient and productive models that
I can recommend for adaptation, thanks to one single factor -- art
direction. Art direction assures the unity and consistency that are the main
characteristics of professional artwork."
Read the full article at:
http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/12/06/1739233.shtml?tid=132
=== Mark Shuttleworth's letter to openSUSE ===
On Friday 24 Nov 2006, Mark Shuttleworth (SABDFL), the founder of Ubuntu,
wrote an open letter to the developers of the OpenSUSE linux distribution
calling on developers that are concerned about the long term effects of
Novell's recent pact with Microsoft to come join the Ubuntu Linux project.
This caused quite a stir not only in the OpenSUSE community but resulted in
a storm of news articles, blog posts, mailing list posts, and satirical
copy-cat letters.
Here are some links to press coverage and blog posts about Mark's OpenSUSE
email:
==== Press ====
*
http://osnews.com/story.php/16562/Mark-Shuttleworth-Entices-OpenSUSE-Developers
* http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/26/0152225.shtml
* http://community.linux.com/community/06/11/25/028237.shtml?tid=12&tid=96
* http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/7486/997/1/1/
* http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7246655736.html
==== Blog Posts ====
*
http://andreasjaeger.blogspot.com/2006/11/ubuntus-open-week-and-opensuse.html
* http://www.suseblog.com/?p=165
*
http://daniel.molkentin.de/blog/index.php?/archives/58-Ubuntus-Quest-for-OpenSUSE-Developers.html
* http://www.advogato.org/person/Burgundavia/diary.html?start=113
* http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/81
* http://www.mdke.org/?p=66
* http://robitaille.wordpress.com/2006/11/26/various-things/
* http://jonathancarter.co.za/?p=62
* http://blogs.ubuntu-nl.org/dennis/2006/11/26/thank-you-steven/
* http://mindwarp.net/?p=39
* http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/82
==== Mailing list posts ====
* http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg03765.html
* http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg03788.html
* http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg03777.html
* https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2006-November/022578.html
== Upcoming Meetings & Events ==
* LoCo Team Meeting - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/669
* Community Council Meeting - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/668
* Edubuntu Meeting - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/661
* Ubuntu Development Team Meeting - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/658
* Technical Board Meeting - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/665
== Community spotlight ==
This week we will be looking at the ubuntu-bugs team. The people in the
Ubuntu Bug Squad team work tirelessly to make Ubuntu a better place by
keeping track of all the bugs in the Ubuntu Distribution and making sure
that major bugs don't go unnoticed by the developers.
The Ubuntu Bug Squad:
* triage bugs;
* works with users;
* works with developers;
* works with upstream;
* improves the wiki to reflect best information for debugging; and
* spreads the very contagious huggy, cheery atmosphere.
Simon Law (sfllaw), leader of the BugSquad and Ubuntu Quality Assurance
teams, had the following to say:
"The Ubuntu BugSquad are a group of volunteers who work tirelessly to
manage and track the hundreds of bug reports submitted every day. Ubuntu is
a big project with a lot of users, so the BugSquad's efforts are vital to
our success. Think of them as the first-response team for quality assurance.
They're the people who process the new reports and work with users to
categorize and sort them. Preparing high-quality bug reports is essential
work, so that software developers can fix the most important bugs first, and
fix them quickly.
As the head of Quality Assurance for Ubuntu, my responsibility is to foster
and grow the BugSquad. I pitch in to triage bugs every day. But I also
lead classes, guide people in triaging, and write tutorials and
documentation."
Interested in helping out? Joining in is easy! There are in fact no
requirements for joining the team. You don't need to be an expert on
packaging or programming - just a love for Ubuntu. Working with the Bug
Squad on bug triage is an excellent way to help contribute back to Ubuntu!
"The best way to get involved is to jump right in! The BugSquad web page
describes all the requirements for joining: you have to love Ubuntu. Start
by creating a Launchpad account and then you can begin doing useful work.
Then join the #ubuntu-bugs IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. There are
always people who are willing to answer questions and offer friendly advice.
We'd love to see you there."
"One way to get started is by participating in an UbuntuHugDay (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuHugDay). That's when the BugSquad gets
together to hunt down certain classes of bugs. The IRC channel becomes abuzz
with activity and it's the perfect time to chip in. Plus, if you triage a
bug, we're more than happy to give you a virtual hug."
Read more about the Ubuntu Bugsquad and how to get involved at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
"Helping in the Ubuntu community is an easy way to give back to your
favorite distribution. The BugSquad is one place where anyone of any
experience can help out! Whether you've just started with Ubuntu or you're
an expert with some free time, there's something to do. Don't be shy!
We're a friendly bunch."
== Updates and security for 6.06 and 6.10 ==
=== Security Updates for 6.06 LTS and 6.10 ===
* USN-390-2: evince vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-390-2
* USN-390-3: evince-gtk vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-390-3
* USN-393-1: GnuPG vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-393-1
* USN-393-2: GnuPG2 vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-393-2
* USN-394-1: Ruby vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-394-1
=== Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===
* gcl 2.6.7-14ubuntu2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2006-December/012324.html
=== Ubuntu 6.10 Updates ===
* openoffice.org 2.0.4-0ubuntu3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008100.html
* gnome-vfs2 2.16.1-0ubuntu4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008101.html
* xorg 1:7.1.1ubuntu6.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008102.html
* gnome-system-tools 2.15.5-0ubuntu4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008103.html
* gimp 2.2.13-1ubuntu3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008104.html
* gtk+2.0 2.10.6-0ubuntu3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008105.html
* gnome-games 1:2.16.1-0ubuntu3
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008106.html
* libgnomeprintui 2.12.1-4ubuntu2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008107.html
* wlassistant 0.5.5-0ubuntu3.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008108.html
* kdebase 4:3.5.5-0ubuntu3.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008109.html
* vino 2.16.0-0ubuntu2.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008110.html
* vino 2.16.0-0ubuntu2.3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2006-December/008111.html
== Bug Stats ==
* Open (20534) +211 over last week
* Critical (20) +0 over last week
* Unconfirmed (10762) +28 over last week
* Unassigned (15457) +21 over last week
* All bugs ever reported (67656) +758 over last week
As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please
see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs
Check out the bug statistics: http://people.ubuntu-in.org/~carthik/bugstats/
== UWN 26: A sneak peek ==
Looking forward to next week, you can expect the following in the next
edition of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter:
* Coverage of the Ubuntu Community Council meeting;
* Ubuntu Marketing Team - What is it, Who is it, and how do you join; and
* much more!
== 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:
* Cody Somerville
* Jenda Vančura
* Corey Burger
* Toby Smithe
* Martin Albisetti
* Freddy Martinez
* Melissa Draper
* And many others
== Feedback ==
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 at lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other
methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team Contact Information Page (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam).
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