Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #48
Martin Albisetti
beuno at ubuntu.com
Mon Jul 16 03:35:40 BST 2007
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #48 for the week July
8th - July 14th, 2007. In this issue we cover the imminent release of
the next Gutsy Gibbon alpha release, Tribe 3. Mark Shuttleworth also
brings us some some fresh open alternatives with Gobuntu and a
proposal for a pure free-software-only laptop, the Launchpad people
have released and open sources their first component, Scribes Team is
highlighted for the hard work, and much much more.
* Deutsch - Start one!
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* Español - Start one!
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* Français - Start one!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue48/Fr
* Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana
* Português - Start one!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue48/Pt
== In This Issue ==
* Gutsy Tribe 3 expected this week
* Gobuntu, free-flavored version launched
* Willing to buy a free-software-only laptop?
* Launchpad unleashes a Storm
* Interview of the Week with Jerome Gotangco
* In The Press and In the Blogosphere
* Team of the week: Scribes Team
* New weekly Translation stats!
* Bug Stats
== General Community News ==
=== Gutsy Tribe 3 expected this week ===
The Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 3 release, the 3rd alpha release in the
development cycle for the 7.10 release should come out on Thursday of
this week, the 19th. In anticipation of this release, Sarah Hobbs
reminds developers to go squash bugs. The Marketing Team is also
looking for volunteers with their Tribe 3 release page, which can be
found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/Tribe3
=== Gobuntu launched ===
Mark Shuttleworth has announced the creation of a completely Free
flavour of Ubuntu, called Gobuntu in his blog this week. He said it
will contain no non-free firmware, binary drivers or similar non-free
material, including content. The first test cd is out now and it is
expected that Gobuntu will be released alongside all the other
flavours of Ubuntu, such as Kubuntu and Edubuntu with the upcoming
7.10 release. You can read more at
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/130 and download the first
test iso at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/gobuntu/daily/current/
=== Willing to buy a free-software-only laptop? ===
Mark Shuttleworth blogs this week:
"With projects like Gobuntu and gNewSense aiming to provide a platform
that is zealous about free software, the obvious question is "where
can I run it?". And right now, as far as laptops go, there are no good
answers. Pretty much any laptop you can buy today needs some sort of
non-free bits to make the most of its hardware, putting you in the
tricky position of having to choose between hardware usefulness and
software freedom.". A wiki page has been started to sketch out the
components and specifications for a laptop that would meet the
requirements: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreeSoftwareLaptop and read the
whole post at: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/131
== New in Gutsy Gibbon ==
=== GPG and S/MIME signing and encryption in Kmail ===
Kmail/Kontact will now install all required dependencies for e-mail
signing and encryption. For new installations/users Gnupg will be
configured to support this (existing users will still need to
configure Gnupg to use-agent). Details are available in the community
documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KMailGPGAgent.
== Launchpad News ==
=== Launchpad unleashes a Storm ===
Canonical announced the release of the first open source component of
Launchpad, Storm, a generic open source object relational mapper (ORM)
for Python. Storm is designed to support communication with multiple
databases simultaneously.
"Storm is an ORM that simplifies the development of database-backed
applications in Python, especially for projects that use very large
databases or multiple databases with a seamless web front-end", said
Gustavo Niemeyer, lead developer of Storm at Canonical. "Storm is
particularly designed to feel very natural to Python programmers, and
exposes multiple databases as stores in a clean and easy to use
fashion."
The Storm project welcomes participation, and has a new website at
http://storm.canonical.com. That site includes a tutorial, and links
to allow developers to download, report bugs and join the mailing
list.
== Interview of the Week ==
This week we interview Jerome Gotangco, member of the Ubuntu Community Council.
UWN Reporter: '''Since when have you been member of the Ubuntu community?'''
Jerome Gotangco: ''I could say I've been formally part of it since
early 2005 but I have been a regular user since 2004 and started
contributing by the end of that year.''
UWN: '''What do you think the next year will look like for Ubuntu?'''
JG: ''There have been many sub-projects within Ubuntu that is slowly
gaining momentum and I believe these sub-projects like Upstart, the
always improving Gnome-App-Install, Ubuntu Mobile, the revived Server
initiatives among others will further establish the Ubuntu project as
a whole, as a major factor in free and open source usage and
development.''
UWN: '''What do you think can be improved in the Ubuntu community?'''
JG: ''There have been many improvements within the Ubuntu community
for the past 2 years, but if there is one thing that can be improved
greatly is the relationship between the general Ubuntu community and
the business backer which is Canonical. While there has been work to
get community involved with a lot of things deep within the
development of Ubuntu, there are still certain areas that need
clarification on where the lines between community and business
interests are vague. Fortunately, Mark (being the SABDFL) has been
very open within us in the Council on how some areas of business will
work with community and vise-versa. It's still a work in progress, but
we expect to have something more solid in the coming weeks. Also note
that non-Canonical employed Community Council members are now the
majority compared before, so we're taking this one step at a time.''
UWN: '''What are you most active in the community?'''
JG: ''I'm mostly involved with translation and bug triage now, but a
year or two ago, I used to be very active in Edubuntu and the
Philippine Local Community Team. Sadly, my new work has made me so
busy, but I'm glad to say that my current career is one that involves
R&D with Open Source as the development model (usually under Apache
License 2.0) and an Apache project nonetheless, so hopefully we can
make things easier for Ubuntu users in the coming months. However I
still do test snapshots especially when its close to release and that
is one of the very very good ways to contribute back to any free
software or open source project - test, test and test!''
== In The Press ==
* "Kubuntu - easily the best operating system from the Linux stable"
says Times of India - Saying that while there is a lot of talk about
Vista and OS X, more people should look into the many improvements
made to the Linux operating systems in the past few years. They point
out that Kubuntu is easy to install, has a great multimedia player in
Amarok, and other features such as Katapult and AdeptManager. They are
also eager to point out that while there are around 60,000 know virus
threats to Windows, only around 40 are known for Linux, and most of
those are in the laboratory and not widespread. So Anti-Virus programs
are unnecessary.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/City_Supplements/Bombay_Times/Time_for_a_switch_/articleshow/2162152.cms
* "First Open Source component of Launchpad!" On July 9, 2007
Canonical Ltd announced the release of Storm, an object relational
mapper or ORM for Python. This generic open source mapper is designed
to support communications with multiple databases simultaneously, and
is the first open source component of Canonical's development program,
better known as Launchpad. Development took more than a year and is
now publicly available under the LGPL license. Steve Alexander,
Launchpad Product Manager at Canonical says that Storm's API is clear
and well designed, making it a joy to work with. The ability to scale
Storm's architecture are important to ensure that Launchpad continues
to grow in proportion to the number of Launchpad users, which now
numbers in the tens of thousands of developers, translators and other
free software contributors. The Storm project has a new web site here:
[http://storm.canonical.com Storm] and includes a tutorial and links
to downloads, bug reporting and of course the mailing list.
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/storm-python-orm-open-sourced
* Implemented from Dell's Ideastrom: Ubuntu Dell is Le$$ Than Windows
Dell Similarly equipped Dell Insprion 1420 notebooks, one loaded with
the Ubuntu operating system and the other loaded with Vista, show a
price difference of $50. The Ubuntu model is priced at $774 and the
Vista model at $824. The Dell ideastorm was implemented to get input
from the public on what they wanted to see from Dell. The response was
that more of us wanted to see the option of Ubuntu as an operating
system instead of Windows.
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/66879/Implemented_Ubuntu_Dell_is_50_Less_Than_Windows_Dell#
* Ubuntu: Taking Over the Linux World! As submitted by Matt Hartley
in madpenguin, it's going to be an Ubuntu future. While he likes other
distros, the numbers show that Ubuntu has won the hearts of the common
users. The three closest competitors are Debian, Fedora and SuSE, but
he questions whether they are moving forward at a quick enough pace to
keep up with Ubuntu. And even though Ubuntu hasn't gotten everything
right, it has completely eclipsed the competition as a user friendly
desktop alternative. http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7951
* Ubuntu is built with proprietary software! But Ubuntu is open
source, right? Jem Matzan of The Jem Report tells us that most of
Ubuntu is, but there are small parts that are not. Proprietary
hardware drivers are necessary no matter what hardliners tend to say.
But one thing that stands out as hypocritical, to this author, is the
Ubuntu stance on it's developments tools known as Launchpad, which are
proprietary. To make money and protect against others developing a
private or modified version is, according to the author, a sanguine
viewpoint. http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/325/
* Chief Executive Officer of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, has
announced the availability of a test version of Gobuntu. This new
version from Ubuntu will be free of proprietary software such as video
drivers that until now were needed to enable accelerated 3D graphics.
In is blog he calls for developers who are interested in pushing the
limits of content and code freedom to join the team. Identifying where
to separate the pieces that don't belong in Gobuntu, from the standard
Ubuntu build, will be one of the teams first tasks.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9743019-7.html?tag=nefd.blog
* Totally "free" Ubuntu? That's the plan for Gobuntu. Shirl Kennedy
of linux.com writes that on his blog, Mark Shuttleworth who founded
Ubuntu, announced a new "freedom-focused flavor of Ubuntu". The goal
will be to deliver an operating system that is devoid of any
proprietary software. Shuttleworth's blog calls for developers who are
interested in pushing the limits of content and code freedom,
including firmware, content, and authoring infrastructure, to join the
team. The initial focus of the team will be to work on hardware
drivers that are in many cases closed source in the standard Ubuntu
builds. While some in the Ubuntu community are skeptical, Mark
Shuttleworth says that he sees Gobuntu becoming more distinct from
Ubuntu as the project evolves. http://www.linux.com/feature/117562
* A brief review of Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 Tribe 2 by Seopher.com says
that although he received some error messages during install, the end
result was a smooth and sexy installation. Something he has come to
expect from Ubuntu releases. Video codecs and internet connectivity,
also got a thumbs up. He goes on to state that the new Xorg. 7.3
should support monitors on a plug and play basis, thus simpliflying
the process of multiply monitor setups. Like most people, Seopher is
really looking forward to the inclusion of Comp-Fusion, the 3D desktop
that comes from the merger of Compiz and Beryl.
http://www.seopher.com/articles/preliminary_review_ubuntu_7_10_gutsy_gibbon_alpha_2
* Steven Vaughan-Nichols of eWeek.com writes that a recent pricing
oversight by Dell caused an outrage by Ubuntu Linux buyers. It seems
that a price comparison of the Ispiron 1420 laptops showed the Ubuntu
version was $225 more than the same laptop with Vista Home Basic
Edition. The week before Dell had announced that the Ubuntu systems
would be $50 cheaper than similar Vista systems. A Dell spokesman
stated that the problem occurred when they offered several free
upgrades with the Vista System and didn't adjust the Ubuntu system to
correspond with this free offer. He also said Dell would reset the
pricing to reflect the appropriate levels.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2158045,00.asp
* According to Alexander Wolfe of Information Week, the argument that
Linux is really better than Windows, is a myth that should be filed
under the heading of 'urban legend'. He goes on to state that while
Linux has most if not all of the key business apps necessary for the
transition, the configuration and maintenance needed are simply to
difficult for the average person to deal with. That Windows is good,
or at least good enough, is a compelling argument for not making the
transition according to Wolfe. He links another article he authored
titled [http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JSJREARPLE5PWQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=201000451
Ubuntu Linux's Achilles' Heel: It's Tough To Install On Laptops]. In
that article, he devotes 5 pages to the trials and tribulations of
trying to install Ubuntu on a Dell laptop.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/ubuntu_aftermat.html
* A rating of 7.3, or very good, was what Robert Vamosi of CNET gave
Ubuntu 7.04 in a software review published by zdnet. His verdict
states that while this Ubuntu version is a great leap forward for
Linux, and a wonderful operating system, many day to day users will
still have problems with the incompatibility of certain popular
software applications. On the pro side of the equation, he states that
being free, the ability to read and save Windows or Mac office files
and the preinstalled applications for web browsing, multimedia, VoIP
and OpenOffice weigh heavily in Ubuntu's favor. On the con side, the
inability to run some of the most popular software applications,
experimental 3D desktop effects, wireless and web cam driver problems
and inconsistent day to day reliability on their desktop machine were
problems. http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/os/0,1000001098,39288016,00.htm
== In The Blogosphere ==
* Ubuntu Member - Aaron Toponce, gives us a helping hand at managing
IRC Client irssi, which is a very powerful command line IRC Client.
Aaron has adapted a script that helps him more easily control of his
op functions in IRC Channels. This script uses alias to help simplify
op commands in irssi. He hopes that others will help him extend the
script to make it more useful. If you are a IRC Channel op, who uses
irssi, you should should be sure to follow the link to Aaron's blog
and consider bookmarking it since it is very informative.
[http://www.pthree.org/2007/07/11/irssi-chanserv-and-nickserv-helper-aliases/
irssi script by Aaron Toponce]
* Ubuntu Member - Steve Stalcup (aka Vorian), brings us installation
instructions on the newest and greatest in 3D desktops, Comp-Fusion.
Comp-Fusion is the merger between Compiz and Beryl and will be a
feature in the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon release. But who wants to wait,
when you can have it now! I've been using Comp-Fusion and Vorian's
repositories for a couple of weeks now, and it is solid on my machine.
So, if you can't wait, click on the link below to visit Steve's blog
(don't forget to bookmark it!) and start having some fun.
[http://vorian.org/?p=82 The Machine Crusade - Comp-Fusion - By Steve
Stalcup]
== Developer News ==
Daniel Holbach reminded all package uploaders of the requirements for
uploading completely new source packages, saying that the archive
admins, who process new packages are quite pleased with the overall
quality and that license and copyright issues were among the biggest
issues. You can read the full requirements at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewPackageRequirements
Lucas Nussbaum, a MOTU and a Debian Developer, asked on ubuntu-devel
if bug reporters from Ubuntu to Debian could tag with a BTS (the
Debian bug tracking system) usertag. He mentioned that it would help
remedy the concern that "Ubuntu never submits patches" and "Debian
never merges Ubuntu patches" as these things could be tracked.
Further, it would provide a "soft incentive", according to Lucas, for
Ubuntu to contribute back to Debian. You can read the full proposal at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucasNussbaum/UsertaggingBugsReportedToDebian
Daniel Holbach further reported on a new tool for maintaining packages
in bzr, called bzr-unpack, which allows the packager to change files
and then have the changes automatically created into a /debian
directory. You can read more about how to use it at
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2007-July/023948.html
== Meetings and Events ==
=== Monday, July 16, 2007 ===
==== Forum Council Meeting ====
* Start: 22:00 UTC
* End: 23:59 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda Forum Council Agenda]
=== Tuesday, July 17, 2007 ===
==== Ubuntu Server Team ====
* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting Server Team Agenda]
==== Technical Board Meeting ====
* Start: 19:00 UTC
* End: 21:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda Technical Board Agenda]
=== Wednesday, July 18, 2007 ===
==== Edubuntu Meeting ====
* Start: 20:00 UTC
* End: 22:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: [https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda Edubuntu Agenda]
=== Thursday, July 19, 2007 ===
==== Ubuntu Development Team Meeting ====
* Start: 20:00 UTC
* End: 22:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: No agenda set as of this publication
=== Saturday, July 27, 2007 ===
==== Ubuntu US Teams Meeting ====
* Start: 16:00 UTC
* End: 18:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us
* Agenda: No agenda set as of this publication
== Community Spotlight ==
== Team of the week: Scribes Team ==
The aim of the Scribes Team is to help augment and enhance the
archiving of Ubuntu community meetings/events, and provide summaries
of meetings in a consistent and concise format. They work to make easy
summaries from available irc logs, and create central repository of
all logs and summaries.
The Scribes Team has developed "Mootbot", which was designed as a
Chairperson for meetings. A chairperson can flag parts of the meeting
for specific topics, actions, and agreed resolutions, which will be
outputted into a HTML, Plaintext, or Wiki Formatted document to enable
easier browsing of the IRC chat logs.
They need more help, so if you have some spare time, check out their
launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-scribes
== Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04 ==
=== Security Updates ===
* [USN-480-1] Gimp vulnerability -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-July/000553.html
* [USN-481-1] ImageMagick vulnerabilities -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-July/000554.html
* [USN-482-1] OpenOffice.org vulnerability -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-July/000555.html
=== Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===l
* kvirc 2:3.2.0-5ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012444.html
* gimp 2.2.11-1ubuntu3.3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012445.html
* iptables 1.3.3-2ubuntu4.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012446.html
* imagemagick 6:6.2.4.5-0.6ubuntu0.6 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012447.html
* openoffice.org-amd64 2.0.2-2ubuntu12.4-1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012448.html
* openoffice.org 2.0.2-2ubuntu12.4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012449.html
* libnet-dns-perl 0.53-2ubuntu1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012450.html
=== Ubuntu 6.10 Updates ===
* kvirc 2:3.2.4-3ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008352.html
* gimp 2.2.13-1ubuntu3.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008353.html
* iptables 1.3.5.0debian1-1ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008354.html
* imagemagick 7:6.2.4.5.dfsg1-0.10ubuntu0.3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008355.html
* tinymux 2.4.2.27-1ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008356.html
* openoffice.org 2.0.4-0ubuntu6 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008357.html
* libnet-dns-perl 0.57-1ubuntu1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008358.html
=== Ubuntu 7.04 Updates ===
* kvirc 2:3.2.4-5ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008646.html
* gimp 2.2.13-1ubuntu4.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008647.html
* iptables 1.3.6.0debian1-5ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008648.html
* gnochm 0.9.9-0ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008649.html
* imagemagick 7:6.2.4.5.dfsg1-0.14ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008650.html
* tinymux 2.4.3.31-1ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008651.html
* python-scientific 2.4.11-1build1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008652.html
* openoffice.org 2.2.0-1ubuntu4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008653.html
* libnet-dns-perl 0.59-1build1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008654.html
== Bug Stats ==
* Open (30531) +166 # over last week
* Critical (23) -1 # over last week
* Unconfirmed (15145) +162 # over last week
* Unassigned (22785) +183 # over last week
* All bugs ever reported (109445) +1622 # over last week
As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started,
please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs
== Translation Stats ==
1. Spanish (26816) +0 # over last week
2. French (38825) +0 # over last week
3. Swedish (54498) +0 # over last week
4. English(UK) (60225) +0 # over last week
5. German (63107) +0 # over last week
Remaining string to translate in Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", see more
at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/
== 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:
* Martin Albisetti
* John Crawford
* And many others
== RSS ==
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