Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #50
Martin Albisetti
beuno at ubuntu.com
Mon Jul 30 07:03:33 BST 2007
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #50 for the week July
21st - July 27th, 2007. In this issue we cover Canonical seeking help
with training courses, last call for Software Freedom Day
registrations, a call to arms for US Lo``Co teams, new Drag & Drop
Gnome tabs, new Launchpad features, and much much more.
* Deutsch - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/De
* Español - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/Es
* Français - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/Fr
* Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana
* Português - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/Pt
== In This Issue ==
* Canonical seeks community help on training courses
* Last call for Software Freedom Day registrations
* US Lo``Co Teams Need Your Help - A Call To Arms!
* Drag & Drop Gnome Application Tabs
* Launchpad 1.1.7 and Personal Package Archives
* In The Press and In the Blogosphere
* Translation stats
* Bug Stats
== General Community News ==
=== Canonical seeks community help on training courses ===
This coming fall Canonical is working to launch some training courses
and wants community help to make it rock! The Desktop Training
material will be freely available on the Ubuntu wiki although
initially developed by Canonical. A preliminary table of contents for
this instructor led course is already available and it and more
information can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training/DesktopCourseFeedback.
=== Last call for Software Freedom Day registrations ===
Software Freedom Day on September 15 is fast approaching and Melissa
Draper reminds everybody that the deadline for individuals and teams
to receive free materials, July 31st, is fast approaching. The free
pack includes cds of Ubuntu and TheOpenCD, tshirts, balloons and more.
For those teams wishing to get going, see the guide at
http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide.
== LoCo News ==
=== US LoCo Teams Need Your Help - A Call To Arms! ===
The goal of the US Lo``Co Teams is to have a team in every state by
2008, and they need your help to accomplish this. They need users of
all abilities to help form, run, and participate in the US Team
Project. Everyone is qualified and welcome. They've come a long way,
but it is up to the Ubuntu Community to help bring this project in on
time. If you live in the US and are an Ubuntu user, please take the
time to find out the status of your state's team by visiting the link
below. If you have other questions, please join us in the IRC Channel
#ubuntu-us, the server is irc.freenode.net. Everyone wants Ubuntu to
be the Operating System of choice, and here is your chance to help
bring that about. Join all those already participating and having a
great time doing it! w00t (we own the other team), lets make it
happen. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams/TeamList
== New in Gutsy Gibbon ==
=== Drag & Drop Gnome Application Tabs - Xchat Logs in Dialogs ===
Drag and Drop Gnome application tabs now a feature in Gutsy Gibbon.
Have you ever wanted to rearrange the order of the applications open
in your window list. Now you can! It works much the same as moving
your tab order in Firefox. The second new feature has to do with
Xchat, the IRC chat client. When you open a dialog that has been
opened previously, you get a small summary of the previous exchange.
No more using grep to access your logs to find out where you were in
the conversation. http://www.geekosophical.net/?p=140
== Launchpad News ==
Last week saw the release of Launchpad 1.1.7 with a raft of new
features, including some of particular interest to the Ubuntu
community:
* Frequently Asked Questions in the Answer Tracker: answer contacts
can now mark frequently asked questions and create a canonical answer
that is available to anyone using the Answer Tracker. (See the
quick-start guide:
https://help.launchpad.net/FrequentlyAskedQuestions)
* Teams can now set their default language: teams can become an
answer contact for a specific language.
* Larger font size: visit launchpad.net and you'll see that we've
increased the size of the text used on the site, making it easier to
read Launchpad's default text size.
With the release 1.1.7, a major new feature entered beta testing.
Personal Package Archives (PPA) allow you to build and publish binary
packages for multiple architectures simply by uploading a source
package to Launchpad. Each PPA beta tester gets:
* An APT repository of up to 1 gigabyte for material licensed with an
OSI-approved licence.
* Binaries built for x86 and AMD64 architectures.
To join the PPA beta, see the PPA quick-start guide:
https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart
As ever, the Launchpad team would love to hear from you. Join them and
other Launchpad users on the launchpad-users mailing list:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/launchpad-users
== In The Press ==
* "Canonical launches Web-based systems management for Ubuntu" -
Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced
on July 22 at the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Ore., the
availability of Landscape, its Web-based systems management program
for Ubuntu servers and desktops.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9110241259.html
* Mini VAR Case Study: Ubuntu Linux in K-12 School - Ubuntu and Open
Source have been rolled out in a Portland Hight School. Sixty students
and five instructors have laptops featuring Ubuntu. Open``Sourcery
chose to use System76 as it's hardware platform. Requirements were: a
comprehensive office suite, web access and browsing, Google Earth
support and, video/sound editing abilities. The students loved using
this system, but some of the teachers had issues. Bottom line was that
it saved untold amounts of money and only generated 15 trouble tickets
in the nine months of use.
http://techiqmag.com/2007/07/22/var-case-study-ubuntu-linux-in-k-12-school/
* Ubuntu Launches Update Service for Support Subscribers - Available
to Canonical's support subscribers, Landscape provides a key tool for
the growing number of businesses that want to take advantage of the
ease of use of Ubuntu and have previously seen system administration
or support as a hurdle. Landscape was developed to help manage,
monitor and maintain enterprise systems while at the same time
reducing the cost of overhead. Key features include: package
management, system updates, system inventory, system history, and
performance reporting to name but a few.
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/linux/10841/ubuntu-launches-update-service-support-subscribers
* Canonical Creates Personal Package Archive Service for Ubuntu -
Canonical has announced the beta release of the Launchpad Personal
Package Archive service (PPA), a new way for developers to build and
publish packages of their code, documentation, artwork, themes and
other contributions to free software. PPA will allow groups to
collaborate on sets of packages, or individual developers to publish
their own versions of popular free software. Each user will get up to
one gigabyte of PPA space. This space will work as a standard Ubuntu
software package repository. Please visit the link to find out more
about the PPA service from this indepth article.
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/application/10842/canonical-creates-personal-package-archive-service-ubuntu
* Singapore Charity Uses Edubuntu desktops for Computer Lab - The
Singapore Linux Meetup Group has joined with Club Rainbow to set up a
computer learning lab for the terminally ill children of Singapore.
SLMG members collected donated hardware and then refurbished the
computers themselves. Edubuntu was chosen as the operating system for
the computers. The lab is comprised of a HP server which is the
network gateway, and 10 desktops with multimedia installed for the
children to explore with. Training for the staff and a fun filled
intro to Edubuntu and Linux for the children will also be included.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-marketing-submissions/2007-July/000046.html
* Ubuntu Targets IT in Coming Year - In the coming months, Canonical
LTD plans to focus on its server software for many of its system
improvements. Landscape will help IT administrators evaluate and
manage the condition of their servers. Improving Ubuntu's performance
while running on VMware will also be a focus. Administrators will then
be able to run many instances of Ubuntu in a virtual environment on a
single server. As always, luring IT professionals with regular and
predictable enterprise releases, is a must.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9027630&intsrc=news_ts_head
* Blindness To Perceptions Of Average User Is Real Linux Handicap -
After several posts in which he bashes Linux, Alexander Wolfe of
Information Week, is at it again. He thinks that Linux supporters are
more interested in preaching to the converted that in doing the hard
work required to make the open source operating system attractive to
Windows users. It's not about which OS is best, it's about what the
average consumer is comfortable with. And the historic hostility of
the Linux community is another drawback even though the Ubuntu
community is doing a good job of keeping this behavior at bay. Because
of these points, he believes Linux will remain mired in its single
digit desktop market share. Read the whole article including point and
counterpoint by clicking on the link.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/blindness_to_pe.html
* Ubuntu Preparing Managed Services, Small Business Server for VARs -
Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical, is preparing a managed service
platform that will allow VARs and solution providers to remotely
manage Ubuntu based small business servers. This service will be a
standard way for solution providers and system integrators to easily
manage and support servers either locally or remotely. The exact time
frame for the release of this service platform is unknown, but should
be sometime within the next year.
http://techiqmag.com/2007/07/22/ubuntu-preparing-managed-services-small-business-server-for-vars/
* Build a $250 PC That Doesn't Suck - Building a low cost basic
computer that will run todays complex operating systems and software
has become so hard to do that most are obsolete before they get built.
But by picking easy to use off the shelf components, assembling it
yourself, and using the right operating system, everyone should be
able to have a system for $250 or less. This system would be capable
of handling the demands of the average user for a reasonable period of
time. All the hardware components were from Newegg.com. The operating
system picked was Ubuntu because it offered everything needed for the
average computer user at no cost. Get more information by clicking on
the link. http://computershopper.com/feature/build-a-250-pc-that-doesnt-suck-200707
* How Canonical Stays on the Light Side:A Recipe for Staying True to
One's Values - The key according to Ubuntu's founder, Mark
Shuttleworth, is to keep to the core values of the company. Having a
backup plan doesn't hurt either. Enablement of the customer, Ubuntu
users and developers seems to be the drive behind the release of the
Personal Package Archives. Designed as a tool set that allows
developers, whether they work at Ubuntu or not, to build and publish
packages of code, documentation, artwork themes and other
contributions to free software. The hope is that it will better enable
developers of all stripes to easily roll out their own packages and
then quickly distribute them to the Linux community.
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/interviews/6405/1/
* Ubuntu Studio supports serious audio, adds little for video and
graphics - Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and
graphic enthusiast as well as the professional. Exploring this new
version of Ubuntu, you will find dozens of audio editing, mixing and
synthesizing programs, but that is about it. Video and graphic
enthusiasts, targeted by this project, get literally nothing new. It
is hoped that future releases of this version of Ubuntu will mature
and grow with contributions form the community.
http://www.linux.com/feature/118141
* Ubuntu Live needs a more commercial focus - Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
writes that while the Ubuntu Live Conference in Portland was a decent
first effort, it was no where near as polished as Red Hat's annual
meetings. As a result, it left him with a somewhat scattered feeling.
He believes that in order for Ubuntu to survive, it is going to have
to concentrate more on commercial and income building relationships,
similar to what Red Hat has done. You can also watch a Flash Video of
Canonical's Marketing Manager Gerry Carr giving his take on the 1st
Ubuntu Live Conference. http://www.linux.com/feature/118199
* Ubuntu 7.04 - Windows isn't going away anytime soon, but Ubuntu
7.04 is a refreshing Linux-based alternative to Vista. With Vista off
to a slow start, and the facts that it is slow, annoying, and
downright confusing. Ubuntu may be the alternative you're looking for.
Is Ubuntu the right step for you? Mike Spitalieri of Laptop Magazine,
answers this question and many more in his informative look at the
Ubuntu Operating System.
http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/Ubuntu-7-04.htm
* The Next Great Battle - For years, Linux has been either a server
platform, or the desktop of the ultra geek. The message from Portland
is that Linux as a consumer product IS the next great battle. The
perception of Linux being too difficult may change now that vendors
are concentrating their efforts on making their products more user
friendly. Ubuntu has lead the way in this area and is winning fans
with it's easier Linux approach which includes the ability to boot the
live CD without having to install anything. Ubuntu is also developing
a new application that will be aimed at Windows users. It will allow
them to launch a Ubuntu desktop over top of their Windows desktop.
http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2007/07/linux_desktop
* It's all about community at Ubuntu Live - If you weren't at the
Ubuntu Live Conference in Portland, Oregon, then this article is a
must read. Joe Brockmeier of linux.com covers the hotter Keynotes, How
to run Ubuntu on laptops, Tutorials, and the Ubuntu Community. One of
the more interesting items in this article however is the one on the
future of processors. James Reinder of Intel talks about multi core
processors and why they are becoming more and more necessary in todays
computing world. The three determining factors are: power, the memory
wall, and the Instruction Level Parallelism or ILP wall. While todays
processors are dual or quad core chips containing identical cores, the
future will have CPU's with multiple cores where some of the cores are
smaller and could be used for different functions.
http://www.linux.com/feature/118226
* What Do We Really Want From Linux? - Serdar Yegulalp of Information
Week says his position on Linux is much different than his fellow
journalist Alexander Wolfe. He feels that the large number of
distributions of Linux is not a bad thing, but can make it hard to
pick which one is right for you. Having a version of Linux that the
everyday user can feel comfortable with needs to be a goal, but
remaking Linux distributions as a whole is not the way to go about it.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/what_do_we_real.html
* Ten commandments for Ubuntu - As a keynote speaker at Ubuntu Live,
Matt Asay spoke about changing the way we present the Ubuntu Operating
System. Instead of getting into debates about the basic differences in
operating systems, we need to talk more about the operating
experience. Change was the basic concept, and you can see his ideas in
the screen shots and slide show in the link below.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9750516-7.html?tag=more
* Dell to expand Linux PC offerings - Mark Shuttleworth, who created
a version of Linux software named Ubuntu, said Dell is happy with the
demand it has seen for Linux PCs that were introduced in May. -
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070726/dell_linux.html?.v=1
* Why (almost) Everyone Should Try Ubuntu - Rober Strohmeyer, at
Maximum PC, provides two categories of reasons for choosing Ubuntu:
immediate practicality and long-term viability. Ubuntu installs
quickly, recognizes most hardware, hides root so users do not hurt
themselves, and is now available pre-configured from vendors. With an
established set of developers, growing number of supporting vendors,
and a massive base of users, Ubuntu will be here for a long time. Read
more at http://www.maximumpc.com/article/why_almost_everyone_should_try_ubuntu
== In The Blogosphere ==
* Shuttleworth says: Ubuntu Is Enterprise Friendly - Mark
Shuttleworth's keynote at the Ubuntu Live Conference centered on the
fact that the Ubuntu server is capable of bringing the same values of
its desktop version to the server market -- ease of use, performance
and compatibility. With Linux already driving the enterprise market
through thin clients and dedicated systems, Ubuntu needs to maintain
its ability to preform well as a virtual machine. Canonical will
therefore be putting more resources behind Landscape, a web-based
systems management client for small to medium businesses. In his
conclusion, Shuttleworth called for the Linux community to hold
discussions on setting a predictable release schedule for major
distributions to ease collaboration among kernel developers and afford
better stability and support for software developers working on the
platform. http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/shuttleworth-ub.html
* Ubuntu Must Play To Its Strengths To Beat Microsoft - Stephen
O'grady said in his keynote address at the Ubuntu Live Conference that
he wants to help solve Ubuntu's biggest problem: Microsoft. Playing to
Ubuntu's strengths is what will help free software to succeed on the
desktop. Two of Ubuntu's key strengths are apt-get for ease of package
maintenance, and Ubuntu's strong community environment. Things MS has
ignored to date.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/ubuntu-must-pla.html
* Linus Torvalds announces Linux 2.6.23-rc1 - On time and two weeks
after 2.6.22 and with a ton of revisions. It includes updates for most
all of the architectures, drivers, file system's, VM, networking, and
ACPI. It also includes the merge of the cfs scheduler, and the UIO
driver infrastructure. Find out more by clicking the link below.
http://lkmltimes.brucalipto.org/announce/linux-2623-rc1/
* What's New on Ubuntu 7.10 - At the Ubuntu Live Conference in
Portland, Matt Zimmerman of Canonical gave the attendees a look at
what is coming in Ubuntu's 7.10 Gusty Gibbon. Desktop features include
3D desktop right out of the box and multiple monitor configuration. If
you are a laptop user, power profiling features are planned. On the
server side of Gutsy, turn-key Web-based administration via the new
Landscape management tool and a proactive security tool-set named
App-Armor. http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/archives/070723-170755.html
* New Linux computer has 1,024 Dual-Core Processors and 4000 GB of
RAM - NASA's new SGI Altix system is expected to be installed in
August at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at the Ames
Research Center. The new system will be the first supercomputer to
operate 2,048 processor cores and 4TB of memory under a single copy of
Linux(R) -- creating the largest Linux single system image (SSI) in
the world. - http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQM07923072007-1.htm
* A Linux Experience - Having a couple of hours to kill one day,
Lionel decided to download a copy of Ubuntu's Live CD. When everything
worked from the boot, he was intrigued and decided to try the dual
boot option. Needing to run some priority software for his writing, he
did some research and found that Virtual-Box could run everything he
would need. After 45 days of testing, he found that didn't need to
ever boot in to the Windows partition. Now his computer is an Ubuntu
only machine and he is a full time Ubuntu
user.http://www.5thwind.com/?p=12
* Grandpa Gets a Dell with Ubuntu Linux Preinstalled - Follow along
as Tyche(Grandpa) orders, receives and sets up his new Dell Inspiron
530N Desktop Computer preinstallled with Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn.
Tyche has been using Ubuntu for a while, and is quite capable of
handling anything he needs to do on the system, so this is more of a
rating on how a Dell system works out of the box with Ubuntu
preinstalled. The verdict: "I'm very happy with my computer. I feel
the price was reasonable, and the service was good".
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070725085521830
== Meetings and Events ==
=== Sunday, July 29, 2007 ===
==== Georgia US LoCo meeting ====
* Start: 19:00
* End: 20:00
* Location: #ubuntu-georgia
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GeorgiaUSTeam/Meetings
==== Catalan LoCo meeting ====
* Start: 20:00
* End: 21:00
* Location: #ubuntu-cat
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CatalanTeam/Reunions
=== Tuesday July 31, 2007 ===
==== Ubuntu Server Team Meeting ====
* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting
==== Technical Board Meeting ====
* Start: 19:00 UTC
* End: 21:00 UTC
* Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda
== Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04 ==
=== Security Updates ===
* USN-491-1: Bind vulnerability -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-July/000565.html
=== Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===
* bind9 1:9.3.2-2ubuntu1.3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012460.html
* langpack-locales 2.3.18.4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012461.html
=== Ubuntu 6.10 Updates ===
* bind9 1:9.3.2-2ubuntu3.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008370.html
* tzdata 2007f-0ubuntu0.6.10 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008371.html
=== Ubuntu 7.04 Updates ===
* flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.48.0.0ubuntu1~7.04.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008667.html
* kernel-package 10.065ubuntu6 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008668.html
* bind9 1:9.3.4-2ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008669.html
* dbus 1.0.2-1ubuntu4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008670.html
* tzdata 2007f-0ubuntu0.7.4 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008671.html
* vino 2.18.1-0ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008672.html
* gnome-media 2.18.0-0ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008673.html
== Bug Stats ==
* Open (30965) +361 # over last week
* Critical (20) -3 # over last week
* Unconfirmed (15517) +335 # over last week
* Unassigned (23197) +298 # over last week
* All bugs ever reported (111507) +1077 # over last week
As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started,
please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
== Translation Stats ==
1. Spanish (23957) -1961 # over last week
2. French (38762) -5 # over last week
3. Swedish (54406) -86 # over last week
4. English-UK (60165) -45 # over last week
5. German (63046) -61 # 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
* Dawid van Wyngaard
* John Crawford
* Nick Ali
* Corey Burger
* And many others
== RSS ==
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== Feedback ==
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ubuntu-marketing-submissions at lists.ubuntu.com.
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