Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #45

Corey Burger corey.burger at ubuntu.com
Wed Jun 20 04:40:41 BST 2007


Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 45 for the week June
10th - June 16th, 2007. In this issue we cover Mark's debunking a
rumour of a possible Microsoft deal, Gutsy translation opening, an
interview with Matthew East and much more.

'''UWN Translations'''

 * Deutsch - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue45/De
 * Español - Start one!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Es
 * Français - Start one!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Fr
 * Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana
 * Português - Start one!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/IssueXX/Pt

== In This Issue ==

 * Mark debunks rumour of Microsoft patent deal
 * Gutsy translation open
 * New developer forum on ubuntuforums.org
 * Interview with Matthew East, new Community Council member
 * In the Press & In the Blogosphere
 * Upcoming Meetings
 * Bug information
 * Security and updates information

== General Community News ==

=== Mark debunks rumour of Microsoft patent deal ===

Recent rumours that Canonical might be signing a deal with Microsoft,
similar to the patent deal that Novell, Xandros, Linspire and others
have signed, was debunked by Mark this week in his blog. Mark stated,
"We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the
threat of unspecified patent infringements". Speaking further about
the OpenXML spec, he stated having "no confidence in Microsoft's
OpenXML specification to deliver a vibrant, competitive and healthy
market of multiple implementations". However, Mark did not rule out
any future participation with Microsoft provided they "adopt a
position of constructive engagement with the free software community".
You can read the full blog post at
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/127.

=== Gutsy translations are open! ===

If you're an Ubuntu translator, you can get to work on Ubuntu Gutsy
straight away!
Simply visit: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/+translations

Thanks to some great work from the Launchpad Translations team, Ubuntu
translations will now open much earlier in the development cycle.
The Launchpad Translations team can now import new Ubuntu release
translation strings without taking Launchpad offline. This means that
translations for future Ubuntu releases will open as soon as the
Ubuntu developer team is ready.

For more details, please read Matthew Revell's email:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2007-June/001574.html
and the fridge announcement: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1010

=== New Developers forum on ubuntuforums.org ===

We have a new sub-forum on UF: the Dev Link Forum within the current
Development (Gutsy Gibbon) forum.
The rationale is to allow developers to request feedback from the
forum userbase without all the noise.

Developers can start threads, and regular members are welcome to
comment and give feed-back.

Please see the dev sub-forum at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=265 and the "gnash 0.8.0 +
easy-codec-install in gutsy" thread asac started yesterday at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2853762.

You can subscribe to the ubuntuforums.org via RSS at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/cv_rss_feeds.php

Keep it up!

== Interview of the Week ==
This week we interview ''Matthew East'', one of the recently appointed
Community Council members.

UWN reporter: '''Since when have you been member of the Ubuntu community?'''

Matthew East: ''I tried out Ubuntu towards the end of 2004 but didn't
begin to use it as
my main system immediately because I was too hooked on gentoo. In those
days I was a student so had plenty of time to play around with my system
and research/fix problems that arose. Eventually I began to get busier
and needed to spend less time maintaining my computers, so I moved to
Ubuntu. I became involved in the Ubuntu community quite soon after
beginning to use it regularly in around March 2005 as I was drawn into
helping out with the newly born Italian community. Quickly I became
involved in the documentation team as well and became a member in May 2005.''

UWN: '''What do you think the next year will look like for Ubuntu?'''

ME: ''The next year should be quite exciting for Ubuntu. First of all, in
terms of adoption Ubuntu is beginning to flourish and get into the
mainstream news more and more often. Secondly, in terms of quality I
feel that Ubuntu 7.04 was a big step forward and the next two release
cycles will build on that nicely towards a long term release, which I
hope will be something really special.''

UWN: '''What do you think can be improved in the Ubuntu community?'''

ME: ''Two main things at the moment. First, intra-community communication -
now that the community is very large, teams need to work harder to
communicate with each other and to make everyone in the community aware
of what work they are doing and how others can help. The UWN is
absolutely essential in helping this happen.
Secondly, the relationship between Canonical and the community needs
some work. Often, each does not know enough as it needs to about what
the other is doing. It's a difficult balance to get right because there
are a number of private aspects to Canonical's work, but I hope that we
will be able to work to get that balance right over the coming months.
The fact that there are now a few Community Council members (including
myself) who do not work at Canonical and are coming from a purely
community perspective should help with this.''

UWN: '''What are you most active in the community?'''

ME: ''I am heavily involved in the documentation team in terms of team
management and administration. I'm the contact for the Italian local
team and am involved in high level issues in that team. I'm an editor of
the Ubuntu website and a Fridge editor, although I don't do much work
for the Fridge at the moment.''

== In The Press ==

 * Marie Boran, of Independent.ie, provides a biography of Mark
Shuttleworth and his work with Ubuntu. Talking about Ubuntu, Mark
says: "Of all the things that I have taken on, this is the most
challenging, and the thing that should potentially bring about the
best changes in open source movement." While many think Linux is
complicated, "Linux is something that can bring extraordinary
potential to the lives of people who don't think of themselves as
experts." Marie points out though Mark is wealthy and has "achieved a
great amount for the open source community, he is modest enough to
know his place in the grand scheme of things." Read more at
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/rocket-man-701637.html

 * Mathew Newton, at PC World, reviews Ubuntu 7.04. PC World has
ranked Ubuntu among their list of Best Products of the Year for the
last two years. Ubuntu 7.04 is described as "a few major new features,
and distinguishes itself mainly with its continued focus on usability,
especially for newcomers to Linux." The review mentions the Live CD,
partitioning and migration of files from Windows, and the wealth of
applications installed. Mathew notes that many have predicted the
advent of Linux on the desktop, and "Feisty Fawn is exactly the sort
of polished, friendly release that is necessary to make the dream a
reality." Read more at
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132799-c,linux/article.html

 * Computerworld interviews Mark Shuttleworth and discusses how he
became interested in Linux and cultural tidal waves. Mark was
introduced to Slackware at university and was amazed at the wealth of
available tools. Linux was pivotal in the success of Thawte. Similar
to tidal waves, the Internet and FOSS are sweeping through society and
making changes to everything. Mark points out that the concept of
collaboration has a stigma, but the Internet and FOSS is proving that
shared work "can become more valuable than something that is closely
held, as long as it is both shared and contributed to by everybody who
is sharing in it." Read more at
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=linux_and_unix&articleId=293960&taxonomyId=122&intsrc=kc_feat

 * Jason Brooks reports for eWeek that Dell machines with Ubuntu
preloaded are now shipping. He reports that while it is too early to
tell whether or not shipping Ubuntu is a success, Jason is pleased by
the price, information about Ubuntu and level of support. On the
price, he is pleased that they are less than the equivalent Windows
machines but is concerned that the limited selection of only three
models might be too narrow to appeal to buyers.  On getting
information to the buying public, he says, "In particular, I'm
impressed with the five-minute 'Linux 101' video that's available for
viewing on Dell's Ubuntu launch page" and that he might even direct
people who ask about Linux to that video. Lastly, he is pleased that
the laptops ship with repair partitions and diagnostics tools as with
their Windows equivalents. You can read the whole article at
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2144791,00.asp

 * Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at Datamation figures Dell selling Ubuntu
preinstalled will not increase Linux marketshare as predicted due to
flaws in the way Dell has implemented the deal. While encouraged they
chose Ubuntu, he says the Ideastorm page is "a pressure group", not a
cross section of customers. He also comments on the lack of models
offered and further comments that only Ubuntu was chosen, not multiple
distros. The price difference, around $50 USD, "doesn't seem like much
at all, considering what you get." He also comments on the lack of
support for multimedia codecs and free phone support, when compared to
Windows machines. Overall, he states "It's no wonder that Dell isn't
expecting to sell many of these rigs.". You can read the whole article
at http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3682576.

 * Borys Musielak from polishlinux.org finds 7.04 "cool, fresh and
very unstable". In a short review, he states he likes that the fonts
have gotten nicer and Open``Office.org 2.2 is faster to load documents
while still remaining "like a turtle" in starting up. Aside from the
specific issue of Liferea, the author goes on to complain about
general instability, something few other reviews have commented on. He
states "Unfortunately it isn't stable enough to recommend it for real
work. For this purpose I would go for version 6.06 Dapper Drake" and
hopes that the release policy will change from "let's release it on
time, anything we have" to "let's release it when it's ready. I mean
really ready". You can find the full review at
http://polishlinux.org/linux/ubuntu/ubuntu-704-feisty-fawn-cool-fresh-and-unstable/

 * Carla Schroder at Server``Watch reviewed Edubuntu this week, saying
"When you need to set up a computer lab, classroom or meeting room in
a hurry, look no further than Edubuntu." In this short review, she
talks about how you can reuse old computers, giving specs on the
requirements as well as some of the more specific steps needed to get
your lab up and running. She states "literally all you'll have to do
is start the server, then start the clients." You can read the full
review at http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3682596

 * Nathan Sanders contributed a guest article on Ubuntu's Google
Summer of Code projects to Linux Weekly News (LWN) at the end of May,
and it has now been made freely available. Since "Ubuntu's GSoC
projects are too numerous to explore comprehensively here", he covered
five projects, contacting the students and mentors of each and writing
up a short piece on their plans and progress. You can read the full
article at http://lwn.net/Articles/236142/

== In The Blogosphere ==

 * 1-2-3-reg, a large UK webhosting company, wrote about their
decision to offer Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on their hosted server. Speaking on
their company blog, they were pleased to see a customer already giving
them praise for this decision, talking about how it is key that they
can "rely on it long term", saying "what you want is boring
predictability and stability, knowing that you can trust it to keep
serving your website for years to come" rather than the 6 month
release cycle Ubuntu follows. Another key deciding factor for them was
the ability to freely download Ubuntu, allowing users to run the same
OS on their home machine as their hosted machine. You can read the
full blog post  at
http://inside.123-reg.co.uk/archives/why-ubuntu-linux/.

 * Another blogger is pleased with the LTS component of 6.06, saying
"not everybody wants to upgrade all the time". In a short blog post
entitled "A (Ubuntu) Dapper Day," CLICK talks about finding GNOME just
as snappy as Xfce and how WINE worked well. You can read the full blog
at http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2007/06/a_ubuntu_dapper_day.html.

 * Two bloggers commented this week wondering where their Dell
machines were. The All about Ubuntu blog wonders where the computer
is, given it was ordered on May 27th. In the comments section, you can
see that a "richardatdell" said that he was looking into it. In a
followup post, the blogger explains that while he is sad he machine
will not ship until June 19th, he is glad they are "everywhere
online", commenting on users blogs about the issue. You can read those
two blog posts at
http://allaboutubuntu.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/paging-michael-dell-wheres-my-order/
and http://allaboutubuntu.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/paging-michael-dell-wheres-my-order/.

 * TechIQ also picked up the story, with The VAR guy wondering if
something strange was going on at Dell. He too commented on the fact
that Dell left a comment on the All about Ubuntu blog, saying it was
"The sliver of hope in all this". He later updated his blog post to
say he had been contacted by Dell and that the computer The VAR guy
had ordered had been shipped, saying "No explanation on what caused
the delay. But the system is in transit. Once it arrives, The VAR Guy
will gloat a bit before booting it up and sharing some observations
with readers." You can read it all at
http://techiqmag.com/2007/06/13/dell-ubuntu-linux-pcs-delayed/

 * On the subject of spreading Ubuntu further into the world, we have
two related blogs this week. The first is from Google's Summer of Code
blog talking about spreading Ubuntu and Open Source in Africa.
Wojciech Gryc, working on Open``Office.org for GSoC has also been
helping youth newspapers in Chad and Kenya switch to Ubuntu for
writing their papers. You can read more at
http://googlesummerofcode.blogspot.com/2007/06/spreading-open-source-in-africa.html

 * Eric Lee, a trade union activist, also blogged about switching from
Windows XP to Ubuntu, stating there are 5 good reasons to switch to
Linux: cost (he mentions the Dell deal), legality, security,
ideologically, and lastly and most importantly "because you can". He
says in closing, "It's time for unions to save their members' money,
to make their offices more efficient and secure, and to support the
free and open source software movement. It's time for unions to switch
over to Ubuntu Linux." You can read the full blog post at
http://www.ericlee.info/2007/06/ubuntu_and_the_unions.html.

== Meetings and Events ==

=== Sunday, June 17, 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, June 19, 2007 ===
==== Technical Board Meeting ====
 * Start: 19:00
 * End: 21:00
 * Location: #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda

=== Wednesday, June 20, 2007 ===
==== Edubuntu Meeting ====
 * Start: 20:00
 * End: 22:00
 * Location: #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda

=== Thursday, June 21, 2007 ===
==== Mozilla Team Meeting ====
 * Start: 18:00
 * End: 20:00
 * Location: #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Meetings

==== Ubuntu Development Team Meeting ====
 * Start: 20:00
 * End: 22:00
 * Location: #ubuntu-meeting

=== Friday, June 22, 2007 ===
==== Forums Council Meeting ====
 * Start: 20:00
 * End: 22:00
 * Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda

=== Saturday, June 23, 2007 ===
==== Ubuntu US LoCo Team Meeting ====
 * Start: 20:00
 * End: 22:00
 * Location: #ubuntu-meeting
 * Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams

== Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04 ==

=== Security Updates ===

 * USN-474-1: xscreensaver vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-474-1
 * USN-473-1: libgd2 vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-473-1
 * USN-472-1: libpng vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-472-1
 * USN-471-1: libexif vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-471-1
 * USN-439-2: file vulnerability - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-439-2

=== Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===

 * libexif 0.6.12-2ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012435.html
 * file 4.16-0ubuntu3.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012436.html
 * libpng 1.2.8rel-5ubuntu0.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012437.html
 * libgd2 2.0.33-2ubuntu5.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012438.html
 * xscreensaver 4.23-4ubuntu8.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012439.html
 * sysklogd 1.4.1-17ubuntu7.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-June/012440.html

=== Ubuntu 6.10 Updates ===

 * libexif 0.6.13-4ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-June/008343.html
 * file 4.17-2ubuntu1.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-June/008344.html
 * libpng 1.2.8rel-5.1ubuntu0.2 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-June/008345.html
 * libgd2 2.0.33-4ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-June/008346.html
 * xscreensaver 4.24-4ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-June/008347.html

=== Ubuntu 7.04 Updates ===

 * mplayer 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu9.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008629.html
 * libexif 0.6.13-5ubuntu0.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008630.html
 * file 4.19-1ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008631.html
 * libpng 1.2.15~beta5-1ubuntu1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008632.html
 * libgd2 2.0.34~rc1-2ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008633.html
 * xscreensaver 4.24-5ubuntu2.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-June/008634.html

== Bug Stats ==

    * Open (30193) -78 # over last week
    * Critical (26) +1 # over last week
    * Unconfirmed (14985) -235 # over last week
    * Unassigned (22519) -159 # over last week
    * All bugs ever reported (105891)  +1171 # 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/

== 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:

 * Corey Burger
 * Nick Ali
 * Isabelle Duchatelle
 * Martin Albisetti

== RSS ==

You can subscribe to the UWN feed at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

== Feedback ==

If you would like to submit an idea or story you think is worth
appearing on the UWN, please send them to
ubuntu-marketing-submissions at lists.ubuntu.com.
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). If you'd like to
contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please
feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical
support questions, please send then ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com.



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