Ubuntu Weekly News #146
Dave Bush
myrtlebeachbums at ubuntu.com
Sun Jun 14 21:59:23 BST 2009
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 146 for the week June 8th -
June 14th, 2009. In this issue we cover SanDisk collaborates to improve
Ubuntu netbook SSD performance, MOTU Council Results, Ubuntu Stats, Calling
all LoCo Teams!, In the Press & Blogosphere, Upcoming Meetings & Events,
Updates & Security, and much, much more!
== UWN Translations ==
* Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking
to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information
you need.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations
== In This Issue ==
* SanDisk collaborates to improve Ubuntu netbook SSD performance
* MOTU Council Results
* Ubuntu Stats
* Calling all LoCo Teams!
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
== General Community News ==
=== SanDisk collaborates to improve Ubuntu netbook SSD performance ===
Canonical has announced the collaboration with SanDisk on system
optimizations to improve battery life, reduce heat levels and create better
system responsiveness. SanDisk reports, "We decided to collaborate with
Canonical thanks to its unprecedented success in helping Ubuntu to drive
Linux in the mainstream market". The announcement can be found at:
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/sandisk-ssd-netbooks
=== MOTU Council ===
* Please give Stephen Stalcup a warm welcome to the team, where he's
continue to work on KDE packages and sponsoring.
* We're very pleased to welcome a new member to the MOTU team: Nick
Ellery. Nick has been working a lot on merging changes from Debian and
lowering the delta between Debian and Ubuntu.
* Stéphane Graber wants to expand his activities a bit and work some more
on server packages and Edubuntu and applied for Core Dev. The MC recommends
Stéphane.
== Ubuntu Stats ==
=== Bug Stats ===
* Open (57357) -221 over last week
* Critical (19) +1 over last week
* Unconfirmed (26734) +191 over last week
* Unassigned (49494) -135 over last week
* All bugs ever reported (288007) +1406 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 Jaunty ===
* Spanish (13590) -436 over last week
* French (42699) -125 over last week
* Brazilian Portuguese (53405) -58 over last week
* Swedish (54417) +/-0 over last week
* English (United Kingdom) (59006) +/-0 over last week
Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more
at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/
=== Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week ===
* Keep current gnome interface, instead of using gnome shell -
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20171/
* Firewall activates when connected to insecure network -
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20170/
* Adding an application launcher to startup is very difficult -
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20210/
* File roller process is another window to deal with -
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20202/
* What bluefish needs - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20180/
Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your
ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against
another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/
== LoCo News ==
=== Calling all LoCo Teams! ===
As part of the effort to integrate the LoCo Directory (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoDirectory) with Launchpad, all LoCo teams listed
on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList were invited to join the new
~locoteams (https://launchpad.net/~locoteams) group on Launchpad. Team
contacts are being encouraged to verify that their respective team was
invited to join, and to contact effie-jayx AT ubuntu DOT com if no
invitation was received. If your LoCo does not have a team on Launchpad,
please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamHowto#Team%20Naming%20Standardsand
start one. Finally, the ~locoteams group is only for LoCo teams. It is
not for individuals. If you want to express your LoCo advocacy, please
consider joining ~ubuntu-loco-enthusiasts (
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-loco-enthusiasts)
== In The Press ==
=== Ubuntu aims for ten second boot time ===
ARS Technica's Ryan Paul notes that the growing adoption of the Linux
operating system on netbook devices has compelled Linux distributors to
focus on improving startup performance. Ubuntu 9.04, which was released last
month, is one distribution where these improvements are particularly
noticeable. In a presentation at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Barcelona,
developer Scott James Remnant noted that boot time decreased from 65 seconds
in version 8.10 to only 25 seconds in 9.04. This is already a substantial
improvement, but he believes that there is still room for more aggressive
optimization. Canonical will continue pushing the limits of boot performance
during the upcoming development cycle for Ubuntu 9.10, which is codenamed
Karmic Koala. According to Remnant, the company aims to achieve a ten-second
boot time next year for Ubuntu 10.04, the release that will follow after
Karmic. This emphasis on boot performance will make Ubuntu a more
competitive option for hardware makers who are seeking a fast and lean
distribution to preinstall on netbook devices.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/ubuntu-aims-for-ten-second-boot-time.ars
=== Upgrading Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04 ===
The Linux Loop tells us that around the time Ubuntu 8.10 was released, their
hard drive died and they figured that, as long as they were reinstalling
anyway, they should try upgrading to 8.10. Unfortunately, they experienced a
couple of problems with 8.10 and so they reverted to 8.04. Recently they
have been encountering situations where the packages in the repositories
were too outdated so rather than continually patching these outdated
packages, they decided to upgrade to 9.04. The only thing the Linux Loops
reports that they had to reconfigure was their fingerprint reader, and that
leads to their one complaint about the upgrade process. From beginning the
first upgrade to finishing the second the process took six hours, but it
would have been a lot faster if the upgrade tool hadn’t kept asking
questions in the middle of the upgrade. Whenever the installer runs into a
configuration file that has been modified, it pauses the upgrade and asks if
you want to replace it. In the Linux Loop's opinion the option to set a
default behavior should be given at the beginning or you should have the
option to deal with all the issues at the end to help speed up the upgrade
process.
http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/06/07/upgrading-ubuntu-804-to-904/
=== Testing Out ATI Kernel Mode-Setting On Ubuntu ===
Michael Larabel of Phoronix tells us that the kernel mode-setting for Intel
graphics hardware can already be found in the mainline Linux kernel and will
be included by default in the release of Ubuntu 9.10 later this year. While
Intel's kernel mode-setting support has been maturing in a steadfast manner,
this support has not been moving along quite as fast for ATI and NVIDIA
hardware. It is possible we will see ATI/AMD kernel mode-setting along with
the necessary memory management support enter the Linux 2.6.31 kernel and
potentially see this feature appear in Ubuntu 9.10 as an end-user option,
but currently this support is still deemed under development. For those with
ATI Radeon hardware looking to test out kernel mode-setting, there is now a
Launchpad PPA and a LiveCD available for testing out these mode-setting
capabilities atop Ubuntu.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_ati_kms&num=1
=== GRUB2 To Be Used By Default In Ubuntu 9.10 ===
Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports that starting with Ubuntu 9.10, and
beginning with daily CD builds starting June 9th, GRUB2 will be the default
boot-loader on new Ubuntu installations. GRUB2 will bring
internationalization support, support for newer systems, and many other
improvements considering this GNU boot-loader has been in development for a
number of years. This change was announced today on the Ubuntu development
list after discussions took place recently at the Ubuntu Developer Summit.
More on Ubuntu's GRUB2 implementation can be found via their kernel team
Wiki. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzMxMg
=== Explaining Ubuntu's 10 Second Boot Time ===
Phoronix's Michael Larabel tells us that two weeks ago he reported that
Plymouth would not be making its way to Ubuntu with the next 9.10 release as
was once planned. Instead Canonical is putting their focus on improving the
boot time so that there is less rationale for spending time on making a
fashionable boot experience. With Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Canonical is looking to
achieve a ten second or less boot when using the Dell Mini 9 or similar
devices. With Ubuntu 9.10, they hope to be on their way to accomplishing
this goal. Canonical's Scott James Remnant has now outlined more on their
plans for the Ubuntu boot performance targets with Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04
LTS. The main areas that developers will be working on is speeding up the X
Server start-up process and improving initramfs.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzMxMw
=== Ubuntu One Beta Finally Kicks Off ===
Martin Kaba of Kabatology reports that Ubuntu One Beta, the Dropbox type of
service by Canonical, has finally kicked off, but not for everyone. When his
invitation arrived he quickly moved on to test it. Kaba states, "It is very
intuitive, yes, but damn slow and often breaks - - that certainly why it’s
still a beta." To install, just read through the Installation Instructions.
After that, get connected and start syncing. A right-click on the Ubuntu One
icon menu, gives the user the options to disconnect, report a problem, open
a folder, or go to web. Kaba also reminds everyone that if they are amongst
the few selected people to test Ubuntu One, don’t forget to report any
problems! http://www.kabatology.com/06/09/ubuntu-one-beta-finally-kicks-off/
=== Ubuntu 9.04 vs. Fedora 11 Performance ===
Michael Larabel of Phoronix notes that Fedora 11 was released earlier this
week so they have set out to see how its desktop performance compares to
that of Ubuntu 9.04, which was released back in April. In a number of the
benchmarks the results were close, but in a few areas there are some major
performance differences. In particular, with the test profiles that stress
the system disk, Fedora 11 generally did much better -- in part due to the
EXT4 file-system and newer Linux kernel. Fedora also did much better with
the database tests like SQLite and PostgreSQL. Ubuntu 9.04 though had done a
better job with the Apache Benchmark and C-Ray.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fedora11_ubuntu904_perf&num=1
=== Ubuntu 9.04: New Intel Graphics Drivers ===
Linux Pro's Kristian Kissling tells us that there is hope for Ubuntu users
with Intel graphics. As it appears, the current 2D drivers solve most of the
recent graphics problems with Intel chips, according to Ubuntu developer
Bryce Harrington in a developer mailing list. A nuisance to owners of Ubuntu
9.04 and Intel graphics chips has been the problems with the graphics
drivers. Even though Intel manages its drivers in an exemplary open source
way, 2D and 3D acceleration has fairly much dragged so far. The reason is an
unhappy pairing of the current Kernel 2.6.28's Kernel Mode Setting (KMS)
with Intel's new UXA acceleration architecture that replaces EXA and the
newly added Graphics Execution Manager (GEM) in the Kernel. The solution
should come in the form of the Intel 2.7.99.1 driver. Harrington mentions
that Jaunty users have the advantage of the Kernel 2.6.30 installation to
resolve the issue. Harrington suggests activating the UXA module in the
xorg.conf file, but not KMS, which is deactivated by default.
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/ubuntu_9_04_new_intel_graphics_drivers
=== Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2 Released ===
Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports that Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" Alpha 2
is now available. This second testing release for the forthcoming Ubuntu
9.10 doesn't bring too much in the way of exciting features or major changes
since the release of Alpha 1. There is, however, GRUB2 as the default
boot-loader. There are also some updated X.Org bits, the Linux 2.6.30
kernel, the latest GNOME 2.27.x packages, and other updated packages pulled
in from Debian. Unlike the first alpha release, a desktop LiveCD build of
Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2 is also available. Updates to Kubuntu and Xubuntu are
also available at this time. The Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2 release announcement
can be read on their development announcement list.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzMyMw
== In The Blogosphere ==
=== Dell's new inexpensive Linux notebook ===
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, the Cyber Cynic posting on COMPUTERWORLD Blogs,
notes that Dell has released a full-sized notebook with Ubuntu 8.10
pre-installed at a netbook sized price. The Del Insprion 15n has a 15.6"
screen, an Intel GMA X4500MD graphics chipset, a 2.16GHz Intel Celeron 585
processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a price-tag of $299. See what he has to say
at: http://blogs.computerworld.com/dells_new_inexpensive_linux_notebook
=== Trouble Brews With Ubuntu Users Mailing List ===
Guy Thouret blogs on Works With U about the problem of people not following
the Code of Conduct and mailing list etiquette and procedures when posting
to the ubuntu-users mailing list. He lists specific things that a poster
should bear in mind, as well as touches on discussions of what to do about
the problem and the outcome of those discussions. Read the whole thing at:
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/10/trouble-brews-with-ubuntu-users-mailing-list/
=== Memo to Canonical: Don’t Repeat IBM’s Mistakes ===
Joe Panettieri, writing for Works With U, defines the mistake that IBM made
in the early 1990's when they offered support for Windows software in OS/2.
The result was that developers weren't writing software as native to OS/2.
His concern is that by supporting Google Android and Moblin v2 Ubuntu may
not be emphasizing to ISVs that they really need to write Linux native code,
too. His article can be found at:
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/10/memo-to-canonical-dont-repeat-ibms-mistakes/
=== Fair is Fair - Ubuntu Netbook Remix ===
Jamie Watson, in a blog on the ZDNet UK website, reports that he is trying
Ubuntu Netbook Remix in an effort to give a reasonable comparison between
that and Moblin. After installing it on a nettop he observed that it was
much more what he was accustomed to than Moblin. But, then he begins to
wonder if that's really good. His article asks more questions than it
answers, but raises interesting points about what a new user unfamiliar with
Linux would like to see. Read more at:
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10012930o-2000498448b,00.htm
=== Review: Ubuntu 9.04 on my ASUS Eee PC 901 ===
Petros Koutoupis was unimpressed with the Xandros Linux customized
installation that came on the ASUS Eee PC 901, and felt that Easy Peasy
still didn't enable him to multi-task as he was used to. So he installed
Ubuntu 9.04 standard desktop release rather than the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
This provided him with more of what he wanted - the ability to have several
windows available at one time without any of them necessarily being full
screen. See the rest of his report at:
http://blog.hydrasystemsllc.com/2009/06/11/review-ubuntu-904-on-my-asus-eee-pc-901/
== Upcoming Meetings and Events ==
=== Sunday, June 14, 2009 ===
* No events as of publication
=== Monday, June 15, 2009 ===
* No events as of publication
=== Tuesday, June 16, 2009 ===
==== Community Council Meeting ====
* Start: 10:00 UTC
* End: 12:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda
==== Technical Board Meeting ====
* Start: 14:00 UTC
* End: 15:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: Not listed as of publication
==== Server Team Meeting ====
* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting
==== Desktop Team Meeting ====
* Start: 16:30 UTC
* End: 17:30 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-desktop
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Meeting
==== Kernel Team Meeting ====
* Start: 17:00 UTC
* End: 18:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: Not listed as of publication
==== LoCo Council Meeting ====
* Start: 19:00 UTC
* End: 20:00 UTC
* Location: Not listed as of publication
* Agenda: Not listed as of publication
==== Ubuntu Beginners Team Meeting ====
* Start: 23:00 UTC
* End: 24:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/Meetings
=== Wednesday, June 17, 2009 ===
==== Ubuntu-us-pa LoCo Team Meeting ====
* Start: 20:30 EDT
* End: 21:30 EDT
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-us-pa
* Agenda: None as of publication
==== Foundation Team Meeting ====
* Start: 16:00 UTC
* End: 17:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: None listed as of publication
==== QA Team Meeting ====
* Start: 17:00 UTC
* End: 18:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Meetings/
=== Thursday, June 18, 2009 ===
==== Karmic Feature Definition Freeze ====
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeatureDefinitionFreeze
==== Ubuntu Java Meeting ====
* Start: 14:00 UTC
* End: 15:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: None listed as of publication
==== Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting ====
* Start: 21:00 UTC
* End: 22:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: None listed as of publication
=== Friday, June 19, 2009 ===
==== Karmic Weekly Release Meeting ====
* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:30 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseTeam/Meeting/2009-06-19
=== Saturday, June 20, 2009 ===
* No events as of publication
== Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 ==
=== Security Updates ===
* USN-784-1: ImageMagick vulnerability -
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-784-1
* USN-785-1: ipsec-tools vulnerabilities -
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-785-1
* USN-775-2: Quagga regression - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-775-2
* USN-786-1: apr-util vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-786-1
* USN-787-1: Apache vulnerabilities - http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-787-1
* USN-779-1: Firefox and Xulrunner vulnerabilities -
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-779-1
=== Ubuntu 6.06 Updates ===
* langpack-locales 2.3.18.21 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2009-June/012781.html
=== Ubuntu 8.04 Updates ===
* vzctl 3.0.22-5ubuntu1.1 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-June/012243.html
* partman-basicfilesystems 56ubuntu5 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-June/012244.html
* tzdata 2009i-0ubuntu0.8.04 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2009-June/012245.html
=== Ubuntu 8.10 Updates ===
* tzdata 2009i-0ubuntu0.8.10 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/intrepid-changes/2009-June/009745.html
=== Ubuntu 9.04 Updates ===
* tzdata 2009i-0ubuntu0.9.04 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-June/009828.html
* hal 0.5.12~rc1+git20090403-0ubuntu3 -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2009-June/009829.html
== 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:
## The following list is in chronological order.
* Dave Bush
* Jeff Martin
* Sayak Banerjee
* Liraz Siri
* Nathan Handler
* Craig A. Eddy
* And many others
== Glossary of Terms ==
1. LTS - Long Term Support. - Said of a release that will receive support
for 3-years/5-years rather than the typical 18 months
1. MOTU - Master Of The Universe - Developers responsible for the Universe
and Multiverse repositories. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU
Other acronyms can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/glossary
== Ubuntu - Get Involved ==
The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different
aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and
helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small,
and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun
associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate
== Feedback ==
This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a
story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News
Team mailing list at
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it.
Ideas can also be added to the wiki at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Ideas. 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 them to ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-news/attachments/20090614/9e4f1d4e/attachment-0001.htm
More information about the ubuntu-news
mailing list