Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #180

Sun Feb 14 23:28:53 GMT 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #180 for the week 
February 7th - February 13th, 2010. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu 
Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation, Interview With 
Jono by Joe Barker, Interview with Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Core 
Developer about encryption in Ubuntu, Upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam and 
your Loco Team, Ubuntu Honduras Loco Team at the T3 conference, Call for 
feedback on preferred desktop fonts, 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 ==

* Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation!
* Interview With Jono by Joe Barker
* Interview with Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Core Developer about encryption 
in Ubuntu
* Ubuntu Stats
* Upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam and your Loco Team
* Ubuntu Honduras Loco Team at the T3 conference
* The Planet: Jono Bacon & David Planella
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

== General Community News ==

=== Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation! ===

In the continued interests of helping to make Ubuntu rock as a platform 
for scratching itches and making awesome apps, Jono Bacon is putting 
together a new online learning event: Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer 
Week, happening online between 1st – 6th March 2010. 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek

The week will be just like the previous online learning events such as 
Ubuntu Developer Week and Ubuntu Open Week, but instead providing a week 
jam packed with awesome sessions about writing applications that scratch 
your itch, and predominantly focusing on Python tools and frameworks, 
Bazaar, Launchpad and infrastructure. The goal for the week is give 
attendees a head start on a given technology useful for applications.

Jono is looking for volunteers. If you feel you could give a tutorial 
about a given Python module or associated technology (e.g. Glade, 
Launchpad, Bazaar etc), please drop him an email at jono AT ubuntu DOT 
com and he will liaise with you to get it scheduled. Jono is also look 
for some showcase sessions: stories about how you put together an 
application, how it scratched your itch and what tools you used.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/02/08/ubuntu-opportunistic-developer-week-call-for-participation/

=== Interview With Jono by Joe Barker ===

Joe Barker recently interview Canonical's community manager Jono Bacon. 
If you've been active in the Ubuntu community, you'll know who Jono is, 
but if you don't, here's your chance to get to know him on a more 
personal basis. The following are the questions Jono responded to. You 
can find his answers at the link that follows. Be sure to take a few 
minutes to read the entire interview.

* Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, 
gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
* When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
* When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? 
What’s your role there?
* Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you 
plan on becoming one?
* What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite 
application? Your least favorite?
* What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? 
What’s your worst?
* What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
* What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
* If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would 
it be?

http://blog.joeb454.com/2010/02/an-interview-with-jono/

=== Interview with Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Core Developer about 
encryption in Ubuntu ===

Dustin Kirkland is an Ubuntu Core Developer, working for Canonical on 
the Ubuntu Server. His current focus is developing the Ubuntu Enterprise 
Cloud for the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release, but previously he had worked on 
a number of Ubuntu features and packages, including Ubuntu's Encrypted 
Home Directories. He is also the upstream maintainer of eCryptfs, the 
cryptographic filesystem used to provide Encrypted Home Directories. 
Those are fair enough reasons to ask him a couple of questions. If 
you're wanting to learn more about encryption and the thought processes 
behind it, this is a great read. See the entire interview at the link below.

https://slo-tech.com/clanki/10008en/#

== Ubuntu Stats ==

=== Bug Stats ===

* Open (76652) +197 over last week
* Critical (37) -1 over last week
* Unconfirmed (39076) -231 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 Karmic ===

1. Spanish (10709) −153 # over last week
2. English (United Kingdom) (32085) −24466 # over last week
3. French (40434) −1369 # over last week
4. Brazilian Portuguese (42903) −1592 # over last week
5. Swedish (66192) +229 # over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more 
at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/

=== Translation Stats Lucid ===

1. Spanish (16308)
2. English (United Kingdom) (32493 )
3. French (47849)
4. Brazilian Portuguese (50890)
5. Swedish (72854)

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx", see more 
at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/

=== Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week ===

* Restore laptop brightness on system boot - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23639/
* Easier Wine Access – Installation - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23641/
* Notification blob shows with offset - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23617/
* Ubuntu needs to gain some Money in order to finance its best projects 
- http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23594/
* All-in-one hard drive management tool - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23638/

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 ==

=== Upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam and your Loco Team ===

The dates for the Global Jam for this cycle are the 26th through the 
28th of March 2010. We are hoping to make this Global Jam extremely 
successful, and we need your help in doing it. We want to have events in 
as many places as possible, not only to help improve Ubuntu, but also to 
help promote it. The Ubuntu Global Jam is an online and in person event 
that takes place all across the world. People get together with the 
interest of making Ubuntu better, while having a good time socializing 
with other people in your area who have the same interest and passion 
about Ubuntu as you do.

What can your LoCo do? The Ubuntu Global Jam has many different events 
that for users to participate in, just pick one that you and your team 
like, and make it happen. You can pick from one or more of the following 
events:

* Bug Jam – During a bug jam users would work on finding, triaging and 
fixing bugs.
* Testing Jam – Lucid is due out the end of April and we need help 
testing it out prior to its release.
* Upgrade Jam – Upgrade systems that are currently running older 
versions of Ubuntu and report your experience.
* Documentation Jam – Write documentation about using Ubuntu, or joining 
the Ubuntu community, or work on making the existing documentation better.
* Translations Jam – Help to make Ubuntu available to everyone. Help 
translate Ubuntu into your language.
* Packaging Jam – Help out with improving packages in Ubuntu.
* Other – If your team has some other aspect of helping out the Ubuntu 
Community, feel free to participate in that for the Global Jam.

If you have never run a Global Jam event before, or if you have, but 
would like some fresh ideas, we have three training sessions scheduled 
between now and the kick off of the Global Jam. The training sessions 
will be hosted by Jorge Castro and will be held in #ubuntu-locoteams on 
freenode. The training sessions will take place on:

* 17 February 2010 at 18:00 UTC
* 26 February 2010 at 21:00 UTC
* 10 March 2010 at 21:00 UTC

All three training sessions will contain tips, tricks, pointers and 
advice on how to run a Jam. You can also find out more information at 
the Running An Event page on the Ubuntu Wiki. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams

You can also find out what other LoCo teams have done in the past for 
Global Jam by visiting this wiki page: 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Stories

http://chrisjohnston.org/2010/ubuntu-global-jam-march-2010

=== Ubuntu Honduras Loco Team at the T3 conference ===

What is T3? It is an event organized by the EIS School in the city of 
San Pedro Sula. More than 37 teachers and principals will be on hand for 
this event. It was a great opportunity to show them about the open 
source world and about Ubuntu linux. The team was given 2 hours for our 
presentation. The first hour covered what is open source, GNU/Linux and 
Ubuntu. The second hour was a workshop so teachers can get familiar with 
Ubuntu.

http://blog.diegoturcios.net16.net/?p=394

== The Planet ==

=== Jono Bacon: Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Update ===

Earlier this week I announced the plan to put together Ubuntu 
Opportunistic Developer Week: a week of IRC tuition sessions aimed at 
helping opportunistic developers scratch their itches and write fun and 
useful programs using our awesome platform. The week takes place from 
1st – 6th March 2010. 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek

The response so far to the call for sessions has been fantastic, and we 
already have many sessions scheduled, all visible from the timetable 
here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek

Each of these sessions is designed to give you a taste of the topic and 
get you up and running, enough to be productive and start exploring the 
features of the tool being discussed. In addition to this we will have a 
series of showcase sessions:

* SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken VanDine
* SHOWCASE: Lernid – Jono Bacon
* SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer

These sessions explain the story behind the app: talking about which 
tools, modules and technology that was used to put these apps together 
and what challenges were solved. This is a great way to learn more about 
tools available for opportunistic developers so that when you need to do 
something, you know which tool to reach out for.

Many of you will be entirely new to Python and entirely new to coding. 
To give you folks a head start before the week kicks off, Rick Spencer 
from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition 
sessions on the Thursday before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week:

* Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to 
Python for total beginners – Rick Spencer
* Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to 
Python for programmers – Rick Spencer

We are still looking for sessions, and if you want to contribute and 
give one, just drop me an email at jono AT ubuntu DOT com.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/02/11/ubuntu-opportunistic-developer-week-update/

=== David Planella: Call for feedback on preferred desktop fonts ===

While trying to offer a better experience for users in all languages and 
trying to balance that with features, we are faced with the fact that 
the space on the Live CD is limited. Fonts in particular take a lot of 
space, and we’d like to reduce that to the minimum necessary in order to 
have a reduced set to correctly display all languages. These will then 
be collected in an ‘ubuntu-desktop-fonts‘ package.

This will only be for the Live CD. In an installation with network 
connectivity all required font packages, writing aids, etc. will be 
downloaded and installed as usual. This will also not yet solve the 
issue whereby only a few languages are included on the CD, but will free 
some more space on it and avoid duplication.

Arne Götje has started a wiki page to collect feedback on this, and I’d 
like to ask you to add the information for your particular 
language/script combination and complete the tables at:

* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/PreferredFonts

Here’s how you can do it:

* Look for your language/script on the list. If it does not fall in any 
of the existing categories, you can just add it
* If the current font for basic display of messages is correct, simply 
add an “OK” note to the Remarks column.
* If not, please suggest a better font (a maximum of two, in order of 
preference) and add a note on the Remarks column as well
* That’s it! If you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask them to the 
translations team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/Contact/

http://davidplanella.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/call-for-feedback-on-preferred-desktop-fonts/

== In The Press ==

=== SCALE 8x Update: Ubucon, FAD and Keysigning, oh my! ===

Ubuntu announces that it will hold the first UbuCon hosted at the 
Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 8x) on Friday, Feb. 19, in an 
all-day session of talks and activities. Part unconference and part 
scheduled sessions, UbuCon will cover what is going on with, and how to 
improve, the Ubuntu community. The final hour of the event will include 
lightning talks. If you use Ubuntu, are interested in Ubuntu or want to 
know more about Ubuntu, check in with Ubucon. For more information, 
visit http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/special-events/ubucon The 
Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 8x will be held from Feb. 19-21 at 
the Westin Los Angeles Airport hotel. For more information, visit 
http://www.socallinuxexpo.org

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/131796/

=== Dell dropping its Ubuntu offerings? ===

Christina Tynan-Wood of Info World comments that purchasing a 
preinstalled Linux system may have gotten a little harder, as one Gripe 
Line reader and loyal Dell customer recently found out. "I've always 
supported Dell and enjoyed the availability of the company's Linux 
systems," writes Cal. "But I was recently appalled when a Dell sales rep 
hung up on me when I tried to order some Linux systems for my business. 
The Dell rep made it clear that unless I wanted Windows, Dell didn't 
want my money." Could this be so? Christina headed to Dell.com to find 
out, and she browsed to the Business section and ticked the FreeDOS and 
Linux button to filter out all but open source systems. The site 
returned only a handful of laptops and no desktops, so she called the 
sales line to see whether they could set her up. Christina contacted 
Dell representative Anne Camden who told her, "I suspect that what is 
going on here is that we recently refreshed most of our consumer desktop 
portfolio, and unfortunately the Linux model is lagging and is not 
currently available," she says. "We will offer Ubuntu pre-installed 
again in the future, but it will not be for several weeks." 
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/dell-dropping-its-ubuntu-offerings-243

=== Ubuntu 9.10 and GNOME 2.28: Advancing Past Meh ===

LinuxPlanet's Carla Schroder says that many eons ago, GNOME 1.4 still 
lived, and it was good. Fast-forward eight years to Ubuntu 9.10, and in 
Schroder's opinion this is the first *buntu and the first GNOME that 
have gotten past "meh" on her WowMeter. After a week of running Ubuntu 
9.10 Schroder says she is dangerously close to being impressed. Carla 
thinks the most important test of a distribution is how it performs over 
time. Does it improve? Do bugs get fixed? Does it handle changes 
competently? Will it upgrade gracefully to a new release? This is on her 
audio production computer, so Schroder says it's going to get a serious 
workout. Carla says that there is one comparison that she cannot resist 
making: the default installation from the LiveCD uses about 2.8GB of 
hard disk space, and in that 2.8GB you get a wealth of applications. 
Windows 7 clocks in at over 12GB, and what do you get? Um, Notepad? 
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/6976/1/

== In The Blogosphere ==

=== Univ. of Arizona student builds Ubuntu-Atom powered spider-bot ===

Matt Bunting, a electrical engineering student at the University of 
Arizona, has been attracting some attention with his latest creation: a 
six-legged robot that he built for a class on cognitive robotics. The 
spider-bot, or hexapod as it is more properly known, is powered by a 
fairly low-cost, off-the-shelf 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, running on a 
US15W chipset. The software runs off of a Ubuntu Linux OS. The most 
significant feature that Matt's yet-unnamed robot creation has is an 
adaptive capacity to walk. Matt's prof was impressed with his work: "I 
see that this device might be doing scientific work like autonomous 
navigation, mapping of different environments, moving over rough terrain 
and doing exploration, possibly planetary exploration...I think Matt's 
robot has a lot of possibilities. It's really not so far-fetched that a 
robot like this could go to Mars." Even folks at Intel heard of Matt's 
robot. And after a seeing video of it in action, they decided to order 
two from him to use as promotional robots for the Atom processor. See 
the video of Matt's creation at the link below.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/13107-u-of-arizona-student-builds-ubuntu-atom-powered-spider-bot/

=== AbiWord & Gnumeric To Replace OpenOffice in Ubuntu Netbook Edition ===

On February 8, 2010, OMG!Ubuntu shares with readers the decision to drop 
OpenOffice.org suite of applications from the default install of Ubuntu 
10.04 Netbook Edition. According to the article and statement from 
Ubuntu developer, Rick Spencer, "I think we should try GNUMeric and 
abiword by default, and then those who want OOo apps can install just 
the ones they need later." The article also points out that most people 
agree OpenOffice.org was overkill on small, underpowered netbooks. 
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/few-days-ago-we-shared-word-that.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+(Omg!+Ubuntu!)

=== It's Not The Hokey Cokey; OpenOffice BACK In Ubuntu Netbook Edition 
After User Outcry ===

On February 11, 2010, OMG!Ubuntu reports on that because of the 
community response to OpenOffice being dropped from Ubuntu Netbook 
Edition of Ubuntu 10.04, the early decision now has developers 
rethinking their decision. In this February 11 article, OMG!Ubuntu let's 
readers know that the decision to use AbiWord and GNUMeric has been 
fully reversed and OpenOffice will be installed by default. Here is what 
Ubuntu developer, Rick Spencer has to say about the reversal. "All in 
all it seems that users and community members would really prefer that 
we ship OOo for the editing suite. We discussed a bit in #ubuntu-desktop 
this morning and decided that we should probably switch back to OOo, 
which we will do on Monday if we don't hear anything that makes us 
change our minds again." 
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/openoffice-back-in-ubuntu-netbook.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+(Omg!+Ubuntu!)

=== Canonical’s Latest Ubuntu Developer Pitch ===

Joe Panettieri, WorksWithU, discusses Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer 
Week, which is scheduled for March 1-6, 2010. Panettieri notes, 
"Canonical is making multiple moves to engage and energize Ubuntu 
software developers." Panettieri notes that there are two moves worth 
watching, "Canonical has made multiple moves to strengthen the Ubuntu 
ISV story. Incoming COO Matt Asay arrives with a big Rolodex filled with 
ISV contacts and boardroom relationships." and "Jono Bacon, Canonical’s 
Ubuntu Community Manager, is preparing an online learning event called 
Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week." Panettieri states that, 
"WorksWithU will closely watch the Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week 
for more potential signs of progress." 
http://www.workswithu.com/2010/02/09/canonicals-latest-ubuntu-developer-pitch/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+WorksWithU+(Works+With+U)

== Upcoming Meetings and Events ==

=== Monday, February 15, 2010 ===

==== Security Team Catch-up ====

* Start: 18:00 UTC
* End: 18:30 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: nothing formal, just a weekly catch-up.

=== Tuesday, February 16, 2010 ===

==== Community Council Meeting ====

* Start: 11:00 UTC
* End: 13:00 UTC
* Location: #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda

==== Ubuntu Mobile Team Meeting ====

* Start: 13:00 UTC
* End: 14:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileTeam/Meeting

==== Developer Membership Board ====

* Start: 15:00 UTC
* End: 16:00 UTC
* Location: None listed as of publication
* Agenda: None listed as of publication

==== 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: 20:00 UTC
* End: 21:00 UTC
* Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
* Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncilAgenda

=== Wednesday, February 17, 2010 ===

==== PyCon ====