[ubuntu-arizona] sunday night meeting notes

[Scott Gwin]

TurnKey Linux: GNU high school: teaching kids by contributing to open source
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/gnu-high-school

=========================

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

* Is difficult to see Ubuntu One sync progress - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25417/
* There is still no user-friendly and solid way to backup your system 
and MBR - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25425/
* USB Modem installation - using a Wizard - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25406/
* Intelligent input for mail addresses - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25423/
* Outbound traditional marketing Ubuntu the right way - 
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25424/

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/

========================

Alan Pope: Ubuntu at Non-Technical Events
http://popey.com/blog/?p=1114

===========================

I received my copy of the new Ubuntu book on Monday. Happy times! I have 
Matthew Helmke to thank for the copy of the book as well. I guess at 
this point, I should point out that I was asked to review said book.

 From what I read, the book can prove incredibly useful to newcomers, 
and old-timers alike. I really do think it’s well written, helpful, and 
I would quite happily recommend it to anybody looking for a book on 
Ubuntu. Not to mention, the book is compact (much thinner, but equally 
as full as, some other Ubuntu books I own), and very stylish…that’s my 
opinion of course…but I think this book would look quite the part 
sitting on anybody’s bookshelf.

For more information go to:

http://blog.joeb454.com/?p=441

* I revieved a signed copy for the team from matthew Helmke that we will 
raffle off at our next even.

=================

Why NASA uses Open Source
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2010/07/why-nasa-uses-open-source-and.html

======================

How to get RGBA support in Ubuntu

Jack Wallen, TechRepublic reports on how Ubuntu users can get RGBA 
support in Ubuntu.

RGBA stands for Red Green Blue Alpha. When applied to the computer 
desktop it means a whole world more. It means full-blown transparency 
with the ability to control the transparency like never before.

This feature was supposed to make it into Ubuntu 10.04, but because of 
some show-stopping issues, it was pulled. It is now slated to make it 
into 10.10 and, judging from how well it is working now, it will do just 
that.

To read the article in full and to see how you can enable RGBA in Ubuntu 
go to:

http://www.zdnetasia.com/how-to-get-rgba-support-in-ubuntu-62201408.htm

===========================

Canonical, IBM plunk DB2 databases on Ubuntu

Commercial Linux distributor Canonical has won the buzzword bingo for 
the week by putting Ubuntu, cloud, and appliance in the same sentence in 
announcing a partnership with IBM. It's meant to bring the latter 
company's DB2 databases to the latest Ubuntu 10.04 Server Edition Linux.

The deal has two parts. First, Canonical has taken IBM's DB2 Express-C 
database, which is a lightweight relational database with PureXML 
integrated XML features like the real DB2 databases, and hardened it for 
Ubuntu 10.04 Server Edition and wrapped it all up in a loving Amazon 
Machine Image (AMI) format so it can be deployed on Amazon's Elastic 
Compute Cloud (EC2) utility.

For the full story go to:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/21/ibm_canonical_db2_ubuntu/

===================================

4 Reasons Every Windows User Should Have An Ubuntu Live CD

Justin Pot at makeuseof.com writes the four reasons why every Windows 
user ought to have an Ubuntu Live CD:

* Recover data from unbootable systems
* Run memtest
* Find out about your hard drive
* Edit partitions

For explanations of his reasons and other information see:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-reasons-windows-user-ubuntu-live-cd/

==========================

THE BEST ADVERT FOR UBUNTU YOU PROBABLY NEVER SAW

OMG!Ubuntu has a Dell/Ubuntu promotional video that no one ever saw.

For the video see:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/best-advert-for-ubuntu-you-probably.html


=======


Seven Ubuntu Derivatives worth Checking Out

Jeff Hoogland writes on his blog about seven Ubuntu derivatives he 
believes are worth checking out and why.

The list includes:

* Pinguy OS
* Linux Mint
* Zorin
* Lubuntu
* Jolicloud
* Netrunner
* Moon OS To read more about Jeff's picks or comment on his findings go to:

http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2010/07/seven-ubuntu-derivatives-worth-checking.html

======================

Will Canonical-IBM Relationship Attract Oracle to Ubuntu?

Joe Panettieri, WorksWithU, discusses the expanded relationship between 
Canonical and IBM. Joe writes - The latest move involves a virtual 
appliance, comprising IBM’s DB2 Express-C software running on the Ubuntu 
Enterprise Cloud. At first glance the Canonical-IBM relationship is a 
nice win for Ubuntu. But perhaps there’s a deeper story angle here… 
involving Canonical’s continued pursuit of Oracle on Ubuntu. Here’s the 
speculation.

IBM’s DB2 has a solid reputation in the database market. DB2 gained fame 
on IBM mainframes before carving out a niche for itself on Unix, Linux 
and Windows servers. But ultimately, DB2 trails Oracle and Microsoft’s 
SQL Server in the Linux and Windows server markets, respectively.

To read the article in full go to:

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/07/22/will-canonical-ibm-relationship-attract-oracle-to-ubuntu/

=========================

Firewall Tools for Ubuntu Security

Christopher Tozzi, WorksWithU explains Ubuntu Firewall tools in this 
article.

Tozzi notes in this artlcle - “Does Ubuntu have a firewall, and how do I 
turn it on?” is a popular question among new Ubuntu users. The answer is 
a bit complicated, but it’s an understandable inquiry for those 
migrating from the Windows world. WorksWithU addresses that question 
below by taking a look at Ubuntu’s firewall and some of the tools 
available for managing it.

To read the article in full and to find out more about the firewall 
tools go to:

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/07/19/firewall-tools-for-ubuntu/

======================