[Ubuntu-US-CA] Thank you for visiting Ubuntu at SCALE 12X!

[Nathan Haines]

Dear SCALE guest,

On behalf of the Ubuntu project, I would like to thank you for visiting 
our booth at the Southern California Linux Expo.  Every year the show is 
bigger and better, and it’s always wonderful to hear how others are 
using Ubuntu in their lives.

I wanted to take the time to send you a single email highlighting some 
of the incredible news we reported about Ubuntu during and after SCALE, 
and offering ways to become involved in and stay connected to the Ubuntu 
community.  This is the only email you’ll receive, so be sure and read 
to the end if you’d like to stay in touch!

Since 2004, Ubuntu has led the way in creating a stunning, easy-to-use 
operating system.  Through 10 years of hard work, Ubuntu has become 
engaging and welcoming to users, powerful enough for experts, solid 
enough for servers, scalable enough for vast cloud deployments, and 
versatile enough to fit perfectly on phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, 
televisions, servers, and the cloud.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be available on April 17, 2014.  Until then, you 
will want to install 12.04 LTS on servers and 13.10 on desktop machines. 
  I give the following rationale for this decision in a blog post: 
http://www.nhaines.com/blog/2014/01/03/which-version-of-ubuntu-do-i-install/

The biggest excitement this year has been around Ubuntu coming to phones 
and tablets.  Some news broke just in time for SCALE, when Jono Bacon 
hosted a town hall style meeting with the Ubuntu community.  There, Mark 
Shuttleworth and others from Canonical announced the first retail phone 
partners to feature Ubuntu in stores later this year.

You can watch the town hall meeting here: https://youtu.be/gGG_GHYzSLs

And you can read the press release discussing Ubuntu’s first retail 
phone partners here: 
http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/press-releases/canonical-announces-first-partners-to-ship-ubuntu-phones-around-the-globe/

The announcements continued over the next week at Mobile World Congress 
in Barcelona.  Canonical was on hand to demonstrate Ubuntu to the press 
and other OEMs, and there was a lot to be excited about.  In the weeks 
since SCALE we’ve heard about beautiful new phone design work and new 
app partners who are enjoying the incredibly convenient app development 
process.  I’ve collected links to some of the highlights below:

New scope design work: 
http://developer.ubuntu.com/2014/02/introducing-our-new-scopes-technology/

Growing app ecosystem, including Grooveshark and VLC: 
http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/press-releases/growing-app-ecosystem-for-ubuntu-phones/

Bottom edge gesture design work: 
http://design.canonical.com/2014/03/loving-the-bottom-edge/

And while phones and tablets are generating the most noise in the press, 
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS has still seen some really nice improvements on the 
desktop as well.  HiDPI support for very high resolution screens has 
been added to Unity, and a new option called Locally Integrated Menus is 
now available to make menus easier to use on high-resolution screens: 
http://blog.3v1n0.net/informatica/linux/ubuntu-introducing-locally-integrated-menus-to-unity-7/

The easiest way to keep track of new developments in the Ubuntu world is 
to follow a good news source.  OMG! Ubuntu! is an independent site 
devoted to tracking the latest Ubuntu news, and Planet Ubuntu is a 
collection of syndicated updates from Ubuntu members as well as 
Canonical and other software projects.  It’s a great way to keep track 
of the community as well as developing stories.

OMG! Ubuntu!: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/
Planet Ubuntu: http://planet.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu’s presence at SCALE12X was the result of collaboration between 
many parts of the Ubuntu community.  From Local Community groups from 
California and Peru, Canonical who sent the phones, and independent 
members of the Ubuntu community who organized and contributed to Ubucon 
and volunteered at the booth and provided demonstration hardware,  the 
community came together in a demonstration of the strength we all share 
together.

Our community has always been built around the concept of “ubuntu”: “I 
am who I am because of who we all are.”  And that means that attending 
and supporting your local Linux User Groups as well as your Ubuntu Local 
Community (LoCo) is not only a great way to learn and become more 
involved, but also to help others.  So while we will love to see you 
again at SCALE13X, I also encourage you to check out the local resources 
available to you all year long.

If you are a California native, learn more about the Ubuntu California 
Local Community group at their website: http://ubuntu-california.org/

And if you traveled from afar to enjoy SCALE, you can find more 
information about local resources as well as the global community 
advocacy effort at LoCo Portal: http://loco.ubuntu.com/

There are always new events and new ways to contribute via offering 
support, marketing, troubleshooting, and many other ways to help make 
Ubuntu the best it can be for all of us.

This will be the only unsolicited email you’ll get from me, so be sure 
and get in touch with me or a local resource if you have any questions.

Thank you once again for visiting our booth at SCALE.  Everyone had a 
blast this year and you were a giant part of the fun.

Best regards,

Nathan Haines,
Community Advocate,
Ubuntu