news 28 Posted April 12, 2009 Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #137 for the week April 5th - April 11th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Archive frozen in preparation of Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL April 18th, Ubuntu Open Week, QA Team: Next Testing Day, LoCo Team news(New York, Florida, Nebraska, Australia, and Tunisia), Up[censored] the PPA Docs, Meet Gavin Panella, Expanding the Forum Council, New Staff in Town, apt URLs now available on the Ubuntu Wiki, More Easter eggs in Ubuntu, Bookmarkftp update, Running Ubuntu: literally, Ubunchu the Ubuntu Manga is now in English, Ubuntu Server Team meeting minutes, 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 == * Archive frozen in preparation of Ubuntu 9.04 * Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL April 18th * Ubuntu Open Week * QA Team: Next Testing Day * Ubuntu Stats * LoCo News: New York, Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina, Australia, & Tunisia * Up[censored] the PPA Docs * Meet Gavin Panella * Expanding the Forum Council * New Staff in Town * The Planet: Jim Campbell, Jonathan Carter, John Vivirito, and Dustin Kirkland * In the Press & Blogosphere * Ubunchu the Ubuntu Manga is now in English * Ubuntu Server Team Meeting Minutes * Upcoming Meetings & Events * Updates & Security == General Community News == === Archive frozen in preparation of Ubuntu 9.04 === Steve Langasek reports that we are less than a week away from the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope. Proposed date for the Release Candidate is April 16, 2009. The archive is now frozen and will not thaw again before release. Uploads to universe should again follow the guidelines described here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2008-April/025259.html The list of release-critical bugs that need to be resolved before the release candidate on April 16 is tracked here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+bugs?field.milestone=2202 Additional bugs that are still considered "targets of opportunity" for the release are found at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+bugs https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-April/000561.html === Ubuntu 7.10 reaches EOL April 18th === Ubuntu 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon, will reach end of life on Saturday, April 18th, 2009. It has been supported for the past 18 months, but following April 18th will no longer receive Ubuntu Security Notices or Updates. Note that upgrades to version 8.10 and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 8.04 LTS, then to 8.10. Both Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Ubuntu 8.10 continue to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 7.10 is via Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-7.10-eol === Ubuntu Open Week === Welcome to the Ubuntu Open Week! The next Open Week takes place from Monday April 27th - Friday May 1st on IRC in #ubuntu-classroom. In just four years, Ubuntu has become one the most popular Linux distributions in the world with millions of users, and a thriving community. Ubuntu Open Week is a week of IRC tuition and Q+A sessions all about getting involved in the rock-and-roll world that is the Ubuntu community. The session are organized for the beginning of a new release cycle to help new contributors get involved. Ubuntu Open Week is a series of online workshops where you can: * learn about the Ubuntu landscape * talk to some of the key developers from the Ubuntu project * find out about the Community and its relationship with Canonical * participate in an open Q&A with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu * much more... https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek === QA Team: Next Testing Day === The next testing day will be on Monday, April 13, 2009. The team will be smoke testing any *buntu desktop of your choice. The goals on the day will be to test the installer and applications on the CD as well as those you download from repositories and use regularly. The team will be looking for any regressions or breakages in these packages and reporting faults to launchpad. Join them on #ubuntu-testing on the freenode network. Go to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/UbuntuTestingDay/20090413 to find out more and get involved. http://blog.qa.ubuntu.com/node/49 == Ubuntu Stats == === Bug Stats === * Open (51262) +906 over last week * Critical (16) -2 over last week * Unconfirmed (21961) +884 over last week * Unassigned (43507) +884 over last week * All bugs ever reported (269754) +3019 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 (15806) -950 over last week * French (43389) -907 over last week * Swedish (54531) -743 over last week * Brazilian Portuguese (56938) -885 over last week * English (Uk) (59007) -26485 over last week Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/ === Translation Stats Intrepid === * Spanish (15230) +/-0 over last week * French (59023) +/-0 over last week * Swedish (63241) +/-0 over last week * Brazilian Portuguese (63631) -98 over last week * English (UK) (78012) +/-0 over last week Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/ === Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week === * The ability to change aspects to the new notification system (such as color) - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19114/ * System Monitor does not show which network connections are active - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19081/ * HDD spindown option - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19143/ * Helping with art in Ubuntu is not accessible - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19139/ * We have no choice in right click menu entries - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/19144/ 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 == === New York State LoCo - Jaunty Launch Party === The New York State LoCo has just received fliers for their Jaunty Release party that's set for April 25. The fliers were made up for them by System76. They are planning to have a 2 hour public information event, followed by a 2 hour release party. All Ubuntu users in the Finger Lakes region are invited. To learn more about the System 76 flier program visit: http://knowledge76.com/index.php/76er_Program http://ftbeowulf.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/new-york-state-loco-jaunty-launch-party/ === Florida Team === The Florida Team held their regular team meeting on April 7. Topics of discussion included a new Linked-In group for LoCo members, and upcoming release parties. 1. Gainesville - April 25, 5:30pm, at Fiber Optics Plus. Food and demos. 2. Jacksonville/St. Augustine - April 25, 3pm at City Coffee Company. Food, installs, demos. 3. Melbourne/Rockledge - Installs and demos. 4. Orlando - Tenative May 9. Social. 5. Tampa - Tenative May 2. 6. Tallahassee - May 2, 12pm - 4pm, at the Leroy Collins Public Library. Installs and demos. (Facebook Event Page) Stay tuned for more information on Miami and Jacksonville! Further details can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FloridaTeam/Projects/JauntyReleaseParties http://www.ubuntu-fl.org/ === Nebraska Team === Dave Thacker presented "Ubuntu Stuff" to the Omaha Linux User Group on April 7. http://www.olug.org/ === North Carolina Team === The North Carolina team continues planning for upcoming release parties. A previous meeting was held on April 7, and a follow up is scheduled for April 15, 7:30-8:30pm Eastern, in #ubuntu-us-nc. For all those who are in NC or those who can offer advice on implementation please plan on attending. We need every voice. It can only be successful when we all come together as a Team, so let's go team. Looking forwarding to seeing how many release parties we can get off the ground. Join us next week and let's plan on how to introduce and celebrate the arrival of Jaunty Jackalope in North Carolina. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NorthCarolinaTeam === Ubuntu Release Party: Sydney === Ubuntu users in the Sydney area are invited to join the festivities on April 25 at the James Squire Brewhouse on King Street Wharf. The party starts at 4 PM, and those with Ubuntu t-shirts are encouraged to wear them. Daring party goers may even choose to dress up as with antler headbands or hats (like those ones from Christmas) as tribute to the mythical Jackalope. http://www.geekosophical.net/?p=250#content === Ubuntu day Sidi Bouzid - Tunisia === The Ubuntu-tn LoCo Team continues to visit various cities to present Ubuntu and free software. This time, they stopped at the Higher Institute of Technological Studies of Sidi Bouzid (ISET) in response to an invitation received from the Computer Science Department. More than 100 people turned out for the presentations, and 20 remained for an installfest of Ubuntu 8.10. The link includes even more information and pictures of the event. http://nizaurs.blogspot.com/2009/04/ubuntu-day-iset-of-sidi-bouzid.html == Launchpad News == === Up[censored] the PPA Docs === The Personal Package Archive documentation currently exists as one long and somewhat unwieldy wiki page. Over the next couple of months this should be broken down into smaller guides. Each guide will be based around one particular task. Included in this effort will be a basic packaging guide tailored specifically to the needs of PPAs. Current possibilities include: * packaging guide blueprint * package upload guide blueprint * package publication lifecycle reference blueprint * downloading and installing from PPAs guide blueprint * bug report tracking changes needed for the PPA tour page. You are encouraged to add to the list by email, comment on the blog page, or visit the bug report and blueprints page for it. More information is at the link. http://blog.launchpad.net/ppa/up[censored]-the-personal-package-archive-docs === Meet Gavin Panella === Gavin Panella is the UK's most easterly developer. A lot of his work is behind the scenes on the bug activity log, but a user might notice a more detailed bug activity log and the interleaving of bug activity with comments on each bug page. Though children take up most of his non-work time, he has made contributions outside of his Launchpad work, including Bazaar, galleryuploader, python-macports, and storm on Launchpad. Read the complete interview at the link. http://blog.launchpad.net/meet-the-devs/meet-gavin-panella == Ubuntu Forums News == === Expanding the Forum Council === With the rapid growth of the community, the Forum Council (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncil) has now seven members, after two long time Forums Staff members have been voted in by the Community Council: bodhi.zazen (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=89054) and bapoumba (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=171805). They are now part of the Forums Administrators. Being part of the Forum Council is a two years term position that can be renewed. === New Staff in Town === This week has also seen several changes to the Forums Staff Team. Four new moderators have accepted to join: cariboo907 (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=77104), forestpixie (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=610428), Michael.Godawski (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=541281) and tinivole (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=490875) who have all demonstrated constant kind and positive inputs on the forums. Adding moderators is discussed after a Forum Council member opens a discussion in the Staff area. Every Staff is welcome to suggest members. The Forum Council then sends invitations based on the discussions. == The Planet == === Jim Campbell: apt URLs now available on the Ubuntu Wiki === Good news on the wiki front. As of this April 9th, apt-urls are enabled on the Ubuntu Wiki. What does this mean? In simple terms, this feature provides a simple, wiki-based interface for apt, the base of the Ubuntu software management system. It means that you can now insert clickable links on the wiki that can prompt users to install software from the Ubuntu repositories. How cool is that? For instruction on how to format this great new wiki feature, visit the link. http://j1m.net/2009/04/09/apt-urls-now-available-on-the-ubuntu-wiki/ === Jonathan Carter: More Easter eggs in Ubuntu === Here are a few of the hidden easter eggs Jonathan has found: * Robots: Type about:robots in the Firefox address bar. You'll get a window "Welcoming Humans! * Require Quarter: In GDM, the Ubuntu login screen, type “Require Quarter†and press enter. It will return back to the login prompt as if you haven’t typed anything at all. When the next user comes to log in, the system will display a prompt that says “Insert 25 cents to continue…†* Zenity Dress Up: Zenity is a tool that you can use to add some GUI functionality to your scripts. If you execute zenity –about, and type “zen†into the about dialog, then you will get to play dress-up Mr Potato style. This doesn’t seem to work on Jaunty anymore. * StarCalc Team: In OpenOffice.org Calc, type “=STARCALCTEAM()†into any of the cells. A picture will be displayed of the original Star Office Calc team. * GEGL Eggs in Gnome: Right-click on an open space on the gnome-panel and click on properties.Right-click 3 times on any of the tabs. A GEGL cow will fly by waving at you. You can also play the gegls from outer space game. Press ALT+F2, then typs “gegls from outer space†* The Answer in VIM: Type :help 42 in the command field, and you will get a message. http://jonathancarter.co.za/2009/04/09/more-easter-eggs-in-ubuntu/ === John Vivirito: Bookmarksftp update === John Vivirito has finished with his first update to bookmarksftp and would love testers so he can get it in Debian and Ubuntu as soon as he can. You can find the updated .deb and source from his PPA: https://edge.launchpad.net/~gnomefreak/+archive/ppa Please send feed back to either: irc.freenode.net #ubuntu-mozillateam and ask for him. Or Share this post Link to post
