news 28 Posted January 31, 2010 Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #178 for the week January 24th - January 30th, 2010. In this issue we cover: Contribute with Ubuntu One Bug Day, Lucid changes to Firefox default search provider, Announcement: Ubuntu Server update for Lucid Alpha3, Interview With Ubuntu Manual Project Leader Ben Humphrey, Ubuntu Honduras, Back up old sources from PPA's, Improved Bug Patch Notifications, Getting your code into Launchpad, Ubuntu Developer Week Recap, Canonical Voices, Ubuntu Community Learning Project Update, NZ school ditches Microsoft and goes totally open source, Full Circle Magazine #33, 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 == * Contribute with Ubuntu One Bug Day * Lucid changes to Firefox default search provider * Announcement: Ubuntu Server update for Lucid Alpha3 * Interview With Ubuntu Manual Project Leader Ben Humphrey * Ubuntu Stats * Ubuntu Honduras * Back up old sources from PPA's * Improved Bug Patch Notifications * Getting your code into Launchpad * The Planet * In the Press & Blogosphere * NZ school ditches Microsoft and goes totally open source * Full Circle Magazine * Upcoming Meetings & Events * Updates & Security == General Community News == === Contribute with Ubuntu One Bug Day === * Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 * Time: 1400-1600 UTC * Place: Join us in #ubuntuone on freenode in IRC Each day Ubuntu One usually has at least one representative from the team dedicated to addressing subscriber questions, participating in IRC discussions, and responding to bugs. A few months ago, we decided that this would be enhanced by the entire team collaborating for a short period of time on open bugs and subscriber questions. We called it Bug Day. The goal was to reduce the list of bugs in an undecided state. After a few months, we’ve found this to be very useful in addressing open issues and questions, identifying duplicates, elevating the overall knowledge of the entire team and sharing best practices. Tuesday is the next Ubuntu One Bug Day, and this time we’re going to try something a little different. We would like invite our subscribers to join us. This will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Ubuntu One service, improve your skills and assist your fellow Ubuntu community members. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOne/BugDays http://voices.canonical.com/ubuntuone/?p=198 === Lucid changes to Firefox default search provider === This announcement is to apprise you of two small but important changes coming to Firefox in Lucid. We are changing the default search provider in Firefox to Yahoo! Note that this won't in any way effect the ability of a user to choose and use the search provider of their choice. It's literally 2 easily discoverable clicks to change this setting, a simple matter of switching to that search provider in the chrome by clicking on the icon and choosing the desired provider. Note also that Yahoo! does not share any personally identifiable or usage information. Why? We are pursuing this change because Canonical has negotiated a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! and this revenue will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform. This change will help provide these resources as well as continuing to respect our user's default search across Firefox. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-January/030065.html === Announcement: Ubuntu Server update for Lucid Alpha3 === Last week the Lucid Alpha3 development phase started. So in following our Alpha2 announcement below is what’s on the horizon for Alpha3. Some of these are new blueprints for Alpha3 some are continued work from Alpha2. Alpha3 Projects Since the upcoming release is an LTS, a lot of this cycles work is centered around stability. Currently, we’re broadly targeting the following 3 areas: Software integration * Eucalyptus 1.6.2 * Moving from MySQL 5.0 to 5.1 * Provide libraries in PHP/Python/Perl for AWS services Improving our UEC & EC2 experience * Integrating Puppet & Etckeeper * Provide boothooks & user based configuration QA & testing * UEC tests * Automated server tests * Bug squashing * Apport hooks * Daily builds for server packages * The Server Papercuts project There are also a few community driven specs which are targeted for the Lucid release: * Asterisk Integration * Ubuntu Cluster Stack * Ubuntu Server Containers (LXC, OpenVZ) * Integration of Amavisd-new, Spamassassin, and Clamav The full list of blueprints related to these targets and our progress can be found on the server team wiki or on our work item tracker. Feedback & Involvement If you have any suggestions for AWS libraries in PHP/Perl/Python or are interested in packaging/contributing a library in another language, please let us know in the RFC thread To make the most of our Server Papercuts project, please participate in the email discussion and nominate papercuts and/or volunteer to fix them! To help us track down bugs and crashes better, we’re adding apport hooks to several key pieces of software. If you’d like to implement any of those hooks or contribute your own, please let us know in the blueprint. The Ubuntu Cluster Stack spec has issued a call for testing and would love to hear about your experiences. http://ubuntuserver.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/ubuntu-server-update-for-lucid-alpha3/ === Interview With Ubuntu Manual Project Leader Ben Humphrey === The Ubuntu Manual Project has stirred up veritable carnival of publicity over the last few months, signifying a huge appetite for such a document within the community. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual Here is an interview with Benjamin Humphrey the project leader. Let's go back to the start: Where did the idea of creating a "beginners manual†come from? It all started halfway through last year. I had been helping users troubleshoot their problems on the Ubuntu Forums, and I also had a fair few of my own problems with Ubuntu when I started using it for the first time. I quickly learnt to resolve these, and, as time went by, I helped others too. I wrote a bit of Community Documentation, but felt the need to pass my knowledge on to more new users - so I started my blog with that intention. The blog articles then began to be exported into a PDF, which started to take shape as a manual. The project didn't become open for collaboration until late last year when I realized it would be more beneficial to have many people working on it as a team - that way we could cover more stuff and make a better document overall. Who is the manual aimed at? Our target audience is new computer users, and users coming from Windows/Mac, who otherwise wouldn't know much about Ubuntu or GNU/Linux in general. What differentiates the Ubuntu Manual Project from the official documentation, official books, etc that already exist for newcomers? Content wise, we go into less detail than the documentation and wiki. We aren't supposed to be an all-encompassing Ubuntu bible, like the Official Ubuntu Book. The manual is a free PDF download, it will hopefully be included in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS as well. It will be translated in over 30 languages, possibly available for purchase in print, and also will feature many localized screenshots. It's more organized than the wiki documentation and easier to access than the forums. It will also be kept up to date with revisions every six months to coincide with the Ubuntu release cycle. We will be pointing readers in the direction of the in-built help, or the wiki help, or the forums if they need more detail on a specific topic. What areas will the 'manual' be covering? The manual follows a linear learning curve - it starts with the basics (like an introduction about Ubuntu's philosophy and history), then moves to explaining the desktop, default applications, getting online, installing software and so forth. It's split into two sections, the first half and the second half - we don't even mention the command line until the second half, the "advanced" section. The full table of contents can be found here. What won’t the manual be going into? A lot of stuff. As I said above, this isn't an Ubuntu bible - we're not going to have a guide for installing Nvidia drivers on a GeForce 7600GT graphics card, for example. It won't be that specific - we will give you a general idea on how to do something, show you the basics, and then point you in the right direction for more information. So the big question is – will it be included in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx? At the moment, we're not sure. I know many people would love to see it on the CD - our research proves that, and my talks with Ubuntu members/key contributors also shows there is a great deal of interest in the project. If everything goes to plan, I think it would be silly to not include a version in Lucid and make it available for download at www.ubuntu.com. What's working against us is file size. With more than 50 pages, and a whole heap of images, we'll be hard pressed to get it down to a small enough size to squeeze onto the CD. Remember a CD can only hold 700mb - the Ubuntu devs have to fit a whole operating system and several applications onto that. I think we can get it down to a small enough size for it to be included as example content at least, but it's really too early to tell as we haven't even started inserting images yet. If we can't get it into Lucid, I will try to get it included it for 10.10. It will be much easier to convince the desktop team/docs team once we have something to show. If it does make it into Lucid, where can users expect to find access to the manual? Desktop icon? Menu Entry, etc? This hasn't been decided yet. While we would love to see it as an icon on the desktop, this just won't happen - the desktop team have a strict no icons on the desktop policy as a "design decision." It will most likely appear in the main application menu, or as an icon on the panel. It will hopefully also be available for download right next to the main download link for Ubuntu on the website. And just to hedge my bets - How will users be able to ‘find’ the manual if it ISN'T included in Lucid? If it isn't included in Lucid, we will try to get it on the main Ubuntu website and most definitely in the main repository. We will probably also set up our own website with a download link, and of course it will be available on our Launchpad page as well. Read the second part of the interview including screenshots of some possible cover designs, a possible change of name for the project and feedback already received about the project at the link below. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/01/interview-with-ubuntu-manual-project.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+%28Omg!+Ubuntu == Ubuntu Stats == === Bug Stats === * Open (76370) -170 # over last week * Critical (40) +4 # over last week * Unconfirmed (39396) -171 # 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 (10995) -157 over last week 2. French (42268) -1140 over last week 3. Brazilian Portuguese (44505) -232 over last week 4. Swedish (66009) -410 over last week 5. English (United Kingdom) (63270) -4517 over last week Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/ === Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week === * Configure Ubuntu Programs During Installation - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23490/ * Rhythmbox internet radio cover art - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23522/ * Expand Brainstorm to help with community artwork selection - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23500/ * Totem needs a "Go Fullscreen" button - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23458/ * Automatically set weather applet location - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23438/ 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 == === Ubuntu Honduras === Ubuntu Honduras kicked off the 2010 year of activities with a team pizza party where they discussed upcoming events for 2010, and welcomed new members. The team set the agenda for the next 3 months which includes, an Ubuntu presentation at Universidad de San Pedro Sula, and a two hour talk at the T3 conference Escuela Internacional Sanpedrana. The team is also discussing a couple of workshops they hope to have. One for team members to help them gain experience and improve their knowledge of Ubuntu, and the second that they will have at area universities. Pictures of the pizza party are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/elvira.martinez38/PrimerPizzaBashSanPedroSula2010# http://blog.diegoturcios.net16.net/?p=382 == Launchpad News == === Back up old sources from PPA's === We’ve been overwhelmed by the popularity of PPAs on Launchpad. In fact, according to our sysadmins, they are a little too popular and now our disks are full. Full disks mean no more PPAs, and no more uploads to PPAs. We’d like to add some more disks, but we can’t actually do that soon enough for a bunch of complicated reasons. Instead, we’ve decided that we’re going to remove all of the source files for any uploads that are: * in PPAs * not published, that is, deleted or superseded * have been not published for over seven days Note that we already delete the binaries for such uploads. We are going to delete these old files this Wednesday, January 27th. We’re really sorry that we are announcing it so close to the actual event — we know it’s a hassle. If you want to keep any of these files, you are going to have to download them right now. Here’s how to do it. 1. Go to your PPA’s web page on Launchpad and click on “View package detailsâ€. 2. Change the filter to search for “Any statusâ€. Click “Filterâ€. 3. For each superseded or deleted upload with files you want to save, expand the upload and manually save all the files under the “Package files†heading. If it’s a busy PPA like the example one, then there will be a lot of old versions to download. If you aren’t sure, you probably won’t need all of Share this post Link to post
