news 28 Posted August 17, 2010 Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 206 for the week August 8th - August 14th, 2010. == Links to Issue 206 == * Link to the Issue 206 Wiki Page - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue206 * Link to Issue 206 PDF - http://people.ubuntu.com/~akgraner/UWN%20PDF%20Issues/Ubuntu_Weekly_Newsletter_Issue_206.pdf == In This Issue == * Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events! * Feature Freeze in place for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) * Making Ubuntu More Accessible * Talking about Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender, Project Lead for Ubuntu Studio * Another Heated Discussion In the Ubuntu Community * Ubuntu Stats * LoCo News * Launchpad News * This week In Design – 13 August 2010 * Finding The Ubuntu Font Design * How are your users feeling? Example from Rhythmbox * An Update to the Ubuntu Light Themes * Awesome Work Others Have Done * Hugs For Bugs! * Can We Count Users Without Uniquely Identifying Them? * Revving up the Ubuntu Manual Project for Maverick * Behind MOTU Relaunches As Behind The Circle * In The Press * In The Blogosphere * Linux Foundation Makes Enterprise Open Source Boring * KDE's New Releases Make a Splash * LinuxCon Grapples With Challenges, From Mobile To Multicore * Fotoxx -- the Greatest Little Linux Photo Editor You've Never Heard Of * Zenoss Releases 2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey Report * Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings * Upcoming Meetings and Events * Updates and Security * UWN Sneak Peak * And Much Much More! == General Community News == === Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events! === Are you good folks aware of what is happening on 27th – 29th August 2010. But of course, it is the Ubuntu Global Jam! In the last few cycles we have organized and run an event called the Ubuntu Global Jam. The idea was simple: encourage our awesome global Ubuntu community to get together in the same room to work on bugs, translations, documentation, testing and more. And they did, all over the world, as can be seen here. One thing that I am keen that everyone remembers: you don’t have to be an official developer, packager or programmer to take part in the Ubuntu Global Jam. Also, lets not forget that Ubuntu Global Jam events are a fantastic place to learn and improve your skills: you can sit next to someone who can show you how to do something or explain something in more detail. If this is all sounding right up your street and you fancy organizing an event, go and read this page and then add your event to the LoCo Directory by following these instructions. Rock and roll: let’s make this one to remember. Start your engines, folks… For more information go to: http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/08/10/ubuntu-global-jam-we-need-your-events-2/ === Feature Freeze in place for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) === The Feature Freeze is now in effect for Maverick. The focus from here until release is on fixing bugs and polishing. If you believe that a new package, a new upstream version of a package, or a new feature is needed for the release and will not introduce more problems than it fixes, please follow the Freeze Exception Process by filing bugs and subscribing ubuntu-release. Please also make sure that specs assigned to you for Maverick are updated to their current status (which should be at least Beta Available if not Deferred, or unless granted a freeze exception). https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/ Our next testing milestone, Maverick Beta, is in 3 weeks (September 2). The list of bugs targeted for beta can be found at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+bugs?field.milestone=27563 For more information got to: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/2100 === Making Ubuntu More Accessible === Jono Bacon talks to Penelope Stowe about the making Ubuntu more accessible. Jono notes, I had a great call Penelope Stowe who has been leading some excellent efforts with the Ubuntu Accessibility Team in conjunction with the (quite literally) always rocking Luke ‘The Muso’ Yelavich. The reason for the call was simple: I felt like I didn’t have enough knowledge or visibility of the Ubuntu Accessibility Team and accessibility in general, and when Ubuntu was started, the project made a firm commitment to the core aspects of freedom such as freedom of access to the technology, the freedom to have Ubuntu in your language, and the freedom to experience Ubuntu in an accessible way. Penelope, Luke and others are passionate about bringing the focus back to accessibility more, and I wanted to echo this important ambition here. Want to find out more about what the Accessibilty Team goal's are? Go to: http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/08/07/making-ubuntu-more-accessible/ === Talking about Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender, Project Lead for Ubuntu Studio === Have you ever wanted to know more about some of the Ubuntu derivative distributions? In this interview we look at Ubuntu Studio with Scott Lavender Ubuntu Member and Project Lead for the Ubuntu Studio Project. Want to know more information about Ubuntu Studio go to: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/2099 === Another Heated Discussion In the Ubuntu Community === A post by Benjamin Humphrey on the OMG!Ubuntu! site on August 7th, 2010 sparked a fire and flames across the community. The post was titled, "Dude, You're a 35 Year Old With a Neck Beard" and can be found at http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/dude-youre-35-year-old-with-neck-beard.html Who is Benjamin Humphrey? According to the OMG!Ubuntu! site is the founder and leader of the Ubuntu Manual Project, an Ubuntu member, and was sponsored by Canonical to attend the Ubuntu Developers Summit for the Maverick release earlier this year. He is also one of the personalities behind OMG!Ubuntu! This posts prompted 100s of comments and discussion through the community. It also prompted this tweet by Jono Bacon - "To be clear, folks, I am looking into the OMG!Ubuntu issue, and remember, it is *not* officially representative of Ubuntu #ubuntu", which can be found at: http://twitter.com/jonobacon/status/20738755506 Alan Pope, a member of both the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu LoCo Council, sent out these tweets as well: "Dear Internet. The words of one blogger do not represent the perspective of the whole #Ubuntu Community.Love popey.(neither does this tweet)" http://twitter.com/popey/status/20722842025 "Just because you don't see a public 'flogging' when someone is alleged to have breached the #ubuntu CoC doesn't mean nothing happened." http://twitter.com/popey/status/20727036288 Then on August 10th, 2010 Benjamin posted an article entitled "I said a few things wrong, let's move on" found at http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/i-said-few-things-wrong-lets-move-on.html In this post Benjamin says, "A couple of days ago I posted an article which, believe it or not, had a fundamental message buried somewhere amongst the stereotyping, name-calling trollop. It was a mistake on my behalf to use such wording and I admit I cocked up big time. Ubuntu is a pretty diverse place full of loads of different people working together on something that they enjoy and that should be respected. I think most of us agree that Ubuntu won't become mainstream based on principles alone, and recently we've seen a lot of work go into it to make sure that the product is as good as it can be for mainstream consumption. Of course, there is always room for improvement and everyone in downstream, upstream and even the FSF help in their own way. So, I apologize for my crass wording and hope that everyone affected doesn't take too much of it to heart - keep doing great work on open source software and I'll see you on the other side!" These posts have brought out emotions, opinions, and discussion that continue across the community. Even the mention of including this in UWN stirred up some strong opinions. == Ubuntu Stats == === Bug Stats === * Open (76679) -1567 over last week * Critical (28) -2 over last week * Unconfirmed (37320) +233 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 Lucid === 1. English (United Kingdom) (0) +/-0 over last week 2. Spanish (8779) +/-0 over last week 3. Brazilian Portuguese (34537) -43 over last week 4. French (37852) -296 over last week 5. German (54014) -169 over last week 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 === * Resizing Windows is Slow, Inefficient, and Forces Users to Re-Center - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25562/ * Initiate guest session from the logon screen - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25583/ * Improve usability by allowing file properties to be edited - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25557/ * Cut or copy operations should be notified clearlier when used - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25569/ * Wireless network details - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/25559/ 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 == === LoCo Directory Needs Your Input Now Rather Than Later === The lovely LoCo Directory(LD) developers have done an amazing job on the LD. What started off as an idea has really come to fruit and now is a useful source of information for everyone. For your own team, for people travelling to see if they are in the area and if you’ve events running so they can join you. With this in mind there are some bugs that need YOUR help with. They need YOUR OPINIONS Now rather than later. For more information on what the LD needs your help and opinion on go to: http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=837 === Ubuntu Global Jam – Coming very soon === So firstly for those who may be unfamilar with a Global Jam and what it’s all about. The Ubuntu Global Jam (UGJ) is a a world-wide online and face-to-face event to get people together to fix Ubuntu bugs – we want to get as many people online fixing bugs, having a great time doing so. This is not only a great opportunity to really help Ubuntu, but to also get together with other your team mates and work on things as a group and help one another. For more information on how you and your LoCo team can participate in the Ubuntu Global Jam go to: http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=829 === Great success + Pictures ‎ === After all the time expecting excited, we (the Israeli LoCo) had a booth on August penguin event, which is no less than the biggest FLOSS event over here. First of all, we spread more than 700 Ubuntu CDs, including Kubuntu, Server edition, and even what we had left from the last version (9.10). I was amazed to see that we gave almost all the 9.10 CDs! not to mention all the badges and stickers people were so happy to have! (and again thanks to Ubuntu-fr). I was happy to see in the event many people that i already know from Ubuntu on the grass (which is our Ubuntu event name) Try to find our Booth in the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sijproject/2010 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=203940&id=810428115&l=cda90399a0 http://elad.blogli.co.il/archives/1406 As you can see, the event was a great success, either for our booth and for the FLOSS in Israel For more information go to: http://ddorda.useopensource.net/?p=1441 === The Ubuntistas magazine (in Greek) === This is the 9th issue of Ubuntistas for May-June-July. You can click on the image above and have a look at the issue. The text should look Greek to you but you can get the gist of the content. To find out more information go to: http://simos.info/blog/?p=1176 === Ubuntu Global Jam – Dublin === Plans are well underway now for a Global Jam to take place in Dublin on the weekend of Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th August. We’re going to split into a two part event, real life meet up on the Saturday at TOG – A Hackerspace in Dublin. On Sunday we’re going to meet online in #ubuntu-ie and working on areas as well but this way we allo for folks who can’t make it but do want to work on Ubuntu. We’ll also be online on the Saturday. What do we do at a global jam – work on bug triaging, cleaning up our wiki pages, logging bugs, documentation. It’s a day when you get to decide to work on Ubuntu in your own way. We have created the event on the LoCo Directory and we need you to sign up as places are limited. All of the details, including a rough timetable of what we are going to do during the day, if you can help people with bug triaging, python coding etc, how to get there are all on the sign up page. For more information go to: http://www.lczajkowski.com/?p=820 === First Ubuntu UK Geeknic a Success === The first Ubuntu-UK LoCo “geeknic†and in my opinion it was a great success. Around 20 people turned up to enjoy fun, food and chat in Hyde Park in London, UK and stayed for about 4 hours. The event was co-organised by Joe O’Dell and Isabell Long and was discussed at multiple UK LoCo IRC meetings in the weeks leading up to the event. The idea behind it was for people to get together in a social setting rather than the usual geek meets which happen in stuffy rooms with everyone on a laptop and nobody actually talking to anyone in meatspace. People were also encouraged to bring friends and family. For more information on this event go to: http://popey.com/blog/?p=1140 == Launchpad News == === Dupes Of Dupes Now Become Dupes Of The Master Bug === Some bugs get reported more than once. That’s why we’ve got the dupe finder. Some duplicate bugs slip through the dupe finder. Really common issues get quite a few dupes and someone from the relevant project usually goes through and marks them as duplicates of the master bug where the actual discussion and tracking is taking place. There has been a really annoying bug in the way Launchpad has handled all this, though, and Deryck’s just fixed it. For more information go to: http://blog.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/dupety-dupe === Showing The Right Bug Comments === Some bugs attract many, many comments. For a while now, Launchpad has displayed only the first 80 comments on any bug report, with the option of viewing the full comment history. That’s been good for speeding up page loads but not so great at offering an accurate view of the current state of discussion about the bug. Bryce has fixed that. Now, a bug report page still shows only 80 comments, by default. However, to give a better overview of the state of discussion, it now shows the first 40 and the last 40 comments. For more information go to: http://blog.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/snip-it-in-the-middle === Better Dupe Finding === One of my favourite things about Launchpad’s bug tracker is the dupe finder: when you report a new bug, it’ll search to see if there’s already a similar bug report. It’s the same for questions in Launchpad Answers, too. Getting to see possible dupes before you file a bug or question is a great time saver for you and the people on the other end. However, the dupe finder has been timing out a lot lately. Rob Collins, Launchpad’s new Technical Architect, has introduced some changes that should make the dupe finder more reliable. Other than fewer timeouts, here’s what you might notice: * the dupe finder now returns fewer matches — three or four rather than ten or more * the results should be more relevant. We want to know how this works in practice. Let us know how you get on with the new dupe finder. Either leave a comment here, mail Share this post Link to post
