Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) server, 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) desktop and 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) reaching End of Life on May 9 2013

By pleia2 | Published: 2013-03-29

On behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team, Adam Conrad announces the formal EOL dates of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) server, 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) desktop and 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) desktop and server.

8.04 (Hardy Heron) server

Ubuntu announced its 8.04 (Hardy Heron) release almost 5 years ago, on April 24, 2008. As with the earlier LTS releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 5 years. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 8.04 will reach end of life on Thursday, May 9th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 8.04.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 8.04 is via Ubuntu 10.04. Users are encouraged to evaluate and upgrade to our latest 12.04 LTS release via 10.04. Instructions and caveats for the upgrades may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseUpgrades. Ubuntu 10.04 and 12.04 continue to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes.

10.04 (Lucid Lynx) desktop

Ubuntu announced its 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) release almost 3 years ago, on April 29, 2010. As with the earlier LTS releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 3 years on the desktop. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop will reach end of life on Thursday, May 9th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop. Ubuntu 10.04 Server continues to be supported for another 2 years.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 10.04 is via Ubuntu 12.04. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseUpgrades. Ubuntu 12.04 continues to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes.

11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) desktop and server

Ubuntu announced its 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) release almost 18 months ago, on October 13, 2011. As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 11.10 will reach end of life on Thursday, May 9th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 11.10.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 11.10 is via Ubuntu 12.04. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseUpgrades. Ubuntu 12.04 continues to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes.

All announcements of official security updates for Ubuntu releases are sent to the ubuntu-security-announce mailing list.

Since its launch in October 2004 Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users in homes, schools, businesses and governments around the world. Ubuntu is Open Source software, costs nothing to download, and users are free to customise or alter their software in order to meet their needs.

Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list here, here and here by Adam Conrad on Fri Mar 29 2013

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 309

By pleia2 | Published: 2013-03-25

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #309 for the week March 18 – March 24, 2013, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Elizabeth Krumbach
  • Charles Profitt
  • Mathias Hellsten
  • Benjamin Kerensa
  • Radu Stoica
  • Javier Lopez
  • Matt Rudge
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

First Community Leadership Meeting Summary

By José Antonio Rey | Published: 2013-03-23

This week we had our first Ubuntu Leadership Meeting. The goal of the meeting is to bring together representatives from the different governance boards to provide an open field to discuss challenges and opportunities in the community. In this week’s call there was Elizabeth Krumbach (Community Council), Laura Czajkowski (LoCo/Community Councils), Sergio Meneses (LoCo Council), Randall Ross (LoCo Community), and Jono Bacon (Ubuntu Community Manager).

In this week’s session we discussed a few interesting topics. We first discussed the recent technical board decision around the regular release proposal, from Mark Shuttleworth. Our primary concern was ensuring that we can get the message out about the decision to the many different parts of our community from the core, out to end users. Elizabeth took an action to post to the community announce list, and Jono agreed to post to internal Canonical mailing lists, our social media networks, and to talk to the OEM and Web teams to ensure support change is reflected.

We also discussed the documentation team, who are currently struggling to keep up with maintaining docs in Ubuntu. Helping to resolve this issue seems multi-faceted: helping to bring on more admins for the team, increasing the number of volunteers, and improving on-boarding documentation. Elizabeth agreed to take care of the extra admins, Elizabeth and Daniel Holbach will write extra on-boarding docs, Ben Kerensa is going to hold a hangout to teach folks how to write docs, Jeremy Bicha will take care of branches and merge reviews to grow our reviewer base, and Jono will help promote getting people involved.

Finally, there was a discussion about printed certificates for Ubuntu members as a nice means of showing thanks for contributions to Ubuntu. Jono offered to check if Canonical can fund the printing and postage of the certificates. This looks like it is possible and he is working on figuring out the logistics as we speak.

See the full video of the hangout by clicking here, and make sure to stay tuned for the next scheduled hangout in a few weeks!

Written by Jono Bacon

Ubuntu Membership Board call for nominations

By pleia2 | Published: 2013-03-22

Ubuntu Membership is a recognition of significant and sustained contribution to Ubuntu and the Ubuntu community. To this end, the Community Council recruits members of our current membership community for the valuable role of reviewing and evaluating the contributions of potential members to bring them on board or assist with having them achieve this goal.

It’s now that time of year when we have several members of our boards expiring from their 2 year terms within the next couple months, which means we need to do some restaffing of this Membership Board.

We’re looking for 5 Ubuntu Members who can participate in the 12:00 UTC meetings:

12:00 UTC, meets once a month, specific day to be discussed by the board upon addition of new members

And for 4 Members who can participate in the 22:00 meetings:

22:00 UTC, meets once a month, specific day to be discussed by the board upon addition of new members

We have the following requirements for nominees:

  • be an Ubuntu member (preferably for some time)
  • be confident that you can evaluate contributions to various parts of our community
  • be committed to attending the membership meetings
  • broad insight into the Ubuntu community at large is a plus

Additionally, those sitting on membership boards are current Ubuntu Members with a proven track record of activity in the community. They have shown themselves over time to be able to work well with others and display the positive aspects of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. They should be people who can discern character and evaluate contribution quality without emotion while engaging in an interview/discussion that communicates interest, a welcoming atmosphere, and which is marked by humanity, gentleness, and kindness. Even when they must deny applications, they should do so in such a way that applicants walk away with a sense of hopefulness and a desire to return with a more complete application rather than feeling discouraged or hurt.

To nominate yourself or somebody else (please confirm they wish to accept the nomination and state you have done so), please send a mail to the membership boards mailing list (ubuntu-membership-boards at lists.ubuntu.com). You will want to include some information about yourself (or the applicant you are nominating), a launchpad profile link and which time slot is being applied for.

We will be accepting nominations through Friday April 5th at 12:00 UTC. All nominations will be forwarded to the Community Council who will make the final decision and announcement.

Thanks in advance to you and to the dedication everybody has put into their roles as board members.

Originally posted to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list by Elizabeth Krumbach on Fri Mar 22 19:34:45 UTC 2013

Catch up with the Community Council

By José Antonio Rey | Published: 2013-03-20

Following on from the last few weeks of discussions many of the Community Council have been approached to discuss various topics. While we regularly meet with many of the other boards and councils on a regularly scheduled basis, it’s not limited to just those representatives. We’d like to invite anyone who has any issues or concerns to always know we’re welcome to be contacted. The Community Council meets twice a month, the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month in #ubuntu-meeting on freenode. Anyone is welcome to add items to our agenda.

We are also open to doing quick chats (IRC or verbal we have been known to jump onto a hangout with folks) with community members as needed if you reach out to us. Don’t forget you can also send us email at community-council@lists.ubuntu.com. We’re really a friendly bunch 🙂

Originally posted to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list on Wed Mar 20 09:34:43 UTC 2013 by Laura Czajkowski