Ubuntu 12.04 Development update

By dholbach | Published: 2012-04-26

Last Development Update of 12.04

Today we saw the release of Ubuntu 12.04. It is the fourth release with long-term support and the 16th Ubuntu release. Lots of hard work went into this release, so if you see Ubuntu contributors around, give them a hug!

Kate Stewart, the Release Manager sent out an email with statistics about the 12.04 release cycle: this release cycle saw 386 uploaders, saw 18630 uploads (non-rebuild, non-langpack, including auto-syncs). It was also nice to see which packages were uploaded most and who sponsored most of the uploads – which means reviewing and uploading changes for contributors without upload rights.

Also Colin Watson mentions that this release is the first to not include any outdated binaries. Kudos to everyone who helped out with this effort!

And with 12.04 seen to the door, the planning for the upcoming 12.10 (codenamed ‘Quantal Quetzal’) is already in full swing. Scott Kitterman started the discussion about which version of the boost library to use, Barry Warsaw brings up a plan to move to Python3 for the Desktop image and Steve Langasek explains the reasoning behind staying on upstart for 12.10.

The Ubuntu Algorithms Team has held their first online classes and during the first sessions about 135 people were online on the IRC channel. The notes were followed by ~30 people, so the team estimates, that we had 35 active participants. In the week before classes, about 500 people looked at docs with notes. Many of them were not from Ubuntu Community.

Letting developers speak for themselves

 

Events

Ubuntu Algorithms Team
The next classes of the Ubuntu Algorithms Team will be 27.04, 17:00 UTC in #ubuntu-classroom. Join the team and their mailing list to stay up to date.

Ubuntu Open Week
Ubuntu Open Week will happen from 2nd May to 4th May and will have lots of great sessions about all aspects of Ubuntu. If you are interested in Ubuntu Development, make sure you attend the sessions on 3rd May 14:00 UTC (Ubuntu Development – how it all works) and 3rd May, 15 UTC (Ubuntu Development – fixing bugs).

Ubuntu Release Parties
Ubuntu 12.04 is out, so go and celebrate it with your local team. There are heaps of release parties around the globe. So if you live in Egypt, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Palestinian Territory, Phillipines, Thailand, Australia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Brazil or Uruguay you should be all covered with the link above. If you live elsewhere, write to your local Ubuntu team or LUG and celebrate it anyway. 🙂

First timers!

David Henningson got upload rights for pulseaudio in Ubuntu!

Spotlight: 12.04 is out – what’s next?

You would expect all Ubuntu developers to take a very long break after a release, possibly on a remote island on the beach with hourly refills of Piña Coladas. Some lucky developers might actually do that, but for the vast majority that’s not the case.

Why? Because there is a new release to be planned, new exciting stuff to get uploaded and some bugs to fix.

Here’s what will happen in the next few days: the development release for 12.10 will be opened, packages from precise will be copied over and the toolchain (the fundamental tools to build packages) will be bootstrapped and put in. Then ‘quantal’ will be opened for public use. The mailing list for change notifications has already been set up.

Once it is open, Ubuntu developers will upload new versions of packages, quite possibly things which missed the deadlines for 12.04. Then we will start merging changes from Debian. There will be lots to get done, so if you have worked with packaging before, consider helping out.

In addition to that we will likely get bug reports and the most pressing ones will be fixed through SRUs (stable release updates). We can’t fix all of them, and some bug fixes might be too risky. The SRU wiki page explains the considerations and procedure quite well. Basically you will have to make the case for the SRU fix, get it into the development release first, make sure it fixes the issue, upload it to precise-proposed, where it will get broader testing, then it will make its way to precise-updates. All these updates will form the basis for the upcoming LTS point releases, as indicated on the 12.04 release schedule. An LTS release is important, so we will see a lot of bugs fixed post-release, but you can imagine how it will take away workforce from the 12.10 to some degree.

The most important event in the planning of 12.10 is going to be UDS (the Ubuntu Developer Summit). If you are living near Oakland in California, USA, you should consider joining in. It will be very interesting to meet everyone, work out great solutions for ‘quantal’ and have fun together. If you can’t make it, don’t despair, you can join in remotely. At UDS many topics will be discussed which will form the basis for a rocking 12.10 release. Each session will be one hour long and result in a specification with specific work-items which will be tracked during the release. Join in, plan with us, contribute to 12.10!

The Ubuntu Development News Team is looking for help

This is the last 12.04 development update. Benjamin Kerensa and Daniel Holbach have been working tirelessly to get updates out every week and are planning to shake things up a little for 12.10. A blueprint for UDS has been registered and we would love to hear your feedback: what did you like about the Dev updates? What would you like to see improved?

Also we’d like to grow our team a bit. Please comment below if you’d be interested in helping getting development news out to the masses and help bring more transparency to Ubuntu.

Getting in touch

There are many different ways to contact Ubuntu developers and get your questions answered.

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) released!

By akgraner | Published: 2012-04-26

Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are essential for starting points. – Percival Lowell

The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed “Precise Pangolin”, 12.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features and improving quality control.

To be a bit more precise about what we’re releasing today…
There are 54 product images and 2 cloud images being shipped with this 12.04 LTS release, with translations available in 41 languages.
The Ubuntu project’s 12.04 archive currently has 39,226 binary packages in it, built from 19,179 source packages, so lots of good starting points for your imagination!

For PC users, Ubuntu 12.04 supports laptops, desktops, and netbooks with a unified look and feel based on an updated version of the desktop shell called “Unity”, which introduces “Head-Up Display” search capabilities. Finding and installing software using the Ubuntu Software Centre is now easier thanks to improvements in speed, search and usability.

Ubuntu Server 12.04 has made it much easier to provision, deploy, host, manage, and orchestrate enterprise data centre infrastructure services with the introduction of new technologies such as “Metal as
a Service” (MAAS), the Juju Charm Store, and the latest OpenStack version, codenamed Essex. These technologies further position Ubuntu Server
as the best OS for scale-out computing.

Read more about the new features of Ubuntu 12.04 in the following press releases:

http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-server-1204-lts-certified-available-and-ready-hyperscale-world
http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-1204-lts-aims-conquer-enterprise-desktop

Long term support maintenance updates will be provided for Ubuntu 12.04 for five years, through April 2017. For those working on the ARM architecture, an 18 month supported release is also provided for the ARM server using the ARM Hard Float (HF) architecture.

Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu is now available in 41 languages. For a list of available languages and detailed translation statistics for these and other languages, see:

http://people.canonical.com/~dpm/stats/ubuntu-12.04-translation-stats.html

The newest Kubuntu 12.04 (LTS), Edubuntu 12.04 (LTS), Xubuntu 12.04 (LTS), Mythbuntu 12.04, Lubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu Studio 12.04 are also being
released today. More details can be found in their announcements:

Kubuntu: http://kubuntu.org/news/12.04-release
Xubuntu: http://xubuntu.org/news/12-04-release
Edubuntu http://edubuntu.org/news/12.04-release
Mythbuntu: http://mythbuntu.org/12.04/release
Lubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/Announcement/12.04
Ubuntu Studio: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/12.04release_notes

To get Ubuntu 12.04
——————-

In order to download Ubuntu 12.04, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Users of Ubuntu 11.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 12.04 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.

We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document caveats, workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes on the release itself. They are available at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes

Find out what’s new in this release with a graphical overview:

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/whats-new
http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

#ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org
http://askubuntu.com

Help Shape Ubuntu
—————–

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved

About Ubuntu
————

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, netbooks and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional services including support are available from Canonical and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/support

More Information
—————-

You can learn more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website listed below:

http://www.ubuntu.com

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list by Kate Stewart on Thursday 26 April 2012.

Membership Boards: Restaffing and Reorganization

By pleia2 | Published: 2012-04-25

On May 5th we will have a large number of Regional Membership Board members with terms expiring. The Community Council decided to take this opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of these regional membership boards and how it make sense to go about restaffing them.

After several discussions, including those with sitting board members, we have determined that while there are values to region-based boards (there may be cultural and language similarities), it makes more sense for us to switch to time-based membership boards. We hope that with this change to time-based we can have a more established meeting times that the community is familiar with and more successful boards with board members being able to commit to a specific time rather than assuming evening is the best time in their time zone for them to attend.

The times selected are as follows:

12:00 UTC, meeting twice a month, specific days to be determined by the board

22:00 UTC, meeting twice a month, specific days to be determined by the board

These boards will each have 9 members with a quorum of 4. We are seeking to seat 10 new board members at this time across both boards (we have 8 board members whose terms are not ending).

We have the following requirements for nominees:

  • be an Ubuntu member
  • be confident that you can evaluate contributions to various parts of our community
  • be available during typical meeting times of the board in question
  • broad insight into the Ubuntu community at large is a plus

Those sitting on membership boards are people who are insightful. They 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 May 18 at 12:00 UTC. All nominations will be forwarded to the Community Council who will make the final decision.

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

Originally posted to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list by Elizabeth Krumbach on Wed Apr 25 16:24:34 UTC 2012

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 262

By pleia2 | Published: 2012-04-23

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #262 for the week April 16 – 22, 2012, 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
  • Chris Druif
  • Nathan Dyer
  • Neil Oosthuizen
  • 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

Top 10 Ubuntu app downloads for March 2012

By David Planella | Published: 2012-04-17

We’re ramping up to the release of Ubuntu 12.04 and new and cool apps keep being added to the Software Centre. Check out last month’s most downloaded free and paid apps.

Top 10 paid apps

1. Steel Storm: Burning Retribution

Steel Storm: Burning Retribution marks the return of top-down shooters with new twists. The game has score oriented competitive gameplay, and is designed for people who like fast paced action, hordes of smart enemies, destructible worlds and ground shaking explosions.

2. Uplink

You play an Uplink Agent who makes a living by performing jobs for major corporations. Your tasks involve hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, or framing innocent people. You use the money you earn to upgrade your computer systems, and to buy new software and tools. As your experience level increases you find more dangerous and profitable missions become available.

3. Oil Rush

Oil Rush is a real-time naval strategy game based on group control. It combines the strategic challenge of a classical RTS with the sheer fun of Tower Defence. Fight the naval war between furious armies across the boundless waters of the post-apocalyptic world.

4. Fluendo DVD Player

Fluendo DVD Player is a software application specially designed to reproduce DVD on Linux/Unix platforms, which provides end users with high quality standards.

5. Braid

Braid is a platform game in painterly style where you manipulate the flow of time to solve puzzles. Every puzzle in Braid is unique; there is no filler. Braid treats your time and attention as precious, and it does everything it can to give you a mind-expanding experience.

6. Ubuntu User

Ubuntu User is a smart, accessible journal of the Ubuntu user environment. Each issue offers a real-world glimpse at how the experts use Ubuntu in the wild. You’ll learn about Ubuntu tools for practical tasks such as working in the cloud, managing mobile devices, processing images, and making music.

7. World of Goo

Drag and drop living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins, and giant tongues. The millions of innocent goo balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore. But they don’t know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. The most addicting and awe-inspiring puzzle game will set you on an adventure that you’ll never forget!

8. DEFCON

A stunning multiplayer simulation of global thermonuclear war. Take on the role of a General hidden deep within an Underground bunker. Compete against the computer or online against your friends for total world domination.

9. Family Farm

Work the farm in this game of 19th century farmsteading and build a home for your families. Clicking cows won’t earn you any cash. This is a simulation of a farmstead experienced in stories which span a generation. Keep them fed, develop their skills, and grow their land in to a Family Farm!

 10. Linux Format Magazine

Issue 156 (April) of Linux Format magazine – now on the Ubuntu Software Centre. We’re wildly excited about the Raspberry Pi, and you should be too. It’s a full, working PC, it runs Linux and it costs just $25. It’s not Windows 8-certified, but it’s going to change the way the world thinks about computing.

Top 10 free apps

1. Ryzom

Ryzom, one of the best role playing Massively Multiplayer Online Game of the moment (MMORPG), is set more than 2000 years in the future, on a living, evolving world: beautiful Atys!

2. Full Circle Magazine

Full Circle is a free, independent, monthly magazine dedicated to the Ubuntu family of Linux operating systems. Each month, it contains helpful how-to articles and reader submitted stories. Full Circle also features a companion podcast, the Full Circle Podcast, which covers the magazine along with other news of interest.

3. Crossover Games

Play Windows games like World of Warcraft on Ubuntu! CrossOver Games (Ubuntu Edition) makes it possible to play Windows games such as World of Warcraft and many others. CrossOver Games is built on the latest versions of Wine, based on contributions from both CodeWeavers and the open-source Wine community. CrossOver Games aims to bring you the latest, greatest, bleeding edge improvements in Wine technology.

4. CrossOver Pro (Trial)

CrossOver Linux allows you to install many popular Windows productivity applications, plugins and games in Linux. You can think of it as an emulator, but it’s different, because there’s no Windows OS license required. Your applications integrate seamlessly with your GNOME or KDE environment. It’s like running Windows on your Linux machine, but without Windows.

5. Vendetta Online

Vendetta Online is a 3D space combat MMORPG. This MMO permits thousands of players to interact as the pilots of spaceships in a vast universe. Users may build their characters in any direction they desire, becoming rich captains of industry, military heroes, or outlaws.

6. Marble Arena 2

Free, physics based, 3D marble game, featuring vibrant HD graphics, fun and addictive star zapping gameplay, and an easy to use built-in editor for creating custom levels.

7. CoreBreach Demo

CoreBreach is an anti-gravity racing game with combat-based gameplay. Its unique graphic style, with a cell-shaded look, sets up a very futuristic atmosphere with a wide range of choices for ships, race tracks and powerful weapons.

8. PDF Studio 7 Demo

Demo version of PDF Editor to evaluate both PDF Studio 7 Standard and PDF Studio 7 Pro and will add a watermark to the documents saved.

9. Tribal Trouble 2

Tribal Trouble 2 is a browser-based RTS game that takes place in the zany age of the Vikings. You are the Chief of a Viking tribe and are responsible for making a name for yourself by conquest and skill.

10. Manager

Manager is free accounting software for Ubuntu. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with modules such as cashbook, invoicing, receivables, payables, taxes and comprehensive financial reports.

Your app in Ubuntu

Would you like to see your app featured in this list and on millions of user’s computers? It’s a lot easier than you think:

Notes:

  • The lists of top 10 app downloads includes only those applications submitted through My Apps on the Ubuntu App Developer Site. For more information about of usage of other applications in the Ubuntu archive, check out the Ubuntu Popularity Contest statistics.
  • The top 10 free apps list contains gratis applications that are distributed under different types of licence, some of which might not be open source. For detailed licence information, please check each application’s description in the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Follow Ubuntu App Development on:

 

Social Media Icons by Paul Robert Lloyd

Read the original article on the Ubuntu App Developer Site