Ubuntu 12.04 Development update

By dholbach | Published: 2012-04-12

Development Update

We are almost there. Tomorrow language packs will be test-built. Next Tuesday we will hit the deadline for translations for language packs and from next week on Ubuntu 12.04 images of the release candidate will be built and extensively tested. Make sure you give the candidates a spin and report issues as you find them. On Tuesday, the 24th Universe packages will be frozen as well, so there are still 12 days for you to fix pet peeves. Read our spotlight below to find out what to bear in mind when fixing bugs in Ubuntu 12.04 at this stage.

April 26th will be the day when Ubuntu’s 16th release and 4th LTS release gets released.

Letting developers speak for themselves

 

Events

Ubuntu Algorithms Team Class
Marek Bardoński has been spearheading the Ubuntu Algorithms team. The team will hold a classroom session tomorrow, Friday 13th April. Be sure to check it out and get started with the team.

Ubuntu 12.04 Release parties
The whole world seems to be celebrating Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Teams in South Africa, Malaysia, Palestinian Territory, Thailand, Australia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Switzerland, the UK, Canada and the USA are getting together locally to hang out, learn and party.

Things which need to get done

If you want to get involved in packaging and bug fixing, there’s still a lot of bugs that need to get fixed:

  • Also did John Lea from the Ubuntu Design team talk to us and mentioned that there are bugs up for grabs, where the design has been decided on and the implementation might need YOUR help. If you want to help improve Ubuntu’s UI, have a look at these!

 

Spotlight: What to do toward the end of the release cycle?

Everybody’s busy at the end of the release, everybody is testing, fixing small bugs, translating or otherwise preparing the release of our next LTS release. If you are interested in Ubuntu development, the question is: what can you still work on and stand a chance to get it into Ubuntu? This is one of the key questions for new contributors. As Ubuntu has such a tight release schedule it’s important for us all to focus on stabilising things after Feature Freeze.

New releases with huge features. Wait for Q (the yet to be named 12.10 release). It’s no use trying to cram them still in. Even if it’s just a tiny less-exposed package, better go with stability because we have no time to test it properly. Get it into Q and consider a backport if you feel users of Precise should get it. In the meantime you can upload it to a PPA and ask for fellow users of the package to test it.

Bug fix releases. Here you have multiple options. If it’s a package in Universe, you can ask for a freeze exception and try to get it still in. The backport option above might make sense too. If the exception should not be granted by the release team, you could try to extract patches which fix specific problems and get those in.

Bug fixes. We obviously want those to get still in. For packages in main, the window is closing very fast, for universe packages you still have a tiny bit more time. If the release team should feel it’s better to give the fixes (if they are not really obvious) some more testing, have a look at our SRU (Stable Release Updates) procedure.

Summing it up, the more obvious the fix, the smaller the risk to create unrelated breakage, the better. Less important bugs, like typo fixes might be deemed not important enough to fix at this stage. One course of action might be to create a fix and submit it to upstream, so it will trickle back into Ubuntu in the next release.

So where to find suitable bugs? Daniel Holbach blogged about Harvest recently, a site which makes finding development opportunities easier. On the site you can select sets of “opportunity types” and sets of packages to narrow down the search somewhat. Simply check out our docs before, pick something from Harvest and get going.

If the first opportunity you find is too hard or not what you enjoy doing, pick another. Also: we’re hanging out in #ubuntu-motu on irc.freenode.net where we help you, if you should get stuck.

Happy last-minute bug fixing everyone!

Get Involved

  1. Read the Introduction to Ubuntu Development. It’s a short article which will help you understand how Ubuntu is put together, how the infrastructure is used and how we interact with other projects.
  2. Follow the instructions in the Getting Set Up article. A few simple commands, a registration at Launchpad and you should have all the tools you need, and you’re ready to go.
  3. Check out our instructions for how to fix a bug in Ubuntu, they come with small examples that make it easier to visualise what exactly you need to do.

 

Find something to work on

Pick a bitesize bug. These are the bugs we think should be easy to fix. Another option is to help out in one of our initiatives.

In addition to that there are loads more opportunities over at Harvest.

Getting in touch

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

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) end-of-life reached on April 10, 2012

By pleia2 | Published: 2012-04-10

This note is just to confirm that the support period for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) formally ends on April 10, 2012 and Ubuntu Security Notices no longer includes information or updated packages for Ubuntu 10.10.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 10.10 is via Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal). Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NattyUpgrades. Note that upgrades to version 11.04 and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 11.04, then to 11.10. Both Ubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.10 continue 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, information about which may be found at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-security-announce.

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 customize or alter their software in order to meet their needs.

Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list by Kate Stewart on Tue Apr 10 15:39:12 UTC 2012

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 260

By pleia2 | Published: 2012-04-09

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #260 for the week April 2 – 8, 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
  • Charles Profitt
  • 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

Interview with lovinglinux

By ubuntu-news-team | Published: 2012-04-08

lovinglinux is an Ubuntu Forums moderator who I have long admired for his participation with firefox addon development. Time to get to know him a little better,  as always enjoy!

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.

My name is Caio and I live in Brazil.

2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?

I started to play with computers in early 80’s, when my parents gave me a TK 85, an unlicensed ZX81 clone. But it wasn’t until the early 90’s, when I entered the University, that I would start using PC’s as we know today, mostly for research and entertainment. I don’t know exactly when I became interested in Linux, but I remember a few unsuccessful attempts to use some distributions that I received with computer magazines, until I came in contact with Ubuntu Hardy Heron, back in 2008. I guess many users like me were drawn to Ubuntu because of Vista. Never looked back since then.

3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?

I became involved in the forums since day one, when I first installed Ubuntu 8.04. Actually, the support from the community was fundamental to the success of my first real experience with Linux. So, I immediately felt compelled to help other users and started to contribute to the forums on a regular basis.

4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?

Yes, I recently became an Ubuntu Member through forum contributions. Most of the time, I help Firefox users to troubleshoot and optimize their browser, but I also develop some add-ons for Firefox, some of which are designed for Ubuntu. I recently joined the Mozilla’s Featured Add-ons Advisory Board, which is a group of volunteers that test and vote on featured add-ons nominations.

5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?

Currently, I use Kubuntu 11.04. My favorite application is naturally Firefox. I used to be a software junk and was constantly testing new applications on Windows. I don’t do that anymore, at least not with the same regularity. However, I do test a lot of Firefox add-ons and I usually have about 60 of them installed, for regular use.

6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?

My experience in the forums have been incredible all the way back to the beginning. I have only good memories. I can’t recall a particular moment, but it was really nice to see the positive feedback when I was applying for Ubuntu Membership. In regard to Ubuntu, I do remember when I first got a BSOD inside a VirtualBox. I kept spinning it with Compiz cube, admiring the stability of the host OS.

7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?

No answer given.

8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?

Worldwide domination is too much? Skynet? Now seriously, I would like to seem them thrive and be widely recognized in the desktop market, to the point were you don’t need to explain why they are awesome.

9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

Ubuntu comes with a great community by default. Use it. Make yourself at home and don’t be afraid to ask.

Originally Posted here on 2012-03-21

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 259

By pleia2 | Published: 2012-04-02

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #259 for the week March 26 – April 1, 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
  • 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