Unity Contributor Report: So long Feature Freeze!

Ubuntu hit feature freeze last week, which means for most intents and purposes the features for 11.10 and are now in place, and the remainder of the cycle is left for bug fixing and polish, as you can see the contributor team has been quite busy!

Unity Contributor Activity This Week

  • Andrea Azzarone fixes a bug where window titles would fade for Windows that do not have menus created (like chrome). This was fixed a while ago for maximized windows, but is now fixed as well for unmaximized ones
  • David Gomes fixes a bug where pressing the mouse over the window control buttons when in maximized state, did not cause the icon to appear in a pressed state. Now it’s working fine
  • Haggai Eran has proposed a fix that would make the unity menu bar and in the indicators open to the left when using a right-to-left locale.
  • Daniel van Nugt has proposed a fix to keep the Dash open while dragging apps into the launcher from the Dash.

Other branches for incoming fixes are in the review queue. Thanks to all the contributors who’ve spent time making Unity better. Want to dive in? Check out the big list below and dive in!

Things going on in Oneiric

  • Everything’s landed for Feature Freeze. (Here’s two articles talking about it).
  • There will be a bug fix release on Thursday, from now on there will be weekly bugfix releases of Unity in Oneiric.
  • Compiz is still not sorted, they have a new candidate version out that needs testing and approval, other option is to roll back to the natty compiz
  • More alt-tab fixes coming

You can check out the rest of the progress on the desktop from the desktop team’s report for the week.

The Big List

Here’s a list of targeted bugs that would make Unity better to use. Here’s the full list if you want to dig in.

  • 709461 – Application windows can sometimes fail to display and will mask regions of the screen.
  • 700757 – Unity aborts when you plug in an external monitor
  • 700727 – When hiding the clock indicator, a gap appears
  • 792201 – Launcher leaves focus nowhere after Alt+F1, Esc
  • 795065 – Scrolling on top of a close animation switches viewports
  • 816692 – Widget textures are loaded even though they may not be used

How to Get Involved

1. Get the Code

Follow the Step by Step Instructions and Wiki Page. This will get the code from Launchpad, set up your development environment, and getting you used to the Launchpad workflow.

2. Pick a Bug

Here’s the full list, or you can just join the team and watch them roll in and pick what you’d like.

3. Fix your bug and then get your code into Unity

Don’t worry we won’t leave you hanging, you can get a-hold of a Unity developer through many different ways:

  • Join the ~unity-community-hackers team and start digging in.
  • We now have a Weekly Meeting at 1800UTC on #ayatana on Freenode IRC if you feel like hanging with us and getting organized and ask questions
  • #ayatana on freenode IRC during European and American workdays. Or you can post to the mailing list if you have a question.
  • We also have weekly IRC Q+A for any developer who wants to dive in and ask a Unity developer. 7pm-8pm UTC (That’s 2pm EST) every Friday!

 

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 228

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #228 for the week August 7 – 13, 2011, 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
  • holstein
  • Jessica Ledbetter
  • Neil Oosthuizen
  • Amber Graner
  • 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

Vacant Developer Membership Board seat: Call for nominations

Mackenzie Morgan (maco) has stepped down from the DMB, and there is therefore an now open seat. We are soliciting nominations to fill this vacancy.

The DMB is responsible for reviewing and approving new Ubuntu developers, meeting for about an hour once a fortnight. Candidates should be Ubuntu developers themselves, and should be well qualified to evaluate prospective Ubuntu developers and decide when to entrust them with developer privileges or to grant them Ubuntu membership status.

The new member will be chosen using Condorcet voting. Members of the ubuntu-dev team in Launchpad will be eligible to vote. To ensure that you receive a ballot in the initial mail, please add an email address to your Launchpad profile (although there will be an opportunity to receive a ballot after the vote has started if you do not wish to do this).

The term of the new board member will be 2 years. Providing at least one nomination is received, voting will commence on Tuesday 23 August 2011 and last for 2 weeks, ending on Tuesday 6 September 2011. The DMB will confirm the appointment in its next meeting thereafter.

Please send nominations to developer-membership-board at lists.ubuntu.com (which is a private mailing list accessible only by DMB members) by Monday 22 August 2011.

If nominating a developer other than yourself, please confirm that the nominee is happy to sit on the board before emailing the DMB.

Please consider writing a short statement on your wiki page if nominating so that others get a better idea of who they are voting for. If you include a link to this in your nomination mail or a followup, the DMB will share it when the call for votes begins.

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Iain Lane on Mon Aug 8 15:44:54 UTC 2011

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 227

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #227 for the week July 31 – August 6, 2011, 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
  • Miia Ranta
  • Neil Oosthuizen
  • Penelope Stowe
  • Nathan Handler
  • 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

Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 3 Released

Welcome to Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 11.10.

Pre-releases of Oneiric Ocelot are *NOT* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 3 is the second in a series of milestone images that will be released throughout the Oneiric development cycle.

This milestone sees the introduction of some new images that will be part of the 11.10 release.

  • a new flavor, Lubuntu, has been added.
  • a new minimal root file system, Ubuntu Core, for arm. For more information: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Core

You can download Alpha 3 images here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server)

Additional images are also available at:
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Ubuntu Cloud Images, *note* new location)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Edubuntu DVD)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Mythbuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/
(Lubuntu)

Alpha 3 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a more detailed description of the changes in the Alpha 3 release and the known bugs (which can save you the effort of reporting a duplicate bug, or help you find proven workarounds), please see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Oneiric, we suggest that you subscribe initially to the ubuntu-devel-announce list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases, and other interesting events.

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

Originally sent to the ubuntu-release mailing list by Kate Stewart on Thu Aug 4 21:34:25 UTC 2011