Ubuntu Open Week: May 2-6 2011

By akgraner | Published: 2011-05-02

 

 

 

 

Ubuntu Open Week will take place this week—May 2 -6 2011— from 14:00 UTC to 18:00 UTC daily.

What is Ubuntu Open Week:

Ubuntu Open Week is a series of online workshops where you can:

  • learn about the Ubuntu landscape
  • talk to some of the key developers from the Ubuntu project
  • find out about the Community and its relationship with Canonical
  • participate in an open Q&A with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu

Schedule:

Below is the Ubuntu Open Week Schedule:

Time

2 May

3 May

4 May

5 May

6 May

14.00 UTC

Introduction – Jorge Castro

Getting Started Translating Ubuntu – David Planella

Ask Mark – Mark Shuttleworth

Using Ask Ubuntu – Marco Ceppi

Getting involved via the Beginners Team – Jessica Ledbetter

15.00 UTC

Putting Your Head in the Cloud – Ubuntu Cloud Q and A Session – kim0

Having fun with Ubuntu Testing – Paolo Sammicheli

Making a Poster to Spread Ubuntu – Martin Owens

Your Desktop Oughta be in Pictures – Duane Hinnen

Intro to Ubuntu Studio – Scott Lavender

16.00 UTC

Involving in ubuntu development/packaging and kickstarting your box for ubuntu development/packaging – Bhavani Shankar

Ubuntu and Amateur (Ham) Radio – Steve Conklin AI4QR, and Kamal Mostafa KA6MAL

Conquering the Command Line for Beginners – mhall119

Introduction to Kubuntu – Valorie Zimmermann

Getting Started with gnucash – Cheri Francis and Leigh Honeywell

17.00 UTC

Introduction to Unity – Jorge Castro

u1 is awesome – Shane Fagan

Introduction to AppArmor – John Johansen

Documentation is a big place: Learn how you can contribute to Ubuntu documentation – Jim Campbell

Introduction to Audacity – Carla Schroder

How to participate:

To participate in Ubuntu Open Week you will need to join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat on irc.freenode.net using the irc client of your choice.  There is also a webchat option available for those who would like to participate using the web rather than installing and configuring an IRC client.

Each session is presented in the #ubuntu-classroom channel, while questions are posted in the #ubuntu-classroom-chat channel.  All questions should begin with “QUESTION:” so the classroom bot can identify them.

Most sessions last for around an hour. Contact the #ubuntu-classroom-backstage channel on IRC if you have any problems.

More information on Ubuntu Open Week can be found on the wiki.

Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” Available

By akgraner | Published: 2011-04-28

“Form and function are a unity, two sides of one coin. In order to
enhance function, appropriate form must exist or be created.”
-Ida P. Rolf

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 11.04, code-named
“Natty Narwhal”. 11.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating
the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality,
easy-to-use Linux distribution.

For PC users, Ubuntu 11.04 supports laptops, desktops and netbooks
with a unified look and feel based on a new desktop shell called “Unity”.
This version supersedes Ubuntu Netbook Edition for all PC netbooks.

Developer reference images are provided for select Texas Instruments (TI) ARM
platforms, specifically the “PandaBoard” and “BeagleBoard”.

Ubuntu Server 11.04 has made it easier to provision servers, and reduce
power consumption. Ubuntu Server 11.04 for UEC and EC2 has a new kernel and
improved initialization and configuration options.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 11.04 in the following press releases:

http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-transforms-your-pc-experience
http://www.canonical.com/content/latest-ubuntu-offers-business-added-cloud-features-and-sleek-new-desktop-interface

Standard maintenance updates will be provided for Ubuntu 11.04 for 18 months,
through October 2012.

Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu is
available in 43 languages. For a list of available languages and detailed
translation statistics for these and other languages, see:

http://people.canonical.com/~dpm/stats/ubuntu-11.04-translation-stats.html

Ubuntu 11.04 is also the basis for new 11.04 releases of Kubuntu,
Xubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu:

Kubuntu http://kubuntu.org/news/11.04-release
Xubuntu http://xubuntu.org/news/11.04-release
Edubuntu http://edubuntu.org/news/11.04-release
Mythbuntu http://mythbuntu.org/11.04/release
Ubuntu Studio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/11.04release_notes

To Get Ubuntu 11.04
——————-

To download Ubuntu 11.04, or obtain CDs, visit:

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

Users of Ubuntu 10.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 11.04
via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/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 and workarounds for known issues. 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/

Helping 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/participate/

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 find out more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website:

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 Thu Apr 28 11:36:14 UTC 2011

Interview with Jessica Ledbetter

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-04-22

Elizabeth Krumbach: Please tell us a little about yourself.

Jessica Ledbetter: Hello everyone, I’m Jessica Ledbetter (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/jledbetter). I’ve been a web developer for a Department of Energy lab in Virginia for about 10 years, and I code primarily in Java and ColdFusion, plus freelance in PHP. I was the first in my family to go to college, and, so far, the only one to finish. I worked while getting my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and later a Master’s degree in Information Technology.

EK: What inspired you to get involved in the Ubuntu community?

JL: I have used *nix for over 15 years, and, even though I’m a visual person, I really like the command-line interface for compiling, finding documents, and the like. I looked into Linux distributions as a better programming environment though I really enjoyed my Mac for design work. My partner was a huge fan of Ubuntu, so we went to a Linux Fest in Florida where I met more people from the Ubuntu community. I was hooked instantly. There are a lot of distributions out there, but I think Ubuntu has one of the most amazing communities around. It’s hard not to be involved.

EK: What are your roles within the Ubuntu community and what plans do you have for the future?

JL: Right now, I’m one of the leaders of the Virginia Local Community Team in the United States, a member of Ubuntu Women, and a member of Ubuntu Beginners Team. Also, I have co-led a session for Ubuntu Open Week Maverick. Recently, I was honored with being on the nomination list for the Beginners Team Council. As a current master in the Beginners Team, I hope to funnel new developers into the Ubuntu project. Through that position, as well as future screencasts that I have sitting on my desktop, I want to be able to help answer one of the most frequent questions I see
asked and have asked: “I’m an [insert language here] programmer. How do I contribute to Ubuntu?” In addition to these roles, I’m also working on a short session in Peer2Peer University (http://p2pu.org/) about how to contribute code to an open-source project.

EK: Have you hit any barriers with getting involved, and what can you recommend to newcomers?

JL: There’s so much information that sometimes it’s hard to know where to start, what questions to ask, and where to ask them. I began by lurking in the Ubuntu Women IRC and Florida LoCo channels, then asked questions of those who seemed most approachable. And from there, I started to venture out based on people and projects I learned of via those channels. My advice is to ask if you’re unsure of what something means or how to get involved. Everyone can contribute – you don’t have to be a coder! Though, if you want to learn how to program or contribute as a programmer, there are lots of ways to do that too! A new gateway for new developers is coming together at http://developer.ubuntu.com/, and there’s also the Beginner’s Team that helps beginners get involved https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam.

EK: Is there anything you feel the project could do better with when it comes to new folks coming to the project?

JL: Sometimes it seems like there is too much information but sometimes there’s not enough. I remember trying to find out how to get involved in development, but running into lots of weird vocabulary like “MOTU,” “packaging,” “blueprints,” and “triage.” I come from a web background, so a lot of the desktop applications were not only in a new language but also a new way of developing. With that in mind, I think we can improve by remembering we’re a very diverse community when communicating, creating documentation, and doing training. Some improvements are already in progress. For new folks, we should give more overviews so that people can find where to contribute, and be funnelled into those areas. We should define our technical terms, and we should make it easy to ask for assistance if a new person ever feels uncomfortable.

EK: What other things are you interested in outside of opensource and Ubuntu?

JL: Most of my free time is happily spent programming or designing. Recently, I took a few courses via the open-learning project Peer2Peer University (p2pu.org). It’s a great platform to help people learn from their peers. Going handin-hand with obtainable education for all, I serve as the Public Relations chair on the Board of Trustees of my city’s library. Also, I’m a huge animal lover, vegetarian, and part of a leadership and speaking organization called Toastmasters (toastmasters.org).

Originally posted by Elizabeth Krumbach in Full Circle Magazine Issue #48 on April 22, 2011

The Power User’s Guide to Unity

By akgraner | Published: 2011-04-21

Well, we’re a week away from 11.04 so I decided that I would collate the information about Unity on the web and put it into one nice page for everyone to find. Got some more tips you’d like to add? Add them in the comments!

Getting Started

Home page

Hardware Requirements

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions

Launcher and Quick Lists

Indicators and notification area

Lenses

Developers

For application developers

Contributing to Unity

Am I missing any? Post them in the comments. (I will moderate comments for this post to only allow tips and tricks)

Originally posted here by Jorge Castro on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.

Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) reaches end-of-life on June 1 2011

By akgraner | Published: 2011-04-19

Ubuntu announced its 6.06 Server release almost 5 years ago, on June 1,
2006. For the LTS Server 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 6.06 LTS Server will reach
end of life on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. At that time, Ubuntu Security
Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for
Ubuntu 6.06.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server is via
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may
be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades.
For further Ubuntu support, including commercial support options, see
http://www.ubuntu.com/support.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server 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, 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
customise or alter their software in order to meet their needs.

Originally posted by Kate Stewart to the Ubuntu announce mailing list on Tue Apr 19 21:23:20 UTC 2011