Natty Alpha-2 Released

By akgraner | Published: 2011-02-04

Welcome to Natty Narwhal Alpha 2, which will in time become Ubuntu
11.04.

Pre-releases of Natty 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 2 is the second in a series of milestone CD images that
will be released throughout the Natty development cycle.
New packages showing up for the first time include:
* LibreOffice 3.3 (has replaced OpenOffice.org 3.2)
* X.org Server 1.10 and Mesa 7.10
* Linux Kernel 2.6.38-rc2.

Unity is now the default in the Ubuntu Desktop session. It
is only partially implemented at this stage, so keep an eye on
the daily builds, new features and bug fixes are emerging daily!

Alpha 2 includes a number of software updates that are ready for
wider testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2
for more detailed information on the new features and known issues
with this development release of Natty.

You can download Alpha 2 ISOs here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu Netbook ARM)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Edubuntu DVD)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/natty/alpha-2/ (Mythbuntu)

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a
list of known bugs (that you don’t need to report if you encounter), please
see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop
Natty, have a look at the natty-changes mailing list:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/natty-changes

We also suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list
if you’re interested in following Ubuntu development. 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

Bug reports should go to the Ubuntu bug tracker:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

Originally posted to the Ubuntu-Devel-Announce Mailing List by Kate Stewart on Thursday, February 3, 2011

Interview with Silvia Bindelli

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-02-02


Elizabeth Krumbach: Please tell us a little about yourself.

Silvia Bindelli: I’m Silvia Bindelli, I’m 27 years old. I was born and spent my childhood in Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet!), Italy, but I currently live in Milan. I’m a computer engineer and I work in the IT Department of a fashion company, where I’m in charge of the management of a Business Process Management suite and of any little web project undertaken in the company. I’ve been using Ubuntu for almost five years now, and I really enjoy it!

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

SB: My first contact with the Ubuntu Community was through the Ubuntu-Women Group, in late 2007. I joined it since I was so happy with this Operating System I was willing to give my contribution to spread its use. I knew the percentage of women using it was really low, and I thought this is mainly due to a certain “ignorance”: it’s hard to use a software you don’t know, or you have a lot of prejudices about. Joining this group I was willing to give my contribution to promote Ubuntu, starting from women. Far later, through this group I got in touch with Flavia Weisghizzi, the first (and still the only!) Italian female Ubuntu member. She introduced me to the Italian Loco Team, which I belong to since December 2010.

EK: What are your roles within the Ubuntu community?

SB: I write weekly on the Italian Edition of the Ubuntu Newsletter, and participate to other promotion initiatives. I’m also contributing with some translations. I’m co-founder and co-administrator of the Italian localization of the Ubuntu Women Team, through which Flavia and I are trying hard to take Ubuntu as near as possible to Italian Women, also those not speaking English. We’re now starting a collaboration with Girl Geek Teams from Milan and Rome, organizing events about open source and Ubuntu in particular targeted to women, and writing posts on girlgeekdinnersitalia.com blog including some guides introducing to the use of Ubuntu.

EK: Is there anything you haven’t done yet, but would like to get involved with in the Ubuntu community?

SB: Well, as a first thing, I would like to do more in the projects I’m already involved in, i.e. translation and promotion. Then, I would love to get more involved with web projects (web sites and so forth), exploiting my experience in the field and matching this way my interests in web. And…well, I’d also like to try some coding: I have friends in the Ubuntu-it Community trying to get me involved in the development team, and I think I’ll let them convince me, earlier or later!

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

SB: During my day I spend a lot of time in front of my laptop. I’m much interested in web technologies, communication and open source, and I love it when these aspects match in some tools! I love traveling, visiting new places and understanding how people all over the world live. I enjoy learning foreign languages, thus I’m currently studying Spanish. I’m also interested in photography: wherever I go I try and bring my reflex with me! And cooking! I do love cooking and trying new recipes, which I usually test with my friends.

Originally posted by Elizabeth Krumbach in Full Circle Magazine Issue #45 on January 27, 2011

New IRC Council Members

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-02-01

First off, on behalf of the Community Council, thanks to everyone who participated in voting in the first poll for the two open positions on the IRC Council. And to the sitting Council, your patience is appreciated as we worked through this initial poll.

The results of the poll are as follows:

1. Jussi Schultink – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JussiSchultink (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
2. Tied:
Ben Rubin – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BenjaminRubin loses to Jussi Schultink – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JussiSchultink by 29–20
Melissa Draper – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MelissaDraper loses to Jussi Schultink – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JussiSchultink by 37–25

Full results can be viewed here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/cgi-perl/civs/results.pl?id=E_6753d86bd0b619e3

This tie caused us to use the instant runoff option (Condorcet-IRV):

1. Jussi Schultink – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JussiSchultink (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
2. Melissa Draper – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MelissaDraper loses to Jussi Schultink – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JussiSchultink by 37–25

Full results can be viewed here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/cgi-perl/civs/results.pl?num_winners=2&id=E_6753d86bd0b619e3&algorithm=runoff

So congratulations to both Jussi Schultink and Melissa Draper! Both have now been added to the https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-irc-council team.

And thanks to everyone who stood for spots during this election, in particular to the incumbent Ben Rubin whose work on the IRC Council has clearly been appreciated by the community (the Community Council).

Originally sent by Elizabeth Krumbach to the ubuntu-irc mailing list on Tue Feb 1 18:12:18 UTC 2011

Improving Diversity at UDS

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-02-01

The Ubuntu Developer Summit is our twice-yearly event in which the Ubuntu community gets together to discuss, design, and plan the work for the next release of Ubuntu. It is an important staple in the Ubuntu calendar, and we meet next in May in Budapest, Hungary.

We always try to make UDS a welcome and inviting environment to meet people, engage in enjoyable discussions, and work together to improve Free Software. We also try to make UDS a diverse environment, and welcoming to everyone. This diversity has formed in a rather ad-hoc way though – we have not explicitly tried to reach out and encourage diversity and we can do better. As such, I just wanted to share some work that is going on and encourage those of you who are interested in this topic to participate.

These include:

  • We now have an anti-harassment policy. This work was led by Charles Profitt and thanks to Matt Zimmerman and Valerie Aurora for their skillful guidance. We still have some event-specific contact details still to add there, but Marianna is getting this information and it will be updated soon.
  • Matt Zimmerman is also working on a diversity statement. While this will encompass the wider Ubuntu project, it will also be added to the UDS website.
  • A few weeks ago I reached out to the Ubuntu Women team to ask for their guidance on how we can encourage a more diverse environment at UDS. A number of interesting efforts are going on in this area:
    • Elizabeth Krumbach posted that she has created a page on the Ubuntu Women site for UDS which provides some basic information and the beginning of a FAQ. More feedback and content is welcome.
    • Elizabeth also created a UDS stories page which which provides some useful context for prospective women attendees interested to learn more about the event.
    • The team is also discussing how to provide support and guidance for filling sponsorship requests and including all the relevant information. I think this is a wonderful idea. :-)
    • We are keen to work on a big outreach campaign to use these resources to raise the visibility of diversity at UDS and encourage more women to apply for sponsorship and participate. This is going to be the next phase of the discussion.

I just want to say a huge thankyou to the Ubuntu Women team for their contributions and guidance in this project, and I would like to encourage you to join in the discussion. I think we have a fantastic opportunity here to help UDS be wonderful example of how diversity should be core to the values of the event and offer a more reflective experience of great community working on interesting problems together.

Originally posted by Jono Bacon here on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 1:40

Regional Membership Boards: Restaffing

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-01-30

In the past several months all three of the Regional Membership Boards had members step down.

Asia and Oceania: Requires nominations for 1 position available for meetings at 9:00 UTC +/-1hr and nominations for 3 positions available for meetings run at 1400 UTC +/-1hr. (Note: if you applied during the call in September and are still interested – please apply again!)

Europe, Middle East and Africa: Requires nominations for 2 positions available at their standard meeting time of the first Tuesday of the month at 20:00 UTC

Americas: Requires a nomination for 1 position available at their standard meeting time of the Friday following the third Thursday of the month at 01:00 UTC (this is Thursday evening in Americas)

You can either nominate yourself or somebody else (please confirm they want the nomination). Please add some information about yourself to the mail.

We have the following requirements for nominees:

  • be an Ubuntu member
  • be confident that you can judge contributions to various parts of our community
  • be available during typical meeting times of the board in question
  • insight into the culture(s) and typical activities within a geographic region covered by the board is a plus

Here a slightly longer version that explains a bit better what kind of community members we are looking for: 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 judge 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 send a mail to the board you are nominating yourself for (ubuntu-membership-board-emea, ubuntu-membership-board-asia-oceania or ubuntu-membership-board-americas at lists.ubuntu.com). Try to explain your nomination. There is still time for nominations until Mon 21st February 2011 12 UTC. All nominations will be forwarded to the Community Council who will make the final decision.

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

Originally sent by Elizabeth Krumbach to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list on Sat Jan 29 20:33:58 UTC 2011