Invitation to Ubuntu Open Week – October 11 -15, 2010

By akgraner | Published: 2010-10-11

You’re invited

to

Ubuntu Open Week

Where: Online in IRC – #ubuntu-classroom & #ubuntu-classroom-chat

When: Monday October 11, 2010 through Friday October 15, 2010

Time: 14:00 UTC – 18:00 UTC

  • Want to find out more about what’s happening in and around Ubuntu as well as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio?
  • Want a chance to ask Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the Ubuntu project , a few questions about the project?
  • Want to know more about how you, your LoCo team and your project can be more effective?
  • How about translations – want to know how you can get involved and help in this effort?

If you are interested in Ubuntu Open Week in Spanish go to: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek_ES

There is an exciting line up there as well!
If you answered yes to any of those questions then Ubuntu Open Week is for you. However, that’s not all. Below is a list by day of the scheduled sessions. Take a look I’m sure you’ll find something you would like to know more about. If so join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat on freenode.net on Monday, October 11 through Friday, October 15, 2010.
Reminder all times are listed in UTC. For more information go to http://www.timeanddate.com/ Here’s the exciting line-up for next week’s sessions:

Monday, October 11, 2010

1400 UTC – Introduction and Random Q&A – Jono Bacon and Jorge Castro
1500 UTC – Helping LoCo Teams Help themselves – Laura Czajkowski
1600 UTC – Kubuntu is Awesome -Riddell
1700 UTC – How to contribute to Ubuntu – Mohamed Amine IL Idrissi – devildante

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

1400 UTC – Get started translating Ubuntu David Planella
1500 UTC – How to go from user to contributor: Finding your place in the Ubuntu Community – Laura Czajkowski
1600 UTC – How to Make Posters using Inkscape -Martin Owens
1700 UTC – Qimo 4 kids – Michelle Hall

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

1400 UTC – Accessibility is Important – Charlie Kravetz
1500 UTC – Intro to Ubuntu Development -bilalakhtar
1600 UTC – Intro to Ubuntu and Cloud, running your 1st Ubuntu Server on EC2 -AhmedKamal
1700 UTC – Deploying Web Applications in the Cloud – DustinKirkland

Thursday, October 14, 2010

1400 UTC – Ask Mark – Mark Shuttleworth
1500 UTC – Xubuntu-Alive and Well -Charlie Kravetz
1600 UTC – Screencasting How-to – duanedesign
1700 UTC – Ubuntu in Education -Belinda Lopez

Friday, October 15, 2010

1400 UTC – Best Practices for Translation Teams David Planella
1500 UTC – Ubuntu Studio Q&A – Scott Lavender
1600 UTC – Have you tried turning it off and then on again? – Jessica Ledbetter and Cheri703
1700 UTC – Bug Triaging: Do’s and Do not’s -hggdh

For more information on Ubuntu Open Week go to: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek

Hope to see you there!

Originally posted here by Amber Graner on Sunday Oct 10, 2010

Ubuntu 10.10 is Released

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-10-10

Some time ago a group of hyper-intelligent pan dimensional beings decided to finally answer the great question of Life, The Universe and Everything. To this end, a small band of these Debians built an incredibly powerful distribution, Ubuntu. After this great computer programme had run (a very quick 3 million minutes…or 6 years) the answer was announced. The Ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is…42, and in its’ purest form 101010. Which suggests that what you really need to know is ‘What was the Question?’. The great distribution kindly pointed out that what the problem really was that no-one knew the question. Accordingly, the distribution designed a set of successors, marked by a circle of friends…to ultimately bring Unity to all things living…Ubuntu 10.10, to find the question to the ultimate answer.

And with that, the Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 10.10. Codenamed “Maverick Meerkat”, 10.10 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 10.10 in the following press
releases:

Desktop and Netbook editions
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-edition
Server edition
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.10-server-edition

Canonical has also launched the ‘Ubuntu Server on Cloud 10’ program. Anyone will be able to try out Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition on Amazon EC2 for free for one hour. Visitors to the download pages will now be able to choose to experience the ease and speed of public cloud computing and Ubuntu. For a direct link to the trial, please go to
http://10.cloud.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu 10.10 will be supported for 18 months on desktops, netbooks, and
servers.

Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu is available in 37 languages. For a list of supported languages and detailed translation statistics for these and other languages, see:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~dpm/ubuntu-10.10-translation-stats.html

Ubuntu 10.10 is also the basis for new 10.10 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu:

Kubuntu http://kubuntu.org/news/10.10-release
Xubuntu http://xubuntu.org/news/10.10-release
Edubuntu http://edubuntu.org/news/10.10-release
Mythbuntu http://mythbuntu.org/10.10/release
Ubuntu Studio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/10.10release_notes

To Get Ubuntu 10.10
——————-

To download Ubuntu 10.10, or obtain CDs, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Users of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be offered an automatic upgrade to 10.10 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

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

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/1010

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

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010overview

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

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

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

Ubuntu Translations Interviews: Gábor Kelemen (Hungarian Translation Team)

By Ubuntu News Contributor | Published: 2010-10-04

Ubuntu is brought to users in their own language by a large community of volunteer translators, who tirelessly work on localizing every part of the operating system on every release.

In this series of interviews we’ll get to know who they are, about their language and how they work.

This week we’re introducing you to Gábor Kelemen, the Hungarian translation team coordinator.

Could you tell us a bit about you and the language you help translate Ubuntu into?

I’m a 28 years old freelance translator, working from my home in Eger, north-eastern Hungary. My duty is to translate Ubuntu to Hungarian, which is the majority language spoken in Hungary and also by Hungarian communities in the seven neighbouring countries and by diaspora communities worldwide. According to Wikipedia, there are about 14.5 million native speakers, of whom 9.5–10 million live in present-day Hungary.

How and when did you become an Ubuntu translator?

It happened about five years ago, before Breezy. I wanted to help a distribution to better support Hungarian. I started to look, and found that Ubuntu would be the best choice, as they had a fixed release schedule aligned to Gnome’s schedule, they made community contribution possible – and there was no Hungarian team. The distribution I used back then lacked these properties and had to go, then I founded the ubuntu-l10n-hu group with Istvan Nyitrai, and I’m leading it since then.

What other projects do you help with inside the community?

I’m the coordinator for Gnome and Xfce, and I translate some other free software like VLC or Pidgin and those in the GNU Translation Project. I’m also part of the Ubuntu and Gnome translation coordinator teams.

Do you belong to an Ubuntu LoCo team? If so, which one?

Of course, the Hungarian LoCo, but I don’t do much there aside from translating: some event organization, LoCo coordination, drinking beer, etc.

How can people who want to help with translating Ubuntu and all the various pieces and parts into your language get started?

We have a short start page at http://ubuntu.hu/honositas. This page contains the basic information about our bug tracker, Launchpad, our mailing list, coordination wiki page, team membership and links with more detailed information. The most important is the wiki page, coordination happens there. And let me quote Milo from a previous interview, his words hold true for our team too:

“Please, do not wander through Launchpad leaving a translation here and there: if you don’t tell us, it’s very difficult for us to always know what is going on.”

What’s the desktop experience for Ubuntu users in your language? Is Ubuntu in your language popular among native speakers?

There is a common misbelief among our users regarding this: they say “Ubuntu speaks Hungarian perfectly”. While this is of course not true, I’m trying to keep the untranslated parts out of sight.

I think we can say that Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution in Hungary: http://ubuntu.hu has over 15 000 users, and on http://hup.hu/, Hungary’s most popular *nix portal, Ubuntu is always winning the Readers Choice award since 2006 in the Favorite Linux distribution category: http://hup.hu/cikkek/20100110/hup_olvasok_valasztasa_dij_2009_eredmenyhirdete

Where does your team need help?

We have quite a lot to do in Kubuntu and package descriptions. While upstream Gnome, OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla family are generally in good shape, upstream Hungarian KDE localization could use some help, and the package description translation project (see:http://nightmonkey.ubuntu.hu/) definitely needs a localization superhero.

Do you know of any projects or organizations where Ubuntu is used in your language?

We cooperate with a foundation that uses Ubuntu as a base for a Linux distribution specifically aimed at blind people – their general goal is to make computing available for the blind, and now they support Linux too.

I personally don’t know about others, but the “I spotted Ubuntu” topic on http://ubuntu.hu/ is quite long :).

What do you feel is the most rewarding part of translating Ubuntu?

When I see people on online forums or IRL saying each other something like: “You should try Ubuntu, it is really cool and usable because (blah-blah, usual arguments :)) AND because it speaks Hungarian perfectly”.

Is there anything else about your team or translation efforts that I haven’t asked you about that you would like to talk about?

Nothing else comes into my mind, thanks for the opportunity!

Become an Ubuntu Translator

Do you speak languages? Join the our translation community and make Ubuntu accessible to everyone in their own language. You can:

[Discuss Ubuntu Translations Interviews: Gábor Kelemen (Hungarian Translation Team) on the Forums]

Announcing the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 10.10

By Ubuntu News Contributor | Published: 2010-10-01

Releases are big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big they are. I mean, you may think it’s a long haul to release a single Linux package or application, but that’s just peanuts to a Linux distribution release. Because of this, we must work our way up to it, incrementally…bit by bit…milestone by milestone…it takes a lot of Deep Thought. So with that, we formally announce Ubuntu 10.10 Release Candidate. Codenamed "Maverick Meerkat", 10.10 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user.

Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition and Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition continue to focus on delivering cutting edge technologies, while preserving a crisp and clean user-focused experience.

Kubuntu 10.10 merges the desktop and netbook images into one download and features a new application focused software manager.

Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition provides even better integration of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud and other key features such as: Hadoop, Web2.0 workloads, and hypervisor technologies.

Ubuntu 10.10 Server for UEC and EC2 brings the power and stability of the Ubuntu Server Edition to cloud computing, whether you’re using Amazon EC2 or your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.

Release Candidates have also been released for several Ubuntu variants, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Mythbuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010

In addition, there are a small number of known bugs in the release candidate that will be fixed before the Ubuntu 10.10 release, but warrant highlighting for your attention:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010#Known%20issues

Ubuntu Desktop features
————————

The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.32 versions. This includes the new dconf and gsettings API.

Evolution was updated to the 2.30.3 version, which operates much faster than the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.

Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter’s authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.

The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.

The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new "Featured" and "What’s New" views for showcasing applications, and an improved package description view. You can now easily access your package installation history, too.

New Design: The boot process is cleaner and faster. New themes, new icons, and new wallpaper bring a dramatically updated look and feel to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. Faster file sync speed. Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store.

Ubuntu Server features
———————-

Cloud computing: The configurable initialization process for Ubuntu Server cloud images (cloud-init) has gained new features in Maverick Beta, including pluggable hooks, ebsmount, ext4 support, and new stanzas in the cloud-config format. Cloud image instances can now manage their own kernel and upgrade kernels with apt. This is done by using pv-grub, provided by Amazon.

Ubuntu Netbook features
———————————-

The new Unity interface is now the default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. It includes places for launching applications and browsing files, semantic search through the usage of zeitgeist, optimizing vertical space with a global menu bar and maximizing application by default. A launcher is also available for keeping and dealing with mostly used applications. All favorites from UNE lucid or gnome panel items and desktop shortcuts are automatically transitioned to the launcher on first run.

In addition to that, the date and time indicator now has a real calendar widget and is included by default. Evolution is now performing a special mode more suited for netbook screen size.

The standard photo management application has been switched to Shotwell and UNE comes will all goodness of the Desktop Edition too.

UNE needs graphical driver acceleration to be able to run. Otherwise, you should be warned about missing them and will be logout and proposed to run standard ubuntu desktop session.

Kubuntu features
————————

For Maverick, Kubuntu have merged the Desktop and Netbook images into one. Either Plasma Desktop or Plasma Netbook workspace will be started at login as best suits your computers. Users will be able to switch between the two in System Settings.

Plasma Netbook now sports the Global Menu by default.

The standard web browser is now Rekonq, a KDE browser based on Qt Webkit.

Bluedevil has become the default bluetooth stack.

Pulseaudio is the default sound server.

KPackageKit updates bring a faster backend and an updated UI that provides an application focused view.

Kubuntu’s installer, Ubiquity, now starts the install as soon as disks are configured, and offers the option to install restricted packages during the install. Qapt-batch now replaces install-package as the update/batch-installer utility

KDE Platform, Workspaces, and Applications have been updated to 4.5.1

Qt was updated to the new 4.7 release.

Kubuntu Mobile Tech Preview is a new variant with a workspace suitable for smart phones.

See https://wiki.kubuntu.org/MaverickMeerkat/RC/Kubuntu for more details.

Xubuntu features
————————

Xfce4 was updated to the current 4.6.2 release.

New default applications include: Parole (Xfce4 Media Player), replacing Totem Movie Player; Xfburn (Xfce4 CD/DVD burning tool), replacing Brasero; and xfce4-taskmanager (Xfce4 process manager), replacing Gnome-Task-Manager.

Edubuntu features
————————-

Edubuntu now includes Gnome Nanny, which provides parental controls in Edubuntu. There is new wallpaper included (periodic table breakout). In addition, an OEM Install mode is now available.

For those interested in learning more, there’s a new web site as well. Check out http://www.edubuntu.org.

Ubuntu Studio features
———————————

In this release, Ubuntu Studio has better integration between Pulse Audio and JACK. JACK and Pulse Audio can now be used side-by-side if they are using different audio interfaces. If they are trying to use the same audio interface, JACK will take precedent. The network connections can now be configured with gnome-network-admin.

Mythbuntu features
—————————

In this release, Mythbuntu has updated to MythTV 0.23.1.

There is also a new backup and restore tool.

Other
——-

  • On the Desktop: GNOME 2.32, KDE Platform 4.5.1, Xfce 4.6.2, OpenOffice.org 3.2.1, X.org server 7.5
  • On the Server: Apache 2.2.16, PostgreSQL 8.4.4, PHP 5.3.3, LTSP 5.2.4
  • "Under the hood": Linux 2.6.35.4, GCC 4.4.5 (default) / 4.5.1 (optional), eglibc 2.12.1, Python 2.6.6 (default) / 3.1.2 (optional)

The full release notes can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010

About Ubuntu
——————

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, 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 technical support is available from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support

To Get Ubuntu 10.10 RC
————————————

To upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 RC from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, follow these instructions:

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

Or, download Ubuntu 10.10 RC; The following link will direct you to a download location near you:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/download (Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Netbook)

http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/10.10/rc/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/10.10/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/10.10/rc/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/10.10/rc/ (Edubuntu DVD)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/10.10/rc/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/ports/releases/10.10/rc/ (Ubuntu ARM)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/10.10/rc/ (Mythbuntu)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu-mobile/releases/10.10/rc/ (Kubuntu Mobile Preview)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu-mobile/ports/releases/10.10/rc/ (Kubuntu Mobile Preview ARM)

Please download using Bittorent if possible.

The final version of Ubuntu 10.10 is expected to be released in October 2010.

Feedback and Participation
—————————————

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/

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help turn this Beta into the best release of Ubuntu ever. Please note that, where possible, we prefer that bugs be reported using the tools provided, rather than by visiting Launchpad directly. Instructions can be found at

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

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on freenode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

More Information
————————

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit:

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

[Discuss the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 10.10 on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-announce mailing list by Robbie Williamson on Thu Sep 30 18:46:26 BST 2010

Interview with Leann Ogasawara

By Ubuntu News Contributor | Published: 2010-09-28

My name is Leann Ogasawara and I’ve been working for Canonical for the past 3 years. Since joining the Ubuntu Kernel Team, I’ve been involved with QA and triaging, stable maintenance, and am now this cycle’s Ubuntu 10.10 kernel release manager.

Penelope Stowe: How did you end up working with Canonical and Ubuntu?

Leann Ogasawara: Prior to ever working for Canonical and on Ubuntu, I was an Ubuntu user and fan like many people are. At that time I was involved with Kernel QA and Testing. Coincidentally, some former colleagues of mine had mentioned a job opening at Canonical for a Kernel QA Engineer. It sounded like an amazing job opportunity so I submitted my resume, crossed my fingers, and began diving into triaging Ubuntu kernel bugs. A few weeks later I received an email to set up my first interview and now here I am.

Amber Graner: How is being the kernel release manager for the Ubuntu 10.10 differed from the other work you have done on the kernel team? Do you see this rotating team position as something that strengthens the team?

LO: Every role has different, yet crucial, responsibilities. Being the kernel release manager, I’m the gatekeeper for what goes into our current kernel. It involves a lot more patch review and testing. Also, not only do I have to be responsible for completing my own tasks for the release cycle, I have to ensure the entire team is on track with their work items as well. It requires a lot more organization than any of the other roles I’ve been in.

I definitely feel that rotating different members of the team through this position only makes us stronger. We have this “bus theory” we often talk about within the team. Should any one of us get hit by a bus tomorrow, we want to have full confidence that another person on the team can step right in and take over a person’s tasks and responsibilities. I also think everyone enjoys being able to do something new and different within the team.

PS: What are some of the things you’ve done with Canonical/Ubuntu that has you most proud or you just enjoyed the most?

LO: Regardless of what role I’ve been in, the one aspect of each role that I’ve enjoyed the most is that moment when I’ve been able to fix someone’s bug. Whether it’s simply applying an upstream patch or writing some quirk for a device, it’s just very gratifying when someone sincerely thanks you for solving an issue they’ve been facing.

PS: What are you most excited to see happen?

LO: I’m obviously the most excited to see our Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat release! I’m completely biased since the Maverick kernel has been near and dear to my heart. It’s just been this huge milestone I’ve been staring at the entire release cycle and I hope to be extremely proud, and relieved, when it goes out the door.

PS: What other open source work outside of Canonical/Ubuntu have you done?

LO: To be honest, there’s so much to do within Canonical/Ubuntu already that I haven’t found huge amounts of time to focus on other open source projects.

PS: What do you do with your free time? Are there any hobbies you’d like to tell us about?

LO: I’m a fairly active individual and love to spend time outdoors, so you’ll often find me running, skiing, golfing, etc. Anything involving some sort of athletic activity and light competition is right up my alley.

PS: Is there anything I haven’t asked that you’d like to say?

LO: I just want to thank Full Circle Magazine for the opportunity to be interviewed. I was extremely flattered when asked to be a part of this issue, so thank you.

[Discuss Leann Ogasawara’s Interview on the Forum]

Originally posted by Penelope Stowe in Full Circle Magazine Issue #41 on September 26, 2010