Ubuntu Brainstorm Update

By boredandblogging | Published: 2008-03-03

Four amazing days have passed since the launch of brainstorm.ubuntu.com, and all we can say is Whoah! A couple of numbers:

  • 10,000 registered users
  • 2700 ideas (in comparison, Dell Ideastorm has 9000 ideas)

And the numbers keep growing! We had not expected such a success.

But this huge success has its consequences. As many users have pointed out, there are many duplicates, some spam, and the current ordering of ideas (most votes first) in the main page is not optimized for new ideas. Some quirks and bugs have also been found, thanks to your input on Brainstorm!

Quality over quantity is the goal. The objective of Brainstorm is simple: every idea posted on Brainstorm gets its share of attention. This allows the best ideas to be presented at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit. Some of the more pressing issues were dealt with this week.

For this, we created several new ideas lists:

  • Most popular today
  • Most popular this week
  • Most popular this months

In these lists, the ideas are classified by a ratio of votes/(time since creation). With such a scheme, very new popular ideas will have a chance to stand out amongst the older ones. Random ordering, a feature requested by some, has also been included. Implemented ideas and ideas being worked on can now be browsed. Links to category listing have been added.

Two new roles have been created: the Ubuntu Developer role, and the Moderator role. A developer will be able to add a comment beneath an idea description and update idea status, while a moderator will be able to handle duplicate reports, and delete offensive or spam posts.

Lots of smaller fixes or features have also been implemented (see full list of changes below), but Brainstorm is not finished yet. A lot of new features/fixes remains to be done, and we are actively looking at your input on Brainstorm.

Stay tuned!

The Ubuntu QA Team

Bug fixes:

  • Fixed 403 error pages when looking at page 2 or more of a contributor
  • Fixed layout breakage with longs word and URLs
  • Users are now able to edit their idea descriptions.

Spam handling:

  • Limit the number of lines displayed on lists.
  • Limit the time between submissions to one minute.

Roles:

  • New Moderator role: able to handle duplicate reports, delete comments and ideas, change all the contents of the ideas
  • New Ubuntu Developer role: able to fill the “Developer Comments” field of an idea, and change its status.
  • Users of both new roles as well as admins are more noticeable on comments (bold + logo).

Advanced search page:

  • Added random ordering.
  • Added most popular today, this week, this month ordering.

Administration:

  • Ability to change the front page description without SQL updates!

My ideas page:

  • User are now able to see their ideas marked as duplicates, and their deleted ideas. No more disappearing ideas!

Weekly Newsletter #80

By boredandblogging | Published: 2008-03-02

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 80 for the weeks February 24th – March 1st, 2008 is now available. In this issue we cover the Alpha 6 Freeze, the release of Kubuntu-KDE4, Full Circle Magazine #10, Ubuntu Mobile, launch of Ubuntu Brainstorm, a Mark Shuttleworth Interview, and, as always, much, much more!

  • Alpha 6 Freeze
  • Kubuntu-KDE4 Released
  • Full Circle Magazine #10
  • Canonical announces Ubuntu Mobile
  • Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched
  • Belgian Release Party, May 03 2008
  • Ubuntu Forums Interview
  • Tutorial of the Week
  • In The Press & Blogosphere
  • In Other News
  • Meeting Summaries
  • Upcoming Meetings & Events
  • Updates & Security
  • Bug Stats & Translations

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News please submit it via email or on the wiki !

UWN is brought to you by the Marketing Team.

Full Circle Magazine Issue 10 Released

By boredandblogging | Published: 2008-02-29

Full Circle – The Independent Ubuntu Community Magazine is proud to announce the release of issue ten containing:

  • Linux Mint Install.
  • How-To : Compile from Source, Install and use TuxPaint, Rip a DVD with AcidRip and Create Your Own Server Part 2.
  • Review of the ASUS EEE PC running Xubuntu.
  • Letters, Q&A, MyDesktop, Top5 and more!

Get it while it’s hot at fullcirclemagazine.org.

Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched!

By boredandblogging | Published: 2008-02-28

Today a new feedback site is launched at brainstorm.ubuntu.com that will make it easier for users of Ubuntu to suggests ideas for improvements. Voting makes it clear which ideas have the most support in the user community and should be given priority. We have of course been inspired by the IdeaStorm site from our good friends at Dell but modified the concept to fit our needs.

The development team can now take the pulse on the most pressing user issues and propose the ideas as topics at the Ubuntu Development Summits and ultimately as specifications. Ubuntu development is in turn driven by detailed specifications written up in the wiki and tracked as blueprints in Launchpad.

An idea on brainstorm can easily be linked to a Launchpad blueprint as well as to a bug or a forum discussion thread. In this way we expect to bridge the locations where ideas are often submitted now, as forum posts or bug reports, with the blueprint format they should be expressed in to be implemented.

The site has been designed and coded by the Ubuntu QA community as part of a more general feedback website (qa.ubuntu.com) designed initially to collect test reports from ISO testing. A huge thanks to stgraber, nand and thorwil!

Have an idea for improving Ubuntu? Post it at Ubuntu Brainstorm!

Kubuntu-KDE4 Alpha Released

By boredandblogging | Published: 2008-02-27

kubuntu kde4 desktop

Kubuntu has released an alpha for the Kubuntu-KDE4 CD. This will be released as part of 8.04 which will have a choice of commercially supported Kubuntu (KDE 3), or a community supported Kubuntu (KDE 4).

We recommend the KDE 4 edition to those who want to try this exciting new desktop version and can put up with some missing features.

Release notes notes concerning this new alpha release of Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 4 can be previewed at https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardyHeron/Alpha5/KubuntuKDE4. This new CD can be downloaded from either of the 2 following locations: