Ubuntu Look

On Saturday, August 30, 2008 we are very proud to announce the general availability of PC/OS 2008v2.  This update brings to PC/OS all the bug releases and distribution updates for Ubuntu 8.04.1 as well as seperate application updates for some of the installed packages.  PC/OS 2008v2 can be downloaded from

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/pcos/

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/pcos

All torrents have been updated and the new release is available.

Some of the highlights of the client release are:

Linux kernel 2.6.24-19
Flock Browser replaces Firefox
MPlayer and Gnome-Mplayer replace Movie Player
Audacious and GTKPod replace Rhythmbox
Screenlets 1.4 are now included.
For dialup users Gnome PPP is included for connection
We also have included Picasa for photo management
and Google Gears for offline access to Google Apps

Some of the highlights for OpenServer System are:

Kickstart configuration
Certificate manager
Common Unix shells, KSH, TCSH and CSH are now included

With the server release we also released the addons package.

The add-ons package includes, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Postfix E-mail server, Sun Java JDK, Firebird SQL and the SELinux packages.

This release can also be ordered from on-disk.com.  The Server release on on-disk comes with 2 CD’s, one with the master system and the other with the add-ons package.

Ubuntu 8.10 is now feature-frozen; effort has moved away from adding new features to concentrate on fixing bugs. The final release is on track for October 30th.

A comprehensive and up-to-date list of the new features has been posted on the Ubuntu Forums.

Development of Ubuntu 8.10 started with the Linux 2.6.26 kernel, compared to version 2.6.24 in Ubuntu 8.04. Just recently, it was decided to use the 2.6.27 kernel instead. The main reason for the switch is to avoid having to update the older kernel with things already in 2.6.27.

Read more at Tombuntu

Kiwilinux 8.08 is a Desktop CD derivative based on Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS for the x86 architecture.

It contains packages necessary for playing restricted audio, video and Flash formats by default and supports the Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem.

The list of available languages is English, French, German, Hungarian and Romanian. It is the first distro to ship the Romanian OOo translations.

Differences from Ubuntu 8.04.1:

* Packages up to date as of the 28th of August 2008

* Thunderbird as the default mail client and Audacious the music player.

* Flashplugin-nonfree and all gstreamer codecs

* Compiz extra settings GUI

* unrar and msttcorefonts

* a graphical  tool for restoring  GRUB boot menus lost after installing other OSes.

* mc

* the on-CD package archive is removed to gain 12M of space

The Medibuntu repositories are enabled by default to allow installing w32codecs, Skype and Google Earth among others.

The Kiwi package archive where our few changes are kept and which is a GPG-signed mirror of our PPA archive in Launchpad is enabled by default.

For more details read the Kiwilinux FAQ.

Download Kiwi 8.08

The second Ubuntu Developer Week will be held from Sep 1st to Sep 5th in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

‘There are Wiki docs, MOTU Videos, MOTU Interviews and we’re seeing more and more contributors each day. This is all good and well, but there’s nothing like talking to real people, asking real questions in a real-time environment.

‘The Ubuntu Developer Week is designed to give you an overview of what’s going on in the Ubuntu Developer world. Speak to the developers, learn, ask questions and finally realise “It’s true, I *can* make a difference by helping out here.”

‘Let’s take a closer look at the sessions we have:

• Packaging 101 - MOTU Daniel Holbach will talk you through the bare-bone structure of an Ubuntu package and how to get there the easiest way.
• Upstream Bug Linkages - In his session Jorge Castro will demonstrate the importance of linking Upstream bugs, acting as a liaison with upstream projects and be an important tie between upstream projects and Ubuntu.
• Introduction to MOTU - Iulian Udrea has been very active in the MOTU team and will share his experiences with you and of course answer all your questions.
• Soyuz and all that Jazz - Celso Providelo is not only going to run one session, he’s going to run two. This is the second one and will get you up to scratch on Launchpad’s Distribution Management.
• Working with Ubuntu<->GNOME QA (tips&tricks) - Pedro Villavicencio is amazing. He’s from Chile, knows GNOME Bug numbers by heart and just generally a great guy. Obviously he’s in touch with the GNOME Bug Squad a lot, he will show you how to contribute to both Ubuntu, and GNOME at the same time.
• How do I fix an Ubuntu bug? - Daniel Holbach will take you on the journey from finding a bug to work on, the process of fixing it and getting it integrated into Ubuntu.
• Introduction to BZR - David Futcher has used bzr in his work on Ubuntu and will guide you on your way of learning one of the most important tools in today’s development ecosystem: distributed revision control.
• Kernel module packaging with DKMS - Mario Limonciello will talk you through state of the art kernel module packaging with DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support).
• Using the Launchpad Web Service API - Leonard Richardson and Barry Warsaw, two of the Launchpad hackers behind the Launchpad Web Service API will demonstrate a few examples and answer questions about the project that is hopefully going to put an end to all Launchpad screen-scraping.
• Launchpad Hacks - Brian Murray, Ubuntu’s bugmaster does bug triage, bug statistics and chearleading on #ubuntu-bugs at day and writes Greasemonkey scripts at night. He’s done a lot of useful little hacks that make Bug Triage quicker and more fun. He will show you how.
• bzr for packaging - After David Futcher’s session and if you’re into packaging, you should be ready to go for James Westby and the magic he will teach you. James is not only author of bzr-builddeb, but also heavily involved in DistributedDevelopment.
• How do I update a package properly - If that’s the question you’ve pondering yourself, MOTU and Mentoring Mastermind Cesare Tirabassi is your man. Updating, Building, Testing, Tips and Tricks all included in the session.
• Introduction to PPAs - Launchpad hacker Celso Providelo has put a lot of work into Soyuz and PPAs. He will explain how to make the best use of Personal Package Archives.
• Introduction to the Server Team - Mathias Gug of the Server Team is a brilliant guy - always around to help you get started in the Ubuntu’s server land, generally helpful and easy to work with. His session will show you where to get involved if you’re into Ubuntu and servers.
• Various ways to patch a package - Two great french contributors in the MOTU team, Christophe Sauthier and Didier Roche, are delivering this session: get ready to patch packages and make your changes fit neatly into existing packages.
• Automated Testing for the Desktop - Ara Pulido has been busy working on automated Desktop tests for Ubuntu and will show how to make best use of them, how to get started and what to bear in mind.
• A WebKit browser in PyKDE - You’re into KDE? Always wanted to start hacking? Jonathan Riddell is definitely your man: he’ll show you how much fun PyKDE is.
• Having fun with the Mozilla Team - Firefox, Extensions, Xulrunner, Thunderbird, etc is right up your alley? Alexander Sack and the Mozilla Team are the people you’re looking for.
• How to avoid making Archive Admins unhappy - Lots of changes Ubuntu Developers upload land directly in the archive admins for extra scrutiny checks. Steve Langasek gives the ultimate session to avoid common pitfalls and make archive admins enjoy their work with you.
• Ask Matt - Matt Zimmerman is not only amazing, he’s also technical leader of the Ubuntu project, CTO of Canonical, chair of the Technical Board and great at playing the guitar. We are happy to have him here to run a Q&A session with him.
• Unit testing Python code, with code coverage measurement - Debian and Ubuntu developer Lars Wirzenius is going to talk about code testing and code coverage measurement. If you want to learn how to write good code, make sure you don’t miss the session.
• Introduction to the Installer Team - Ever wondered how Ubuntu’s installer works? Did you ever think: “I’d really like to get involved there.”? This is your chance, meet Evan Dandrea.
• Introduciton to the Security Team - Kees Cook and Jamie Strandboge are amazing, they work day and night to keep your and your mom’s Ubuntu machine safe and secure. Want to get started in the Security world? Kees and Jamie will show you how.
• Kernel Discussion - We have Ben Collins here who will lead the Kernel discussion. Ever wanted to help out Ubuntu’s Kernel hackers? Ever wanted to know how you can get a foot into the door in the Kernel team? This is your chance.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is getting serious about the server. The company is working hard to partner with 3rd party server application providers, and to develop the required core OS services for Ubuntu to make it a highly successful business server platform. There are many factors that make Ubuntu a strong server platform, but the top 5 are:

Read more at Works With U

What’s free, looks like Mac OS X, just works and is actually Linux? The answer is gOS, which recently launched a new beta that builds on the distro’s initial success and adds new tools like integrated Google Gadgets for Linux.

When it launched onto the scene late last year, gOS (which stands for good OS) made quite a splash for getting Linux into the U.S. retail giant WalMart. Through a partnership with PC manufacturer Everex, gOS brought Linux to your parents’ generation via WalMart.

Read more at The Register

I’ve long been a sucker for small-footprint Linux distributions. So naturally, I thought it would be interesting to explore the latest version of “Ubuntulite.”

The community-run Ubuntulite project aims to extend the useful life of aging, under-resourced hardware, as might be found in schools or nonprofit organizations. Accordingly, instead of using a high end, video-hungry desktop environment, such as GNOME or KDE, this parsimonious OS incorporates the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE), a platform being honed for use on nettops (aka mini notebook PCs) and MIDs (mobile Internet devices).

LXDE provides “moderate” performance on systems with Pentium 2 processors clocked as slow as 266MHz and equipped with as little as 192MB of RAM, according to the LXDE website. That should make Ubuntulite a good match for my old Thinkpad 2662-35U testbed, with its 600MHz Pentium III CPU, 192MB of SDRAM, and 16GB hard drive.

Read more at DeviceGuru

For several years, Ubuntu has been synonymous with user-friendliness. A Web search quickly unearths dozens of articles that suggest that Ubuntu is the distribution you should give non-technical people to introduce them to GNU/Linux. It even won a “Most User-Friendly Linux Distribution” award, which you might think confirms its status.

However, like all conventional wisdom, this association is worth exploring. For one thing, you have to wonder whether comparisons for user-friendliness have any relevance in free and open source software (FOSS). For another, what exactly are the characteristics of user-friendliness? Moreover, does stressing user-friendliness mean ignoring other values — perhaps equally important ones?

Read more at InternetNews

“We are excited to announce the release of Ubuntu CE 4.0! Ubuntu CE has been on hold for quite a while for various reasons, but we are back up and running. This is a “back to the basics” release. We have discontinued most of the Windows program installers that we had a previous releases due to the difficulty in maintaining them and changes in some of the Windows programs that made it very difficult to install them automatically. We have added BibleTime as well as a bunch more resources for BibleTime and Gnomesword. We have replaced OpenOffice with GnomeOffice to keep the iso size below the 700mb threshold. For a complete list of changes check out the ChangeLog. We have also updated the site with a cleaner Web 2.0 feel. Check it out at UbuntuCE.com.”

God Bless, Jereme

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #105 for the week of August 17th - August 23rd, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Major update of Ubuntu Brainstorm: Call for testing
* Ubuntu Arabic Team
* New Xubuntu Developer: Michael Casadevall
* MOTU News
* Ubuntu Stats
* Software Freedom Day:Ubuntu Maryland
* Ubuntu New Jersey 2008 BBQ/LAN party
* Atlanta Linux Fest 2008
* Launchpad 2.1.8
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu Blogger Wanted
* Happy Birthday Linux
* Meeting Summaries
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!