The release of Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 is running a few days behind schedule, but an interesting announcement has come out of the Canonical camp this morning. Gobuntu is an official Ubuntu-based distribution that’s funded by Canonical and its mission is to ship a distribution composed entirely of software packages that are approved by the Free Software Foundation…
A weakness has been discovered in the random number generator used by OpenSSL on Debian and Ubuntu systems. As a result of this weakness, certain encryption keys are much more common than they should be, such that an attacker could guess the key through a brute-force attack given minimal knowledge of the system.
This particularly affects the use of encryption keys in OpenSSH. This vulnerability only affects operating systems which (like Ubuntu) are based on Debian. However, other systems can be indirectly affected if weak keys are imported into them.
We consider this an extremely serious vulnerability, and urge all users to act immediately to secure their systems. The following Ubuntu releases are affected: Ubuntu 7.04 Ubuntu 7.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.
ISOs available already on ubuntu.com and mirrors will not be updated with the new packages, but using the Update Manager to get security updates will replace the impacted packages. Users should then regenerate new keys.
ShipIt has stopped mailing CDs.
The 8.04.1 point release, expected in July, will include the updated packages.
Please see usn-612-2 for the latest information regarding updating your system and taking appropriate protective measures.
The Ubuntu Muslim Edition team is proud to announce the final version of UbuntuME 8.04. It includes an installable live Desktop CD, a second CD with additional softwares (OpenOffice, Arabic language packs, Quran recitations etc.), an installable DVD (with more Quran recitations), and a script to convert standard Ubuntu installations to UbuntuME.
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Have you ever wished your computer had the balls to tell you to STFU? Have you every wished it T4LK3D L1K3 7H1S? Have you ever dreamt of saying STFU every time you tell people about your HOT new distro? Have you ever dreamt of having sex with a rodent?
Yeah, yeah. Haven’t we all?
Linspire has upgraded its CNR.com (Click’N'Run) download site for Linux software to support the Ubuntu-based, consumer-friendly Linux Mint distribution. CNR.com will also add a Linux version of Weatherbug’s weather service, which offers live, local weather information and severe weather alerts.
With the new Linux Mint support, says Linspire, CNR.com now supports five major Linux distros, including Freespire 2.0, Kubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04 (32bit), and Linspire’s own Linspire 6.0. To gain access to the free CNR Service, says the company, Linux Mint 4.0 users can install the free, recently upgraded CNR Client, available at CNR.com.
Read more at DesktopLinux.com
Kiwi 8.04 is a 386 Desktop CD derivative based on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
It installs 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.
The default package selection is altered somewhat to be more familiar to Windows users: Thunderbird is the default mail client and Audacious the
music player.
Other additions to the CD
* Compiz extra settings GUI
* unrar and msttcorefonts.
* a graphical tool for restoring GRUB boot menus lost after installing other OSes.
* mc 
The Medibuntu repositories are enabled by default to allow installing w32codecs, Skype and Google Earth among others.
The kiwilinux.org archive where our few changes are kept and which is a GPG-signed mirror of our archive in Launchpad is enabled by default.
Kiwilinux FAQ:
http://kiwilinux.org/en/faq.html
Downloads:
torrent: http://kiwilinux.org/cdimage/8.04/kiwi-8.04.torrent
ISO:http://ftp.astral.ro/mirrors/kiwilinux.org/kiwi-8.04/kiwi-8.04.iso
Brian Brazil and the team behind the ultra-free gNewSense Linux distribution have released a beta of the forthcoming 2.0 (or Deltah) series. gNewSense is based on Ubuntu but strips the distribution of non-free components to provide users with a truly free operating system. gNewSense is backed by the Free Software Foundation. Among the changes in this release are that gNewSense is now based on Ubuntu Hardy released last week; the distribution has new artwork; the browser has been changed from Firefox to Epiphany, the Gnome browser; non-free GLX has been removed from X/mesa; and there is now support for Debian source packages.
Read more at Tectonic
After the partnership between Gaël Duval and Mandriva was over, he was said to build an OS even more user friendly than Mandriva. The first Alpha release, which was presented really soon after the start of the project, did not surprise anyone as it was plain KDE with a new theme. Now, after two years, there is a successive release of the Ulteo distribution. The purpose of the Beta1 Ulteo Application System is to feature what it can develop into in the nearest future, especially considering the Ulteo Online Desktop.
To start with…
The idea of Ulteo is to be revolutionary easy to handle - the user does not have to bother about anything since the system manages all by itself. The intention was to prepare such a distribution that absolutely nobody would have problems with switching to it regardless of which OS one has been using before. KDE is the default graphical environment for Ulteo as it is based on Kubuntu, however, a GNOME-based release is also planned.
Read more at polishlinux.org
After long hours and endless work the Mythbuntu team is excited about the release of Mythbuntu 8.04. This release is built on the LTS base of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. We would like to thank everyone that contributed in getting to this second release. Also, don’t forget to Digg it!
Please see the Release Notes for more information on improvements from the unstable releases this cycle.
Downloads & Upgrade instructions are available on the downloads page.
This is something that I have been toying with as an idea - creating my own distribution, based on the Ubuntu core, but making sure some basics that continue to go ignored are covered. In this quest, I have been led down an interesting road of discovery. Here are some of the tools that I think might be helpful, should you decide to take this path.
Ubuntu Look is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache!
