Jono Bacon has announced the creation of the Ubuntu Hall of Fame. It is an effort to recognize contributors that make the Ubuntu community a success.

With such a large community working on 5-A-Days, LoCos, translations, upstream bug triage, the sponsorship queue, Launchpad, forums, and many other projects, some contributors can be recognized by specific hard numbers, some may contribute in a range of projects that cannot be measured statistically. The Hall of Fame will highlight both types of work.

A number of boxes appear on the Hall of Fame:

Each box contains data for a specific topic, a description detailing what the data shows, ways to find more related data, and a link to a page that outlines how to get involved in that part of the community.

Another part of the Hall Of Fame is the Featured Contributor. Contributors doing excellent work around the community will be highlighted. Here, a little blurb will cover what they have done, their achievements and their personality. To show your appreciation for a contributors work, it is possible to “Thank” them. By clicking on a Thank button, the Hall Of Fame will look up your Launchpad account and add your profile picture to the blurb. This makes it easy to show featured contributors that you appreciate their work!

When thinking about who we would showcase for the first Featured Contributor, one of the first names that sprung to mind was Nick Ali, an excellent contributor and friend to everyone. Go and check out the Featured Contributor article about him.

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #117 for the week of November 9th- November 15th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* New Theme for help.ubuntu.com
* Dell Mini 9 update testing
* Ubuntu Community Interview: Nathan Grubb
* Jaunty Alpha 1 freeze ahead
* Ubuntu Stats
* Tamil Team Release Party
* Ubuntu Peru gives Ubuntu presentation
* Launchpad plugin for Eclipse
* Launchpod: Episode #12
* Launchpad offline November 19th
* 2 new Launchpad interviews
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu Tweak 0.4.2 released
* Ubuntuero gets inked: Ubuntu Style
* LoCo Council Meeting: November 10th
* Edubuntu Meeting Minutes
* Server Team Meeting Minutes
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* Nick Ali
* John Crawford
* Craig Eddy
* Kenny McHenry
* Arlan Vennefron
* And many others

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!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

One South African Ubuntu fan, Denham Coote, took a big step into showing his commitment to the ubuntu concept by getting an Ubuntu circle of friends tattoo. The Fridge caught up with him to find out what inspired him to do this.

Fridge: Is the tattoo real?

Denham: Sure is.

Fridge: Getting that tattoo is a big commitment. What does the Ubuntu logo mean to you?

Denham: Well, apart from being a great design, I really love what it stands for. The ideals of the Ubuntu/Linux/open source community. The ideas of sharing, caring, acceptance, diversity, giving back, acknowledgement, working towards a greater good, etc. ubuntu.com sums it up wonderfully - ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’

Fridge: When did you make the final decision to do this? Was it a difficult decision? How long did you think about it?

Denham: I’ve often wondered and toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo, but have always found reason not to. It’s permanent. It should have meaning, etc. Last Wednesday I was out with my mate Kay (the tattoo artist) discussing the general idea. The next day, after thinking about it a little, I realised that these are values that can (and should) apply anytime, all the time. Regardless of what OS I run, regardless of whether or not Ubuntu Linux exists. That said, yes, I run Ubuntu!

Fridge: Do you know of others you have inspired to do the same? What has the general feedback been from your friends and family?

Denham: No one else so far. It’s interesting in that non-geeks simply see it as a cool design. Geeks will either shake their head and call me mad, or will think it’s really cool. So far the only negative feedback has been from the 12 year old commenters on Digg who get off on showing their ignorance :)

Fridge: Have your parents seen it? What did they say?

I showed my dad right after. I grew up in a household where tattoos were a big no-no. After explaining the meaning, he seems to have accepted it, even offering to help clean it up (when it was still very fresh).

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #116 for the week of November 2nd- November 8th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Mark Shuttleworth interview
* Ubuntu Open Week
* Jaunty: Open for development
* New MOTU
* What about my bug
* Relaunch of German UWN translation
* Ultamatix
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo Release Parties
* Launchpad Developer interview
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu Podcast #11
* IBM Lotus adds Ubuntu support to Symphony Apps
* TimeVault simplifies data backup for Ubuntu users
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Security & Updates

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* Nick Ali
* John Crawford
* Craig Eddy
* Kenny McHenry
* Arlan Vennefron
* Dave Bush
* And many others

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!

Except where otherwise noted, content on this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #115 for the week of October 26th - November 1st, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Ubuntu 8.10 released
* Ubuntu 8.10 Server: significant new features
* UDSJaunty
* Ubuntu Open Week
* New Contributing Developer
* Dustin Kirkland Interview #2
* Ubuntu Brainstorm 8.10 report
* Ubuntu Stats
* SFD in Tunisia
* Launchpad EPIC
* Over 6 million Forums posts and counting
* Ubuntu Sighting
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Full Circle Magazine #18
* New TurnKey Linux release
* Release week for Ubuntu and CohesiveFT
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

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!

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop and Server,
continuing Ubuntu’s 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 8.10 in the following press releases:

• Desktop edition: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.10-desktop
• Server edition: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.10-server

Ubuntu 8.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers.
Users requiring a longer support lifetime may choose to continue using
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS rather than upgrading to or installing 8.10.

Ubuntu 8.10 is also the basis for new 8.10 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and
UbuntuStudio:

• http://kubuntu.org/news/8.10-release
• http://xubuntu.org/news/intrepid/release
• http://ubuntustudio.org/8-10_release_note

To Get Ubuntu 8.10

To download Ubuntu 8.10, or obtain CDs, visit:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Because Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is a long-term support release, users of that
release will not be offered an automatic upgrade to 8.10 via Update Manager.
For instructions on upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10, 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/810

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

• http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810overview

We are really pleased to announce Ubuntu Open Week!

Ubuntu Open Week is a week of IRC tuition and Q+A sessions all about getting involved in the rock-and-roll world that is the Ubuntu community. We organise this week for the beginning of a new release cycle to help new contributors get involved. Thanks to Jorge for helping to get the week together and for everyone who is helping to run sessions. Its going to be a fun week!

So, the most important details first - Ubuntu Open Week happens from Mon 3 Nov - Fri 7 Nov and takes place in #ubuntu-classroom on the Freenode IRC network. You can use a program such as XChat-GNOME in Ubuntu to connect and get involved.

So which sessions are scheduled? Well, the timetable is available here and the sessions include:

Monday

• Introduction and Welcome - Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community manager, will kick off the week with a short welcome and give you a quick tour of what to expect during OpenWeek.
• Ubuntu behind the Scenes - You have some ideas and want to see them included in Ubuntu but don’t know how or just wondered how the ubuntu developers make this awesome distro, this is the right place to know what happens under the hood.
• Reporting and Fixing Kernel Bugs - Leann Ogasawara will touch on kernel bug reporting best practices and getting fixes incorporated into the Ubuntu kernel.
• Ubuntu on Ultra Mobile PCs - Oliver Grawert will explain the ins and outs of getting Ubuntu on UMPCs
• Version Control with Bazaar - The very basics of using Bazaar. Learn how to take “snapshots” of your most important code and files..and how to roll back time to undo those changes.
• Bazaar: Beyond The Basics - Following on from Emma Jane Hogbin’s Bzr basics, DavidFutcher guides you through some of the more “advanced” Bzr topics.

Tuesday

• Edubuntu - Overview of the Edubuntu project, its purpose, and how you can get involved with this small, but vital community. “Do it for the kids”
• Packaging 101 - Daniel Holbach, who is very interested in the growth of the Ubuntu Development Community, will talk you through the bare bone essentials of Ubuntu’s source packages.
• Debian and Ubuntu - What is Debian? What is the importance of Debian to Ubuntu? How you can contribute to Debian?
• An Intrepid journey in Ubuntu Server land - a retrospective of the features that the Ubuntu Server team worked on during the last release cycle and an outlook on what will follow.
• Media Prodution on Ubuntu - A look at how Ubuntu can be used for all sorts of media, including photo processing and management, video capture and editing and audio recording and processing. This session will include a Q&A.

Wednesday

• Polishing a Package - Lots of packages in Ubuntu have outstanding bugs, and outstanding available patches. Emmet Hikory will demonstrate the process of ensuring that a package is the best it can be, including a review of available resources for package improvements.
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix Overview - Learn about Ubuntu’s offering for netbooks, with UNR Product Manager Pete Goodall and Engineers Bill Filler and Neil Patel.
• Upstreaming Bugs - Ubuntu is a collection of software from a multitude of upstream projects (Like GNOME, KDE, Linux, Xorg) that is put together and released every 6 months. In this talk I will talk about how you can help be a bridge between Ubuntu and these projects by ensuring that bugs, patches, and feedback gets from Ubuntu to them.
• Ubuntu Brainstorm Q+A, becoming moderator - You have some question about Ubuntu Brainstorm? You want to become moderator? This will be the right time to ask!

Thursday

• sabdfl Question and Answer - Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu will take questions from attendees in this two hour block.
• Wine - How to help with Wine, converting Windows applications into packages, Integrating Wine into the desktop.
• Verifying Stable Update (SRU) bugfixes - Walking through the process of verifying an update for released versions of packages.
• Cruft. What is it and why it sucks - An overview of cruft, how its made, how it is handled, what NBS is, how to do a removal
• Cruft Removal 101 Workshop - A crash course in removing cruft with actual packages staged in a PPA. Learn how to do from the pros.

Friday

• Fixing a bug in Ubuntu - it’s easier than you think - You want to get involved in Ubuntu, you’d like to fix a few bugs? Excellent, Daniel Holbach will show you how push the right buttons, talk to the right people and be part of the team.
• REVU Q+A - Open Q&A about http://revu.ubuntuwire.com (the website where new packages are reviewed for inclusion into Ubuntu).
• Translations and Internationalization with Launchpad - MikeRooney - A guide from start (an English-only application) to finish (a translated localized application) using Launchpad to coordinate and gather community translations.
• Kernel: From Intrepid to Jaunty - Ben Collins - A review of what the kernel team did different during intrepid’s development cycle, what we learned and what we plan to change in jaunty.
• Open Week Questions and Feedback - Jorge Castro - In this session we will get feedback from attendees on things you’d like to see in OpenWeek; what types of topics you would like to see next time and recommendations on how to make OpenWeek better.

This is the first in a series of interviews with Ubuntu developers about their work, and features that will be available in future versions.

Dustin Kirkland is a developer on Canonical’s Ubuntu Server Team, working from Austin, Texas, USA. He is the author of the highly anticipated encrypted private directories feature in the upcoming Ubuntu 8.10 release. Previously, Dustin worked for IBM in various capacities, including as an on-site employee at Red Hat. There he discovered his interest in working with Linux at the distribution level, which eventually led him to Canonical.

Dustin was also interviewed separately for Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #114.

One thing you have worked on for Intrepid is Encrypted Private directories. Could you tell us a little about what they are, and why they might be useful to someone?

If you have sensitive, personal data on a laptop computer, and you travel anywhere with it, you should seriously consider some form of encryption to protect that data.

Perhaps you have used a LiveCD to recover data off of a broken system before… Did you have to enter any passwords to access that data? What’s to prevent someone from “borrowing” your computer for a few minutes (or stealing the whole thing), booting a LiveCD, reading your documents, mail, and keys? Encryption can protect your data…if you have it!

From a server perspective, many machines today have hot-swappable disks. A thief can flip a latch, yank a disk out, and be on his way. That is perhaps a bit far fetched, but it happens. And if your server is running a RAID, it might be many hours or days before you notice a disk is missing. Again, without encryption, a thief has transparent access to all of your data.

There are many different ways you can use encryption to protect your data. You can use gpg [1] to individually encrypt/decrypt individual files, but that would get cumbersome if you need to encrypt a lot of data.

Ubuntu supports encrypting the entire disk using LVM+LUKS [2], however there can be a performance penalty for encrypting *everything*, it’s not easy to conduct incremental backups of the encrypted data, and you have to enter a password just to boot the system. The latter point is a show-stopper in most server environments, where the system is required to boot unattended in a data center or lab.

Ideally (at least in my mind), each user’s entire home directory would be encrypted using a key that’s unique to them. It would be mounted when the user logs in, and unmounted when the user logs out. That was my original proposal for Intrepid, but this was deemed a bit too ambitious to accomplish within a single release. The compromise was to provide a single encrypted location inside of each user’s home directory, ~/Private.

Then, each time the user logs in (graphically, on the console, or via ssh), their “login passphrase” is used to decrypt the second “mount passphrase”. This “mount passphrase” is used to establish the ~/Private mountpoint, where the user can read and write their most sensitive data. This merely a mountpoint, though. The data, when written to disk, is stored in ~/.Private. Try reading any file in there and you’ll find that data is encrypted! You can incrementally backup ~/.Private using rsync [4] (or some other backup program) to remote, untrusted storage, without giving the administrators of that remote system access to your data.

Do they provide complete security of the data that is stored in them? What technologies does this feature make use of?

As with any good encryption scheme, the security of the data stored within an encrypted ~/Private directory is only as strong as long as your passphrases are secret and hard to guess. By default, a 128-bit random mount passphrase is generated, which should be considered relatively strong. This mount passphrase is then encrypted using your login passphrase, and so your login passphrase must be strong as well.

N.B. It is *essential* that you record your mount passphrase and store it somewhere safe. If you ever have to manually recover your data, you will need this passphrase, rather than your login passphrase.

Encrypted ~/Private directories in Ubuntu use eCryptfs as the cryptographic filesystem scheme. eCryptfs first appeared as a filesystem module in the Linux kernel in November of 2006, in the 2.6.19 release. eCryptfs uses the vetted cryptographic algorithms in the Linux kernel (AES, by default in Ubuntu), as well as the kernel keyring for per-user key management. Thus, I would argue that eCryptfs is built on top of established technologies.

The biggest current shortcoming is that while all file contents are encrypted, filenames are not (Bug #264977). The upstream kernel developer responsible for ecryptfs, Michael Halcrow if IBM, is currently pursuing this at a high priority, and has some working code that should make it into the Linux kernel soon. I think Jaunty is a realistic timeframe, for Ubuntu.

If you’re logged out, and the ~/Private directory is not mounted, it impossible for even the root user to mount your encrypted data without the appropriate passphrases. However, when ~/Private is mounted, normal filesystem permissions apply. The ~/Private directory is set up so that other non-privileged users should not be able to read the data. However, the root user may be able to. To solve this problem, eCryptfs needs integration with technology that provides Mandatory Access Controls, such as AppArmor and/or SELinux (Bug #278290).

Are my passwords from Firefox stored in there for example?

Ubuntu doesn’t put any data in ~/Private automatically. We felt that most people would have taken offense at any forced migration of data into ~/Private.

On the other hand, I’ve blogged about some of the data that I store in my encrypted ~/Private [5]. Basically, I’ve moved my user data directories of Evolution, GPG, Firefox, Pidgin, SSH, and XChat to ~/Private, and established symbolic links in their usual locations. I think this is a pretty sensible setup, but I recommend each user consciously choose what goes into their ~/Private directory.

How do I set up an encrypted private directory for myself?

Install ecryptfs-utils
$ sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

Setup your private directory
$ ecryptfs-setup-private

Enter your login password, and either choose a mount pass phrase or generate one. Record both pass phrases in a safe location!!! They will be required if you ever have to recover your data manually.

Logout, and Log back in to establish the mount
$ mount | grep Private

Make sure that the application whose data you want to protect (e.g. Firefox or Evolution) is not running
$ ps -ef | grep firefox

Move the application’s data directory (e.g. ~/.mozilla or ~/.evolution) into your ~/Private directory
$ mv ~/.mozilla ~/Private

Establish a symbolic link from the old location to new location
$ ln -s ~/Private/.mozilla ~/.mozilla

Repeat for each of your most sensitive data directories.

N.B. If you put all of .ssh in ~/Private, you won’t be able to ssh into the system using public key authentication. In this case, you might want to only put your private key in ~/Private, and leave the rest in the clear.

N.B. DO NOT PUT ~/.ecryptfs/ in ~/Private! There’s a bootstrapping issue. ~/.ecryptfs/* are required to establish the mount. If those are not readable prior to establishing the mount, ~/Private cannot be mounted.

We have also added an option to the alternate and server installer, just after choosing a username and password, to optionally setup an encrypted ~/Private directory.

What did you as an Ubuntu developer have to do to bring this feature to Ubuntu users?

First, I created a Blueprint in Launchpad [6]. Then, I created a Specification design document in the wiki [7]. I used this to fuel a discussion at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Prague in May of 2008. I refined the design document according to the feedback I got at UDS.

Next, I discussed the design thoroughly with a number of people, both on the Ubuntu side, as well as with the upstream eCryptfs project. I used IRC and the mailing lists to hash out some issues. And I started implementing it incrementally and in stages. I tracked the progress on the wiki page, and actively responded to questions in the wiki and in Launchpad bugs.

I posted all changes as patches to the eCryptfs mailing list, and worked all of my code into the eCryptfs upstream git tree [8]. As soon as each batch of patches was accepted, I would request a new release tarball of ecryptfs-utils from the upstream maintainer (Michael Halcrow). Then I’d request the Debian ecryptfs-utils maintainer (Daniel Baumann) sync the Debian unstable ecryptfs-utils package to the new upstream release. Finally, I’d merge the Debian package into Ubuntu and request sponsorship.

Also, I filed Main Inclusion Reports [9] for ecryptfs-utils and a number of its dependencies, in order to be in main and used in the installer. As a prerequisite, some of the source code was reviewed by various Ubuntu developers, including Kees Cook, Jamie Strandboge, Steve Langasek, and Martin Pitt. My thanks to them for their careful review. Colin Watson helped integrate the questions into the alternate and server installers.

It was about this time I discovered planet.ubuntu.com and “blogging”. Using my blog, I was able to generate some publicity around the feature and call for testing. The feedback was almost overwhelming, but with the help of the outstanding Ubuntu community, we did shake out and fix some interesting bugs.

Based on my contributions to Ubuntu through ecryptfs-utils (as well as a number of other packages), I was able to apply for and attain MOTU privileges in the Ubuntu community.

And as a result to my active contribution to ecryptfs-utils upstream, I was added as a maintainer to the ecryptfs project.

You say you were accepted as a MOTU due in part to your work on this feature, that implies that you implemented this without having upload rights to Ubuntu. Is that correct?

Correct. At the beginning of the Intrepid development cycle, ecryptfs-utils was in Universe, and I did not have upload privileges. Jamie Strandboge, Kees Cook, and Chuck Short sponsored many uploads of ecryptfs-utils.

Just about the time that I was granted upload rights to Universe, ecryptfs-utils was moved to Main, where I do not (yet) have upload privileges. So I still need to push my changes to the Ubuntu package through an Ubuntu Core Developer. I hope to apply for Core Dev in the coming months.

On the other hand, I am now an upstream co-maintainer of eCryptfs, and I have commit privileges against the upstream git repository.

Did you examine any other approaches to solving this? Why did you pick this particular one?

Among the other options I reviewed, I considered eCryptfs to be the most promising. It’s a filesystem in the Linux kernel, giving optimal performance, thorough peer review, and standard implementation. The development community is active and established. I have been privy to the overall design of eCryptfs since 2004, from my previous role as a security developer in the IBM Linux Technology Center.

A more comprehensive review of eCryptfs against other implementations (albeit biased) is available at [10].

I will note that it would be possible for a motivated Ubuntu developer to modify my Encrypted Private implementation to use a different underlying encryption scheme for ~/Private. I would actually encourage more development in this space, as I think choice is good for the Ubuntu community. I could easily see an Encrypted Private directory that uses, say, EncFS instead of eCryptfs. I wouldn’t necessarily work on it myself, but I would encourage such development.

Where can people go if they want to find out more? Are there any tasks that they can help with?

Start with the design specification [7]. Join the ecryptfs-users community in Launchpad [11]. Consider helping with upstream eCryptfs development [8,12].

I’ve focused mainly on the server space, and on the command-line only. I would love to get some help from more desktop oriented developers for better integration with the Gnome and KDE desktops. Nautilus, Konqueror, etc. There’s an effort to create a graphical interface for setting up an encrypted private directory. I would love to see something under System->Preferences->Encryption and Keyrings that allowed a user to setup their private directory right there.

Do you have any plans to improve this feature in future releases?

Upstream ecryptfs kernel development is working on encrypted filenames. We’ll want to help integrate and test that in Ubuntu. I expect this should make it into Jaunty.

I mentioned above that more graphical setup tools would be useful, for configuration and setup, and integration directly into the file managers. I’d like to see a similar option in the graphical installer for what we have in the alternate and server installers.

I plan on pitching encrypted home directories again at UDS. I hope to use the relative success of encrypted ~/Private to bolster my case. There will be problems to solve, of course. But that’s what discussions are for.

Finally, we really need encrypted swap by default. Swap can be a treasure trove of passphrases and keys on a system. I would like to see swap encrypted by default, with a randomly generated key every boot. This should be relatively easy to do, with most of the work needing to be done in the installers. Resuming from suspend and hibernate might take some new new magic, but I think it should be doable.

Otherwise, I’m open to suggestions. Please file wishlist bugs appropriately against:

• Upstream ecryptfs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ecryptfs
• Ubuntu’s ecryptfs-utils: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ecryptfs-utils

References:

[1] http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/intrepid/en/man1/gpg.html
[2] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EncryptedFilesystemLVMHowto
[3] http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/intrepid/en/man1/ecryptfs-setup-private.html
[4] http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/intrepid/en/man1/rsync.html
[5] http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2008/10/what-in-my-encrypted-private-directory.html
[6] https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/encrypted-private-directories
[7] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EncryptedPrivateDirectory
[8] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/mhalcrow/ecryptfs-utils.git;a=summary
[9] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MainInclusionReportEcryptfsUtils
[10] http://ecryptfs.sourceforge.net/ecryptfs-faq.html#compare
[11] https://launchpad.net/~ecryptfs-users
[12] https://launchpad.net/ecryptfs

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #114 for the week of October 19th - October 25th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Ubuntu 8.10 RC released
* Intrepid Release Parties
* Intrepid bug fixes
* Pre-order Intrepid CDs
* Spread Ubuntu Alpha 0.1
* MOTU News
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo News
* Interview with Dustin Kirkland
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu Podcast #10
* Dell’s Mini Issues Getting Bigger?
* Interview with Jon Ramvi of the Ubuntu Eee project
* Obama Ubuntu? Or a hoax?
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Community Spotlight
* Updates & Security

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!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #113 for the week of October 12th - October 18th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Ubuntu 7.04 “End of Life”
* Intrepid release parties
* Archive frozen for Intrepid 8.10
* Preparing for Ubuntu Open Week
* New Ubuntu Members
* New MOTU Video
* New US Ubuntu Store
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ohio LinuxFest 2008
* Launchpad 2.1.10 released
* Launcpod episode #11
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu-UK podcast #16
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

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!

18 months of support for Ubuntu 7.04 will expire on Sunday October 19th, 2008. Security updates will no longer be provided for Ubuntu 7.04.

Instructions and caveats for the upgrade to 7.10 may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades. Note that upgrades to version 8.04 LTS and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 7.10, then to 8.04 LTS.

When: Tuesday October 14, 2008
Where: #ubuntu-bugs
Time: all day and night!

GNOME Power Manager is the package selected for the community to work on.
* 112 New bugs
* 40 Confirmed bugs
* 37 Incomplete bugs

BLOG IT! Especially those on the Planet! There are people who want to help but don’t know how and sit on the sidelines of the blog-o-sphere reading; Help get those eyes from blogs to bugs. Let us combine blog-powers to educate, “Bug work is a fun way to get involved!”
* Publish about the Hug Day Tuesday Oct 14 to get everyone excited.
* Hug some bugs and add yourself to the HugDay’s wiki for your readers!

If you’re new to all this, head to: HelpingWithBugs
Also check out: UbuntuBugDays

Everyone is welcome!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #112 for the week of October 5th - October 11th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Ubuntu Countdown banner for WordPress
* Follow up: Xubuntu Hug Day
* Ubuntu Free Culture Winners announced
* New Ubuntu Members
* Ubuntu Stats
* Getting help from the Launchpad team
* Launchpad to be off-line
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Server team meeting summary
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

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!

Fellow Ubuntu Triagers!

This week’s HugDay target is Firefox 3!

• 658 New bugs need a hug
• 131 Confirmed bugs just need a review

Nothing needs to be said about how important Firefox is, it just needs to work. With over 1300 bugs currently open, we can use a lot of help getting the information needed to shake out the bugs.

Bookmark it, add it to your calenders, turn over those egg-timers!

• Thursday October 9th
• http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20081009

Can’t stress it enough: everyone can help!

Have some time? Triage bugs! Have a blog? Blog about Hugday! Have some screen space? Open #ubuntu-bugs and keep an eye out for newcomers in need. Have minions? Teach THEM to triage for you! :)

Make a difference: We will be in #ubuntu-bugs (FreeNode) all day and night, and will be ready to answer your questions about how to help.

If you’re new to all this, head to http://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs. Remember to read the https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs/TriagersHandbook which should give easy to use guidelines on how to process New, Incomplete and Confirmed Firefox bugs.

The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is an initiative to showcase free culture artists in each version of Ubuntu. Each time a new version of Ubuntu is released, we will include a package full of example content (rather craftily named…example-content), and with Ubuntu being installed on so many computers around the world, it is a great opportunity to bring the Ubuntu ethos to the creative arts and showcase some free culture content.

A carefully chosen panel of creative types in the Ubuntu community (Cory Kontros, Luis de Bethencourt, Luke Yelavich, Lydia Pintscher and Tony Whitmore) picked their top three entries from each of the categories (Audio and Video) and then sent the finalists to the Community Council to pick the winners.

The winners are:

Andrés Vidau (Audio Winner) - Download Entry

Andrés Vidau was born in Mexico City in the roaring 70’s. It wasn’t very long before he found his way into playing the drums. He and 3 friends formed the band: GasMoztaza. Starting in music with some punk rock and ska rhythms. A few years later got into electronic music and formed the band: Caravanacid which enjoyed a moderate success within the Mexican Trance Scene. From Mexico City he moved to the Caribbean where he made underwater movies for diving tourism and then finally moved to Barcelona where he resides now. Patas de Trapo is a track that was born in a one-track side project, and in collaboration with guitar player Mauricio Barron, current member of indie rock band A Colores. With Mauricio playing the guitar and Andres sequencing the rest of the song. Andrés is an Electronics Engineer and Ubuntu user since Gutsy Gibbon.

Andrew Higginson (Video WInner) - Download Entry

Andrew is not your typical English computer user. He is fourteen and produces artwork on his computer, with Free Software. The likes of Inkscape and The GIMP are his tools, all for the low price of nothing. He discovered Ubuntu in the latter part of 2006 and since then hasn’t gone back. Projects like Wikipedia allowed him to develop his artwork skills, something he is very thankful for, as it allows him to ‘wow’ his friends as he does now. He loves the fact that Free Software enables someone with his lack of an income, to produce such great pieces of work, at such high quality, without having to break the bank. Free software has not only introduced him to unleash his creative side in computing, but to be able to give back to such programs that initially helped him is an extraordinary experience, that only free software can offer. His creation – ‘Stop Motion Ubuntu’ that you see in the Examples folder, was his first venture away from still images to moving ones. Again he only used free software, available in Ubuntu – and his webcam. While not sure how it would turn out, he is surprised at how well it was received and will certainly continue to use video as a new medium. When he hasn’t got homework scattered across the desk, Andrew spends most of his time creating artwork, coding with Python, helping new Ubuntu users (like he once was) via Launchpad Answers and when he can, writing on his blog. Generally he moves from project to project, helping out wherever he can.

Both Andrés and Andrew’s submissions will be on the Ubuntu 8.10 disc, exposing their work to millions of Ubuntu users. Congratulations guys!

Also, we are going to do this for every release of Ubuntu, so creative people…get those creative juices flowing ready for the Jaunty Jackalope Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #111 for the week of September 28th - October 4th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Ubuntu 8.10 Beta released
* Intrepid Countdown banner
* Intrepid CDs for Approved LoCo’s
* New Ubuntu Members
* Ubuntu Testing Day
* Kernel Hug Day
* PackageKit call for testing
* Ubuntu 8.10 release party(San Francisco)
* MOTU News
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo News
* Launchpad News
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* In other News
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

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!

Approved LoCos can pre-order Ubuntu 8.10 CDs. The following selection will be mailed:

• Ubuntu: PC: 230
• Kubuntu: PC: 50
• Server PC: PC: 50
• Server 64bit: PC: 20

For detailed instructions on how to place the order, see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingCds.

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #110 for the week of September 21st - September 27th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Potential hardware-damaging e1000e driver: Intrepid
* Ubuntu 8.10 beta freeze now in effect
* Ubuntu 8.10 beta approaching
* Ubuntu 7.04 reaches end-of-life, October 19, 2008
* Intrepid Release Parties
* Ubuntu Upstream report
* Ubuntu Server survey launched
* Introducing the Ubuntu Wanted project
* Progress of Romanian Translation Team
* Ubuntu Stats
* Regular Bug Jams in Berlin kicked off
* ABLEconf co-hosted by Ubuntu Arizona LoCo
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Mark Shuttleworth named “IT Community Hero of the Year”
* Full Circle Magazine #17
* Ubuntu-UK podcast #15
* Ubuntu Community interview with John Crawford(johnc4510)
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security

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!

Ubuntu announced the release of 7.04 almost 18 months ago, on 19 April 2007. As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 7.04 will reach end of life on Sunday, October 19th, 2008. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 7.04.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 7.04 is via Ubuntu 7.10. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades. Note that upgrades to version 8.04 LTS and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 7.10, then to 8.04 LTS. Both Ubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 8.04 LTS continue to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes. All announcements of official security updates for Ubuntu releases are sent to the ubuntu-security-announce mailing list, information about which may be found at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-security-announce.

The Ubuntu Server community wants to ask a broad set of users to share just exactly how they are using Ubuntu Server and in what kind of organisations. A previous shorter survey from Canonical was completed by those requesting free server CDs, but this is the first time the Ubuntu server team is requesting information from the community worldwide.

Co-sponsored by RedMonk Research, the survey [http://survey.ubuntu.com/] will gather more detailed knowledge in order to:

• Improve future product releases
• Prioritize feature requests
• Guide partnerships to add technologies
• Drive the focus at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit in December 2008

The anonymous survey takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete and is open to anyone deploying Linux servers today, whether or not they use Ubuntu. The Ubuntu Server Community Team will present the results in the beginning of December.

“Our survey earlier this year provided insight into the diversity and global reach of the Ubuntu Server customer base,” said Nick Barcet, Ubuntu Server product manager. “With this survey, we hope to understand more about them – including how they are using our software in their businesses – in order to better serve them in the future.”