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.”

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #109 for the week of September 14th - September 20th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Intrepid Ibex Alpha 6 released
* Codecs & DVD playback in Intrepid for all users
* Xubuntu News
* New Kubuntu Bug Team
* MOTU Team News
* FSD: Ubuntu-VE, Ubuntu-NI, and Ubuntu-NO
* Ubuntu-ZA leadership change
* Launchpad 2.1.9 released
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* In Other News
* Mozilla 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!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #108 for the week of September 7th - September 13, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Introducing Jaunty Jackalope
* UI Freeze in place, Alpha 6 freeze ahead
* Last push for Intrepid documentation
* Ubuntu 9.04 Developer Summit Sponsorship
* Status of Ubuntu Romanian Localization Team
* Ubuntu Developer Week
* MOTU
* New Ubuntu Members
* Intrepid Spanish Translation
* New Ubuntu Cyclists Team
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo News
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* In Other News
* Meeting Summaries
* 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!

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 approaching rapidly, Mark Shuttleworth has announced plans for Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope. The overarching goal is to provide a better user experience, one that not only matches existing consumer platforms, but sets a new standard.

Keeping that in mind, a goal of Jaunty Jackalope is to decrease boot and resume times. Deep integration of desktop and web applications will be pursued. Discussions related to bridging the gap between both types of applications started at UDS-Prague and will continue in Mountain View.

Since collaboration is key to the open source ecosystem, Jaunty will provide new ways for developers to work with Ubuntu. All of Ubuntu will be moved into Bazaar. This will allow any package to be easily branched, modified, and built for PPAs. Developers interested in specific packages will also be able to participate outside of the usual MOTU and core-dev structure.

Much of this hinges on the planning that will go on at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, in the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, Monday 8th - Friday 12th December 2008. UDS historically involved Canonical employees and sponsored community contributors. For Mountain View, anyone from the community can submit a request to be sponsored.

Individuals sponsored will be expected to lead a discussion in one of the key topics for Ubuntu 9.04:

• Networking
• Power Management
• Desktop Experience
• Booting
• Hardware Support
• Sharing and Backup
• Desktop Configuration
• Server Configuration
• Network Authentication
• Security
• Community
• Mobile
• QA
• Other

Discussions should center around an Ubuntu Brainstorm idea.

To increase the odds of sponsorship, community contributions like keeping up with 5-A-Day and helping with the sponsorship queue will be beneficial. Volunteering to do crew duty is also a plus.

See Jono Bacon’s post for more details on how to get sponsored.

The deadline for sponsorship requests is Thursday 25th September 2008.

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #107 for the week of August 31st - September 7th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Intrepid Alpha 5 released
* KDE Community Stabilizes Desktop with KDE 4.1.1
* KDE 4.1.1 available for Kubuntu 8.04
* Wanted: Moderators for Ubuntu Brainstorm
* Ubuntu Developer Week Summary
* PackageKit: Call for testing
* Two Years Going Strong
* New MOTU
* Ubuntu Package Status Pages
* New proposed WikiGuide Page
* Call for feedback on new wiki theme
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo News
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu UK podcast #13
* Say Ubuntu!
* KDE Usability Project Video(Celeste Lyn Paul)
* Atlanta Linux Fest
* 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 Weekly Newsletter, Issue #106 for the week of August 24th - August 30th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Second Ubuntu Developers Week!
* Intrepid feature freeze - Alpha 5 freeze ahead
* Call for testing of 2.6.27 kernel(Intrepid)
* Xfce 4.6-beta now available for Intrepid users
* Asia Oceania board
* MOTU News
* Using identi.ca for Ubuntu information
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubucon El Salvador
* This week in Launchpad’s web API
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Full Circle Magazine #16
* Ubuntu Christian Edition 4.0
* Post your Xfce news on reddit
* Server team meeting
* 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 second Ubuntu Developer Week will be held from Sep 1st to Sep 5th in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

Digg It!

‘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.

Check out the timetable, how to join in and the “rules.”

DIGG THIS STORY!

Jono Bacon has announced the very first Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase!

For a long time now we have been shipping a package called example-content with each release of Ubuntu. This package provides a bunch of different pieces of content including audio, video, PDFs, OpenOffice.org documents and more. The idea is that you can use this content to kickstart your new Ubuntu system and see what it can do. example-content has been really useful, but it has been languishing a little recently, and then we had a rather interesting idea…

Why not use example-content as a great way to show off audio and video from free culture artists? It can give artists a platform of millions of Ubuntu users to show off their work and it really excites me because we are applying the Ubuntu ethos to free culture.

The idea is simple:

• Your submission must be either audio or video (we are not accepting documents/images) and no larger than 1MB for the audio and 3MB for the video. The submissions must be made available in either Ogg Vorbis (audio) or Ogg Theora (video). The submissions must be licensed as Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike.
• Upload your submission somewhere online (there are lots of free hosting solutions available such as archive.org). Do not email any of the organisers or judges with your submissions.
• Add your entry to one of the submission tables at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase.
• When the deadline for submissions closes, our panel of judges (Cory Kontros, Luis de Bethencourt, Luke Yelavich, Lydia Pintscher and Tony Whitmore) will pick a shortlist, and the Community Council will then pick the final winners from the shortlist.

The deadline is 4th September 2008 and you can read more about it at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase.

This is a great opportunity for artists to get their work seen or heard. Lets make something cool happen. Good luck! :)

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #102 for the week of July 27th - August 2nd, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* QA to Launchpad Liaison
* MOTU News
* New Ubuntu Members
* Ubuntu Screencasts
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu Global Bug Jam
* New in Intrepid Ibex
* Launchpad News
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Ubuntu-UK Podcast #11
* Linux pre-installs rocket to 3%
* Steve Stalcup Interview
* 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!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 101 for the weeks July 20th - July 26th, 2008 is now available.

In this Issue:

* Intrepid Alpha 3 released
* MOTU school session: Maintainer Scripts
* Ubuntu Screencasts
* LoCo Team Approvals
* Global Bug Jam
* Ubuntu Stats
* LoCo News
* Launchpod episode #8
* Ubuntu Forums News
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Full Circle Magazine #15
* 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!

Welcome to Intrepid Ibex Alpha-3, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.10.

Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Intrepid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Intrepid. You can download it here:

Ubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/intrepid/alpha-3/
Edubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-3/
Kubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-3/
Xubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-3/

Pre-releases of Intrepid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Further information on this alpha release can be found here

Digg It!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 100 for the weeks July 13th - July 19th, 2008 is now available. In this issue we cover: UWN history, UWN Past & Present Staff Podcast, Mark Shuttleworth podcast, Comments from Past & Present Editors, Joining the UWN staff, New Ubuntu QA team, Call for nominations for Tech Board, Alpha 3 soft freeze, Next UDS, Peru LoCo gives Ubuntu presentation at San Marcos University, Ubuntu Ireland gets local press coverage, Ubuntu Nicaragua Continues with TV shows, New Leader for Ubuntu France, Ubuntu-UK podcast #10, and much, much more!

In this Issue:

• Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter History
• UWN Past & Present Editors Podcast
• Mark Shuttleworth podcast
• Joining the UWN staff
• New Ubuntu QA team
• Call for nominations for Tech Board
• Alpha 3 soft freeze
• Next Ubuntu UDS
• Ubuntu stats
• LoCo news
• Ubuntu Forums news
• In the Press & Blogosphere
• Ubuntu-UK podcast #10
• UWN podcast transcriptions
• Upcoming Meetings & Events
• Updates & Security

This is a special Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

For our 100th edition, we cover the history of the UWN, a look back at previous UWNs, and discuss what the UWN has meant for people who have worked on it. Former and current staffers of UWN joined in for a podcast to discuss their experiences of contributing to the UWN and the impact of the UWN on the community. Mark Shuttleworth also provides his views on the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

Links to the UWN Editors Podcast:

• Ogg
• Mp3

Links to Mark discussing the UWN:

• Ogg
• Mp3

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!

For the last couple of weeks, Jordan Mantha been working behind the scenes on creating a community Ubuntu QA (quality assurance) team. For quite a while Canonical has largely driven QA efforts in Ubuntu. The community can and should step up in this area (see this wiki page for more background information).

In short, a new community-driven Ubuntu QA team is up and running! The IRC channel is #ubuntu-quality and the mailing list is ubuntu-qa.

From the team wiki page:

The Ubuntu QA team is focused on developing tools, policies, and practices for ensuring Ubuntu’s quality as a distribution as well as providing general advice, oversight, and leadership of QA activities within the Ubuntu project.

In general, QA in Ubuntu is broken down into the following areas:

• Defect Management (Bug Triage)
• Quality Control (Update, Application, and Pre-Release Testing)
• Quality Assurance (Verification of Changes, Policy Compliance Review)
• Product Improvement (Development)

The main entry points for working on QA tasks are the BugSquad and Testing Team, however feel free to drop by #ubuntu-quality, if you are interested in Ubuntu QA.

Because Ubuntu QA is a coordination/development/working team the membership guidelines are:

• Individuals, not teams may be members.
• Memberships expire annually and can be renewed by members themselves.
• People from all areas of QA are encouraged to join.

Requirements to join the team:

• established record of contributing to QA in Ubuntu (such as BugSquad or Testing Team)
• be an Ubuntu Member or ready to become one (i.e. significant and sustained contribution to Ubuntu)
• an introductory email sent to the ubuntu-qa list introducing yourself, your previous QA work, and your plans for working in the team.

• Coordinate between the various QA-related teams
• Build communities around QA work and help them run smoothly
• Provide lead-from-the-front leadership to Ubuntu’s QA projects
• Assess and communicate Ubuntu’s QA needs
• Develop tools and services needed in Ubuntu QA work
• Work on creating consistent and efficient QA-related policies
• whatever else comes up or people want to contribute

Huge props go to Emmet Hikory, Steve Beattie, Henrik Omma, and the rest of the team for helping this get launched.

So stay tuned for more exciting QA developments, feel free to contribute, and rock on!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 99 for the weeks July 6th - July 12th, 2008 is now available. In this issue we cover: special 100th issue of the UWN next week, Intrepid Alpha 2 released, MOTU news and videos, new Universe contributor, summary of UDS discussions, new Kubuntu website, Ubuntu Venezuela 2 year anniversary, Launchpod episode #7, Tutorial of the week, Technical Update, Ubuntu in US retailers, and much, much more!

• Special 100th Issue of the UWN Next Week
• Intrepid Alpha 2 Released
• New MOTU
• New Universe Contributor
• MOTU Videos - “This is how I fix a bug”
• Summary of UDS Discussions
• New Kubuntu Website
• Ubuntu Stats
• Ubuntu-Venezuela Celebrates 2nd Anniversary
• Launchpod Episode #7
• Ubuntu Forums Tutorial
• Technical Update
• In the Press & Blogosphere
• Canonical & Valusoft bring Ubuntu Support to US Retailer
• Upcoming Meetings & Events
• Updates & Security

Special 100th Issue of the UWN Coming Next Week

Don’t miss the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter next week as we celebrate our 100th issue with the Ubuntu community. There will be interviews with community members, a retrospect, and insights from past and present UWN staffers. You definitely won’t want to miss this issue, so make sure your RSS feed is up to date, your email subscription is current, or the wiki bookmarked for a very special anniversary issue of the UWN!

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!

Pre-releases of Intrepid are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 2 is the second in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Intrepid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Intrepid. You can download it here:

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/intrepid/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu)
• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-2/ (Kubuntu)
• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu Education Edition)
• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/intrepid/alpha-2/ (Xubuntu)

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Alpha 2 includes a number of software updates that are ready for large-scale testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/alpha2 for information on changes in Ubuntu.

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a list of known bugs (that you don’t need to report if you encounter), please see: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/alpha2

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Hardy, have a look at the intrepid-changes mailing list:

• http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/intrepid-changes

We also suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list if you’re interested in following Ubuntu development. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases, and other interesting events.

• http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

Bug reports should go to the Ubuntu bug tracker:

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu

It has been a month since Ubuntu Developer Summit Intrepid Ibex was held in Prague, Czech Republic. The track leads have collated all their reports from the UDS discussions and Jorge Castro has made a summary of them, available here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Summary. This report is a combination of reports and specs:

• Reports from UDS: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/
• The current list of approved blueprints for 8.10: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid

The reports are meant to be a bird’s eye view of what’s to come in Ubuntu 8.10. Like all best-laid plans, these are subject to adjustment and/or changes, but should be general enough to give you a good idea of what’s being worked on.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, the first maintenance update to Ubuntu’s 8.04 LTS release.

In all, over 200 updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

To Get Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS
To download Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, or obtain CDs, visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download.

Beginning with this maintenance release, users of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS will be offered an automatic upgrade to 8.04 via Update Manager. As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge. For further information about upgrading, see http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading.

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/804.

About Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS
This is the first maintenance release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, which continues to be supported with maintenance updates and security fixes until April 2011 on desktops and April 2013 on servers.

Since its release, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS has seen widespread use in a variety of desktop and server deployments, and received a great deal of feedback from users. The Ubuntu team has focused their efforts on resolving issues reported by people deploying Ubuntu out in the real world, including:

• Firefox has been upgraded to the final 3.0 release from Mozilla, correcting a number of issues discovered during their beta test. (#237690)
• The Samba client allows LANMAN authentication again, correcting problems connecting to some NAS and older Windows servers (#209520).
• Various problems with the FUSE interface to GNOME’s new virtual file system have been fixed, correcting certain problems accessing network file shares (#211205, #212789).
• The behaviour of the timezone map in the live CD installer has been improved, making it simpler to understand and use (#203423).
• The “Hardware Drivers” application no longer reports the proprietary nVidia driver as being enabled when it isn’t installed (#216650).
• The Transmission menu item is now called “Transmission BitTorrent Client” to clearly explain its purpose (#184238).

While we have fixed a number of audio-related issues, including a scheduler problem that caused audio stuttering under load (#188226), other audio playback problems may still exist, because so far we have been unable to verify a targeted fix that does not cause regressions for other users. We will continue to investigate this, and would welcome people with problems to provide feedback on Luke Yelavich’s test packages. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/191027 for details.

Updated images have also been released for members of the Ubuntu family which do not carry the LTS (Long-Term Support) label, namely Kubuntu, the Kubuntu KDE4 remix, Gobuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio, with images for Mythbuntu to follow soon. These additional images are provided to the community in response to USN-612-1, a major security vulnerability identified earlier in the Ubuntu OpenSSL packages, to ensure that secure installation images are available to all users in the Ubuntu family. For more information about this security vulnerability, please see: http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-612-1

See http://www.ubuntu.com/usn for a full list of Ubuntu security updates. As of 2008-07-02, all updates affecting packages on the CD have been applied.

A summary of notable updates is available here. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu for specific information about a particular bug number.