3 New Members of the Americas Region Membership Board

The Ubuntu Community Council has voted to add three new members to the Americas Membership Regional Board: Nick Ali, Greg Grossmeier, Martin Albisetti. All three are well known and respected in the Ubuntu community. Congratulations to all three of them. http://www.mikesplanet.net/2009/06/expanding-the-ranks/

Bootchart testing for UNR

The Ubuntu-mobile team is looking for volunteers to help with testing for Karmic Koala. This involves testing the boot time of the alpha and beta releases for Ubuntu 9.10, based on the milestone pre-releases. The work isn't difficult, and is explained at links provided. Anyone with a netbook computer is welcome to help. See more at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-mobile/2009-June/002527.html

Empathy to replace Pidgin in Karmic Koala

As was noted in the Ubuntu Forums, it was decided at UDS that Empathy would replace Pidgin as the default Instant Messaging application in Ubuntu 9.10. Pidgin would still remain in the main repository for at least another cycle. The idea, as reported in the Communication Section of the Desktop Specs[1] is to make the switch early in the Karmic cycle and get feedback from users, and eventually make the decision whether to complete the switch or hold it until after the next LTS.

New freenode webchat (and why to use it)

Freenode has decided to no longer allow Mibbit access to freenode, due to the amount of staff time required to correct abuse from that application. Instead, they have engaged their own web gateway using qwebirc, an application developed and used on quakenet. Instructions on how to include it in your site can be found by clicking the icon in the upper left corner of the entry portal to the webchat[1].

Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

In The Press

Fit-PC2: Ubuntu Desktop In A Tiny Box

Rob Reilly of Linux.com tells us that he has been working with the Plug Computer for a while now and has first hand experience with the diminutive size of the current crop of nano Linux machines. The latest Compulab Fit-PC2 offering carries on that fine tradition of micro-miniaturization. The Fit-PC2 has an Intel Atom Z530 processor running at 1.6 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, an Intel GMA500 graphics chipset with hardware acceleration and a 160 GB SATA drive. It also sports Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11g wifi, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and runs on 12 volts at 1.5 amps. Since this machine has a full Ubuntu desktop installation, thumbing through the menus was easy, and Reilly found all the usual productivity tools. Version 3.0.8 Firefox and Thunderbird (v. 2.0.0.21) were there. OpenOffice.org Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw were available. It is an innovative product with a good combination of size, horsepower, and cost, and Reilly says he's anxious to see where Compulab takes this market. http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/desktops/18899-fit-pc2-ubuntu-desktop-in-a-tiny-box

Canonical to boost Ubuntu usability by tackling "papercuts"

ARS Technica's Ryan Paul reports that Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, is launching a new project to improve the usability of the platform. The developers aim to identify and resolve 100 minor bugs that negatively impact the Ubuntu user experience before the release of the next major version in October. The initiative, which is called One Hundred Paper Cuts, will be implemented by Canonical's new design and user experience team in collaboration with the Ubuntu community. David Siegel, developer of the popular GNOME-Do launcher who recently joined Canonical as part of the user experience and design team commented in his blog, "If some small usability detail has been bothering you release after release, now is your chance to step up and get it the attention it deserves. If we can find and heal one hundred paper cuts, Ubuntu 9.10 will surely be the most usable release of Ubuntu yet." http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/canonical-to-boost-ubuntu-usability-by-tackling-papercuts.ars

Canonical to Certify Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition on HP ProLiant G6

Darryl K. Taft of eWeek.com tells us that Canonical is expected to announce a collaboration with Hewlett-Packard to deliver an additional high-performance server configuration for Ubuntu users. Canonical will announce on June 17th the certification of Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition on HP's new ProLiant G6 servers. This move will extend Canonical's support of Ubuntu Server Edition on the HP ProLiant servers to 17 configurations. HP officials said the HP ProLiant G6 servers deliver a combination of high performance and energy efficiency. "We are committed to certifying Ubuntu Server Edition on the hardware platforms that our users choose to run," Steve George, director of commercial services at Canonical, said in a statement. "HP ProLiant servers are easily one of the most popular of those platforms, so it is heartening to have HP's participation in this certification program along with its recognition and verification of our work. Users who are looking for an open platform or thinking about building a cloud-based infrastructure on Ubuntu need the reassurance of strong, compatibility-tested hardware. This certification offers peace of mind along with a great hardware base on which users can start to build their new data centers." http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Canonical-to-Certify-Ubuntu-904-Server-Edition-on-HP-ProLiant-G6-191072/

Karmic Koala To Offer More Diverse Wallpaper Selection

The Linux Loop says that the tradition in Ubuntu seems to be to include one or two versions of the default wallpaper and call it done. Meanwhile, Windows 7 has a vast array of wallpapers of every type: abstract, landscape, animals, flowers, green hills with a blue sky, etc. In Karmic Koala (9.10), though, Ubuntu seems to be shifting more towards the Windows 7 style. A page has been setup on the Wiki for people to contribute artwork in three categories: default wallpaper, abstract extras, and photographic extras. The plan is apparently to offer, in addition to the default wallpaper, a selection of more diverse alternative wallpapers, including photographs, which is a first for Ubuntu. This change is quite exciting, since it makes it really simple for Ubuntu users to find a wallpaper they like. It’s almost impossible to find one wallpaper everyone likes, but finding a wallpaper for everyone in a selection of 20 might be possible. http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/06/16/karmic-koala-to-offer-more-diverse-wallpaper-selection/

One Hundred Papercuts: The Most Exciting Thing Since the Last Thing Canonical Did

The Linux Loop asks if we remember when Mark Shuttleworth announced Canonical was putting together a usability and design team? That team has announced their first major project called One Hundred Papercuts. The idea, as described by David Siegel, is to select one hundred easily fixable bugs that are day to day minor annoyances to the user and fix them for the next release. Not big changes, just small things like how a file is named by default or where the cursor’s focus is put. That might not sound like a big deal, but fixing one hundred little things is far more important than introducing a big new feature at this stage of Ubuntu’s development. Every release fixes some bugs, but Ubuntu will be the first distribution that the Linux Loop knows of to make fixing usability related bugs a major priority, and they certainly hope this will become a trend. http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/06/16/one-hundred-papercuts-the-most-exciting-thing-since-the-last-thing-canonical-did/

Ubuntu's First Ten Paper Cuts Spotted

Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports that with the release of Ubuntu 9.10, which is due out this October, Canonical and the Ubuntu developers hope to fix at least 100 "paper cuts" on the Ubuntu Linux desktop. The first ten of the one hundred paper cuts for Ubuntu 9.10 have now been determined and are shared on the Ubuntu development list. Making up this list of ten small Linux desktop imperfections are dimming file icons when you "cut" them for "pasting" later on, changing the "move to trash" text string in the Nautilus CD burner to "remove from disc", icons for XDG user directories, consistent volume "safe to remove" notifications, and other small action items. Besides addressing these small usability gaps in Ubuntu 9.10, the Karmic Koala will also feature the Linux 2.6.31 kernel, will finally switch to using kernel mode-setting (where available) for graphics support, GRUB2 is being used by default, EXT4 is now the default file-system choice, and there are many other improvements too. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzMzNg

ZaReason Ion Breeze 3770

Michael Larabel of Phoronix tells us that last week they published an in-depth article looking at the NVIDIA ION Linux Performance using a nettop device that contained this chipset with GeForce 9400M graphics rather than the usual Intel 945 graphics. From video playback to 2D to 3D, the graphics performance with the NVIDIA ION was wonderful. For that testing, the nettop they were using came courtesy of ZaReason and it was their new Ion Breeze 3770. The ZaReason Ion Breeze 3770 consists of an Intel Atom 230 processor, a NVIDIA ION chipset, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and it can also ship with Ubuntu 9.04, Kubuntu 9.04, Edubuntu 9.04, or Ubuntu Studio 9.04. While this is the first NVIDIA ION nettop that Phoronix has tested under Linux, they were left being quite pleased with the Ion Breeze 3770. When using the proprietary Linux driver from NVIDIA, the GeForce 9400M GPU works great with an Intel Atom processor, delivers excellent video playback capabilities and is able to even run some games. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=zareason_ion_breeze&num=1

Ubuntu 8.04 update: Happy to be back in a Linux environment

InsideSoCal.com's Steven Rosenberg says he's been bringing more data into his main Ubuntu 8.04 LTS installation on one of his two Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101 laptops, and he continues to be satisfied with the performance of what by most accounts is the world's most popular desktop Linux distribution. Rosenberg says that all in all, he's pretty happy to be back using Linux after his six months with OpenBSD. While he enjoyed using OpenBSD very much, returning to the easier-to-use and much-easier-to-update Ubuntu/Debian environment has been a very good thing. http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2009/06/ubuntu-804-update-running-surp.html

Ubuntu a minor player? Not outside the States

Christopher Dawson of ZDNet Education says he just finished reading Dana Blankenhorn’s post, “Will Ubuntu remain a minor player” on a break between interviews and meetings. Interestingly, just before he read Blankenhorn’s post, Dawson met with the President of Metasys, a Brazilian company that has Linux-based servers, desktops, and software in thousands of schools, businesses, and homes throughout Latin America, Africa, and Europe. Metasys is running on 350,000 desktops in Brazil alone, and guess what? People pay for it because it’s good; it has a great ecosystem of server, software, and management products; and because it’s still drastically cheaper than Windows. Worldwide, there are 13 million active Ubuntu users with use growing faster than any other distribution. In China, Ubuntu is gaining traction quickly since, due to rampant piracy, Windows is essentially free in that country. New users are choosing operating systems based on merit rather than price, since price is largely irrelevant in that market. As companies like HP and Dell continue to legitimize Ubuntu through high-quality offerings on their netbooks, Dawson thinks we’ll see a shift here in the States. http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2709

1/10th of 100 Papercuts Selected

The Linux Loop reports that Ubuntu’s One Hundred Papercuts project is aiming to solve 10 papercuts per week in order to accomplish the goal of resolving 100 before the next release. The first ten bugs to be tackled have been set. In follow-up discussion on the mailinglist, however, some of the selected bugs were removed, since they didn’t fit the definition of a papercut. In accordance with the definition of a papercut, none of these bugs are going to change anyone’s life. Any Ubuntu user will, however, notice these improvements. For example, when you cut a file or folder, the file/folder will be greyed out to indicate that it has been cut. You’ll also see improvements to the Open With… menu and changes to the size of notifications. Alone, none of these fixes would be note-worthy, but together they may be the most significant feature of the next release. Keep in mind that most of these bugs have not been fixed, but if everything goes according to plan, they will be in the next week. http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2009/06/19/110th-of-100-papercuts-selected/

In The Blogosphere

13 things to get excited for in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Blogger Danny Piccirillo from Pin Stack blogs about what he's excited for in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. In his list of things he is excited for are: New Theme, Flawless PulseAudio, Firefox 3.5, faster boot times, Ext4 now default, GNU GRUB 2, New Linux Kernel, New Intel Drivers, New NVIDIA drivers, GNOME 2.28 (and testing GNOME 3), PackageKit, and Empathy. He gives a short description of each of these, and gives why he believes the change from pidgin and ekiga to empathy is a good thing. http://pinstack.blogspot.com/2009/06/13-things-to-get-excited-for-in-ubuntu.html

HP is business Linux friendly

Blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols from ComputerWorld informs us of the progress that has been made with HP. With the announcment of Ubuntu being certified for the new HP ProLiant G6 servers. He looks at this as a good step towards HP recognising the work that has gone into Ubuntu, and possibly opening up to becoming as Linux consumer end-user friendly as Dell. http://blogs.computerworld.com/hp_is_business_linux_friendly

HP Servers and Ubuntu: Reading Between the Lines

Blogger Joe Panettieri from WorksWithU helps us look beyond HP and Canonical's announcment of Ubuntu certification on HP ProLiant G6 servers. He sees this as HP beta testing the Ubuntu server market, and expects HP to start preloading Ubuntu on ProLiant systems. We are also given some information to help us understand the competition. He doesnt think that trying to migrate Novell SUSE Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers to Ubuntu server is a good idea. This is because Ubuntu can't match Novell or Red Hat on the ISV front. We are informed that focus on the appliance market, and giving people an option to go to other than windows is a good thing. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/17/hp-servers-and-ubuntu-reading-between-the-lines/

IBM’s Cloud Will Feature Ubuntu

WorksWithU's Joe Panettieri says that when IBM announces its Smart Business cloud computing strategy on June 16, Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution will be along for the ride. The news represents IBM’s latest vote of confidence in Ubuntu, amid growing evidence that Canonical and Ubuntu are finding a home in cloud computing. News of IBM’s cloud effort broke in The New York Times on June 15. The Times story didn’t mention Ubuntu, but the blogosphere is talking up IBM’s growing interest in Canonical’s operating system. Panettieri says he's not suggesting Ubuntu can dominate next-generation cloud infrastructure, but Canonical is in the cloud game and IBM will reinforce that fact on June 16. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/15/ibms-cloud-will-feature-ubuntu/

Microsoft, Ubuntu and Social Networking

Christopher Tozzi of WorksWithU notes that like many multinational corporations, Microsoft has embraced social networking as a means of making customers feel like participants, not just end users, in a Microsoft community. When it comes to community-building, however, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle against the open-source world, which was built around social networking before it was called social networking. Ubuntu doesn’t have an official presence on Facebook, Twitter or similar sites. Even the Ubuntu forums, arguably the hub of the Ubuntu community, are a third-party project. Ubuntu hasn’t embraced prepackaged social networks because it doesn’t need to. Unlike the superficial user communities constructed by Microsoft’s PR department, Ubuntu’s users necessarily and authentically participate in Ubuntu as more than customers. Granted, there’s a lot more to an operating system’s success than the number of users who feel like they participate rather than merely consume. Nonetheless, the social network built into the Ubuntu experience is a strong tool that should be put to use by those seeking to promote the operating system. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/19/microsoft-ubuntu-and-social-networking/

Dropbox vs Ubuntu-One

Blogger L4Linux says that his request for using Ubuntu-One Beta was approved by Canonical, so he immediately made a small (and admittedly un-scientific) test. He put 13 files, totaling 23.4MB, first in Ubuntu-One and then in Dropbox. It took 5 minutes 56 seconds for Ubuntu-One and 4 minutes 25 seconds for Dropbox on his ADSL line to synchronize the files. For the time being, Dropbox is faster. Furthermore it has the significant advantage of being cross-platform, while Ubuntu-One works only in Ubuntu. L4Linux says he uses Ubuntu both at home and work, but he also uses Fedora and rarely Windows and moreover he want to share files with people that don't use Ubuntu. He questions, "What's the point of having files in the cloud if you can't access them from every available platform?" L4Linux thinks that Ubuntu-One's speed will probably get better in the future, but unless Canonical makes it cross platform he really doesn't see anyone using it much. http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2009/06/dropbox-vs-ubuntu-one.html

Ubuntu Improves User Experience Via “Paper Cut” Campaign

WorksWithU's Christopher Tozzi reports that Ubuntu developers recently announced their intention to fix a number of minor but noticeable usability bugs, which they’ve termed “Paper Cuts,” in time for the release of Ubuntu 9.10 next October. This is a huge step in the right direction for Ubuntu, and reflects the kind of usability-oriented thinking that is central to making it a success. The ten bugs slated for correction so far mostly involve ambiguous user dialogues or interface inconsistencies. None of them on its own is enough to turn someone off to Ubuntu, but added up, they detract substantially from the Ubuntu experience. Additional bugs that have been identified as potential targets for the paper-cut campaign similarly represent seemingly trivial issues that, together, negatively impact the smoothness and professionalism of Ubuntu. http://www.workswithu.com/2009/06/20/ubuntu-improves-user-experience-via-paper-cut-campaign/

Using Ubuntu as your sole operating system in academia

The EdTechDev blogger says he's been using Ubuntu Linux as his sole operating system for two years now. The switch was completely painless as he had already been using the same software, such as OpenOffice, Firefox, VLC, Pidgin, Netbeans, Eclipse, JEdit, Inkscape, and Gimp on Windows and the Mac for years. The only reasons he's still booting to Windows on occasional is to make screencasts that show how to do things in Windows (which most of his students are using), and also to use the Wimba whiteboard/chat application that his university uses. http://edtechdev.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-ubuntu-as-your-sole-operating.html

In Other News

Reconstructor - Version 3.0 Tech Preview

Reconstructor is an Ubuntu GNU/Linux CD Creator that uses the Desktop(Live), Alternate(Install), or Server disc as a base, and then allows for user customization. For the Ubuntu Desktop base, you can customize the entire environment where you can add or remove software, change the default look (splash, themes, fonts, wallpaper, etc.), add desktop links, etc. For the Alternate and Server bases, you can add any additional software to the disc that you would like installed. Reconstructor is written in python and is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). http://reconstructor.aperantis.com/

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate