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DistributionsNews and Editorials What's up with the Intrepid Ibex The ibex is type of wild mountain goat with large recurved horns that are transversely ridged in front, found in Eurasia, North Africa, and East Africa. That is the Wikipedia definition. For the Ubuntu community, the Intrepid Ibex is the next version of the operating system, and the topic under discussion at the recent Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) in Prague.There are a number of YouTube videos from the UDS, with Mark Shuttleworth and others talking about Intrepid Ibex and related topics. Mark's two part video covers the various versions of Ubuntu from the server to the platform specific remixes, to collaboration with other distributions and upstream developers, and more. The Intrepid Ibex, scheduled for release next October, will also be known as version 8.10 - 8 for the year and 10 for the month of its release. With the Hardy Heron, Ubuntu's second LTS (Long Term Support) release out the door, the Ibex marks the beginning of a new LTS cycle. As such, it is likely to be a bit wild and woolly. A time to bring in new technology and experiment with possibilities. There will be plenty of time later for stabilizing the next LTS release, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, scheduled for release in April 2010. This UDS had several tracks some reports are available:
Cody Somerville, leader of Xubuntu, tells us Why Xubuntu Intrepid is going to rock. The Xubuntu Intrepid Strategy document contains a clear mission statement and takes a deeper look at this variant:
Xubuntu will provide (The goal of Xubuntu is to produce) an easy to use
distribution, based on Ubuntu, using Xfce as the graphical desktop, with a
focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on
low memory footprint. The integration in Xubuntu is at a configuration
level, a toolkit level, and matching the underlying technology beneath the
desktop in Ubuntu. Xubuntu will be built and developed autonomously as part
of the wider Ubuntu community, based around the ideals and values of
Ubuntu.
Kubuntu fans will find this entry in Jonathan Riddell's blog of interest. "Kubuntu Intrepid Version makes the decision to move to KDE 4 by default (anything else is history). KDE 3 libs will still be available for applications without a KDE 4 version, but the desktop won't be. It's a good time to move to KDE 4 since Intrepid is intended to be a more cutting edge release." The Kubuntu Intrepid wiki takes a look at some specific design goals the KDE variant. Some of the defaults for Kubuntu have been defined.
We will remove sounds for actions. Actions do not need to attract the
user's attention. We would like a new, shorter, login sound, Scott Wheeler
has volunteered to make one.
And so on.
At the 4.1 release we will consider which default Plasmoids to include. The Desktop Plasmoid should be on by default. Other goals for Intrepid are still somewhat fuzzy, which means there is still time to make proposals for what you want. If you run Ubuntu (or variant thereof) but it's not quite what you want it to be, get involved and help make it better.
New Releases Announcing openSUSE 11.0 Release Candidate 1 The openSUSE Project has announced the openSUSE 11.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). "The good news is that we're closing in on the final release of 11.0, but it's not time to relax just yet. We're getting really close, so we need all hands on deck to help test this release candidate."
Distribution News Debian GNU/Linux Bits from the ftp team Debian's ftp team has a few bits with an introduction to the team, recent changes, a call for new team members and more.
Release Update: arch status, major transitions finished, freeze coming up Here's an update on the current state of lenny, with a look at Architecture status, Major transitions, Release goals, Removals from testing, BSP Marathon, Release schedule, Package team news, Freeze coming up, and Tricks from the Release Team.
Fedora Info about FUDCon Boston If you are planning on going to FUDCon and haven't registered yet, do so as soon as possible. FUDCon Boston starts June 21, 2008. Click below for more information.
Five Months of Bug Triage (Poelcat) Poelcat writes about the Fedora Bug Triage team. "It is also our hope that the bug triage team can help Fedora as project identify areas which need more attention. Some initial anger and frustration was directed at the "triage bot" for touching so many bugs and closing many others (for unmaintained releases) that had been filed but never responded to by anyone. This points to a potentially deeper problem that maybe in spite of Fedora's desire to grow its package repository it is also not staffed to address all of the resulting bug reports. The other side of this of course is that like all software projects, it simply isn't possible to fix every single bug. It is not fair to form hard conclusions on this until we have reviewed all the bugs in NEW and performed better analysis of the data."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 - 1-Year End Of Life Notice Red Hat has announced the 1 year notification of the end-of-life for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. "In accordance with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy, the 7 year life-cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 will end on May 31, 2009. After this date, Red Hat will discontinue the technical support services, bug fix, enhancement, and security errata updates."
SUSE Linux and openSUSE Results of hard disk configuration survey Last month the openSUSE project conducted a survey on hard disk configuration. The results are now available.
Ubuntu family More efficient membership approval process The Ubuntu Community Council has implemented some changes aimed at reducing the backlog of applications for Ubuntu membership. "The Ubuntu project is rapidly expanding and the previous process for approval of new Ubuntu members has been struggling to keep up with the increased participation. The list of pending membership applications was so long that the Community Council cannot focus on other issues. Also, it is often difficult or impossible for potential new members to attend Community Council meetings which do not coincide with their availability in a particular timezone. As a result three regional membership boards have been created to consider applications from contributors to the project for Ubuntu membership."
New Ubuntu mailing list The ubuntu-news-team mailing list is the single and authoritative place to submit and discuss news stories, events and meetings in the Ubuntu community. It will be used by the Ubuntu Weekly News team and the Fridge team. The ubuntu-marketing-submissions and fridge-devel mailing lists are now *closed* and have been replaced by this single list.
Distribution Newsletters Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #93 The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for May 31, 2008 covers new Ubuntu Membership approval process, new Ubuntu Members, new LoCo approval process, LinuxTag 2008, Launchpad 1.2.5, Launchpod episode #3, Forum Tutorial of the week, Ubuntu UK Podcast #6, Full Circle Magazine #13, Team Reports, and much more.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Issue 22 The June 2008 edition of PCLinuxOS Magazine includes What is root?, Configuring a 5 Button Mouse, Burn an ISO Disk, Google Goodies, and more. It's available in PDF format or HTML.
OpenSUSE Weekly News/24 This week the OpenSUSE Weekly News covers openSUSE 11.0 Release Candidate 1, LinuxTag 2008, People of openSUSE: Klaus Kämpf, and much more.
OpenSUSE Weekly News/25 This edition of the OpenSUSE Weekly News looks at People of openSUSE: Matthias Fehring, Interview: KDevelop and the openSUSE Build Service, Status Updates, Gabriel Burt: Banshee 1.0 Release Candidate 1, Jigish Gohil: Compiz and Compiz Fusion 0.7.6 out in wild, blogs.zdnet.com: "OpenSUSE 11 RC1: The Mercedes-Benz to Ubuntu's Volkswagen", and much more.
Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter #128 This edition of the Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter covers Mandriva Linux releases, Mandriva Club changes, Mandriva website overhaul, Mandriva One CD packs available from the Store, partnerships, and more.
Fedora Weekly News Issue 129 The Fedora Weekly News for June 1, 2008 looks at the wiki migration, info about FUDCon Boston, the second release of the Fedora Brazil Magazine, heading for Fedora 10, and several other topics.
Misc Debian development news (#8) The Misc development news is a collection of items that should be of interest to Debian developers. This edition looks at ~/.ssh/authorized_keys remains disabled by default, a minor update to the mailing list code of conduct, document aimed at upstreams in preparation, d-i beta2 in preparation, breaks beta 1, and a new "transition check" tool.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 255 The DistroWatch Weekly for June 2, 2008 is out. "One of the best-known and most widely-used features of FreeBSD, its CVS infrastructure designed to store all of the operating system's and userland's source code, was finally given boot last week when it was replaced with Subversion. What will this major switch mean for the FreeBSD user community? While on the surface not much will change in the foreseeable future, eventually everybody will need to get used to a new way of performing source updates. In other news, Novell reports better than expected revenue from its Linux business, Ubuntu plans universal connectivity in Intrepid Ibex, Fedora reports on the progress of integrating KDE 4 into the distribution, and BLAG's Jeff Moe explains why he continues to remove all non-free "blobs" from the Linux kernel. Also not to be missed, a first-look review of openSUSE's Zypper, probably the most advanced and comprehensive package management utility on the market. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com May 2008 donation is the FileZilla project."
Interviews Interview with Jeff Moe: BLAG, linux-libre and More (Blue-GNU) The Blue-GNU talks with Jeff Moe, developer of blobless kernels and BLAG. "Jeff Moe is a 37 year old self-employed father. Better known as jebba, he is the main developer behind the 100% Free distribution BLAG (for BLAG Linux And GNU). He is also leading a couple of other Free software projects. He kindly agreed to give Blue GNU an interview by Jabber."
Interview with Donnie Berkholz Linux Crazy talks with Gentoo developer and council member Donnie Berkholz. The interview is available as a podcast with a transcript also available. "How many hats do you wear as a Gentoo developer, and tell me about them? At the beginning you mentioned a few of them, and really, it's just way too many. I'm really kind of over-obligated in Gentoo. And it's hard to manage to spend enough time working on everything. Right now, as you mentioned, I'm a council member, I'm the lead of the PR team, the desktop lead, the clustering lead, I maintain X, I'm work on the science team, and I also maintain about 50 other packages."
An Interview with Anurag Bhandari, the Founder of Granular Linux (A Doctor's Blog) Saleem Khan interviews Anurag Bhandari, founder and project leader of the Granular Linux Project. "What exactly is Granular Linux? What does the name Granular signify? Granular is an easy-to-use Linux distribution aimed at desktop users and newbies in the world of Linux. It can also be a good choice for regular Linux users. The name "Granular" signifies one of the reasons behind the creation of this distro, that is, "customizability". Granular was intended to be able to get easily customized by the end user. An all over customization can only be achieved by customizing the individual components (granules). And for that, KDE is an excellent option, combined together with the various options provided with Granular. Hence the word "Granular"."
Distribution reviews Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring (ZDNet) ZDNet reviews Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring. "Linux distros are a bit like buses (bear with me on this) — miss one and another is bound to come along sooner or later. In the case of Mandriva Linux, it's the 2008 Spring edition that benefits from the usual long list of component updates together with full support for the Asus Eee PC, improved synchronisation with mobile devices, PulseAudio sound infrastructure and a handful of other enhancements. Let’s start by getting the updates out of the way: the 2008 Spring edition is built around a 2.6.24 Linux kernel with X.org 7.3 and both 3.5.9 and 4.0 implementations of the standard KDE desktop."
Desktop Linux Face-Off: Ubuntu 8.04 vs. Fedora 9 (PCWorld) PCWorld compares Ubuntu 8.04 to Fedora 9. "The recent releases of Ubuntu 8.04 and Fedora 9--two top Linux distributions--mark another step forward in the evolution of the Linux desktop. I've been running both of them to see which offers the better blend of usability and advanced features."
A Tiny Look at TinyMe 2008.0 (TuxMachines) TuxMachines looks at TinyMe 2008.0. "While we're all waiting for PCLOS 2008 to be released, we were treated to a kissing cousin yesterday with the release of TinyMe 2008.0. It's a small lightweight distro featuring the LXDE desktop with lots of handy apps. I thought I'd take it for a little test run this evening to see what it might be like."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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