Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 258 for the week March 19 - 25, 2012.

In This Issue

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Freeze is now in effect.

The Ubuntu User Surveys – Parts 1 and 2

Ubuntu 12.04 Development update

Ubuntu Stats

Is Ubuntu Global Jam an Event for Me?

Approval / Re-Approval Guidelines Updated

Egypt LoCo Approved

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Cloud Day in India – April 4th, Bangalore

Contributing to Unity for Artists: SVG Icons

Ubuntu and Youth Survey

An Interview with lovinglinux

Ubuntu Docs: A Call for Help

A new UI for System Testing

Kubuntu and the state of free consumer software

The Pangolin wallpaper selection takes flight

Unity 5.8 out, ready for beta2!

Introducing the Subway Juju Charm

In The Press

In The Blogosphere

World Hosting Day Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution with Ubuntu

Other Articles of Interest

Weekly Ubuntu Development Team Meetings

Weekly Official Ubuntu Flavors Team Meetings

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Updates and Security

And much much more!

General Community News

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Freeze is now in effect.

As of writing this post, the Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 release was a week away and the archive was put in hard freeze to prepare for it. During the freeze, all uploads to main must be approved by a member of the release team, so if you have fixes which are important to get in, please get in touch as soon as possible (and preferably, get your packages uploaded in parallel!).

Ubuntu 12.04 Development update

In this exciting Ubuntu 12.04 Development Update the Development News Team gives insight into the daily happenings of developers, while Benjamin Kerensa sits down for an interview with Ubuntu Developer and Ubuntu Desktop Team Member, Martin Pitt.

LoCo News

Is Ubuntu Global Jam an Event for Me?

Charlene Tessier writes about her experience being the lead for her area's Ubuntu Global Jam event. "Well, first I was told there is a theme – Jam (stuff you put on bread) and Jammies (aka pajamas)? What kind of tech event is this? But that’s not all. Let’s make it [a] day event with a variety of different activities for all levels of participation," wrote Tessier. "Did anything happen with the theme you ask?" You will have to read the blog post to find out.

Egypt LoCo Approved

The LoCo Council shares news of the Egyptian LoCo team’s approval on March 20th and highlights them as a “great example of a quality application as it even included nice graphs to help visualise some of the plans the LoCo is putting into place.”

Launchpad News

Why there is always time

Dan Harrop-Griffiths explains why there is always time for usability testing. Testing methods can range from very simple to very complex, and setting up "basic tests with a handful of users, running them and then writing up the results doesn’t need to take more than a day or two."

Ubuntu Cloud News

Ubuntu Cloud Day in India – April 4th, Bangalore

Canonical will host the first Ubuntu Cloud Day in Bangalore, India on April 4th. The event is aimed at engineers and developers with a professional interest in using the Ubuntu Cloud as a developer tool. It will be sponsored by Intel and feature keynote speakers from the Canonical team, as well as presentations from Intel and other partners. Registration is required to attend and can be found on the Canonical Blog.

José Antonio Rey: Ubuntu and Youth Survey

Jose Antonio Rey posted an anonymous 3-page short survey to collect data on people ages 13-20 and their participation within the Ubuntu project. The survey is intended to collect statistics on youth participation for a session which may take place during the Ubuntu Developer Summit.

s.fox: An Interview with lovinglinux

lovinglinux talks about becoming interested in computers, Linux and Ubuntu; “I started to play with computers in early 80’s, when my parents gave me a TK 85, an unlicensed ZX81 clone. But it wasn’t until the early 90’s, when I entered the University, that I would start using PC’s as we know today, mostly for research and entertainment. I don’t know exactly when I became interested in Linux, but I remember a few unsuccessful attempts to use some distributions that I received with computer magazines, until I came in contact with Ubuntu Hardy Heron, back in 2008. I guess many users like me were drawn to Ubuntu because of Vista. Never looked back since then.”

Kubuntu and the state of free consumer software

Canonical Design Team: The Pangolin wallpaper selection takes flight

For another cycle a selection of images has been put forward for inclusion in Ubuntu. As there have been some questions on other blogs about the process, I thought it was worth doing a quick refresher. Each release we ask the community contributors whose images were included in the last release if they’d like to help choose the images that should go into the upcoming release.

Benjamin Kerensa: Introducing the Subway Juju Charm

In The Press

Ubuntu Linux and Canonical Moving Forward, Two Years After Leadership Change

Sean Michael Kerner of Internet News.com writes "It's a move that today in 2012 is still working out well for Ubuntu and Canonical. I recently got the chance to chat with Silber and she told me point blank that there is no way she is going back to her former position at Canonical, she's loves her job as CEO too much."

Say Hello to Canonical's new Linux desktop: Ubuntu 12.04 beta review

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of zdnet opines about his experience with Ubuntu 12.04 beta. Vaughan-Nichols writes, "Canonical’s next long-term support release of its flagship Linux distribution, Ubuntu 12.04 is in late beta. This next release, due out on April 26th, is in beta now. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and so far, so good." He continues, "I rather like Unity as well. What Ubuntu’s developers have really been doing with this release is not so much getting HUD ready, as they have been cleaning Unity up and getting it ready for business users."

15 New Photo Wallpapers Chosen for Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 12.04 to be without Wubi installer

Sam Osborne of imediamonkey discusses the proposed removal of Wubi in Ubuntu 12.04. Osborne writes, "For those unaware, Wubi (Windows-based UBuntu Installer) allows the user to install Ubuntu alongside Windows, without having to partition their hard drive. Put simply, the installer adds an extra boot option at boot up – giving users the option to boot into either Windows or Ubuntu." The article reveals that one of the reasons for this move is to make it possible for Wubi to be maintained and enhanced outside the Ubuntu development cycle.

Glossary of Terms

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