I’m happy to report that the Lucid Lynx is now open for uploads.

We do not recommend that users upgrade to Lucid at this time; it is likely to be in very considerable flux until the initial round of merges is complete. As ever, any developers wishing to take the plunge at this early stage should ensure that they are comfortable with recovering from anything up to complete system failure.

Automatic syncs from Debian will begin shortly. Because Lucid is an LTS, autosyncing will track the Debian testing series for this cycle, rather than Debian unstable as we normally do.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS

We expect this more conservative policy for package syncing will enable us to prepare a more stable long-term support release. The cost of this approach is that not only regressions will be delayed from reaching Lucid - bugfixes uploaded to Debian unstable will be delayed too (packages uploaded to Debian unstable normally don’t reach Debian testing for at least 10 days). If you believe a newer package version from unstable is needed for any reason, please don’t hesitate to request a sync using the normal process:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SyncRequestProcess

Likewise, package merges from either testing or unstable are perfectly ok, as needed. Merge-o-Matic (https://merges.ubuntu.com/) currently points at Debian unstable; we hope to be able to provide merge data for Debian testing in a week or so, in the meantime please be aware of this fact when preparing any merges.

As usual, the release schedule for Lucid is available at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidReleaseSchedule>. This year, the first milestone will come in mid-December, well after UDS, and the end of automatic Debian package syncs is not planned until February - shortly before feature freeze itself. Since this cycle’s schedule includes a significant number of changes compared with respect to past releases, there’s been a lot of feedback, some of which is still being incorporated.
This may still result in some fine-tuning of the more specific freezes on the timeline; you can expect this to all be finalized by the end of this week.

[Discuss Lucid Being Open For Development on the Forums]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Steve Langasek on Tue Nov 3 11:40:22 GMT 2009

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop and Server editions, Ubuntu 9.10 Server for UEC and EC2, and the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Codenamed “Karmic Koala”, 9.10 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user.

Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition improves on the work of 9.04 to get you going faster, with improved startup times and a streamlined boot experience.

Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition integrates Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud setup in the installer and provides improvements to system security with AppArmor, including an AppArmor profile for libvirtd to further isolate virtual machines from the host system.

Ubuntu 9.10 Server for UEC and EC2 brings the power and stability of the Ubuntu Server Edition to cloud computing, whether you’re using Amazon EC2 or your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.

The Ubuntu 9.10 family of variants, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Mythbuntu, also reach RC status today. This release sees the first technology preview of Kubuntu Netbook.

The final release of Ubuntu 9.10 is scheduled for 29 October 2009 and will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime on the server may choose to continue using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, with security support until 2013, rather than upgrade to 9.10.

Before installing or upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 please review the instructions and caveats in the release notes:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910

In addition, there are a small number of known bugs in the release candidate that will be fixed before the Ubuntu 9.10 release, but warrant highlighting for your attention:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview#Known%20issues

About The Release Candidate
—————————————-

The purpose of the Release Candidate is to solicit one last round of testing before the final release. Here are ways that you can help:

• Upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 to the Release Candidate by following the instructions in the release notes referenced above.
• Participate in installation testing using the Release Candidate CD images, by following the testing and reporting instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/ISO

Desktop features
————————

GNOME 2.28 featuring Empathy: with this latest release, Ubuntu now uses the Empathy instant messaging service by default, introducing the Telepathy framework.

Ubuntu Software Center: the first step in a replacement for Add/Remove Software has landed.

New boot experience: multiple changes to look, feel and speed of the boot experience have been included in the Ubuntu 9.10 release candidate.

Server features
———————-

Cloud computing: Ubuntu 9.10 builds on the tantalizing cloud support in Ubuntu 9.04, with support for Eucalyptus configuration at install time and publishing of standard VM images for UEC.

AppArmor: Ubuntu 9.10 continues to raise the bar for server security, with AppArmor profiles enabled by default for ntpd and libvirt providing another layer of protection from attacks on the network or via guest virtual machines.

UEC and EC2: Ubuntu 9.10 includes the first official release of Ubuntu Server images for UEC and for Amazon’s EC2, giving you everything you need for rapid deployment of Ubuntu instances in a cloud computing environment. UEC images, and information on running Ubuntu 9.10 on EC2, are available at:

http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/rc

Ubuntu Netbook Remix features
——————————————-
Ubuntu Netbook Remix is optimised for Intel Atom netbooks and compatible x86 devices. It includes a new consumer-friendly interface that allows users to quickly and easily get on-line and use their favourite applications. This interface is optimised for a retail sales environment.

It includes the same faster boot times and improved boot experience as Ubuntu desktop.

Kubuntu features
————————

Kubuntu 9.10, built on KDE 4.3, brings users a complete, full-featured KDE 4 desktop with many new applications and innovations.

This is the first release for a new Kubuntu variant, Kubuntu Netbook Edition. Built on a Kubuntu base, it brings users an exciting first look at KDE’s netbook-oriented desktop environment.

New features include better integration with OpenOffice.org and various social website connections for applications. Notable problems with network management and user configuration have been fixed.

Please see https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu for all the details.

For upgrade instructions from Kubuntu 9.04 or 8.04 see
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KarmicUpgrades/Kubuntu

Xubuntu features
————————

Xubuntu 9.10 comes with the light-weight Xfce 4.6 desktop environment to provide a desktop designed for productivity while conserving system resources.

Xubuntu 9.10 is proud to offer an improved multimedia experience with the Exaile media player, a more integrated power management solution with the Xfce4 power manager, and more convenience built right in with improved multimedia volume key support and more consistent desktop notifications.

Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/KarmicKoala/RC for the full list and details about all the great enhancements Xubuntu 9.10 has to offer.

Edubuntu features
————————-

Edubuntu 9.10 transitions from an add-on educational CD that depended on an existing Ubuntu installation to a full Ubuntu derivative delivered on as a DVD image. This allows prospective users and decision makers to try the educational offerings prior to installation and the flexibility to make Edubuntu a first class educational operating system.

Mythbuntu features
—————————

Mythbuntu 9.10 introduces MythTV 0.22. The entire stack has been ported to QT4 and now allows for very neat UI effects. Also 0.22 adds support for VDPAU hardware acceleration, and HD-PVR hardware support.

Please see http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_0.22 for more details about changes introduced in 0.22.

See http://mythbuntu.org/9.10/rc for information about the Mythbuntu release candidate.

A more complete tour of the features new in 9.10 can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview

About Ubuntu
——————

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, netbooks and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional services including support are available from Canonical and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support

To Get the Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate
————————————————————

To upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate from Ubuntu 9.04, follow these instructions:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KarmicUpgrades

Or, to perform a new installation or try out 9.10 “live” from CD, download the Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate here (choose the mirror closest to you):

Asia:

* http://mirror.unej.ac.id/ubuntu-cd/9.10 (Indonesia)
* http://ubuntu.qualitynet.net/releases/9.10 (Kuwait)
* http://ftp.linux.org.tr/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (Turkey)

Europe:

* http://ubuntu.ipacct.com/releases/9.10 (Bulgaria)
* http://ucho.ignum.cz/ubuntu-releases/9.1 (Czechia)
* http://ubuntu.univ-nantes.fr/ubuntu-cd/9.10 (France)
* http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu.iso/9.10 (Germany)
* http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/9.10 (Ireland)
* http://releases.ubuntu.fastbull.org/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (Italy)
* http://no.releases.ubuntu.com/9.10 (Norway)
* http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/9.10 (Sweden)

North America:

* http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs/9.10 (United States)
* http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (Canada)
* http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (United States)
* http://ubuntu.media.mit.edu/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (United States)

Oceania/Australia:

* http://ftp.citylink.co.nz/ubuntu-releases/9.10 (New Zealand)

South America:

* http://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/ubuntu-cd/9.10 (Costa Rica)

Rest of the world:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.10 (Great Britain)

Please download using Bittorrent if possible. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BitTorrent for more information about
using BitTorrent.

Feedback and Participation
—————————————

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help turn this Release Candidate into the best release of Ubuntu ever. Please note that, where possible, we prefer that bugs be reported using the tools provided, rather than by visiting Launchpad directly. Instructions can be found at

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

More Information
————————

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s very low volume announcement list at:

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

[Discuss the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 9.10]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-announce mailing list by Steve Langasek on Thu Oct 22 19:30:41 BST 2009

Soon several members of the IRC Council (Joseph Price, Marek Spruell and Melissa Draper) will finish their terms of 2 years. The purpose of this email is to begin the process of electing new/re-electing members to the council.

Currently, the wiki states the following regarding IRC Council members:

# Be appointed by the Ubuntu Community Council in consultation with the IRC Council, IRC operators, and active contributors to the IRC channels. Nominations would be open and public and would be considered and evaluated by the CC. Each candidate should prepare a wiki page summarizing their nomination and their contributions and including and referencing testimonials (e.g., something similar to what is prepared for Ubuntu membership). The CC commits to evaluating all nominations on the following criteria, listed in order of importance:

- The nominees active status as an Ubuntu Member (essential)

- The nominees support from at least one active IRC Council member (essential)

- Opinions and testimonials (positive and negative) from current members of the IRC Council

- Opinions and testimonials from current IRC operators -
Opinions and testimonials from Ubuntu Members, Ubunteros, and other active participants on IRC - Evidence of activity within IRC (quality, quantity and duration)

# Serve terms of two (2) years. IRC Council members could serve multiple or repeated terms. Weight will be given to proved contributors and reelection of consistently active members should be both easy and common.

(from: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IrcTeam/IrcCouncil)

We would like to invite Ubuntu members to nominate themselves if they wish to run for election for the Ubuntu IRC Council. Please only nominate yourself, do not nominate others.
If you are nominating yourself, please prepare a wiki page as described above. A nomination should be in the form of an email to the Ubuntu IRC Council email address: irc-council at lists.ubuntu.com

All nominations will be passed onto the Ubuntu Community Council.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing your nominations.

[Discuss the IRC Council Elections on the Forums]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-news mailing list by Jussi Schultink on Tue Oct 20 14:56:41 BST 2009

Thanks to all Ubuntu members who participated in the CC ballot, which was completed today. The new community council takes office immediately, and (in alphabetical order) comprises:

Alan Pope
Benjamin Mako Hill
Daniel Holbach
Elizabeth Krumbach
Matthew East
Mike Basinger
Richard Johnson

We had several additional candidates, and the ballot was richer for their willingness to stand. I’d like to thank all of them, and in addition would like to thank James Troup who steps down from the CC after 5 years as a founding member.

Welcome to the new faces, I look forward to two wonderful years of good governance in the Ubuntu community!

The structures by which we organise tens of thousands of participants have matured substantially in the past years. We have a deeper and richer LoCo structure today than ever before (thanks to those who lead there). The Forums Council has matured in its role and sets the example for delegated leadership from the CC. The Tech Board has lead the restructuring of the developer community, and so we are merging the excellend MOTU Council into the new Developer Membership Board, providing a more granular view of developer participation across the huge Ubuntu archive. Ubuntu Translations are now more formally lead. All in all, I’m proud of the commitment this community continues to show towards effective leadership, and the willingness of members of the community to step up and participate in that way. Thank you all!

[Discuss the 2009 Community Council vote on the Forums]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Mark Shuttleworth on Tue Oct 6 16:06:50 BST 2009

Our sysadmins have asked me to advise people about some upcoming changes to rsync and FTP access to releases.ubuntu.com. In order to distribute CD images more effectively, releases.ubuntu.com will shortly be reorganised such that it can only support access over HTTP.

If you need rsync or FTP access, please use the new hostnames rsync.releases.ubuntu.com or ftp.releases.ubuntu.com respectively.

Access methods such as BitTorrent and jigdo are unaffected by this change.

[Discuss the Changes to releases.ubuntu.com rsync/FTP access on the Forums]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Colin Watson on Fri Oct 2 18:44:19 BST 2009

Like everyone else with their heart invested in Ubuntu, I am tickled pink to see that Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta has been released. Our global community of contributors and developers has worked tirelessly to get this Beta out, and there are lots of great features in there including Upstart switched on by default, improved boot experience, the new Ubuntu Software Center, new messaging indicator changes, and lots of EC2 and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud awesomeness. You can download the furry little blighter here.

But wait…before you go and download it…I want to talk about the point of a beta…it is, in a word…

Unfortunately, nestled inside all of the lovelyness I described are some inevitable bugs. While we have an incredible bunch of people at Canonical and in the community that fix bugs, we are really looking to you good people to hunt these bugs down and report them so we (a) know about them and can (b) fix them and make Ubuntu the best Operating System it can be.

Of course, the whole system needs testing, but there are some key topics which some of us in the Ubuntu land would like you to give a solid test to. It is these features which are new to Ubuntu and need the most love and attention. So, let’s cover them…

Empathy Audio and Video Calls

Karmic ships with a new instant messaging client called Empathy, based on the tremendous Telepathy framework. Empathy is the right direction for IM in the GNOME and Ubuntu projects, and recent additions to it include screen sharing and audio and video calling. The audio/video side of Empathy has had some mixed results for different users, so this really needs your love.

This is how you test:

First, run Empathy from Applications->Internet->Empathy IM Client. Next add a Google Talk or Jabber account. If you see a contact with a microphone or video camera next to their name, right click them and click Audio Call or Video Call. It should call them, they will then accept the call and you can have an audio or video chat.

If this doesn’t work as expected, open up a terminal Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type in

ubuntu-bug empathy

Follow the instructions to file your bug. You can check to see if your bug has already been filed by looking at the Empathy Bugs List.

Another really useful thing you can do if you face problems is to first quit Empathy and then in the terminal type:

EMPATHY_LOGFILE=/tmp/empathy.log GST_DEBUG=\*fsrtp\*:5 EMPATHY_DEBUG=all empathy

This generates a log file and you should then attach the empathy.log file in the /tmp directory to the bug report.

Boot Experience

Karmic introduces a faster and more beautiful boot experience, but we are still trying to weed out some bugs here and there.

Testing this is simple: boot your system and after you see a message about GRUB loading, you shouldn’t see any other messages before you see the Ubuntu logo on a gray background. If you do see messages, you have found a bug.

We need you to let us know what the text says so we can eliminate the message from the boot process. There are a few ways you can do this:

• When you are logged into the desktop, use Ctrl-Alt-1 to flick to VT1 and see if the messages are there. If so, note them down or take a photo of the screen in which you can see the text clearly.
• Another approach is to remember a word or two from the boot message and then click System->Administration->Log File Viewer and click on either the dmesg or syslog entries and use Ctrl-F to search for the text you remembered. If you then see it, add that to a bug report.

If you think the bug is a kernel bug (typically when the message refers to a device or driver on your system), open up a terminal Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type in

ubuntu-bug linux

If you find that the gray graphic with the Ubuntu logo that shows while Ubuntu is loading doesn’t behave as you expect, run this command to report the bug:

ubuntu-bug xsplash

Finally, if you are having problems with the graphical login prompt, run this:

ubuntu-bug gdm

When you have filed your bug, view the bug report in your web browser, and under Bug Description there is a Tags line. Click the small yellow circle with a ‘!’ inside it and add the tag ubuntu-boot-experience. This will help our developers to find it and do their best to fix it.

EC2

All new Ubuntu releases (including Alphas and Betas) are now available as Amazon EC2 images. Thanks to the stunning work of Ara Pulido and Scott Moser, we have a great set of tests you can run to test out these images. First go and read this starters guide to EC2 and Ubuntu and then try the tests out here. You can leave your feedback on this wiki page and file bugs here.

Getting Help

If you have any questions or queries about testing and filing bugs, here are some resources:

• Reporting Bugs – this page provides more detail about how to file a bug with ubuntu-bug and other tools.
• General Testing Team Documentation – there is lots of help here on these pages about how to help with testing Ubuntu.

A great place to get is IRC too, in these channels (all on the Freenode IRC network):

• #ubuntu-bugs
• #ubuntu-quality
• #ubuntu-release
• #ubuntu-testing

Thanks again for taking part in testing Ubuntu and in helping to make it as great as possible!

Originally posted by Jono Bacon here on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 am

[Discuss Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta Released: Testers Needed! on forums]

We’re kicking off the regular series of LoCo stories with a great one which truly encompasses the spirit of Ubuntu.

It all began in October 2007, and the players are the New Mexico Loco Team and the Endorphine Power Company. Let’s introduce them:

The Endorphin Power Company, or EPC in short, is a non-profit organization “dedicated to improving the lives of people, with special focus on the substance-dependent and homeless, thus alleviating many of the challenges faced by current emergency medical systems. Additional purposes are the promotion of mental and physical health through exercise, energy consciousness and volunteerism.”

The New Mexico LoCo team is a group of Ubuntu and Linux enthusiasts active in a state in the US in which they live and breathe computing history (Altair and Microsoft were founded there). As such, one of their main goals is to live up to and continue that tradition by actively cultivating and spreading the ideals behind Ubuntu, Linux and Open Source.

Not being known for sitting on their thumbs, one fine day some of their members, with Dave Thomas and Eric Krieger in the front, started thinking what they could do as a community to bring “Humanity to others”. It was only an idea, but they thought the natural step would be to use their computing expertise to help their equals.

Said and done, Eric spoke to his boss at Charter Bank of Albuquerque asking him if the company would be interested in donating some used computing equipment to a local non-profit organization. The New Mexico LoCo would then take care of administrating this material and helping with the installation.

Charter Bank agreed and generously donated 25 computers, a server and several network switches for the project. With the equipment sorted out, discussion started taking place in the LoCo’s mailing list to determine which organization would receive the donation, in which it was agreed that the EPC would be the worthy candidate.

Working as a true team, the New Mexico folks set up a page for the project in the Ubuntu wiki, defining milestones and getting organized through their mailing list. The first big milestone in the culmination of this amazing effort came in February 2008, where they met to install and set up some of the workstations in the EPC computer lab. Of course, with the operating system we all know and love. That installation was a success, and provided a solid foundation to base the subsequent efforts on.

Fast forward 2009: a functional Ubuntu network at EPC, wi-fi, a wealth of side-projects, ideas for other initiatives, regular updates on the project, negotiation of a support and training agreement, and the satisfaction of doing a good job while having fun and helping others.

This really is an example of what we are and what we can do as a community sharing the Ubuntu spirit. It is more than the operating system we use, promote and support. It is the ethos we share, what moves us to get involved and help other people in real-world projects to make the world a better place.

Links

• Endorphin Power Company: http://endorphinpower.org
• Project site: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Endorphin_Power_Company_Ubuntu_Install_and_Support
• New Mexico LoCo homepage: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewMexicoTeam
• Contact
  • New Mexico LoCo Team contact: Michael Rimbert (mrimbert AT ubuntu DOT com)
  • EPC Project Lead: Eric Krieger (grammatoncleric AT ubuntu DOT com)
  • New Mexico LoCo IRC channel: #ubuntu-us-nm

Sources

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue82#Ubuntu%20New%20Mexico%20LoCo:%20Endorphin%20Power%20Company%20Ubuntu%20Install%20and%20Support
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Endorphin_Power_Company_Ubuntu_Install_and_Support
• ttps://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-us-nm/2008-February/000582.html

A little while ago Nick Ali stepped down from the LoCo Council. We were of course very sad to see this happen, and would like to thank Nick for his great work on the Council. However, we are now down one person, and need to find a new member. I’m writing this mail to ask for volunteers to step forward and nominate themselves or another willing person for this position. There is only one position available, so if more than one person steps forward, there will be a
vote to decide on the successful candidate.

The LoCo Council is defined on the wiki. We meet up once a month over IRC to go through items on the team agenda. This typically involves approving new LoCo teams, resolving issues within teams, approving LoCo team mailing list requests, and anything else that comes along.

The process by which a new member of the Council is selected is defined by the Community Council is outlined on the wiki.

The first stage is for people to nominate themselves, or be nominated by someone else. We will confirm with each person whether they actually want to be put forward or not. We will give ~2 weeks for this process. Please pass this mail back to your own LoCo team so everyone is aware of the process. We welcome nominations from anywhere in the world, and from any LoCo team. Nominees do not need to be a LoCo Team Leader to be nominated for this post. We are however looking for people who are active in their LoCo Team.

** Please send nominations to loco-council at lists.ubuntu.com which is a private mailing list only for the LoCo Council members. **

The above mailing list is moderated, however all nomination mails will be approved before the end of the nomination period

If you’d like to ask any of the LoCo Council members questions privately then you contact us individually or use the above mailing list address.

** The nomination process starts now, and ends at 00:01 UTC on 7th October 2009. **

Once this period is over the LoCo Council will collate the nominations and double check that each person nominated is still happy to stand. We will then pass this list to the CC as per the process.

[Discuss New LoCo Council Members Sought on the Forums]

Originally sent to the loco-contacts mailing list by Alan Pope on Wed Sep 23 11:26:04 BST 2009

The 2009 Community Council is up for election, and all members of Ubuntu are entitled to vote. The nominees for this round are below, together with links to their wiki pages which document their interests, experience, skills and goals.

The Council is responsible for community governance. They are the ultimate arbiter of community disputes, and they nominate candidates for leadership in key positions across the entire project. In selecting your candidates, please consider their ability to act in an independent fashion and exercise good judgement of character, values and tone. We have an enormous community now that spans many different media, regions, technologies and interests. The CC cannot include a representative of every constituency, so members of the CC need to be able to represent the interests of many different groups.

We are electing 7 members. Our amazing candidates are:

• James Troup
• Paul Sladen
• Christophe Sauthier
• Alan Pope
• Elizabeth Krumbach
• Richard Johnson
• Daniel Holbach
• Benjamin Mako Hill
• Emmet Hikory
• Nathan Handler
• Matthew East
• Mike Basinger

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this election! The winning candidates will form the core of the CC for two years. We may have other votes to add candidates during that time if we need to expand the CC, but it’s likely that this will be the primary team for 2009-2011.

[Discuss the Ubuntu Community Council Elections 2009 on the Forums]

With Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 now out the door and momentum building towards a rocking Karmic Koala release, it is time to name and share the direction and focus for the next step in the Ubuntu evolution that follows Karmic.

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the Ubuntu project has announced the next version of Ubuntu:

Two years ago we announced the second LTS release, and what we hoped would become a standard practice of making LTS releases on a predictable two-year schedule, overlayed on our existing six-month schedule of desktop and server releases.

We are now giving a name to the next Ubuntu LTS: The Lucid Lynx.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will ship in April 2010 and is the culmination of significant work in Ubuntu, in Debian and across the free software ecosystem. LTS releases are maintained for five years on the server and three years on the desktop, so they are designed for those who are making larger deployments or who otherwise prefer to have a common platform for an extended period.

Lucid will continue our tradition of focusing an LTS on a quality, stable and consistent experience and will require a number of adjustments to the usual plan. Those are documented at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynxSchedule, the Lucid Lynx release schedule. In summary, we will be more conservative in the new code we bring into Ubuntu during the development cycle, and we will run a longer test period. Our focus will be stabilisation and bug-fixing across the platform with additional refinements in quality in key areas such as user interface improvements, boot experience, browsing and installing the incredible catalogue of software available for Ubuntu, and continuing our tradition of best-of-breed hardware support. We will maintain the health and security of our lynx with point releases.

The Lynx is a predator that depends on very considered tactical positioning for success. It’s a small cat, which fits nicely with the lean nature of Ubuntu on both the desktop and the server. It’s stylish and sleek, the bow-tie-adorned James Bond of the feline set, so you can bet we’ll make sure it’s dressed for the occasion. The lynx likes to keep things in perspective, sticking to high ground. So do we. And it’s the national animal of Macedonia, a country that has deployed tens of thousands of Ubuntu desktops in schools.

Speed is an essential ingredient in the attack of a lynx, and speed remains our goal. We have improved the boot time in each of the releases during this era of Ubuntu, and expect to complete some of the major improvements required for 10 second booting with Lucid. Fully harnessing Upstart, in collaboration with Debian, will get us even closer to the goal.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be a round dozen Ubuntu releases. 12 great cycles, from a great community that continues to devote itself to the goal of bringing the best stable free software to an audience of people who don’t think of themselves as computer specialists – and shouldn’t have to, either. It’s a wonderful privilege to be part of making it happen. That should put a tuft on your ears.