One of the ways in which many people have been able to experience Ubuntu is via Canonical’s ShipIt program, which has shipped millions of CDs to new users. This has provided a valuable opportunity for new users to try Ubuntu and for our community teams to obtain CDs as part of their advocacy efforts.

Due to the sheer growth of Ubuntu, we are making a few changes to ShipIt which we wanted to ensure we share with you. For the details, we’re going to turn the mic over to everyone’s favorite Canonical COO, Jane Silber who updated us on the Canonical blog:

Thanks for the update, Jane. :-)

Source: Jono Bacon’s blog

Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu community manager, was recently interviewed by OStatic and LinuxQuestions.

The OStatic interview discusses Jono’s approach to handling and directing the growth of the community. Jono talks about the need for appropriate change as a community gains more members and how the Code of Conduct is a symbol of respect and responsible collaboration.

In the LinuxQuestions interview, Jono explains his previous experience that gave him the skills to be a community manager. Governance is discussed along with Ubuntu’s relationship to Debian and the Linux ecosystem as a whole.

Read the interviews at OStatic and LinuxQuestions.

You may have already read about it, heck you may have already heard it yourself! The Minnesota (USA) LoCo team went about contacting local media outlets and agencies to inform them about the recent Ubuntu 8.04 release, the Loco Team’s release party, and the exciting possibilities of using an open source operating system. Jon Gordon of National Public Radio (NPR) hosts a daily segment called Future Tense which brings its listeners the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules. Future Tense is heard in the United States during broadcasts of the CBC’s As It Happens. Gordon contacted our very own Tony Yarusso for an interview which was sent over the airwaves this mid last week.

Tony wrote on his blog:

Apparently it went well, as he decided to run it, so without further ado I’m happy to announce that I was on the radio, talking about Ubuntu! So, I got the double-whammy of getting myself personally on the news, plus getting an Ubuntu story in mainstream media (and a quite large, respected outlet of such at that). Nifty.

The premise of the five minute sound bite asks: Is Ubuntu ready for the mainstream?

You can hear Tony’s answer by visiting the show’s archive at Future Tense. MP3, RealAudio, and AAC formats provided.

Kudos and congratulations to Tony and the rest of the Minnesota (USA) LoCo team for their awesome job.

Want to get involved in advocating Ubuntu? You can see this kind of success too! Visit the advocacy page and LoCo Team knowledge base on the Ubuntu wiki for more information, tips, and hints on advocating as a team and as an individual.

Help spread the great news and be sure to pat Tony on the back the next time you see him!

With the release of 7.10, many have been wondering if Dell will ship 7.10. Well, the answer to that question has been answered, according to a DesktopLinux story. Anne Camden of Dell corporate communications said:

We will offer Ubuntu 7.10 preinstalled on our systems soon

John Hull, who was recently interviewed by Lxer, has said most of the work has focused on hardware support, something he elaborated on in a Direct2Dell blog post.

Dell has done work directly in Ubuntu, by having Dell’s Dynamic Kernel Module Support or DKMS, which allows easy updating of drivers, packaged and added to Universe (see this Direct2Dell blog post for more information).

Mark Shuttleworth has also stated that Ubuntu and Dell were very happy with Dell’s Ubuntu-powered systems sales although Dell has yet to release any sales numbers. He also stated that those buying Ubuntu Dells were mostly keeping Ubuntu on those systems, a fact that will cheer many Ubuntu fans’ hearts and put paid to the rumours that Linux machines often end up with pirated copies of Windows on them.

With the release of 7.10 yesterday, it is not terribly shocking that we have already started to see reviews.

With the massive amount of interest in Ubuntu, this means some of the mirrors have been a little slow. CLICK picked up on this story, remarking that it was similar to the 7.04 release period.

Most of the reviews have been quite favourable, with Desktop Linux saying All in all, the new Ubuntu appears at first glance to be a solid improvement on the last version and one that both young and old Ubuntu users will find a worthwhile upgrade in their review: DesktopLinux.com: It’s Here! Ubuntu 7.10 Arrives.

Similarly, polishlinux.org says The new Ubuntu is more polished, more professional and in general, better than the previous one, which was already a great OS while pointing out that Minor glitches? Present, as always. You can read more at Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon: Critical review.

Lunapark joined in praising 7.10, saying I’ll cut to the chase and say from the start that Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition is simply the best desktop operating system that I have ever used. From installation, to setup, to regular everyday use Gutsy is just a thing of beauty. Check it out at Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition - Review.

Lastly, PCWorld wonders Ubuntu Gets Gutsy, But Is Linux Ready?, saying The Litmus test for Ubuntu, and Linux on the desktop, will come when people try Gutsy as an alternative to Windows and Mac OS X. With more device driver integration and automatic configuration built in, Linux may eventually shred its command-line hacker moniker.

Those excellent folks over at LXer have managed to capture John Hull, the manager of the Linux Engineering team at Dell and ask him a few questions, all in the name of science of course. Ranging across topics such how John got into computers and Linux to Dell’s history and of course, Ubuntu on Dell. From the intro:

“It has been over four months since Dell started shipping computers preloaded with Ubuntu GNU/Linux to home consumers in the United States. Lets take a moment to look at the progress that has been made so far. John Hull, manager of the Linux Engineering team in Austin was kind enough to let me interview him by e-mail. Besides commenting on the current state of affairs with Ubuntu on Dell machines, he also offers some insight in how the Linux team at Dell works and opens a small window into the future of Linux at Dell….”

Read the whole interview at The LXer Interview: John Hull of Dell.

Well, so we missed a day. Fear not, today we soldier on to Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion. It can be safely said that few features are as keenly desired as Desktop Effects. Ever since Compiz was announced XXX years ago, users and developers have been playing with the bling-tastic effects and wondering when it will hit a desktop near them. Well, the wait is no longer. Ubuntu 7.10 is the first major distro to ship Compiz enabled by default, for all users to have fun with.

So what is all fuss about these Desktop Effects?

Not only do Desktop Effects bring you lots of bling and shiny effects, they do offer a more natural feeling desktop, such as desktops sliding instead of jumping, scaling to see either all desktop or all windows and much more.

And what does the default 7.10 Compiz do?

One of the hardest tasks with enabling Compiz was finding the right set of plugins and features to turn on by default. As such, there are three features that stand out:

Alt-tab window switching
When you hit Alt-Tab, you get a bunch of little previews, allowing you to easily see and select the window you want:

Scale windows
When you need to see all the windows on a current desktop at once, this is what you need. Take a peek:

Wall of desktops
Much like scale is for an individual desktop, the wall of desktop shows you all the desktops and their open windows as if they were a wall:

What if I want more/less bling?

Given one of the strongest reactions against Compiz has been from users of more traditional window managers, such as Metacity (the GNOME default). Equally strong has been the reaction from people who want all the bling, all of time. Fear not! If you are one of those users, your needs are well met. Just fire up the Appearance capplet and choose your level:

There is lots more Compiz can do. If you want another look at Compiz in Ubuntu 7.10, I recommend you take a look at this excellent blog post.

See you tomorrow!

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda

The Singapore Linux Meetup Group (SLMG) and Club Rainbow, a charity that provides services for terminally ill children, have teamed up to create a 10 seat Edubuntu computer lab for the kids. Using donated hardware from the Overseas Family School and National University of Singapore, the Linux Meetup Group used the power of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) to deploy 9 thin clients and 1 combined desktop/server.

You can read more details in on this forum post and see more pictures in the photo album

Encouraged by the project’s success, SLMG is looking forward to working with other charities to implement Linux based computer labs.

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuMeetingAgenda