Ubuntu 12.04 Development update

By dholbach | Published: 2012-04-26

Last Development Update of 12.04

Today we saw the release of Ubuntu 12.04. It is the fourth release with long-term support and the 16th Ubuntu release. Lots of hard work went into this release, so if you see Ubuntu contributors around, give them a hug!

Kate Stewart, the Release Manager sent out an email with statistics about the 12.04 release cycle: this release cycle saw 386 uploaders, saw 18630 uploads (non-rebuild, non-langpack, including auto-syncs). It was also nice to see which packages were uploaded most and who sponsored most of the uploads – which means reviewing and uploading changes for contributors without upload rights.

Also Colin Watson mentions that this release is the first to not include any outdated binaries. Kudos to everyone who helped out with this effort!

And with 12.04 seen to the door, the planning for the upcoming 12.10 (codenamed ‘Quantal Quetzal’) is already in full swing. Scott Kitterman started the discussion about which version of the boost library to use, Barry Warsaw brings up a plan to move to Python3 for the Desktop image and Steve Langasek explains the reasoning behind staying on upstart for 12.10.

The Ubuntu Algorithms Team has held their first online classes and during the first sessions about 135 people were online on the IRC channel. The notes were followed by ~30 people, so the team estimates, that we had 35 active participants. In the week before classes, about 500 people looked at docs with notes. Many of them were not from Ubuntu Community.

Letting developers speak for themselves

 

Events

Ubuntu Algorithms Team
The next classes of the Ubuntu Algorithms Team will be 27.04, 17:00 UTC in #ubuntu-classroom. Join the team and their mailing list to stay up to date.

Ubuntu Open Week
Ubuntu Open Week will happen from 2nd May to 4th May and will have lots of great sessions about all aspects of Ubuntu. If you are interested in Ubuntu Development, make sure you attend the sessions on 3rd May 14:00 UTC (Ubuntu Development – how it all works) and 3rd May, 15 UTC (Ubuntu Development – fixing bugs).

Ubuntu Release Parties
Ubuntu 12.04 is out, so go and celebrate it with your local team. There are heaps of release parties around the globe. So if you live in Egypt, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Palestinian Territory, Phillipines, Thailand, Australia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Brazil or Uruguay you should be all covered with the link above. If you live elsewhere, write to your local Ubuntu team or LUG and celebrate it anyway. 🙂

First timers!

David Henningson got upload rights for pulseaudio in Ubuntu!

Spotlight: 12.04 is out – what’s next?

You would expect all Ubuntu developers to take a very long break after a release, possibly on a remote island on the beach with hourly refills of Piña Coladas. Some lucky developers might actually do that, but for the vast majority that’s not the case.

Why? Because there is a new release to be planned, new exciting stuff to get uploaded and some bugs to fix.

Here’s what will happen in the next few days: the development release for 12.10 will be opened, packages from precise will be copied over and the toolchain (the fundamental tools to build packages) will be bootstrapped and put in. Then ‘quantal’ will be opened for public use. The mailing list for change notifications has already been set up.

Once it is open, Ubuntu developers will upload new versions of packages, quite possibly things which missed the deadlines for 12.04. Then we will start merging changes from Debian. There will be lots to get done, so if you have worked with packaging before, consider helping out.

In addition to that we will likely get bug reports and the most pressing ones will be fixed through SRUs (stable release updates). We can’t fix all of them, and some bug fixes might be too risky. The SRU wiki page explains the considerations and procedure quite well. Basically you will have to make the case for the SRU fix, get it into the development release first, make sure it fixes the issue, upload it to precise-proposed, where it will get broader testing, then it will make its way to precise-updates. All these updates will form the basis for the upcoming LTS point releases, as indicated on the 12.04 release schedule. An LTS release is important, so we will see a lot of bugs fixed post-release, but you can imagine how it will take away workforce from the 12.10 to some degree.

The most important event in the planning of 12.10 is going to be UDS (the Ubuntu Developer Summit). If you are living near Oakland in California, USA, you should consider joining in. It will be very interesting to meet everyone, work out great solutions for ‘quantal’ and have fun together. If you can’t make it, don’t despair, you can join in remotely. At UDS many topics will be discussed which will form the basis for a rocking 12.10 release. Each session will be one hour long and result in a specification with specific work-items which will be tracked during the release. Join in, plan with us, contribute to 12.10!

The Ubuntu Development News Team is looking for help

This is the last 12.04 development update. Benjamin Kerensa and Daniel Holbach have been working tirelessly to get updates out every week and are planning to shake things up a little for 12.10. A blueprint for UDS has been registered and we would love to hear your feedback: what did you like about the Dev updates? What would you like to see improved?

Also we’d like to grow our team a bit. Please comment below if you’d be interested in helping getting development news out to the masses and help bring more transparency to Ubuntu.

Getting in touch

There are many different ways to contact Ubuntu developers and get your questions answered.

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