Interview with lovinglinux

lovinglinux is an Ubuntu Forums moderator who I have long admired for his participation with firefox addon development. Time to get to know him a little better,  as always enjoy!

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.

My name is Caio and I live in Brazil.

2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in 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.

3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?

I became involved in the forums since day one, when I first installed Ubuntu 8.04. Actually, the support from the community was fundamental to the success of my first real experience with Linux. So, I immediately felt compelled to help other users and started to contribute to the forums on a regular basis.

4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?

Yes, I recently became an Ubuntu Member through forum contributions. Most of the time, I help Firefox users to troubleshoot and optimize their browser, but I also develop some add-ons for Firefox, some of which are designed for Ubuntu. I recently joined the Mozilla’s Featured Add-ons Advisory Board, which is a group of volunteers that test and vote on featured add-ons nominations.

5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?

Currently, I use Kubuntu 11.04. My favorite application is naturally Firefox. I used to be a software junk and was constantly testing new applications on Windows. I don’t do that anymore, at least not with the same regularity. However, I do test a lot of Firefox add-ons and I usually have about 60 of them installed, for regular use.

6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?

My experience in the forums have been incredible all the way back to the beginning. I have only good memories. I can’t recall a particular moment, but it was really nice to see the positive feedback when I was applying for Ubuntu Membership. In regard to Ubuntu, I do remember when I first got a BSOD inside a VirtualBox. I kept spinning it with Compiz cube, admiring the stability of the host OS.

7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?

No answer given.

8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?

Worldwide domination is too much? Skynet? Now seriously, I would like to seem them thrive and be widely recognized in the desktop market, to the point were you don’t need to explain why they are awesome.

9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

Ubuntu comes with a great community by default. Use it. Make yourself at home and don’t be afraid to ask.

Originally Posted here on 2012-03-21

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 259

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #259 for the week March 26 – April 1, 2012, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Elizabeth Krumbach
  • Nathan Dyer
  • Neil Oosthuizen
  • Matt Rudge
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Beta 2 Released.

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the final beta release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed “Precise Pangolin”, 12.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features but mostly fixing bugs.

With Ubuntu 12.04, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Mythbuntu and Ubuntu Studio also reached Beta 2 status today.

Ubuntu Changes

Some of the key new features available since Beta 1 are:

  • A new Ubuntu kernel (3.2.0-20.33) which is base on the v3.2.12 upstream Linux kernel. Changes to the default kernel flavours have been made for 12.04 LTS.
  • Updates to our new way to quickly search and access any desktop application’s and indicator’s menu, called the HUD, can be accessed by taping the Alt key and entering characters.
  • LibreOffice has been updated to 3.5.1.
  • Ubuntu One has a new control panel to provides an installer, setup wizard, ability to add/remove folders to sync, and more

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ for details.

Ubuntu Server and Cloud Images

  • 12.04 Beta 2 is shipping the latest milestones of OpenStack Essex (RC1), and will be upgraded to final before release.
  • Zentyal as well as OpenMPI 1.5 for ARM are now available in Universe.
  • KVM 1.0 on x86, which enables nested KVM by default, now allows a virtualisation experience within cloud instances.

Ubuntu Core

Ubuntu Core is a minimal rootfs for use in the creation of custom images, and now includes ARM hard float (armhf) images. Developers can use Ubuntu Core as the basis for their application demonstrations, constrained environment deployments, device support packages, and other goals.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 introduces “Kubuntu Active” as a tech preview, which is a new Ubuntu flavour designed for tablet devices.

Please see https://wiki.kubuntu.org/PrecisePangolin/Beta2/Kubuntu for details.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 ships with improved translations, and updates to the new epoptes and LTSP 5.3 releases.

For more details on what has changed in Edubuntu 12.04, please refer to http://www.edubuntu.org.

Xubuntu

Xubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 now has new branding and further appearance tweaks have been made. On i386 hardware, the non-PAE kernel is used to support a wider variety of machines. Pavucontrol is now used over xfce4-mixer.

For more information about the changes in Xubuntu 12.04, please go to http://xubuntu.org/.

Lubuntu

Lubuntu 12.04 has had its artwork updated, and updates made to LightDM.

For more information about the changes in Lubuntu 12.04, please go to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio 12.04 Beta 2 live DVD now has a new low latency kernel installed by default. There is better Pulse Audio to JACK bridging, an improved ice1712 mixer and … the XFCE transition has finished!

Mythbuntu

Mythbuntu 12.04 Beta 2 contains a pre-release version of MythTV 0.25, which will be updated to final as soon as its available.

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/precise/beta2 for more details on the above products.

About Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, 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 technical support is available from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support.

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 really help us to improve this and future releases of Ubuntu. Instructions can be found at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs.

To Get Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2

To upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 from Ubuntu 11.10, follow these instructions:

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

Or, download Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 images from a location near you:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/download (Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server).

In addition they can be found at the following links:

The final version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is expected to be released on April 26, 2012.

More Information

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this beta release on our website, IRC channel and wiki.

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

Originally sent to the ubuntu-announce mailing list by Kate Stewart on Thu Mar 29 21:02:02 UTC 2012

Ubuntu 12.04 Development Update

Development Update

The Precise Pangolin Beta 2 is set to be released on Thursday, the 29th, If you feel comfortable testing beta releases, get the latest daily build and keep it updated. Don’t forget to report any bugs you find!

From now on it’s only one month until the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Here’s the run-down of what is going to happen in the following weeks:

You know what this means: get your testing cap on or get ready to fix some last minute bugs.

Letting developers speak for themselves

Events

LibreOffice HackFest on April 14/15, 2012

Release Parties

And just a reminder to watch Ubuntu LoCo Directory for a Ubuntu 12.04 Release Party near you coming next month.

Things which need to get done

If you want to get involved in packaging and bug fixing, there’s still a lot of bugs that need to get fixed:

  • Also did John Lea from the Ubuntu Design team talk to us and mentioned that there are bugs up for grabs, where the design has been decided on and the implementation might need YOUR help. If you want to help improve Ubuntu’s UI, have a look at these!

First timers!

Adam Gandelman got upload rights for Ubuntu Server! Congratulations!

On their way to become Ubuntu developers, we had three folks who got their first uploads into Ubuntu. We have Vibhav Pant, who fixed bugs in gthumb, mercurial and kupfer. Also Vibhav synced ebook-speaker, jinput and calendarserver from Debian. Next up is Pasi Lallinaho who got a new version of xubuntu-artwork in. Charles Kerr got new versions of libappindicator, indicator-session, indicator-power and indicator-datetime into Ubuntu. Well done everyone!

Get Involved

  1. Read the Introduction to Ubuntu Development. It’s a short article which will help you understand how Ubuntu is put together, how the infrastructure is used and how we interact with other projects.
  2. Follow the instructions in the Getting Set Up article. A few simple commands, a registration at Launchpad and you should have all the tools you need, and you’re ready to go.
  3. Check out our instructions for how to fix a bug in Ubuntu, they come with small examples that make it easier to visualise what exactly you need to do.

Find something to work on

Pick a bitesize bug. These are the bugs we think should be easy to fix. Another option is to help out in one of our initiatives.

In addition to that there are loads more opportunities over at Harvest.

Getting in touch

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

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 258

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #258 for the week March 19 – 25, 2012, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Elizabeth Krumbach
  • Emma Marshall
  • Charles Profitt
  • Chris Druif
  • Benjamin Kerensa
  • Matt Rudge
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License