Tag Archives: Ubuntu Studio

Computers

Ubuntu 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' drops Wubi in final beta

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Ubuntu 13.04 “Raring Ringtail” may have technically hit beta 1 a few weeks ago, but at the time there was no beta release to test and try out. Rather, the only variations with actual beta images to see were Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu.

Users hungry for a taste of the next main release of Canonical’s popular Linux distribution can now get their fill, however, thanks to a second beta release that just came out, complete with software to download and take for a spin.

The Wubi installer (Click image to enlarge.)

The final version of Ubuntu 13.04 is due for launch on April 25, and we’ve already learned that it will receive support for the newly shortened period of 18 months rather than three years. In the meantime, this last beta version of the free and open source operating system is available for download on the Ubuntu site. Here’s a rundown of some key highlights.

1. Goodbye Wubi

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

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Howard Chan: Ubuntu Studio 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 2 released!

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For the first release of mine being Ubuntu Studio Release Manager, I’m pleased to tell you that Ubuntu Studio 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Beta 2 is released to YOU!

This final Beta of the 13.04 release incorporates the latest -lowlatency kernel based on the upstrean Linux kernel v. 3.8, a whole new wallpaper theme, a rewritten icon theme, new applications, new ubiquity and much more!

The release notes are available at here. Download the ISOs in here.

Install and have fun!

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

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Howard Chan: Gah too many April Fools Day joke from Ubuntu community

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Yes that’s the title. Ubuntu gave me too many jokes yesterday.

1. Scott Lavender’s annoucement of resigning as Ubuntu Studio’s Project Lead

This is the first joke which turned out to be a non-joke. I was heartbroken.

I joined the Ubuntu Studio Team in August 2012, as an interested QA tester. At that time, it was Scott who contacted and welcomed me first. He was indeed a marvellous leader, pushing Ubuntu Studio on the conversion of the default desktop environment to Xfce and developing the initial idea of workflows.

Scott has been rather inactive in the 13.04 cycle due to his work, and he announced his resignation yesterday.

I was surprised since I was expecting the discussion of this matter in the 13.10 cycle, not the real thing on April Fools Day.X-(

Anyway, I would like to thank Scott and wish him every success in future development.

And now, the Ubuntu Studio Team enters “the zequence Era”!!!! (LOL). Scott has appointed Kaj Ailomaa (zequence) as the Ubuntu Studio Team’s new Project Lead. He has been working very extensively in the 12.10 & 13.04 cycle, writing documentation, doing SRUs, finding contributors, and much more. I do hope that every Ubuntu Studio Team member and user would support him as much as I do.

2. Oliver Grawart’s announcement about developers needing to pay money to upload packages and draft blueprints

This is so ridiculous that I really think this IS an April Fools Day joke. I mean, I need to PAY to upload packages and draft blueprints? Why? This clearly violates freedom of software packaging and makes people more unwilling to contribute to Ubuntu.

If this is the real thing, I either need somebody to sponsor me for this, or I just simply can’t contribute.

Please, Canonical and Ubuntu, stop going making Ubuntu a full commercial product.

So these jokes hit me yesterday and I don’t want anymore.

smartboyhw away from home in Hangzhou, China

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

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Kaj Ailomaa: Ubuntu Studio, new leadership, and future plans

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Over the recent year, while Scott, our project lead, was finding himself having less and less time over for the Ubuntu Studio project, I kind of went in the opposite direction, becoming more and more involved in the development process. So, now that Scott has announced he will be stepping down, there couldn’t be a more suitable time for me to step into his shoes.

For those that don’t know me, I’m Kaj Ailomaa, a musician, with a great interest in computing, using puredata a lot for my own projects, and of course, I’m greatly passionate about free software. I started out using Ubuntu Studio at around 8.04, and have been hooked ever since.

As I don’t have a formal education in software development, there have been many hurdles that I’ve had to get over during the process of wanting to contribute to Ubuntu Studio. I recently became a member of the Debian Multimedia Team, as a part of my strategy to get involved in all of the parts of the development process, and I also have future ambitions with my involvement with Debian, which I feel very strongly about.

I do some coding, enough to read and be able to patch code, but my main goal will be to focus on organizational aspects and future goals for Ubuntu Studio and Debian.

Scotts’ Legacy

Move to XFCE

Scott has made a great job of leading Ubuntu Studio through some big changes. As when Unity came along, and we suddenly weren’t at all sure which way Ubuntu Studio should take. The choice fell on XFCE, and from what I’ve seen, this has been greatly appreciated in the community of Ubuntu Studio users. At the time it seemed risky tof use any of the new desktop systems, such as Unity or Gnome3, when not being able anticipate usability issues. XFCE somehow became the obvious choice, as it most resembled gnome2, which our users were already comfortable with.

Xubuntu devs were a big help during this transition, and still are, as we based the desktop on Xubuntu. During that same process, Ubuntu Studio became a live DVD, which added new functionality that didn’t exist before. Being able to do most workflows from the live DVD directly, without the need to install was a great addition.

Defining workflows

Further, Scott put a lot of emphasis on making Ubuntu Studio easy to use, for new users particularly. And, was the driving force behind us establishing clearly categorized workflows, which right now are best reflected in our custom menu.

This has led us to develop the ideas further, and Len who has been mostly involved in applying and designing the custom menu, has also been working on a panel based on these ideas. As one of our goals is now to try increase our team, we’ll be looking to find someone who would like to help us code workflow management tooling.

Len and I have also been looking at freedesktop categorization, and our plans it to see if we can expand or improve it for our workflows, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

Computers

Ubuntu Linux 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' hits beta 1

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Fans of Ubuntu Linux may recall that the Ubuntu 13.04 development cycle is a little different from those of versions past, as Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth outlined back in October.

Not only is a new “skunkworks” approach being brought to bear on the next upcoming version of the popular Linux distribution, but there are also fewer milestone versions being released along the way.

Accordingly, when Ubuntu 13.04 “Raring Ringtail” hit the alpha stage late last year, there was no official alpha release to examine for the main Ubuntu software—only its Edubuntu and Kubuntu cousins.

This week, the software’s beta 1 milestone achieved on Thursday followed much the same pattern. Ubuntu 13.04 is now technically in beta, but the only variations with actual beta images to see are Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

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Howard Chan: Ubuntu Studio will be in for 13.04 Beta 1.

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The original release schedule for Ubuntu Studio in Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) is to have only a Beta 2 (a.k.a Final Beta) and the release itself, just like Ubuntu Desktop. However many things have changed during the 13.04 cycle for Ubuntu Studio (including a completely new icon theme + new applications) and the Ubuntu Studio Release Team (Scott Lavender, Kaj Ailomaa and me) decided that we shall opt-in for Raring Beta 1. I will post out a call for contributors to test the ISO images when the images get into the “Raring Beta 1″ milestone in the ISO QA Tracker.

This would also be the first time we will be using our full release procedure (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/ReleaseProcedure) for our Beta 1 release.

 

 

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

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Howard Chan: Some thoughts about Canonical and the community

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Yesterday I had a chat with Jono Bacon and Michael Hall from the Canonical Ubuntu Community Team. I first asked them why aren’t they doing at least one physical UDS per year, and they clearly seemed opposing my argument. Then I asked how about per post-LTS and such, and they still don’t see the need for it. Then I saw Pasi Lallinaho’s post about UDS and Canonical away from community, and I agreed.

The problem we have here is this:

Community finds it difficult to adopt

For example, we are now just near Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) Feature Freeze, and now suddenly Canonical’s Technical Lead Rick Spencer wants to step in and say “let’s cancel it for good”. It clearly destroys all the original plans for 13.04, especially for flavours. For example, Ubuntu Studio originally has some plans made for 13.04. Now it’s even unsure would these not be released to the public on April this year.

Update: Jonathan Riddell saved it for good, but fhe future of 13.10 and 14.10 is unknown.

UDS destroys comunity friendship

Canonical is happy that they don’t need to sponsor anyone now, but then this really breaks the Ubuntu community, especially teams of flavours, which now doesn’t have much chance to meet each other……..

People are leaving

From Planet Ubuntu + Google+ at least 4 community members have left the Ubuntu community because of Canonical’s decisions. Most of them even gave up Ubuntu membership. Is this what we want? Canonical being “Big Brother” in the Ubuntu community?

Summary

Canonical has been annoucing decisions that threatens the Ubuntu community. I really hope that the relations can be repaired.

Leave comments if you wish:-)

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

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Kaj Ailomaa: Future Ubuntu Studio changes

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The first UDS (Ubuntu Developer Summit) of the year has just started. It’s now an online event, held every three months, where Ubuntu developers and contributors meet and discuss future development goals.

UDS used to be a physical event, held every 6 months, just after a new release of Ubuntu. Traditionally participants is a mix of Canonical employees, sponsored participants, and volunteers. It’s free and open for anyone to attend. Usually at least the project lead of each of the official Ubuntu flavors would attend. In October I attended when it was held in Copenhagen, and the year before, in US, Scott Lavender, the project lead of Ubuntu Studio attended.

Many things are being discussed during UDS that might radically change how Ubuntu Studio, and other community Ubuntu flavors will be developed and supported in the future.

Moving Towards Rolling Release?

One of the major topics for this UDS is the discussion on whether or not Ubuntu should start using the rolling release model. The LTS(Long Term Release) will still continue, as Canonicals clients value that,  while the interim release is proposed to be dropped.

Many ideas are floating around how to make this work. So far, northing’s conclusive, but it seem sto me, reading mail lists and such, that many people want it to happen, even if this does cause quite a bit of disturbance among flavor developers, who have been planning for a release in April for the last six months.

X Window to be replaced by MIR

Many things were announced at the same time, and while the rolling release is still up for discussion, it seems that the move towards replacing the X window system with MIR is already decided. Of course, at this point nothing is for sure, since MIR still needs to be developed, and the change will not come instantly. The goal is for a full change by the release of 14.04 LTS.

This will be a huge change for the community, as it means either all of the desktop systems on Ubuntu will need to support MIR, or the current X window system will need to be fully supported by the community developerst, since Unity – the Ubuntu desktop system will not be using X, and thus, they will not be supporting it.

What will this mean for Ubuntu Studio?

Right now, we don’t really know. In many ways, Ubuntu Studio itself is quite flexible, as we do not actually depend on any specific windowing or desktop system (as long as our applications are able to run on it, though we prefer to stay with XFCE), and our main concern about the rolling release is really just will it be stable enough for users? Some of our users don’t need anything but a LTS, but that is a minority of our users. A potential rolling release will be our main release, and it needs to be good and usable.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu