On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Cody A.W. Somerville < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello Everyone, > > Originally, this e-mail was supposed to just be a quick note about an issue > with the Xubuntu website but it grew into something I've been meaning to > write - a general review of all things Xubuntu. > > == Website == > > Someone pointed out that the Xubuntu Website's "Get Xubuntu" page only > showed 7.10 and 6.06. I of course quickly fixed the page but I'm not sure > how it got that way since I'm almost positive that we updated it for both > 8.04 and 8.04.1 > Yep, we did. > (And on the "revisions" tab for the page, the commit message for the > current revision says something about fixing a 8.04 link). > > Just so everyone has all the fact, I should note that Canonical sysadmins > do and have upgraded our Drupal install a few times to keep it at a version > which they can support. Big thanks to them for doing so for us as they've > given us a *lot* of lee-way when it has came to our website. However, this > may have caused this issue and although I can't imagine a possible scenario > where it would (its much more likely one of us made a mistake) but it would > be hard to rule out. So, no need to go on a big manhunt to figure out who > or what happened to the page. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up and > to ask folks to take a look over the website to see if any other pages have > reverted to older versions or if there are any problems in general. > I did, in fact, notice some oddities the other day (I mentioned it in #xubuntu-devel but it was quiet for the time I was there). All of a sudden there was another sidebar on the left with the menu and a login form, and a login form was also added to the right sidebar. Just as I was writing a bugreport they disappeared again after a refresh. However, the front page still says "links inline" at the bottom and I can't find out how to remove it. > > On the topic of the website, I'd like to do something with it soon. I'm > sure a number of you remember me mentioning that I intended to hire a firm > to give us a new theme. I have been unfortunately too busy to follow up with > that but (thanks to this unusual reminder) I'm going to follow up with that > this week - In fact, I'll go write an e-mail right now. > Cool :) > > == Artwork (and a bit of marketing) == > > I'd also like to give a big fat thank you to someone most of us probably > haven't heard of (yet): Pasi Lallinaho (knome on irc). Pasi has agreed to > help Jmak with our artwork efforts and seems very interested in helping > actualize my vision of a strong art community forming around Xubuntu. Thus > far (apologizes Pasi if you don't like drafts being pointed at but frankly I > think you're doing such a stunning job an am anxious to see more) Pasi has > started working on a countdown banner for the Intrepid release, draft can be > found here: http://emonk.fi/work/xubuntu/xubuntu-countdown-draft-1.png ( > http://emonk.fi/work/xubuntu/xubuntu-countdown-draft-1-230.png). I'm sure > your opinion is similar to mine - absolutely awesome work, eh? :) I'm super > excited for a Xubuntu countdown thingie!! > Amazing :) > > I'd also like to give Jmak a huge hug and thanks too. I saw this on IRC > this evening: > > <J-n> well, since i've got ya here, and talkin... mind if i ask you in what >> situations would you recomend xfce over kde or gnome? >> > <favro> I'd recommend xubuntu over ubuntu just on the wallpaper... > > > Anyhow, Art folks: Whats the status on artwork for the distro? Have I > forgotten to upload anything? Anything need tweaking/updating? etc. etc. > > == Development == > > Feature Freeze has came and past. Unfortunately we didn't get any of our > big ticket items in and we aren't going to get Xfce 4.6 in time (they've > pushed their final release date forward). I can't say I'm super disappointed > though because although our big ticket items (such as samba browsing in > Thunar) probably won't make Intrepid, chances are they *will* make Jaunty > because some awesome work has been done towards getting us there. > > So, what now? Well, we're allowed to live a little on the wild side because > we just released a long term support release (hardy) - one might say this > release should be the most wild, out there version and each version until > the next LTS becomes more reserved and stabilized. No, I'm not saying lets > throw in all our junk but I'm certainly interested in hearing from > individual hackers/contributors/Xubuntu developers on which big-tickets > features we *could* _possibly_ ship. Considering our resources (Three > Xubuntu developers (two w/ upload privileges and one with FFe granting > powers), our handful of resident hackers, and our Xfce4 friends), I think if > we pick the one most likely to be successful balanced with which one we > think will be most enjoyed then we'd be able to get it in shape and in the > archive in time. What do other people think? Should I do some digging around > and write up a more detail sitrep (situation report) regarding this > possibility? > > == Testing & Bug Triage == > > With the above being said, I'd like us all to get excited about making > Intrepid as bug free and polished as possible. Lets organize a bug/testing > day where we all burn the latest image, report all the bugs we find, try and > confirm as many existing bugs we can (I'm sure there are a number of bugs on > Xubuntu packages that might not even be valid anymore), and close as many > bugs as possible by either proving its already fixed (ie. finding a > changelog entry or xfce4 dev that says the bug is fixed in 4.4.2) or by > uploading the fixes as we work. If we did this right, it could be a lot of > fun and very productive. I'm going to write another e-mail very soon > elaborating on this and with some potential plans. I'm hoping we can get as > many of our testers, developers, hackers, and upstream xfce4 friends > together to really crack the whip on making Xubuntu 8.10 an absolutely > stunning release. > > In the mean time, please download and burn the dailies! Report bugs (always > make sure to search for an existing report! <grins>) and try to > confirm/reproduce existing bug reports. I'd also love to see some e-mails > sent to this list about people's adventures testing and their results as > they work through our developed tests. (Speaking of our tests, it would be > wonderful if someone were to take some initiative to spruce them up and make > them easier to find!). > I'll see if I can put it on my USB drive, but haven't had much luck with 8.10 yet. I'll have to report it as a bug, but I fear it won't be fixed before 8.10 is releases (something similar happened for 8.04...). > > > If anyone is interested in leading our QA/Testing efforts, please give me a > shout!! :) > > == Documentation (And a sad farewell) == > > No work has been done on the documentation yet but I spoke with Jim the > other day and he said he plans to get the work done very soon (not sure > exactly what he has planned). Sadly, he has confided that this will be his > last release as he has found he just has too much on his plate at the time > being to juggle everything effectively. I was exceedingly saddened to get > this horrible news. As I'm sure most of us know, Jim has been a key member > of our community with me often referring to him as my right hand man :( > We'll miss Jim and we certainly wish him the best of luck! Hopefully he'll > be able to come back soon. > Thank you, Jim, for all the work you've done so far, and good luck with whatever it is you're going to do :) > > Please give Jim and hand. If you're interested in documentation for > Xubuntu, get in touch with Jim or myself and we can help you get started. > > Jim: Do you have any recommendations on individuals who might be able to > step in and help you with Documentation for Intrepid and help fill your big > shoes for Jaunty? :) > > == My Alpha 5 experience == > > The first bug is our usplash is currently using the Ubuntu theme. I had > uploaded a package the other day thinking it should fix the issue but it > didn't (although I may know why). I'll look into this further and get this > resolved ASAP. (Thanks to numerous other people for reporting this before > me). > Ah, and here I was thinking it was because of my running it from my USB drive... > > > Michael reported that when he boots the livecd, he gets a login prompt. For > me, I just get auto-logged in as expected. Anybody else experiencing what > Michael is? For those interested, Michael was running x86_64 while I was > just running good ol' x86. > > I found that xscreensaver was installed in addition to gnome-screensaver > for Alpha 5. I haven't tracked down how its getting pulled in yet but I'll > do that after writing this e-mail. > > We need to update the default preferred applications. It seems to me like > maybe a sync has caused the default preferred applications to binaries that > are only in Debian and not Ubuntu. Will fix ASAP. > > When I was testing, my wireless didn't work because I have to use a wired > connection to download stuff using jockey (the restricted driver manager). > However, when I open Firefox it took me to the old Xubuntu page. I spoke > with Asac and said that was because I was offline. We need to get an eye on > this because I think Matthew East plans to remove that alternative system > for the old Ubuntu homepages. So when testing, see what happens when you > open the default homepage while offline - it'll probably break once Matthew > does upload those changes and we'll naturally need to fix it. Furthermore, > we'll also want to look at getting our own neat homepage similar to > http://start.ubuntu.com/8.04/ (can someone whip something up? then I'll > get it hosted like Ubuntu's and the ubufox extension updated). > > I also noticed that help now opens in Midori; an unintended side affect of > shipping midori (for those who don't remember, our plan was just to include > midori on the cd during development for testing and fooling around with). It > seems very very fast and probably is more than enough browser to be the help > viewer. Alternatively, we can see this as bug (if this is occurring because > midori is now the default browser somehow system wide, then its a bug > regardless) or we can say neat and ship midori with the actual release. > Although shipping two web browsers is a little silly (and the maintainer of > Midori assures me Midori isn't ready yet to be a default browser), I can't > say I'd object to the idea of doing it. > I don't know... I thought Yelp was also a good idea because it allowed us to use cleaner formatting for the documentation; if that is the case, I'd prefer that. > Regardless of your opinion on this, we do have a decision to make because > we won't want to ship yelp if we decide to use midori for browsing the help. > I haven't spoken with Jim about using Midori, but I know he was looking for > us to use yelp for ghelp link support. Guh, this paragraph is getting messy > and incoherent - time to move forward! > > == Meetings == > > We've gotten slack about meetings :( I know I've accidentally missed the > last two and sadly they don't seem to take place w/o me (and are often very > quiet even if I am there unless we make a lot of noise several days ahead of > time and almost run a full advertising campaign :P). I've been doing some > reading recently about how to hold meetings more effectively and I'd like to > see if we can do just that. > > The next meeting is October 4th as regularly scheduled. I'd like to have > something sooner considering we missed the last two. Can someone champion > this and get 'er done? > > == Xfce 4.6 == > > Xfce 4.6 alpha "pinkie" has been released. Please join me in giving a big > round of applause and several loud cheers on this accomplishment. > Hooray for the Xfce team :) > > We'll soon get this alpha into our PPA for individuals interested in > testing. I think it is pretty evident we'll provide the PPA to users who > wish to use xfce 4.6 in Intrepid (and possibly hardy). > > == Recap == > > 1. Everyone please take a quick look over the Xubuntu website looking for > oddities and mistakes. You can report them on launchpad under the Xubuntu > website product. If you find anything big, please ping the members of the > Xubuntu website team in addition to filing the bugs. > 2. Pasi Lallinaho (knome) is helping with artwork and is currently working > on a countdown banner for Intrepid. > 3. What work is left to be done for artwork in Intrepid? Anything that can > be uploaded? > 4. Feature freeze has came and gone but is there one feature we can all > focus on and get into Intrepid notwithstanding? > 5. We will be planning a bug/testing/developer day where we'll get testers, > hackers, developers, and upstream together to really crack the whip on > making Intrepid awesome. (OPPORTUNITY TO VOLUNTEER) > 6. Please help test the daily builds and be sure to share your results via > bug reports on Launchpad and narratives to this mailing list. (OPPORTUNITY > TO VOLUNTEER) > 7. Anyone want to help lead our QA/Testing efforts? (OPPORTUNITY TO > VOLUNTEER) > 8. No work on Documentation yet but Jim reports he'll start soon. Jim also > reports this will be his last release as a contributor due to time > constraints. We will be sad to see him go. Volunteers needed. (OPPORTUNITY > TO VOLUNTEER) > 9. There are few hot, outstanding bugs in Intrepid that we'll hopefully fix > very soon. > 10. Can someone organize a meeting before the next normally scheduled > October 4th meeting? (OPPORTUNITY TO VOLUNTEER) > > == Conclusion == > > Wow! Almost another entire release cycle complete! It seems like it just > started the other day! Naturally, energy levels are starting to get low. > Lets all get revitalized and excited about making Intrepid rock! Lets all > put in that little bit of extra effort, really pull together as a team, and > deliver a solid product - even more so than we usually do! It takes a > special group of people to be able to pull off a distribution as massive as > Xubuntu so make sure to pat yourselves and your fellow xubuntu-er. You guys > all totally rock my world :) > > So, our primary focus and goal for the rest of this release cycle is > polish. Jot down ideas, brainstorm with other team members, dig up and dust > off those older bug reports! > > 1. Polish, polish, polish > 2. Lets try and squeeze one bigger ticket item in if we can. > 3. Lets see if can make the upgrade from Hardy as smooth as possible. > > If you have any ideas on how we can do these three things or how we can > really energize ourselves as a team: shout it, blog it, skype it, type it, > scream it, voip it, wiki it, do it! Our numbers may be small but we're > certainly mighty! :) > > == Post-Conclusion: Ubuntu Developer Summit == > > Last but not least... UDS sponsorship. We have a new process for getting > sponsored this year as announced by Jono on his blog ( > http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1278). I'm hoping to get some of our Xfce4 > developers sponsored to UDS (or at least FOSSCamp - both which are hosted at > the Googleplex this year) so this is one UDS (and/or FOSSCamp) you probably > don't want to miss. Has anyone already decided they're going? Whose > interested in going? Who would like to be sponsored and which of you have > already applied? > > I'm hoping we can get a good Xubuntu turn out this year so start thinking > about it! > > Cheers, > Best. -- Vincent
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