Important desktop and end-user topics this week at UDS

Leave a reply

The (second virtual) Ubuntu Developer Summit is being held this week. Of the many topics being discussed, I’ve come across a few that I find interesting.

Chromium as default browser

Great to see a session on this topic. I spend most of my time computing in a browser, so it’d be nice to see my favourite browser as the default. Although I have no objections to Firefox as the default, I usually download the .deb from Google on each install, mainly due to the chromium-browser package being fairly outdated. It will be interesting to see the outcome for 13.10 and 14.04 LTS.

Growing a strong translation community

I still find translations to be a core concept of the Ubuntu. No matter where you’re from, you should be able to download a copy of Ubuntu, ready in your native language.

Planning for documentation and positioning of the development release

The last cycle entailed a barrage of fireworks and cracking decisions. The standard release support cycle was halved and more effort was to be put to backporting important features and enhancements to the LTS. Although the development release, by nature, doesn’t directly affect end users, it is the test bed for what will become ubuntu+1. The quality of the development releases have been superb and I’d argue that they are much more ready for testing than where we were a few years ago.

Shaping a plan for the future of (the) Ubuntu Documentation Team

There’s a lot of computer users out there that still haven’t even tried Ubuntu. We have a more usable, sleek and fun desktop than what we did many moons ago, but the documentation of the Ubuntu Desktop is certainly an area that needs attention. We can’t just assume people know how to use the Dash, Scopes and find help. People come and go from the team and it’s time to reshape and recruit more Ubuntu Doc folks.

Desktop Unity Polish for 13.10

In most of the releases since Unity has been released (11.04!), there have been radical changes and controversial moves to the Ubuntu Desktop. It’s nice to see everything calming down and focus shifting to the little details. Probably not a thrilling session for the non-developers, but it would be nice to see what is coming up in Unity+1.

UDS-1303, Day One

3 Replies

Now UDS-1303 Tuesday is through, I’d like to recap on a couple of the sessions I watched on Google+ Hangouts.

Rolling Release discussion (+1 maintenance beyond April)

Interesting discussion which included some of the System76 folks that basically said that the Ubuntu release schedule works fine for their clients. They ship the latest LTS, 12.04, and the current stable release, 12.10. They pointed out that each release of Ubuntu has been a clear improvement over the previous release (phew!), and were looking forward to the upcoming Raring Ringtail. Very compelling to hear straight from the OEM vendors – they have been shipping Ubuntu for the past fifteen (yes, that’s 15!) releases.

Rick Spencer outlined the idea to keep LTS releases and focus on daily quality with monthly pulses. I think this is an interesting concept in relation where Ubuntu is as a platform. If this idea had been discussed around the days that I started as an Ubuntu user (Intrepid Ibex era), the daily quality was just not there. It was more of a sentiment to encourage users not to use the development build until the later alpha snapshots, or even beta releases.

These days I’ve been using the Quantal and Raring dailies with minimal disruption, essentially my desktop and laptops feel like a normal (release) install. It’s just that updates are much more frequent and I’m using the latest available version of the software.

Loco discussion (LoCo community – what’s next?)

Another interesting discussion was the concept of approved and unapproved LoCo teams. I’m a member of the Australian LoCo, which is currently approved. As Jono stated in the session, I think there’s less of a need for approved LoCo teams now. The main benefit of being an approved LoCo is that, historically, LoCos would be sent CD’s/DVD’s, stickers and other Ubuntu merchandise around releases and conferences. This isn’t particularly sustainable to send a pack to all approved LoCos each release, and arguably more people are using other media like USBs to install Ubuntu.

The other concern was the labelling and divide of LoCo teams. It should be noted that being an unapproved team doesn’t make you any less important than an approved LoCo. At the end of the day, LoCos will be recognised for the work that they do, supported by Planet Ubuntu blog posts, pictures of events (release parties, conference talks, Ubuntu Hours, Ubuntu Global Jam sessions) and team reports.

Thoughts on the first online UDS

On the whole, I think it went quite fine. I think if the LTS release structure is continued, I think a physical week-long UDS would be appropriate at least once through the LTS cycle. It’s also a positive bonus that everything is logged and the sessions are available once the session ends for people that have missed the session. These short UDS place a focus on detailed discussion, though if anything is missed, we’ll be able to revisit it again at the next UDS in a few months or on ubuntu-devel.

It would have been nice for Mark Shuttleworth to comment on the rolling release session. Although sabdfl’s ideas were probably similar to those of Rick Spencer, the nature of Ubuntu has always been LTS every two years and normal releases every six months.

UDS-1303 Summaries and Lightning Talks

1 Reply

“Steam”, “Ubuntu TV”, “Ubuntu Phone”, “Ubuntu Tablet”, “Ubuntu for Android”.

12 months ago these keywords were merely ideas, possibilities that were seemingly unclear. Skip forward to today and we have a totally different perspective. Steam is on Ubuntu. Developer previews have been released for the phone and tablet. Unity is mature on the desktop. Fast, functional, easy-to-use and visually appealing.

With the increased use of Google+ Hangouts, ala Ubuntu OnAir, I think it’s certainly worth trying to use the technology to host more frequent sprints and community-wide discussion.

Unfortunately, for the dubbed UDS-1303, the sessions are being held between 1am-7am local time. In effect, I’ll be able to participate (read: watch) the summaries and lightning talk sessions.

Hopefully the next UDS-(1305?) will be scattered along different time zones.