nixternal

Right now I am working with the members of the Ubuntu Chicago LoCo team on creating a solid proposal for developing “Ubuntu Development Courses” that members of the Chicago community will lead. Right now we are looking for those that are in the Chicago land are that may be interested in such events. As it stands, I have come up with a basic, college-like, course layout.

Ubuntu Development 101 - Familiarization of Ubuntu development tools
This session will provide the attendees with a breakdown and brief run-through of the tools involved with Ubuntu development. These tools would include: Launchpad, mailing lists, IRC, development applications and scripts, and more.

Ubuntu Development 102 - Bug Triage
This session will provide the attendees with the knowledge necessary to help triage Ubuntu bugs. Attendees will learn the basics as well as some of the advanced topics with triaging bugs on Launchpad.

Ubuntu Development 103 - Packaging I
This session will provide the attendees with the knowledge necessary to build their very own package. Topics covered will include development applications, scripts, setting up development environments, creating the package, and more.

Ubuntu Development 104 - Packaging II
This session will provide the attendees with the knowledge necessary to merge, sync, and request merges/syncs for Debian packages into Ubuntu’s latest development cycle. Topics covered will include those mentioned as well as proper utilizing of certain development scripts as well as how to properly fill out a request, create a debdiff, and more.

Ubuntu Development 105 - Packaging III
This session will provide the attendees with the knowledge necessary to work with Debian on patches, request backports properly, how to do Stable Release Update requests, and anything else not covered by Packaging I or II.

Obviously none of this is set in stone at this time, as we are working on getting an infrastructure in place. One thing I would like to do, is keep these away from local LUG meetings as to not a) disturb the meeting process, or b) have our session disturbed due to socializing. We are currently looking for an ideal venue for this that will a) be easy to access, b) be free, c) have a projector, and d) have Internet. There are many places in the Chicago land area that fits this bill, so now we are just looking for the best place.

We figure that each event would take anywhere between 4 to 6 hours per session and may possibly be separated into mini-sessions. If we get this off the ground and have enough interest, we could keep it going and turn it into its own little BuntuCamp (BarCamp style) just for Ubuntu!

The reasoning behind this is not only teach interested individuals Ubuntu development, but also provide them the tools necessary to properly advocate the use of Ubuntu and its partner projects. I think once our members understand as many of the aspects involved with the development of Ubuntu, they will be able to better portray to future users the importance of Ubuntu and free software. Also, you get to learn Ubuntu hacking, what could be more fun?

If you are interested in such an event, I urge you to track the Ubuntu Chicago mailing list and let us know. If other LoCo teams are interested, feel free to contact me at nixternal - kubuntu - org.

I was bored looking at weather stuff tonight since we are getting pummeled with snow tonight in Chicago and found a new desktop wallpaper application called Weather Wallpaper. It runs great and looks great, so here is the complimentary screen shot.

Not chicken! ShyCon

That’s right, the Chicago community is currently planning a conference to be held sometime in 2007 for free software enthusiasts. Right now it is in the beginning stages and hopefully we can make this a reality. We are in the process of spamming the Chicago mailing lists and hopefully soon we will have a site and mailing list up for this. So if you are in Chicago and are interested in helping plan such a feat, or have some great ideas on what you would like to see, please stop by #chicon on IRC at chat.freenode.net and say hi. Thanks everyone!

P.S.  November 2007 is the first date thrown out as a time line.

Yet Another GPLv3 Launched Post

Good job to the Free Software Foundation! Congrats to all of them, and especially congrats to Mako to his new board position as well. Peter Brown, thank you for all of the FSF, Deffective by Design, Bad Vista, iPod DRM, and GNU/Linux stickers you recently sent as well. They were a hit! Thanks to Eben for all of your guidance, help, and support, and especially for the YES vote on Monday prior to your resignation. Thanks to Richard, not me the other Richard, for staying true to your ideas, your goals, and most importantly your philosophy and values in the Free Software world.

Sorry for the double post, but low and behold this just came across Akregator.

With the recent news of several Linux vendors entering into partnership agreements with Microsoft (Novell, Linspire, Xandros), there has been much debate recently about two factions of Linux forming. Saying that Linux is going to be torn in two, makes for good press and lively debates, but this is certainly nothing new for Linux. There are far more material splits today in the Linux world, such as Debian vs RPM, KDE vs GNOME, Distro A vs Distro B, and so on. These divisions are quite material, and dilute significant energy and efforts across competing standards. However, we accept this as the price we pay for freedom of choice.

Note the There are for more material splits today in the Linux world, such as Debian vs RPM, KDE vs GNOME, Distro A vs Distro B, and so on. THOSE ARE CHOICES, NOT SPLITS!.

You have made your bed, lie in it. Don’t sit here and try to make excuses now and try and point the finger at other distributions. You talk about this Moral High Ground that some distributions are standing upon and then claim that some of these same distributions also link to tools that allow illegal installation of codecs and drivers. Bah humbug! I am willing to bet you are speaking of Automatix, in which not many developers I know like it, use it, advocate it, support it, and the list goes on. I know that Ubuntu, Debian, and Red Hat don’t link to it at all, and if there was a moral high ground, these 3 are standing proudly on top of it.

Quit defending you decision, or trying to, and then spewing opinions and not facts about the situation. You said you are fine with us disagreeing with your deal, yet you defend it every chance you get.

NOTE 1: I do understand there is a demand for the proprietary codecs and drivers, however I don’t feel we should sign a deal with the devil in order to provide them. And what does signing a deal with Microsoft have to do with proprietary codecs and drivers? Microsoft doesn’t create any of these items that are in demand.

NOTE 2: GPLv3 to be released in 24 hours!

That’s right, Ubuntu Chicago invaded this weekends Barcamp Chicago event in style.

From left to right: Francisco (aka OmniColos), Freddie (Admiral_Chicago), Eddie (posingaspopular), Rich (nixternal), and Jim (j1mc).

Or for the image above, in terms of operating systems, from left to right you have: Ubuntu (tablet pc), Kubuntu, Kubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu! And the install fest, I seen plenty of Ubuntu and Kubuntu booting up on peoples laptops.

Plenty of excellent talks, cool people, good pizza, great beer, and a patio that was about to collapse! There should be some great video posted this week as well as more images, so I will keep you informed.

Also, great news. The University of Illinois Chicago are planning a bigger Flourish Conference for 2008. This past conference had Chris DiBona, Peter Brown, and other great speakers, and for 2008, there are 2 people they are really interested in getting, Mark Shuttleworth, and/or Jono Bacon. We would love to have Peter Brown from the FSF back again, but I also mentioned that Mako Hill is a killer free software speaker and they are interested as well. The UIC ACM will have a definite date set this week, so more information will be made available.

Thanks to everyone I hung out with yesterday and met yesterday. Thanks for the beer and food, and for the good times! Here is to Barcamp Chicago 2008!