Richard A. Johnson

Wow, what an awesome development cycle! The Lucid Lynx has matured to a ripe old age of 10.04 and now brings you 3 years of support through free security and maintenance updates for your desktop. The Kubuntu team, as well as the entire Ubuntu community, did an awesome job this cycle and my hats off to each and every one of you, job well done friends!

Some new things for this release include:

• New branding
• KDE Plasma Desktop 4.4
• An official Kubuntu Netbook Remix featuring KDE Plasma Netbook 4.4
• Amarok 2.3
• Installer slideshow (I did the text, so read it! Let me know how horrible it is and we can fix that up in future releases)
• KDE integration for Firefox
• and more…

One mission down, many more missions to go. Next mission, Kubuntu Maverick Meerkat! That’s right, cat with a ‘K‘

Yes, I know I stole the idea of the title from Jono Bacon, however, unlike Ubuntu who supposedly only needs testers right now, Kubuntu needs all of you! Of course, quite a bit of the work left to do is testing and fixing, we can use many of you to show your support in #kubuntu, helping those who need it. Right now, all of the 9.10 support is in #ubuntu+1, so if you have any questions, or feel like helping others, head on over and check it out.

Interested in knowing what’s new with this latest release, check this out:

• KDE 4.3.1
• Kubuntu Netbook Technical Preview
• Social From the Start (no more reason to not have any friends!)
• OpenOffice.org KDE integration created by our very own Kubuntu developers!
• Installer bling (I don’t use the Live Desktop installer, but this is so hot I just might have to!)
• Amarok 2.2 RC (wait, and pretty soon you can update to the new Amarok 2.2 “Sunjammer”
• and more…

Many of you may have heard about this Kubuntu Netbook thing and for once we are officially releasing and unofficial release. Does that make sense? I didn’t think so, as I just lost myself. Anyways, it is unofficial because we have been working very closely with upstream to bring the KDE Netbook environment to Kubuntu and KDE 4.3. You see, the netbook work upstream is all geared at KDE 4.4, which isn’t do out until February. The current version of the Kubuntu Netbook preview works fairly well, however there are still some annoyances here and there. I have been using it now for a couple of months on my netbook and I absolutely love it! Do I think it is the best netbook implementation right now? No, but I do see it being the best soon. KDE developers are working hard making sure to not waste space on such a small resolution, and they are also working on some really cool things for future releases with KDE 4.4. I can’t wait!

Also during the Karmic development cycle, a group of Kubuntu developers worked with developers from OpenOffice.org in order to bring you a groovy KDE 4 infused release. There are still some quirks being worked out, but I am sure they will be worked out before release. Though I don’t use OpenOffice.org, I have to say for once it looks good in KDE!

Installer bling, better known as Ubiquity, has had one hell of a make over. Roman, aka ‘shtylman’, has put some damn fine touches into the Live CD installer. I was really impressed with the work, and for once the installer was pleasing to the eye. Great job Roman and thanks for all of your great work!

Now, with all the good, there is of course a little bad yet, I mean it is still a beta release. One has to do with logging out back to KDM, which oddly enough doesn’t effect everyone. If you do get bit by this, you have to go out to the console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1. Once there simply login to the console and type sudo stop kdm, unless of course you want to shutdown, then it is just sudo shutdown -h now or sudo reboot. And yes, we know KPackageKit does not install software, which is comical yet sad at the same time. Who wants to install software anyways? Well, I am sure most of you who will give this release a try are probably pretty comfortable around the command line, so nothing an apt-get can’t fix for the time being.

We invite everyone to give the new beta a good running and help us test the release and fix the release. Yes I mean everyone, as input from people with various skill levels matter so much to us. So please, feel free to join us in any of the following IRC channels:

• #kubuntu for support for all stable releases
• #ubuntu+1 for support for the latest development release
• #kubuntu-devel if you would like to contribute

Or you can visit us on our development mailing list or our support mailing list for more. Thanks everyone!

Just a quick note letting you all know that Kubuntu Karmic Alpha 1 has been released. If you are looking to contribute to an open source project, there is no better time than now. The Kubuntu team is looking for a few good contributors. We can always use supporters, documentation writers, packagers, developers, translators and more! If you are interested in contributing, I urge you to join #kubuntu-devel on irc.freenode.net.

Note: This is an alpha release, so it is not for the faint of heart, it is for those of you who are a bit crazy and like living dangerously. It is not for production use at all, and if you do use it for production use and get fired, it is not our fault!

Ubuntu Chicago held their 9.04 release party this afternoon in stormy downtown Chicago. When we arrived it was HOT and HUMID, when we left it was WET and FREEZING. We had quite a few people show up, and the great thing was it was a lot of new faces, not our typical Chicago gangsters who usually show up. We had a lot of fun all while learning about the LoCo team as well as what is new in the 9.04 versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Server.

I want to give a huge thank you to Jim Campbell, Kevin Harriss, and Ilan who is Kevin’s boss. Jim totally set up a really great party and thanks to Kevin and Ilan for hosting us at the Institute of Design. Jim gave 3 presentations, one on the LoCo team and then he briefly covered what was new in both Ubuntu and Xubuntu for 9.04. Kevin, who is typically found with Foresight, but who has replaced his love of freedom with a Macbook, an iPhone, and a Tall non-fat latte, gave a really good overview of what’s new in Ubuntu Server 9.04. Of course I quickly covered Kubuntu 9.04, quickly because my laptop likes to lock up due to a hardware issue that is present in every Linux distro and Windows.

Here are just a few pictures that were taken today for the release party:

Jim pops some bubbly to celebrate the release of Ubuntu Jaunty!

This is what I saw when closing my right eye

This is what I saw when closing my left eye

More pictures can be viewed HERE. I am sure Jim and Nathan will post some pictures as well, so keep an eye out on the planet for more pictures.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and it was really great to finally meet a bunch of new faces, and put faces to those who we have known for a while, but just haven’t gotten to meet.

It seems that some of you with Radeon video cards might be experiencing some X related issues. My KDE developer buddy, David Faure has posted a fix that might not be for the faint of heart, but it seems those who have tried have reported success this far. If you would like more information, head on over and read David’s post on Kubuntu Jaunty not liking Radeon cards. Thanks David for the tip!

On another note, tomorrow is the Ubuntu Jaunty Release Party for Ubuntu Chicago. If you would like more information, head on over to Eventbrite and RSVP while you are at it!

As I am sure all of you know this already, but Jaunty has been released! Great job to every one involved. From the users to the developers, great job!

On Saturday, Ubuntu Chicago will be holding a Release Party. The party is going to be a great time and everyone is welcome to join us. Click on that release party link above for more information on the party.

Remember, if you plan on attending, please RSVP. Thanks, and hopefully we will see you there!