Ben Crisford is hosting an Edubuntu bug day on Tuesday, 6 April on #edubuntu and #ubuntu-bugs on freenode. The plan is to triage and squash some of the 330 or so bugs assigned to packages that we include in Edubuntu so that we can give Edubuntu some final polish before the release at the end of the month.

If you can drop by during the day for even just a few hours or minutes, please do so! And if you could even give one bug a little attention, that would be great.

Happy bug squashing!

As Scott posted before, the Edubuntu Bug day went quite well last week. This coming Thursday (21 January) we’re doing a Wiki Hug Day to to focus our efforts on fixing things in the Edubuntu wiki namespace, it includes:

• Fixing broken links
• Removing horribly obsolete or broken pages
• Moving pages which are in the wrong place
• Prettifying pages
• Mark pages that may need to be on the Edubuntu website instead
• Any other improvements we can think of

We’ll officially be starting the wiki hug day from around 12:00 UTC to accommodate the time-zones of our current contributors. It will be co-ordinated in #edubuntu on the freenode network. If you’re familiar with Edubuntu and know a thing or two about wikis, feel free to join in and get involved!

Edubuntu 2.0

I should really blog about Edubuntu more. The Edubuntu project initially kicked off nicely, but with time as things changed things ended getting somewhat stale. Earlier this year we decided to rebootstrap the project. Edubuntu Project 2.0 is real and we’re getting some really good momentum going. We now have a new Edubuntu Council voted in, of which I’m really happy to be part of again. Revolution Linux also gives me and Stéphane some time to work on Edubuntu related things which is really awesome!

Tonight we had quite a good meeting, I posted a dump of the notes to the edubuntu-devel list.

What’s happening for Lucid

• Scott Balneaves is working on parental control features that will be included in upstream Gnome (he is now an upstream Gnome developer as well)
• Stéphane and myself will be the release contacts for Lucid
• Live LTSP session for the Live DVD, if this works in time for Lucid then many packages can be dropped from the alternate installation
• Menu editor based on groups
• We’ll attempt at revamping the artwork for Lucid, if we can’t get nice artwork in time we’ll fall back on Ubuntu artwork rather than have outdated Edubuntu specific artwork
• Sabayon is now in a really good state, Scott has done lots of work on it and it’s teachers should now find it very useful
• Nanny has been uploaded to the archives in the last week, it will be used to implement parental controls in Lucid
• With the Ubuntu archive reorganization, there will be an edubuntu-dev group with upload rights for the appropriate packages. We’ll sort out most of this after the holiday season
• Netbook edition: We’d like the option of installing a netbook edition from the Ubiquity, which basically entails installing a few UNR packages such as maximus and the netbook launcher. I’ll write a spec for this in the coming week

Community

We’re planning some hug days! More details and announcements will follow on the Fridge, etc. For now write these dates in your diary:

• 12 January 2009: Edubuntu Bugs Hug Day
• 21 January 2009: Edubuntu Wiki Hug Day

We’ll spend some time specifically for documentation as well, most likely in February some time.

We want to extend to other projects more. Currently Stéphane is working with the Guadalinex-edu people. I’m going to be working with the Qimo project to get their packages in Ubuntu. Scott  is working to become a Skolelinux/Debian-Edu developer and David van Assche is an OpenSuse-EDU developer so we’re making some progress with our relationships to other projects. We need someone to liaise with the Sugar project, so if anyone is willing to get involved with that please give us a shout!

Our next Edubuntu meeting is on 29 December at 19:00 UTC in #ubuntu-meeting on the freenode network so if you’re interested in getting involved you’re welcome to join in. If you can’t make it, meetings times will be made available on the Ubuntu Fridge.

Happy holidays!

The Return of Edubuntu

Edubuntu 9.10 has landed! For the past few releases, it has been an add-on CD to Ubuntu. Our users have have made overwhelming requests for a full-blown installation CD again and we have listened. Edubuntu 9.10 is now a DVD that contains a full Ubuntu installation plus the Edubuntu packages and the LTSP Server packages. Read the Release Announcement to find out how you can get Edubuntu!

The move to a DVD also forms part of larger plans so that we can fit more content and software on the system, and looking forward to Lucid (10.04) we may also be shipping a Live LTSP system which has been in high demand recently.

A Big Thank You to Jordan Mantha (LaserJock)

Without Jordan, the past few releases wouldn’t have been possible. He has resigned from Edubuntu recently effective as todays release. He has been involved in every aspect of Edubuntu and has done great mentoring work to many people that has been involved (including me).  Jordan has resigned to pursue his career that has been demanding more attention recently. We’ll be having Edubuntu Council elections soon, we’ll announce the details through the usual channels (The Fridge, UWN, etc) so please stay tuned as Edubuntu Project 2.0 continues to evolve. We’re always looking for new contributors and growing our community will be a focus over the next 6 months. Feel free to join in and get involved!

Yes, it’s true! There is indeed an alpha 6 image for Edubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)! This is the first ever working installation DVD image for Edubuntu. In the beginning, Edubuntu was released on a single CD that shared 95%+ of its content with the Ubuntu CD image. To make more space available for educational packages, it was later changed to an add-on CD that simply installed on top of your choice of Ubuntu. Our users hated it, so we’ve now changed over to a DVD that should offer the best of both worlds. The only drawbacks will be a larger download, and a requirement for a DVD writer drive- not such a big deal these days.

I did testing for the i386 Alpha release yesterday, you can find the results here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edubuntu-devel/2009-September/003057.html

Unfortunately, I couldn’t download the AMD64 daily build in time, so there’s no Edubuntu Karmic Alpha 6 AMD64 image. I’m not sure if this means that we won’t be able to have an AMD64 release for Karmic at all, but I’ll be syncing my daily builds automatically from now on so I’ll be able to test builds quicker from now on. We’ll certainly need testers again soon for the beta release (testing 1 October) and release candidate release (testing 25 October). If you’re interested in helping out, please join our mailing list and introduce yourself.

• Had flu the last month or so, finally been getting over it this week, starting to feel human again. I thought I had H1N1, but I had it checked and it turns out it was just a nasty flu. My concentration was just gone the last month so I ended up watching a lot of old Star Trek Voyager and Third Rock From the Sun episodes.
• Kind of bummed that the rest of the world gets to see District 9 already, and in South Africa, where the story actually plays off, we only get to see it in a week from now on the 28th of August.
• Attended the Obstreperous Olive Geekdinner at the Pasta Factory. Staff was very friendly, food could have been better for the price. Talks were a bit too markety and “done”, as a result I’m volunteering for a more geeky talk next month. Overall it was very good and I got to catch up with a few people I haven’t seen in way too long.
• I got my first few packages in Ubuntu, I’ve been working on LTSP cluster (packages.ubuntu.com seems to have some trouble currently) packaging and 5 out of the 6 packages are currently in the archives. ltsp-cluster-pxeconfig is next, it’s in REVU at the moment, it should make it in before feature freeze next week. Thank you to Stéphane Graber who has been mentoring me on this, he’s also the upstream for LTSP Cluster and sponsoring my packages. Also thanks to Jordan, Oliver and Anthony for reviewing my packages on REVU.
• Ubuntu-ZA is having monthly meetings now, I was kind of dazed at the last one due to flu and medicine, but it’s refreshing to see the energy and enthusiasm, we’ll have the first of our monthly reports ready within the next week or so.
• Edubuntu is in a bit of a squeeze. The good news is that a DVD install disc and enabling universe packages for the builds have been approved, unfortunately the Edubuntu seeds need work and need to be finalised within the next week or so, and our two core-devs have had other urgent issues to tend to. If there’s a core-dev available to give some guidance and sponsorship over the next week, it would be much appreciated.
• Some other nice things in my feed reader from the Ubuntu world:
  • 100 Paper cuts is at round 7, I think David Siegel is really cool for taking it on and sticking in there with it.
  • Daniel Holbach blogged about the Ubuntu Global Jam, some of us in CLUG considered doing a package jam for a CLUG talk, but due to time limitations and the recent threads on the CLUG lists where users are requesting more intro-level talks, I’m wondering whether we should have a kind of tips-and-tricks jam, where a bunch of us show how we use Ubuntu to be more productive.
  • Ubuntu Developer Week is kicking off in a bit more than a week, be sure to be there if you’re interested in contributing to Ubuntu!

• 
• Free Ubuntu Books for approved loco teams, also a copy of Art of Community. Ubuntu-ZA applied for the first 2 books that will be hosted at AIMS in Cape Town and available for anyone who wants to drop by and read it. We’ll probably keep the Art of Community book in Johannesburg somewhere under a similar arrangement.

From http://linux-foundation.org/weblogs/press/2009/03/03/linux-foundation-to-build-new-linuxcom-community:

The new Linux.com site will transform in the months ahead from solely being a news source to a collaborative site that will be “for the community, by the community.” Much like Linux itself, Linux.com will rely on the community to create and drive the content and conversation. While the Linux Foundation will host the collaboration forum, the site will feature the real Linux experts – users and developers – and give them the tools needed to connect with each other and with Linux. Linux.com will also extend the Linux Foundation’s existing content and community programs available on www.linuxfoundation.org. Linux.com will provide crucial content, tools and community services to galvanize the power of this group. It will also showcase information for business users of Linux.

Now if only someone could do something about linux.org (and tell them about no-www)

On a radio station I used to listen to a lot they used to fill up about a minute or so with phone calls where people shouted a sentence about why they’re happy. Usually it was something silly like “It’s my birthday!” or “I just got [p,l]aid!”.

This morning I filled up my car’s fuel tank and it was R290.27. About 6 months ago, the same amount of fuel cost just about R500. The drop in fuel prices also means that we’ll probably not see much rise in food prices this year (many people believe that it should drop, but I think that’s unlikely).  Besides the fuel prices, our prime lending rate is also going down. It’s estimated that it’s going down by as much as 2.5-3 % over the course of the year. That’s very good news for anyone who has a large amount of debt (like a home or vehicle loan).

For me personally, I decided to take up some things that I’ve been putting off for various reasons for a long time now. I’m finally going to do the B Class ameteur radio exams this month, and in May the A Class exams. I’m also going back to school, doing a BA through Unisa. I’m going to make a point of getting my motorbike license. So far I just got a learners license every 18 until it expired again and then did the learners test again. If all goes well, I’ll also be starting another 2 companies with some acquaintances. Previously I’d be super-scared to do something like that, but this year I’m saying yes to more things and if there are sensible risks, I’m taking it. Oh, last week I also managed to half my insurance costs (and expanded my coverage with that as well), which is another thing I’m quite happy about for 2009. There’s more, but they’re big maybe’s and I don’t want to jinx it. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more about them during the year.

What are your reasons to be happy in 2009? Please comment or trackback.

When I started my blog, I used to post about 2 posts a month. Over the last few months, this has increased quite a bit, and it is likely do continue. WordPress (the great blogging software that I use) has support for multiple feeds, so I decided to make use of it, and created a page containing links to feeds that WordPress automatically generates based on categories and tags.

Selecting a feed for a specific category/tag may be useful if you only want to read posts about certain topics, or if you want to add my blog to an on-line feed like a Planet while only filtering through relevant posts.

A list of the available feeds are available here:

http://jonathancarter.co.za/feeds

13 000 Fedora Core desktops and 10 000 Ubuntu desktops will be rolled out in Filipino schools. The 10 000 Ubuntu machines will run a mixture of Edubuntu and Kubuntu, and will form part of the next phase of the roll-out.

For more on this story, read the Computerworld article, which contains some very weird quotes.

I’m quite interested in how they will use these computers to deliver education, what kind of content will be shipped to all the schools and what kind of connectivity they will have. I just hope they make an effort to learn from other deployments like these, and that they contribute their lessons back to the rest of the free software / free education community.