Richard A. Johnson

OK, so after going through comments on my previous post about Apt URL it has become obvious to me. Apt URL is a band aid more than it is a way for people to easily distribute software. Is this a bad thing? No, not in my personal opinion. It seems the main arguments I received in the post, and especially on IRC (thanks to all of you who messaged me bitching me out, that rocks!) as as follows:

1. Once Ubuntu is released, we aren’t getting new updates.
2. Package so-and-so hasn’t been updated in 2 years
3. This will allow software developers to get their software out to more people.

OK, so it is obvious why I call Apt URL a band aid, and points #1 and #2 show this. For point #1 it is obvious that Backports aren’t getting utilized as they probably should. Point #2 shows us that there are more merges on MoM than there are developers to handle that, and that there is a ton of software we aren’t paying attention to. This is something that has to be fixed, but has proven difficult for the past few years.

That brings me to point #3. In a comment in my last post, Skype was brought up, and how it isn’t in the Ubuntu repositories. Is there a reason that Skype can’t go into Multiverse or the Canonical repositories? Is there something I am missing when it comes to the non-free repositories? I will admit I do not follow them since I attempt to keep my system RMS happy :p

OK, so here is my other question, slash, problem. Security! I keep hearing about this “whitelist.” Am I to expect that people are going to go through the Core Developer process in order to get on this so-called whitelist? If you don’t do a process like this, well you just flat out disrespected every MOTU and Core Developer in our community. If you make them go through a process like this, then why can’t they be a MOTU or Core Developer in Ubuntu? This is my big issue really. If you don’t make them go through the process that every MOTU and Core Developer has done then you might as well spit in those people’s faces who have put their blood, sweat, and tears into gaining a certain level of trust. And if you do make them go through the same process, then what the heck, it makes no sense.

I am still looking for solid information on why this is good, and how it can be utilized for something other than a band aid. Martin Owens had my favorite comment on the previous post, about what kind of society do I think we live in and what not. Martin, we live in a society right now where people need protection more than anything. I am not talking about the old G-Dub terrorist protection plan, I am talking about those evil little kids in mommy and daddy’s basement using other people’s scripts to do damage. Linux, just like Windows and Mac, is as secure as its user. I think it is in Ubuntu’s best interest to protect the users as much as possible, but not to the point where we cut off their freedoms. If people want Apt URL, give it to them, but I think Ubuntu should make the same statement it did about Automatix years back.

If we want to make it easy for people to get the latest and greatest software, then we need to start working on fixing our infrastructure so we can do it correctly and safely. Since there is no single package manager to rule them all, Linux software distribution will continue to be a pain in the ass. Here is an idea. How about a mailing list or such, where upstream developers can announce new software, updated software, and what not? Everyone who wants to be a packager, look there and get to work? There has to be a way to have solid upstream <—> downstream communications, it is sounding like it isn’t happening to me.

• Everything you need comes on one CD
• Ubuntu is designed with security in mind

Both of the above lines were taken from the What is Ubuntu? page on the Ubuntu website. If this is still true, then we don’t need Apt URL do we? If it isn’t true, and we do in fact need something like Apt URL, shouldn’t these 2 lines be removed from the website?

The need for Apt URL simply tells us that Ubuntu doesn’t have everything you need on one CD. In the AptURL Policy Discussion blueprint on Launchpad, Rick Spencer states the following:

It should be much easier than it is for developers to get their apps to users, and it should be much easier for users to install such software. PPAs is potentially a good way to do this. Finding PPAs and exchanging keys should be much easier.

I couldn’t agree more, and can see how AptURL might actually work for this. But. Of course there is a but, otherwise this post would be more useless than it probably already is. The developers of the software that must be easier to get, should probably communicate with the distributions a bit, let us know they have a new release they would like to get into Ubuntu or they have new software. If we can’t get the software into the current release or the next release, then a PPA is perfect for this. But instead of me, Martin Owens, or anyone else for that matter, publishing software to a personal PPA, why not have the teams do it instead? The Kubuntu Team has a PPA, and I know a lot of the other teams do as well. Why don’t these teams publish it into their PPAs? This way here we don’t have to worry about the whole trust thing. With it going into a team PPA, the chance of more eyes seeing it before it is released to the masses is higher than it would be if I were to package and upload to my PPA. Using Launchpad, put a Apt URL button, similar to the One-Click buttons that openSUSE uses, on the team’s PPA page, if we really need Apt URL that bad.

The whole security minded thing was added because I can’t think of one way to really make this whole Apt URL thing secure, can you? GPG keys won’t do it, creating some network of trust won’t do it? Look at the sites that allow developers of Mac OS X and Windows software to distribute their stuff, do you see “This person is in our web of trust”? No, what you might see is a list of comments, and after a product has enough comments, it can get that whole “Preferred Developer” type of tag added to their name. Kind of like Pirate Bay does with people who distribute stuff there. They use a skull and a color to represent people of trust or good faith, which is kind of odd. At first I saw the skull and thought, oh stay away from that one. Security will always be a bitch with Apt URL. I was looking to see what kind of policy openSUSE had with One-Click stuff and I couldn’t find anything. Did they realize it was a “Use at your own risk” type of deal instead of spending the past 2 or 3 development cycles trying to figure out a policy that just isn’t there?

The fact that it is considered not easy to add a 3rd party repository should speak volumes in itself. We want to protect our users any way we can, and Apt URL will prevent us from doing so, from what I have seen thus far, you could of course prove me wrong and I hope that happens, soon! If a user doesn’t understand how to add another repository, should they really be trying to add it all? What is the reason for them trying to add another repository?

Is it because:

• The package isn’t available in Ubuntu?
• The package is outdated in Ubuntu?
• The package is broken in Ubuntu?

If you answered yes to any of these, then your excuse of using Apt URL is nothing more than a band aid for problems in Ubuntu. But the package isn’t available in Ubuntu. Did you or anyone else file a bug to get the package in Ubuntu? No? That is definitely a reason why it isn’t in there, but I can understand this. Maybe you don’t know how to file a bug, and if this is the case, then maybe we should spend time somewhere else instead of Apt URL so we can make that process even easier, because the ability to file a bug is far more important than the ability to add a 3rd party repository that is loaded with candy from a stranger. How about the bug is filed, but nobody is looking at it? That is a problem with Ubuntu, so maybe we should spend time on figuring out how to fix this? How about it is packaged and sitting in REVU which nobody has looked it since September or something? Yet another problem with Ubuntu, and something we need to spend time on. The list can continue and cover an outdated and/or broken package as well.

Are people pushing Apt URL as a band aid for Ubuntu? Will Apt URL really make it easier for software developers to push their products to the public? Fill me in, what am I missing? Why is Apt URL so important?

Addition: Wanted to also note, that I don’t think apt-url will fix the issue of getting the latest software out there or fixed software much better than it already is. If Ubuntu is experiencing problems that are causing this band aid to be created, then what are we doing to do in order to provide another band aid when the people running these “whitelisted” repositories start to dry up? If these people running these “whitelisted” repos can contribute to their own repo, why can’t they contribute to ours? Shouldn’t we be trying to recruit these people? Shouldn’t we be trying to hold on to the ones we have now?

I have been using urxvt forever, and I have always loved using my Artwiz fonts with it. In Jaunty for some reason, getting the Artwiz fonts working correctly and without hogging resources was a bit of a pain. So I have decided to go back to the KDE terminal, Konsole, and actually found a really great font in the Ubuntu repositories. The name of the font is ttf-inconsolata. It is a really nice small font in Konsole and if you are editing code in Vim or Emacs, it is really nice. It is actually nice small and nice to the point where you don’t have to squint to see it, it is still legible at a decent distance. Here are a couple of screenshots to show it off:

Here it is with Irssi.

Here it is displaying some C++ code.

If you have a groovy TTF font, or any other font that you use in your terminals, tell me what it is, and link me to a screenshot.

Edit: superm1’s response, which you can’t see in the screenshot was:

10:59:57 [   superm1] yeah it does look better there, but i think it's because of the grey/white on black
11:00:06 [   superm1] i'll switch gnome over and compare

I guess I should start off with some sort of disclaimer. What you are about to read is probably useless, my opinion, not the opinions of Ubuntu and Canonical, and probably not even worth 2 cents.

Who cares? Really? All of this complaining is destructive, interruptive, and really annoying. So now that I have said my 2 cents, let me be destructive, interruptive,a nd really annoying as well as elaborate a bit.

Everyone keeps quoting the Ubuntu Philosophy. That’s great, however there is a flaw to that.

1. Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.

You have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve the software that is provided to you by Ubuntu One. Last I heard the client was open source, has that recently changed? You aren’t getting the backend to the entire thing are you? No. Have you been asked to pay a licensing fee? Besides the insanely amount of $10/month for 10GB of storage, you haven’t been asked to pay a licensing fee. Heck you haven’t even been asked to agree to a EULA!

Our philosophy is reflected in the software we produce and included in our distribution. As a result, the licensing terms of the software we distribute are measured against our philosophy, using the Ubuntu License Policy

Dean this is not a pot shot at you the least bit, as you didn’t start this or weren’t the first to quote this, however you were right up top in the Planet when I started writing this post. This doesn’t pertain to Ubuntu One either, because a) it isn’t being distributed with Ubuntu, and if they do distribute it with Ubuntu in the future, the client that is, this is perfectly valid.

I really like what Dave Morley said about voting with your feet. If you don’t like it, don’t use it, plain and simple. Also, most of the people seem to complain as well that it is a DropBox knock off, and in its current state, you are absolutely correct. But also in its current state it isn’t complete. There will be more offerings from my understanding in the future.

Now here is where I do have a problem, actually it isn’t a problem at all to me, just something I do not understand. The entry price point, it makes absolutely no sense to me. If you release something that is a direct competitor to another product out there already, why do you offer less for more? I always thought the motto should be more for less. In this day in age storage is very important, and remote storage is just as important. The price per petabyte is very important, or in this case the price per gigabyte. If I used Ubuntu One month on a paid plan, I am looking at $1 per gigabyte, if I use it for a year, I am looking at $12 per gigabyte. This is a bit much in my opinion, but I do have a bit of experience when it comes to storage and pricing. Spending the last year of my life working on a distributed storage solution, I had the opportunity to learn the market and the business quite well.

Ok, that’s it, now can we all quit complaining about it and get to work? We are wasting to many cycles, me included, talking about this until we are blue in the face. If you want to be constructive, check out the following:

• Merge-O-Matic
• REVU
• Ubuntu Bugs
• Ubuntu Wire for any dev stuff I may have missed

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!

Wow, I just got the itch tonight to work on some documentation for KDE. I went through KHelpCenter to look at docs and I noticed the 2 big doc sections were badly out of date. KHelpCenter and the User Guide haven’t been touched in ages, well at least until tonight. I have fully updated the KHelpCenter Welcome documentation and I am planning on fixing up the User Guide. I am actually scared of the User Guide as it is huge. If you are jiggy with DocBook/XML and would like to offer a hand on a section, or two, or three, or four, or 100, join me (nixternal) in #kde-docs on irc.freenode.net. Ping me once you join up and are interested. If I don’t answer right away, please stick around, as I will come back to my computer eventually

Also, if your application needs docs or the docs need to be updated, please ping me on IRC, as we only have a couple of weeks before the 4.3 documentation freeze. I would like to get as much completed as possible. Thanks!

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!

Who?
Ubuntu Chicago Local Community Team

What?
Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope Release Party

When?
Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 2:00 PM until 6:00 PM Chicago time

Where?
IIT Institute of Design
350 North La Salle Street
2nd Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60654

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Why?
To celebrate the latest release of the greatest operating system on earth!

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to let us know. Jim Campbell has also setup a Facebook Event Page for those of you who actually use Facebook.

We have set up an ad-hoc schedule for the event and it is as follows:

• 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM: Introductions
• 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Lightning Talks
• 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM: Installs, Help, Q&A, and Partying

Lightning talks will include:

• What’s new in Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Server, and others for the Jaunty release
• Introduction to the Ubuntu Chicago LoCo Team
• Getting involved in Ubuntu (LoCo Team, Documentation, Bugs, Development, and more)

We hope to see a lot of new faces on Saturday and hope to see a lot of the Original Gangsters of Ubuntu Chicago. So come on out and enjoy the fun, see you Saturday!

21:50:47 [ nixternal] I think I have covered everything right?
21:50:59 [      j1mc] nixternal: i still think we should mention pizza.
21:51:19 [ nixternal] you just did
21:51:40 [      j1mc] ah, ok
21:51:40 [ nixternal] follow up my blog post with one that just says "With Pizza" :)
21:52:44 [      j1mc] can't you add something about pizza to your blog post?
21:52:51 [ nixternal] doing it now
21:52:55 [      j1mc] thanks :)