I Never Realized…
…that this part of my desktop could feel so sleek:
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, we are ready for you. 🙂
International Women’s Day
Today is [International Women’s Day](https://www.internationalwomensday.com/), and it provides an opportunity for the world to focus on women’s rights, and society’s attitudes towards women. *International Women’s Day* has been celebrated since the early 1900’s and has been a key milestone through many key events that have affected women’s rights and is now recognized as a national holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
When I first heard of *International Women’s Day*, I was unsure of how I can contribute to celebrating the day and raising awareness of women’s rights. On the website one approach it advises is:
> The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.
I think this is wonderful opportunity inside our global communities to do exactly this: to not only celebrate the contributions of women in our projects, campaigns and passions, but to also talk about ways in which we can break down the barriers and attitudinal prejudices that some women still face, particularly in largely male dominated software communities. Today is a great day for equality: let’s all make the most of it. 🙂
As part of *International Women’s Day*, the [Ubuntu Women]() team have been running a competition to gather a collection of stories that share how women discovered Ubuntu and their experiences of joining our community. I thought this was a wonderful initiative: it really speaks to strong experiences of how Ubuntu can enable women to join a collaborative community, and how technology can be a true enabler.
Of the many stories submitted, there were to be two winners: one picked by the community, and I was given the honor of picking the second. Thankyou to the *Ubuntu Women* team for involving me in the unveiling of the winners, and this morning I announced both winners, read out their stories, and also read out a third that I thought was excellent too. Congratulations to *Elvira Martinez* and *Karen Y. Perez* for winning, and to *Jen Phillips* for getting read out too.
The video from this morning is below:
*Can’t see it? [Click here](https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5288115)!*
With today being *International Women’s Day*, I just want to share a few quick words on the women in my life. I have the privilege of having some incredible women as part of my life. In my family there is my wife, my mum, auntie’s, cousins and other relatives, the many wonderful female friends both online and offline, and every day I have the pleasure of working with some truly remarkable women in the Open Source world, throughout the various communities I am part of. There has been much discussion, particularly in the Open Source community, about how we can encourage more women into our communities, and there has been some friction between different approaches. I don’t see today as a day in which those debates should flourish, but as a day in which we should celebrate the women in our lives who help us flourish. Everyone single one of us has women who contribute so much to our lives and empower us every day, and I am thankful for all the women who bring color to my life, and give me the strength and energy to be who I am. 🙂
Live Announcement Of Ubuntu International Women’s Day Competition Winners!
At **10am PSt / 1pm EST / 8pm UTC/GMT** on Monday I will be doing another live videocast, and this one is a really special one. That day, March 8th, is [International Women’s Day](https://www.internationalwomensday.com/) and the [Ubuntu Women](https://ubuntu-women.org/) team have been running a competition to gather a wonderful collection of stories about how women discovered Ubuntu. I have been given the honor of picking one of the two winners and the community has picked the other. The two winners will receive a fantastic collection of prizes.
I want to thank all of the awesome entries to the competition and thanks to the *Ubuntu Women* team for asking me to participate and share the winners. I look forward to see you all then! 🙂
**[Go and watch the live cast here](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon)**.
The Grand App Writing Challenge Submissions!
As many of you will be aware, this week [Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek) took part, and the week has been wonderful so far. There has been so much excitement and interest, and I have been tickled pink at just how many people have been telling me that the week has re-invigorated their interest or given them a new passion for writing fun and useful apps. Ubuntu is an awesome platform for making these apps, and it has been a real pleasure to see people getting so fired up about using it. 🙂
Before the week kicked off, I offered a fun little challenge called [The Grand App Writing Challenge](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2010/02/25/the-grand-app-writing-challenge/). With a week of rocking content ahead designed to help build a fun and thriving community who like to write apps that scratch their itches, I put forward the challenge for you good people to write some apps and see how far you get this week, and I will blog your progress at the end of the week. Well, while we still have a few sessions yet to go, it is Friday and I was keen to show off some progress!
With which, I present the wonderful submissions from some of our attendees this week!
## HardwareMap
Chris Couzens wrote in and shared his project *HardwareMap*:
> My program is called HardwareMap. It lists computers and services on the local network (Avahi) and hardware connected to your computer (HAL). When you click a device, it tells you properties of the device and lets you perform common actions for that device. For example, an ftp share has a button to open in Nautilus, a webcam has a button to
open in Cheese and an inline preview of the webcam.
### More Info
* See [the Launchpad project](https://code.launchpad.net/~ccouzens/+junk/hardwaremap)
* See [more screenshots](https://picasaweb.google.com/CCouzens/Hardwaremap#)
* See the [PPA](https://launchpad.net/~ccouzens/+archive/ppa)
## Blogite
Andy Breiner writes in about *Blogite*
> I created a python program called Blogite. It is suppose to be similar to Gwibber but for RSS feeds. It pulls in the RSS feeds, but I need a better way of displaying the feeds. I want to add categories so rss feeds can be easily separated and shown. It is still slightly rough around the edges. I also want to add pictures so it can show the picture right next to the post similar to Gwibber.
Fantastic! This looks like it has bags of potential!
### More Info
* See [the Launchpad project](https://edge.launchpad.net/blogite)
* See [more information](https://emperor.nebrwesleyan.edu/~breiner/blogite.php)
* No PPA yet, but in the works
## Rename Them All
Owais Lone wrote in to share an application which can be described pretty easily:
> A simple Batch Renamer; That’s it. Even having a screenshot of my app on jono@home would be something I’ll cheer about for a couple of months at least.
Consider it done, Owais. 🙂
Owais made great progress this week, so check out the project!
### More Info
* See [the Launchpad project](https://edge.launchpad.net/renamethemall)
* See [more screenshots](https://www.flickr.com/photos/owais_lone/4397483191/)
* See the [PPA](https://launchpad.net/~loneowais/+archive/ppa)
## sshsplit
Martin Eve writes in with his first app, in the form of *sshsplit*:
> I recently saw your Great App Writing contest post and decided, over the weekend, to knock something up. This is my first effort at using Python, having previously had quite a lot of experience in C# and .NET. My program is called sshsplit. It multiplexes ssh dynamic tunnels. An example perhaps serves better. Normally you would: ssh -D 54321 remote-host – to get a tunnel on 127.0.0.1:54321 that goes through remote-host. However, if you are using a network-resource-intensive application (torrent clients for example), this single tunnel will not suffice for, say, 1000 concurrent connections. sshsplit launches several instances of the ssh dynamic tunnel and then load balances between them. If no arguments are passed, sshsplit launches the configuration GUI. Otherwise, for help, run: sshsplit -h. sshsplit can also be configured to use any binary you would like
Great work, Martin! It looks like you made fantastic progress!
### More Info
* See [the Launchpad project](https://edge.launchpad.net/sshsplit)
* Another[screenshot](https://www.martineve.com/sshsplit/sshsplit-screen2.png)
* See the [PPA](https://launchpad.net/~martineve/+archive/ppa)
## Uninstaller for Adobe® AIR® 1.0.0
Bernard Opic writes in with his very first app too:
> Uninstaller for Adobe AIR is an easy solution for uninstalling Adobe AIR applications. When installing an AIR application it is possible to first save the installation program file (. air). This file will then allow to install but also to uninstall the application, provided that the AIR engine is installed and functional. If you install an AIR application from its source without saving its installation program file, or if the AIR engine is not available, uninstalling an AIR application can be difficult on a GNU/Linux system because it requires the use of system commands via a shell. Thanks to Uninstaller for Adobe AIR it becomes very easy to uninstall an AIR application since it suffices to choose it from a list of installed applications and click on an Uninstall button. Uninstaller for Adobe AIR is a free software under GPL version 3 license, designed to compatible with the GNU/Linux Ubuntu distribution and with the GNOME and KDE window managers.
Great work, Bernard!
### More Info
* See [the homepage](https://blogs.media-tips.com/bernard.opic/uninstaller-for-adobe-air/)
## Splatter
Anirudh writes in with another fun and useful app in the form of *Splatter:
> I’m an (opportunistic 🙂 ) student developer, and wanted a better way to collaborate on bugs and watch issues on some of my favorite projects. However I hated having to go through bugzilla’s overwhelmingly complex interface just to check up for new comments and changes. If I turned on email notification I’d be hit with a barrage of emails which I’m not too fond of. I felt it was time for things to change. So over the past one and a half weeks, I wrote Splatter – a gnome app to keep track of bugs. It evolved from a very simple concept of being a frontend to a bugtracker to becoming a tool for collaboration on tasks with fellow developers.
Great work, Anirudh!
### More Info
* See [more screenshots and homepage](https://anirudhsanjeev.org/projects/Splatter)
* See the [PPA](https://edge.launchpad.net/~anirudhs/+archive/splatter)
## Ain’t Easy Project/Goal Manager
Andrew Sellers shares with us his work on *Ain’t Easy*:
> For those of us currently deluged with work, stretching from one week to another, or simply those who work on many different things, tracking down when an event is happening in nigh impossible. Not just that, sometimes goals will simply get buried under a mass of other projects. It just ain’t easy to keep up with all of it. Some things aren’t fit for a calendar, while others just don’t work well with to-do lists. Finally sometimes you have to associate text or documents with an event, how are you going to do that? That’s where Ain’t Easy comes in. Straight from Alabama, this application will take as many goals or projects as you can throw at it, throw your links and text at it, it’ll just save it and let you launch it a simple double-click of the mouse.
I look forward to seeing more updates, Andrew!
### More Info
* See [more information](https://bama.ua.edu/~acsellers/aint.html)
* Third party [Debian package](https://bama.ua.edu/~acsellers/packages/ainteasy_0.1_all.deb)
## The Results
In my original blog post I offered to send three of the projects an Ubuntu t-shirt. I was going to pick three fave projects, but I think all the submissions are great, so I going to send you all a t-shirt. Thanks all for taking part!
This Is Exactly What We Want
A user called Eric left a [comment](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2010/03/04/ubuntu-opportunistic-developer-week-and-python-snippets-day/#comment-136320) on my [Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week and Python Snippets Day](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2010/03/04/ubuntu-opportunistic-developer-week-and-python-snippets-day/) blog entry which I felt really needs highlighting:
> Thank you and the entire Canonical team for putting the Opportunistic Developer Week together!
> I’ve been stuck doing heavy, back end enterprise Java programming for the past few years. My interest in programming slowly fizzled out.
> On a whim, I decided to check out quickly, acire and the learning materials your team put together. PyGTK erased all the bad taste in my mouth from the Swing applications I’ve coded. 🙂 I haven’t had this much fun programming in a long time! Thanks so much!
This is exactly what I want us to do as community, to help unlock creativity in people’s minds and lower the barrier between idea and implementation. Thanks, Eric, you really put a smile on my face with that one.
Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week and Python Snippets Day
[Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek) day 4 kicks off and we have some incredible events today:
* **5pm UTC** – Hot rodding your app for translations support – David Planella
* **6pm UTC** – Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon
* **7pm UTC** – Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar
* **8pm UTC** – Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer
* **9pm UTC onwards** – Snippets Party – Join us in `#ubuntu-app-devel` and create Python snippets to share with other people – see [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PythonSnippets) for details of how to get involved!
It is recommended that you enjoy the week in [Lernid](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). You can find out more details of how to install Lernid [right here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). Don’t want to use Lernid? No worries, just pop over to `#ubuntu-classroom` and `#ubuntu-classroom-chat` to join in the fun. Don’t forget that `#ubuntu-app-devel` is the place to ask questions about general development on Ubuntu. 🙂
## Join the snippets party!
Today is a special day this week: in addition to providing some great content to help people get started writing apps on Ubuntu, we are also keen to continue growing our [wonderful library of python-snippets](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PythonSnippets) which is viewed with a program I wrote called *Acire*. This library of snippets provides a range of examples that you can run, play with, modify and merge into your programs. So many of us learn by doing, and the more snippets we have the easier it is the learn from a diverse range of topics!
We have two events today I am keen to encourage you to join. First I will be delivering a session on the python snippets project:
* **6pm UTC** – Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon
In the session I will explain how the project came about, it’s current progress and where we are going. We will then have a fun snippets party a little later:
* **9pm UTC onwards** – Snippets Party – Join us in `#ubuntu-app-devel` and create Python snippets to share with other people – see [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PythonSnippets) for details of how to get involved!
The snippets party is simple: just join `#ubuntu-app-devel` on freenode and join us to write a bunch of snippets and contribute them to python-snippets. Today we have 104 snippets already in the library: I would love to see us get that to over 150 today. Come and join us!
**[Contributing snippets is simple: just click here to find out more!](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PythonSnippets)**
Refreshing The Ubuntu Brand
The new style of Ubuntu is driven by the theme “Light”. We’ve developed a comprehensive set of visual guidelines and treatments that reflect that style, and are updating key assets like the logo accordingly. The new theme takes effect in 10.04 LTS and will define our look and feel for several years.
Ubuntu has seen a tremendous amount of growth and change since it was conceived in 2004. Back then it was a small project with strong ambitions and a handful of developers passionate about delivering a world class Linux Operating System that can compete on every level with Microsoft and Apple. We adopted a style based on the tagline “Linux for Human Beings”, and called it “Human”. Six years on we have made incredible progress. Ubuntu is a global phenomenon: we have carved out a pervasive culture of quality and design, thoughtful usability and great technology all fused together in a project that maintains the same commitment to community and collaborative development that we embraced back in 2004.
In 2009, a small team lead by Mark Shuttleworth, conducted a review of our key brand values and identity. Based on that work, a set of visual treatments were produced, and shared with key members of the Ubuntu Art community, spanning the core distributions, derivatives, and aligned efforts like the Forums. Representatives from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, SpreadUbuntu and more came to London and worked with the Canonical design team to refine the designs and work together. The results of that work are presented [here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Brand).
This collection of community representatives worked with the design team and created some great work. Some examples:
In addition to this we also worked with our key governance boards: the Community Council, Technical Board, Forums Council, LoCo Council and others around this work to ensure that our community can use it to it’s best advantage.
## Brand Values
The key values we believe are reflected in the Ubuntu project are:
* **Precision**. We ship high quality software, and we ship it exactly on schedule. Our Debian heritage means that the individual components of our platform are tightly defined and neatly arranged. There is no excess, no fat, and no waste in Ubuntu. We are a community that thrives on delivery.
* **Reliability**. We are building Ubuntu for serious use. Whether it is being deployed on the desktop or in the cloud, we care that Ubuntu is secure, reliable and predictable. We deliver updates to Ubuntu that are rigorously tested. When we make a mistake, we learn from it and put in place good processes to ensure that it does not happen again.
* **Collaboration**. Ubuntu is the result of collaborative work between thousands of people, and it is both the beneficiary and the public face of the collaborative work of *tens* of thousands of free software developers who build individual upstream components, or aggregate them in Debian. We go to great lengths to ensure that anybody, anywhere, who is passionate about Ubuntu and competent to participate, can do so. We enable virtual participation in our physical Ubuntu Developer Summits, we use mailing lists and IRC in preference to over-the-cubicle-wall communications, and we welcome contributions from both companies and individuals. Our governance bodies reflect the diversity of that participation, and leadership or permissions are based on proven merit, not corporate employment.
* **Freedom**. We strive to deliver the very best free software platform. Our highest mission is to accelerate the adoption and spread of free software, to make it the de facto standard way that people build and consume software. We celebrate the work of other groups committed to collaborative content development, and open content licensing. While we are pragmatic about this (we ship proprietary drivers when we believe they are a requirement to get free software working well on PC’s) we expressly do not include any proprietary applications in the default installation of Ubuntu. We want people to love and appreciate free software, and even though we work to make sure that Ubuntu is compatible with, certified with and iteroperable with popular proprietary software, we do so to facilitate the adoption of free alternatives to proprietary solutions.
While the branding has changed, the freedoms and rights have not: our global community will still maintain access to the resources needed to construct logos that use the branding. We will be providing the new font, images, colour specs, and a set of recommendations for creating branding for websites, t-shirts and the other needs of our community. As before we will protect the integrity of the Ubuntu brand with the [Ubuntu Trademark Policy](https://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/trademarkpolicy).
## Light: Ubuntu is Lightware
The new style in Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of “Light”.
We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed. Ubuntu represents a break with the bloatware of proprietary operating systems and an opportunity to delight to those who use computers for work and play. More and more of our communications are powered by light, and in future, our processing power will depend on our ability to work with light, too.
Visually, light is beautiful, light is ethereal, light brings clarity and comfort.
*Historical perspective: From 2004-2010, the theme in Ubuntu was “Human”. Our tagline was “Linux for Human Beings” and we used a palette reflective of the full range of humanity. Our focus as a project was bringing Linux from the data center into the lives of our friends and global family*.
**[Go and see the full details of the brand refresh here, with more images](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Brand).**
Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Day 3 Kicks Off In An hour
Just a quick note to let you all know that [Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek) day 3 kicks off in an hour!
Here is the order of events for today:
* **5pm UTC** – Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy
* **6pm UTC** – What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche
* **7pm UTC** – Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer
* **8pm UTC** – SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer
* **9pm UTC onwards** – Hacking party in `#ubuntu-app-devel` on freenode! Come and join us, work on your apps, ask questions and have fun in our community. 🙂
It is recommended that you enjoy the week in [Lernid](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). You can find out more details of how to install Lernid [right here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). Don’t want to use Lernid? No worries, just pop over to `#ubuntu-classroom` and `#ubuntu-classroom-chat` to join in the fun. Don’t forget that `#ubuntu-app-devel` is the place to ask questions about general development on Ubuntu. 🙂
Announcing The 10.10 Ubuntu Developer Summit
I am tickled pink to announce the details of the next [Ubuntu Developer Summit](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS) taking place at [Dolce La Hulpe Hotel and Resort](https://www.dolce-la-hulpe-brussels-hotel.com/) in Brussels, Belgium from the **10 – 14 May 2010**.
The Ubuntu Developer Summit one of the most important events in the Ubuntu calendar and at it we discuss, debate and design the next version of Ubuntu. We bring together the entire Canonical development team and sponsor a large number of community members across the wide range of areas in which people contribute to Ubuntu. This includes packaging, translations, documentation, testing, LoCo teams and more. UDS is an incredible experience, filled with smart and enthusiastic people, fast paced and exhausting, but incredibly gratifying to be part of the process that builds the next Ubuntu.
It is important to note that UDS is *not* a conference. It is absolutely a participatory discussion-based summit in which we work together as a team to define what our next release will look like. If you are planning on attending or planning on applying for sponsorship, you should be prepared to participate in the sessions actively.
For every UDS, Canonical sponsors a number of community members to attend the event. We are looking for those who want to bring some real insight and expertise in their area of Ubuntu, be it development or community governance. If you feel you could offer this but can’t afford to cover your expenses of attending, you should apply for sponsorship.
## How To Request Sponsorship
Luckily, requesting your sponsorship is pretty simple, and we a simple system to handle sponsorship requests. To apply for sponsorship, just follow these simple steps:
* Go to [https://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-m/](https://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-m/) and log in with OpenID. When you have logged in, click the *Request Sponsorship* link.
* On the first page, add your location and use the *About* yourself box to tell us why you should be sponsored and tell us about your work on Ubuntu – here you should tell us your vital stats – tell us your any 5-A-Day numbers, any work on the sponsorship queue, what you have uploaded, which teams you are in, your LoCo involvement, documentation you have written, any translation work and other work that you have been involved in. When you have done this, click the Next button.
* On the final page, answer the questions and then click Finish to finish your sponsorship request.
More details on requesting sponsorship are [here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-M/Sponsorship).
**PLEASE NOTE**: we have a re-direction bug at the end of this process that affects *some* people. Don’t worry though, your application is still saved to the system. We are currently in the process of fixing this bug.
All done. 🙂
Everyone should get their sponsorship requests in by **Fri 26th March 2010** to be considered. Good luck!
Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Day 2 Kicks Off In An Hour
Just a quick note to let you all know that [Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek) day 2 kicks off in an hour!
Here is the order of events for today:
* **4pm UTC** – Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer
* **5pm UTC** – Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge
* **6pm UTC** – Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine
* **7pm UTC** – SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken Vandine
* **8pm UTC** – Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy
* **9pm UTC onwards** – Hacking parts in `#ubuntu-app-devel` on freenode! Come and join us, work on your apps, ask questions and have fun in our community. 🙂
It is recommended that you enjoy the week in [Lernid](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). You can find out more details of how to install Lernid [right here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid). Don’t want to use Lernid? No worries, just pop over to `#ubuntu-classroom` and `#ubuntu-classroom-chat` to join in the fun. Don’t forget that `#ubuntu-app-devel` is the place to ask questions about general development on Ubuntu. 🙂