[12:56] <jagdeep> hi everyone ,I need little help when i run google-chromium through terminal i get message :"Segmentation fault",what it means and why it does not run.
[13:29] <mhall119> jagdeep: unfortunately this isn't a support channel
[13:29] <mhall119> #ubuntu is the official support channel
[13:30] <mhall119> this one is used for teaching sessions
[16:57]  * jcastro taps the mic
[16:57] <jcastro> hello everyone!
[17:01] <jcastro> ok welcome everyone
[17:01] <jcastro> we'll start in a few minutes
[17:01] <jcastro> this is the weekly Q+A with people at Ubuntu
[17:02] <jcastro> this week we have Allison Randall, the Ubuntu Architect.
[17:03] <jcastro> wendar: why not introduce yourself while we sort this bot business. :)
[17:03] <wendar> Hi everyone!
[17:08] <jcastro> wendar: ok so can you start off with what you do for Ubuntu?
[17:08] <jcastro> perhaps what you're working on right now?
[17:10] <wendar> There's kind of two sides for that, since I've been involved and interested in a Ubuntu for a number of years.
[17:11] <wendar> One side is my community volunteer hat, and another side is what I do at Canonical.
[17:11] <wendar> For Canonical, I'm the technical architect, which means I help them make good technical decisions in how they contribute to Ubuntu.
[17:13] <wendar> But I also do general packaging work, bug work, advocacy, etc.
[17:13] <wendar> In the Oneiric cycle, some of my projects are:
[17:15] <wendar> - Finding out how people work with bugs (all the different ways across different teams), and working together with the BugSquad and others to figure out if there are any improvements we can make, or good ideas from some teams that other teams can share.
[17:16] <wendar> - Planning and contributing in the dev work needed for the transitions from Python 2.6->2.7, 3.1->3.2, and generally 2.x->3.x.
[17:18] <wendar> - There are some existing (partial) tools for helping Locos make localized CDs, I'm helping out with polishing those up for general use.
[17:19] <wendar> - I'm on the Application Review Board, which reviews and approves lightweight applications for Ubuntu. We're looking for new members now, and working on making the process easier for developers.
[17:20] <wendar> - I'm part of the DEX project, where we work on minimizing the diff between Ubuntu and Debian, by contributing our fixes in Ubuntu back upstream to Debian.
[17:21] <jcastro> (ok so we're supposed to start in 10 minutes)
[17:21] <jcastro> I went to early, so we're going to pause the session
[17:21] <jcastro> and then wait 10 minutes, then we'll start (and go through all this real quick)
[17:21] <jcastro> sorry for the inconveniance
[17:22] <wendar> ah, cool, coffee break :)
[17:30] <jcastro> ok
[17:30] <jcastro> we'll give it another minute for the last minute stragglers
[17:31] <jcastro> ok welcome everyone to the weekly Q+A - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WeeklyQandA
[17:31] <jcastro> In the Ubuntu project transparency is always important to us. To this end we are holding weekly Q+A sessions with different leaders in the community. This provides an excellent opportunity to get clarity on some questions you have.
[17:31] <jcastro> this week we have Allison Randall, the Ubuntu Architect and from the application review board.
[17:32] <jcastro> ok wendar, please introduce yourself and take it away!
[17:32] <wendar> Hi all!
[17:33] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/06/03/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.
[17:33] <wendar> A summary: I'm both a community volunteer for Ubuntu, and work at Canonical.
[17:34] <wendar> At Canonical I work as technical architect, where I help them make smart technical decisions in how they contribute to Ubuntu.
[17:34] <wendar> I'm really enjoying having my paid work and my volunteer work so well aligned.
[17:35] <wendar> For most of my career, I've had a handful of free software projects I'm working on at any given time, and do something quite different in my "day job". :)
[17:35] <wendar> Some things I'm working on that might be interesting to talk about:
[17:35] <wendar> - Bug workflows
[17:35] <wendar> - Python transitions
[17:36] <wendar> - Application Review Board
[17:36] <wendar> - DEX (Debian/Ubuntu collaboration project)
[17:36] <wendar> - Tools for Locos to make localized CDs
[17:39] <jcastro> ok, does anyone have any questions so far?
[17:39] <jcastro> ask your question prefaced with QUESTION: in #ubuntu-classroom-chat
[17:41] <ClassBot> delcoyote asked: Why Unity? such a drastic change?
[17:42] <wendar> Very good question delcoyote
[17:42] <wendar> I've got both a philosophy answer and a practical answer.
[17:43] <wendar> Philosophy first: So, the tricky thing about technology is that it moves *fast*.
[17:43] <wendar> Scarily fast.
[17:44] <wendar> In that environment, you kind of have two choices: wait around and see what great ideas others come up with and follow them, or stretch out, come up with your own great ideas and let others follow you.
[17:44] <wendar> It would certainly be easier to just adopt others ideas.
[17:45] <wendar> But, it's a missed opportunity to make the world better.
[17:45] <wendar> For a very long time, Linux has been following Windows/Mac.
[17:46] <wendar> Cherry picking from their user interface ideas, to build something that's sort of a lesser copy.
[17:46] <wendar> But, that seems a bit odd, considering how good the free software community is at thinking up, implementing, and trying out new ideas.
[17:47] <wendar> We're an enormously agile community.
[17:48] <wendar> It just makes sense to apply that agile creativity to the desktop.
[17:48] <wendar> Unity isn't the only project doing it, there's a general evolutionary move to try out new ways of interacting with the desktop.
[17:48] <wendar> gnome shell and Meego are other good examples
[17:49] <wendar> On the whole, trying out bold innovations is a good thing.
[17:50] <wendar> It's investing in the future, because if we stand still, everyone else will pass us by in the general rush forward of technology progress.
[17:50] <wendar> Then, there's the practical side:
[17:51] <wendar> One of the things Ubuntu has been working on is usability testing.
[17:52] <wendar> Instead of guessing what users want, or just building it based on what we as developers want, we're going out and asking the users, observing the pain they have, and trying to improve.
[17:52] <wendar> Developers *are* users, but we're a special class of users. More like "power users".
[17:52] <wendar> And, power users are a very small percentage of the overall total users.
[17:53] <wendar> In the usability testing, we've found things in our traditional desktop that really cause users problems.
[17:54] <wendar> So, Unity seeks to directly address those problems we found, and streamline the user's experience.
[17:54] <wendar> Now, with any agile solution to a problem, it's not a "single iteration" fix.
[17:55] <wendar> Unity in Natty works to solve the problems we found in the Classic interface. But in Oneiric, we're doing usability testing on Unity, to solve the next tier of problems.
[17:56] <wendar> EOA
[17:56] <ClassBot> charlie-tca asked: Are there any plans for a usability test using disabled/blind users?
[17:57] <wendar> Definitely. Accessibility is one area where we know Unity in Natty needs work.
[17:58] <wendar> One of the Unity developers is blind, so we've got resources on improving that.
[17:58] <wendar> It basically came down to a time question of how much Unity could deliver in 6 months.
[17:59] <wendar> Accessibility has always been one of the core values of Ubuntu, and that's not going away.
[18:00] <wendar> There will be a number of improvements in Oneiric, and for P we're aiming for the Unity accessibilty story to be even better than Classic.
[18:00] <wendar> EOA
[18:01] <ClassBot> charlie-tca asked: Realizing that a lot of emphasis was placed on Accessibility in Natty's development cycle, are there any plans to add more developers to the accessibility side of things/
[18:02] <wendar> I don't know (the DX team is a bit separate from the Platform team), but it sounds like a good idea, I'll ask around. :)
[18:03] <ClassBot> Jeff_Gray asked: Is there any work being done with visual effects on multi-monitor systems?
[18:03] <jcastro> this sounds like another DXish question
[18:04] <wendar> multimonitors is a topic that came up in both UDS-N and UDS-O
[18:04] <wendar> there is work being done
[18:04]  * wendar goes to pull up blueprints...
[18:05] <wendar> Here's one, though it's more on the "config" side: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-o-dual-monitor-support
[18:06] <wendar> But, yes, jcastro is right, that work is being done on the DX side.
[18:06] <jcastro> I can answer a little bit
[18:06] <jcastro> right now our multi monitor story is about the same as GNOME 2.x, but a tad better
[18:07] <jcastro> there's one bad bug where if you have your secondary monitor LeftOf where the launcher totally gets confused
[18:07] <jcastro> which is an unfortunate bug that people are working on
[18:07] <jcastro> but generally speaking we're better than 10.10 - and neil has plans working with the X guys to make that rock more in 11.10
[18:07] <ClassBot> broncy asked: When you speak of agile dev, my immediate thoughts rush to strong relationships with customers to gain feedback for future iterations. It seems Ubuntu is moving towards a more user friendly environment with Unity. Do you make efforts to reach out towards consumers who have never used linux desktop environments, to try and make future iterations more enticing to jump into?
[18:08] <wendar> Very much so.
[18:09] <wendar> One of the core targets in our usability testing is people who have absolutely no experience with Ubuntu or Linux.
[18:10] <wendar> Like, imagine someone who has used computers for email or web browsing. Maybe they have a camera, a printer, and a phone.
[18:10] <wendar> They have a set of tasks they do regularly on Windows or Mac or a smart phone.
[18:11] <wendar> So, one key test is how well they can adapt to doing the exact same tasks on Ubuntu.
[18:11] <wendar> Some are easy. If a user has Firefox on Windows/Mac, they come to Ubuntu and say "Hey, I know how to do this!"
[18:12] <wendar> The recognize the icons, the familar browser features, etc...
[18:12] <wendar> Some things are harder.
[18:12] <wendar> Like, if you have a camera, and you want to get photos from your camera and send them to your grandmother...
[18:12] <wendar> That involves several different apps/tools/interfaces.
[18:13] <wendar> Basically, yes, yes, yes, that audience is absolutely critical. :)
[18:13] <wendar> EOA
[18:14] <wendar> (Oh, and the goal of the usability testing is to figure out where it's hard, and make it easier.)
[18:15] <ClassBot> JJWalker2 asked: Why doesn't Ubuntu One allow syncing of folders outside of user?
[18:16] <wendar> That basically comes down to a fundamental question of "what is Ubuntu One?"
[18:17] <wendar> With all great software, there's a tension between doing everything people could want, and focusing on solving a particular problem really well.
[18:18] <wendar> Ubuntu One is "the personal cloud", that is, it's focused on the problems of users, in backing up and syncing their personal data.
[18:18] <wendar> Very similar features could be used for backing up and syncing an entire computer, but that's a different problem set, with needs for different features.
[18:18] <wendar> (There are companies that offer that service too.)
[18:19] <wendar> But, if the developers spent all their time addressing the needs of a more "sysadmin" audience, I think they'd do a poorer job of addressing the needs of the average user.
[18:20] <ClassBot> There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
[18:20] <wendar> EOA
[18:20] <ClassBot> charlie-tca asked: Are there any plans to make UbuntuOne work with all the derivatives, such as mythbuntu, xubuntu, lubuntu, etc?
[18:22] <wendar> There's no active work on it AFAIK, but if the mythbuntu, xubuntu, lubuntu, etc teams were interested, I'm sure the Ubuntu One devs would be thrilled to see their work on all the derivatives (and even offer help figuring out any technical problems).
[18:22] <wendar> EOA
[18:23] <jcastro> more questions anyone?
[18:25] <ClassBot> There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
[18:28] <jcastro> ok I guess that's time
[18:28] <jcastro> thanks wendar!
[18:28] <jcastro> and thanks everyone for the questions!
[18:30] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/06/10/%23ubuntu-classroom.html
[20:39] <nRy> does anyone know the AMI number for an EC2 Ubuntu AMI with GPU's?
[20:42] <delcoyote> nRy,
[20:42] <delcoyote> not sure if this helps
[20:42] <delcoyote> http://alestic.com/
[20:48] <nRy> thanks delcoyote
[20:48] <nRy> I had this AMI:  ubuntu-natty-daily-amd64-server-20110323
[20:48] <nRy> that someone gave me during the Ubuntu Cloud Days
[20:49] <nRy> but I can't seem to find it now on EC2
[20:50] <pleia2> nRy: maybe ask in #ubuntu-cloud?
[20:50] <pleia2> (the cloud folks don't hang out here all the time, just when they are doing classes :))
[20:51] <Jeff_Gray> I like chese
[20:51] <Jeff_Gray> Cheese even
[20:53] <nRy> ah ok! makes sense..thanks pleia2