=== CikK3lAp4 is now known as fadzL === yofel_ is now known as yofel [12:08] hi === MagicFab is now known as MFFFF === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu User Days - Current Session: Introduction to User Days - Instructors: pleia2, nigelb [13:30] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/24/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [13:30] Hello everyone! [13:30] morning :) [13:31] Welcome to our fourth Ubuntu User Day event! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays [13:31] helo :) [13:31] The User Days Team has been working hard these past few weeks in order to bring you these 12 sessions. [13:31] Hello [13:31] Now, we have members from many teams in the Ubuntu community here today who have graciously volunteered to share their knowledge with all of us. [13:32] Before we begin, we would like to get a quick feel for who is here. If you are here, please say your name and where you are from. [13:32] Sebastian from England [13:32] I'm Nigel from India btw :) [13:32] and I'm Elizabeth from California (where it's 6:30AM ;)) [13:33] Robert from Romania :) [13:33] Mike from Pennsylvania [13:33] Hi, I am Nabil from Morocco [13:33] Fouad from Newfoundland, Canada :) [13:33] Hadri Malaysia [13:33] Excellent! [13:34] Its great to see a good international turnout [13:34] A few of you are probably wondering what User Days are all about. [13:35] User Days were created to be sets of classes offered during a one day period to teach the beginning or intermediate Ubuntu user the basics in order to get them started using Ubuntu. This includes: [13:35] Finding Help in Ubuntu, Accessibility Apps, Command Line Basics, Unity, ... [13:35] ...and more! For our full schedule head over to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays [13:36] User Days were born out of a discussion at the Ubuntu Developers Summit in November 2009 regarding Ubuntu Open Week not being targeted enough at users. [13:36] (This however is now changing. From this cycle on Ubuntu Open Week will be targeted at users) [13:37] thanks nigelb, now for a quick rundown of how today will work: [13:37] Each hour, an instructor will be giving a class in this channel, #ubuntu-classroom [13:37] During the classes, #ubuntu-classroom will be moderated (+m). This means that only the instructor and hosts will be able to talk in the channel. [13:37] (we are -m right now for the intro so people could say hello and where they were from :)) [13:37] Any discussion about the class should take place #ubuntu-classroom-chat [13:38] If you have a question during the class, please ask in #ubuntu-classroom-chat. Be sure to prefix it with 'QUESTION:' to ensure that it gets noticed. For example: [13:38] QUESTION: What are Ubuntu User Days? [13:38] Anyone wanna give it a try? :) [13:38] nigelb asked: Do you like cats? [13:39] why yes! and I have two of them :) [13:39] sebsebseb asked: Do you like dogs? [13:39] dogs are lovely too! [13:39] these questions aren't immediately posted, I opened up a query with ClassBot to paste them in channel [13:40] each instructor will do this at their own pace, no need to repeat your question if you haven't seen it yet, it's probably still in the question queue [13:40] After each session, our group of volunteers will post the IRC logs to the wiki as soon as possible. [13:40] So if you miss a session or just want to review what you learned, be sure to check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays for links to logs that our volunteers will put up as soon as they are able [13:40] If you can't wait, Logs will also be automatically posted on http://irclogs.ubuntu.com near the end of each hour. [13:41] Please be sure to remind all of your friends and family who might be interested in using Ubuntu that this event is taking place today. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays/JoiningIn has some information about how they can participate. [13:41] Thanks pleia2. [13:42] If you think your IRC client is noisy, the Joining In page linked about has some information for most of the common clients. [13:42] Finally, before we move on to answering any more questions about Ubuntu User Days that you might have, I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who has helped make this day possible. [13:42] It simply would not have been possible to organize this event without all of their help :) [13:43] Finally, at the end of the day, please take some time to fill out our survey! We will use the results to help make the next Ubuntu User Day event even better. http://goo.gl/bryxq [13:43] Now, does anyone have any general questions about the day? [13:45] btw, you will notice that one of the questions on the survey is related to whether we'll keep running User Days now that Open Week is very similar, so if you feel strongly about keeping this event alive, please let us know :) [13:46] sebsebseb asked: Why is this users day so close to the 11.10 release? [13:46] availability of volunteers to run it and in July we had lots of other Classroom events going on [13:46] and then another Open Week after the release [13:46] if there is another User Days, we'll try to do it earlier in the cycle (probably January) [13:47] Most of us volunteers were a bit busy to handle it earlier in the cycle, that's all. [13:47] ok [13:49] any other questions? [13:50] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [13:50] not from me [13:50] jedijf asked: How do we thank you for doing this? [13:51] I'll be in Philly on Oneiric release day, parties are good :) [13:51] lol, you got it! [13:55] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [13:57] Thank you for your understanding, it's the first time that I use this tool! [13:58] I mean the messaging tool is new to me [13:58] nabilinux: Which tool? IRC? [13:58] The one that I am using right now === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu User Days - Current Session: Unity - Instructors: DBO [14:00] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/24/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [14:03] ok, it looks like our instructor DBO is running late, until he arrives we're going to turn this session into a general Ubuntu Q&A [14:06] so, does anyone have any Ubuntu project questions? (not support :)) [14:07] jsjgruber-l-onei asked: The most basic question: Why should someone run Ubuntu? [14:07] heh, good one. [14:08] Everyone person running Ubuntu will probably give you a different answer. [14:08] Because, well, there are *so* many reasons [14:08] a few of my family members prefer it because it has the software center that makes installing stuff easy (and free!) [14:09] they also like that they haven't gotten any viruses which slow down their computer :) [14:10] I've found that Ubuntu is a great environment to code in, that's why I use it. [14:11] driver support for things like printers has gotten better too, so instead of having a disk to install a printer driver like in some other OSes, you can just select from a dropdown of already installed drivers [14:12] I like using it because there are lots of options for configuration, lots of different desktop options :) [14:12] and I'm sure there are dozens of other reasons why people use Ubuntu! [14:12] sebsebseb asked: What do you both personally think of Unity pleia2 and nigelb and why? [14:13] I like it :) Though I tend to usually just work on terminals for the most part. [14:13] I'm an Xubuntu project member, I've never even really used Gnome classic, didn't make the move to Unity, still using Xfce [14:14] but the betas for oneiric I've tried here and there were pretty nice, and I really like how keybinding driven it can be [14:14] sebsebseb asked: What about Gnome Shell pleia2 and nigelb? Which I know isn't really in 11.04, but there's the ppa, but will be in the repos for 11.10 as an option. [14:14] Never tried it. [14:15] neither have I [14:15] Bauwan asked: Will shortcut super+F for showing last used files work in 11.10? In beta1 I tested it and it seemed gone. [14:15] if our Unity guy makes it we'll pass this question along to him (unless you know, nigelb?) [14:15] Nope, sorry. [14:15] (I mean I don't know) [14:15] sebsebseb asked: Why do you think a new user straight from Windows or Mac OS X should go for Ubuntu, rather then well well many other distributions that are also pretty user friendly? [14:17] Ubuntu has enough users that there is good documenation and support available than a most other distros. I think sites like askubuntu.com with a good community drive would be another reason. [14:17] and you have pretty much every option for support in ubuntu, we're not restricted to mailing lists or forums as a main avenue of support [14:19] and I happen to think it's one of the best options out there ;) but I suppose personal preference doesn't mean a whole lot [14:19] Bauwan asked: What about a new icon-theme for Ubuntu? Is that on your timeline? Design-team already on it to surprise us until 12.04? ;) [14:19] unfortunately I haven't kept up with this [14:20] any comments, nigelb? [14:21] No, I'm a bit detached from those developments [14:22] sebsebseb asked: I know pleia2 is doing a session later about KDE and XFCE4, but what about LXDE/Lubuntu have either of you used it, what you think of it? Plus it became officaly recognised by Canonical with 11.04 I think it was. [14:23] LXDE is nice, light-weight (Xfce doesn't really strive for that anymore) [14:23] it's first official release will be with 11.10 [14:23] well, recognised and using all the ubuntu resources [14:24] sebsebseb asked: XFCE doesn't really strive to be light-waight anymore, meaning what exactly? [14:25] one of the benefits of Xubuntu used to be that it ran better on older systems, while it can still be slimmed down more than gnome-based systems, by default some of the recent benchmarks these past few years showed it's similar to gnome2 [14:26] so you won't find the light-weight comment on the Xubuntu website these days, it's really geared toward being an alternative that's more (and easily!) customizable [14:28] more questions? :) [14:28] sebsebseb asked: Some people think that Gnome 2 can be replaced with XFCE quite easilly now, because they are pretty similar, not quite similar enough for me to just be able to do that though, but Ubuntu Studio will switch to XFCE from Gnome 2 for 11.10 I read before instead of using Gnome2/3/Unity/GnomeShell, what do you think about all this any comments? [14:30] yes, the Studio folks are switching to XFCE for 11.10, it may be a bit of a rough release though since it's the first one with a different desktop [14:30] they'll be in great shape for 12.04 though === starcraftman is now known as starcraft2 === starcraft is now known as starcraftman [14:30] I find Xfce to be a good replacement for Gnome2, but the feeling is not universal === starcraft2 is now known as starcraft [14:32] whatever happens, moving away from Gnome2 is a big step no matter where you go from there, Unity and Gnome Shell are a major UI change which the Studio people didn't feel would work well with what they were trying to achieve with Studio [14:32] at the end of the day, part of the reason I use Linux is because we have so many options, it's exciting to see all this new development happening, and being able to work with people to change defaults if they don't like what they see [14:33] Bauwan asked: I'm changing my parents computer from vista to Ubuntu with 11.10. Any tips what to teach them first to make them feel comfortable as fast as possible. What helps Ex-Windows/new Ubuntu users? [14:34] the official documentation by the docs team was quite good in 11.04, so I might start them off there: https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/ubuntu-help/index.html [14:34] (or the 11.10 version once it's released) [14:35] there have been some Unity cheat-sheets out there for getting familiar with the interface, but I'm afraid I don't have any current ones off-hand [14:37] sebsebseb asked: I know of one distribution that's going to actsaully let users choose betwen Gnome 2 and Gnome 3, surely really a distro that is doing that, has quite an advantage over the distros that are only providing one of them? Altough it seems most of them will just go and provide Gnome 3, and not bother with Gnome 2 or a fork of it. [14:37] AFAIK the Gnome foundation won't be maintaining Gnome2 forever, so it'll be a lot of work to maintain it for feature upgrades, security and have new plugins still work (or keep the old ones patched) [14:38] And the libraries as well. [14:38] if one distro is doing it, that's quite impressive :) but it will get harder as the years go on [14:38] Ubuntu has pretty much gone the future-looking route rather than trying to maintain older stuff [14:43] jsjgruber-l-onei asked: A relative of mine likes Ubuntu but says he always has trouble getting it set up to play DVDs. Any advice on this? [14:43] I'd suggest they head over to ubuntuforums.org to see if there is anyone who can help [14:43] there is a beginners forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=326 [14:44] my only suggestion is that they pay attention to the thread and cooperate with the people trying to help them :) [14:44] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats may also be worth a read (if they haven't already) [14:46] sebsebseb asked: Do you think that Unity might eventually help make Ubuntu go a bit more main streame, the new users straight from Windows or Mac OS X and quite a lot of them, but whilst not losing quite a few of the more expereinced users who don't really like Unity that much to other distributions, and yeah the kind who really like or liked Gnome 2 as well? I mean 11.10 won't have Gnome 2 at all anymore, so I wonder what will happen, [14:47] almost everyone I talk to about Unity at events and things say the same thing "I didn't like it at first, but once I got used to it I really liked it" [14:47] so while I realize there are a lot of folks out there who don't like it, anecdotal evidence shows me that they're a loud minority [14:48] I can't really speak to whether it will cause more Windows/OSX people to switch, I really don't know [14:49] and again, it's not like Ubuntu has gotten rid of KDE and XFCE...they added LXDE! so you still have lots of options [14:49] the new fluxbox is nice too, they have some new developers lately :) [14:50] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [14:55] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [14:55] sebsebseb asked: Let's say someone likes Ubuntu really, but wants to keep Gnome 2, well 11.10 won't really be an option for them, so what do you think they should do, run a older version of Ubuntu that still has Gnome 2 for a bit longer whilst it's still supported, or possbily use a Ubuntu based distro that is still using Gnome 2? [14:56] well, 10.04 is an LTS so that's supported for another 18 months [14:57] there is also gnome-fallback is gnome3 which should look pretty similar to classic, I can't confirm it's ready for 11.10 though (again, I'm not much of a Gnome person :)) [14:57] * starcraftman says hop ship to KDE :) [14:59] sebsebseb asked: I remember when Gnome 3 came out in April, and loads of people on the web, it was like they thought, they had to not use Gnome 2 anymore, because it was old, even though loads of distros were still providing it, and it seemed many people thought they had to go and use Gnome 3 already, or an alternative such as XFCE, and I don't think there's anything wrong with using Gnome 2 still as long as the distro is still having [14:59] continued: security updates and such, what you think? [15:00] pleia2: you asking me? === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu User Days - Current Session: What you should know when shopping for your next Ubuntu system - Instructors: starcraftman [15:00] no one said there was anything wrong with Gnome 2, yes it's fine if you're using a distro that's still patching it, but Ubuntu is putting their effort into future development [15:00] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/24/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [15:01] Ok, want me to intro myself pleia2? [15:01] yeah, go for it :) [15:01] welcome starcraftman! [15:02] Hi folks, I'm a computer science student that lives up north in the great Canadian expanse (around Montreal). I'm a third year student and started in the Linux community quite a while ago. I started in support/documentation and will likely transition to development help when I'm a bit more free. [15:03] you can find more aobut me here > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/starcraft.man [15:03] (I don't actually endorse smoking, picture just really cool :) ) [15:04] starcraft: Anyway, this session will be a bit impromptu for me, I got requested last minute. I'll be typing it on the fly. [15:04] Your free to ask questions as I go but I will only be answering them at the end of the session. I hope that's alright, want to be sure I get to all my material. [15:05] So, off we go. [15:06] Today's topic relates to Hardware and Buying for Linux computers. This isn't to say it's about finding support, but to avoid needing support altogether by buying machines that "just work" as people like to say about Windows and OSX/Macs. [15:06] I guess the starting question we really want to get into is why doesn't everything just naturally work with Linux out of the box like the other two main OS. [15:07] The answer is rather straightforward, Windows and OSX are supported by two massive companies who have the luxury of making corporate arrangements and affording large QA teams to guarantee that their hardware/software work together almost seemlessly. Apple has it even easier than Microsoft since they have such a small pool of hardware that they officially support and are the only legal hardware seller. [15:08] In addition to these complications, many manufacturers of hardware loathe disclosing things like product specifications and low level details for fear that the competition might use this to gain an advantage (though this seems less valid to me). [15:10] So, we'll be looking at how to research and buy hardware smartly that will avoid this mess entirely. We'll go over somet things you can do to improve (there are few guarantees in life) the chances of everyhting working out of the box. [15:10] Now, the crux of the question: What hardware is guaranteed to work with Ubuntu ? [15:11] No strict guarantees but there are definite trends I've seen in my years at buying hardware for my own personal machines (desktops and notebooks). [15:12] Companies like Intel offer very strong support for the platform and have engineers that work to ensure support is good. [15:12] There are other companies like Nvidia that have a more uneasy relationship I suppose. Rather than contributing open source drivers like intel does, they have their own drivers released in a binary format. [15:13] Then of course there are some companies that just don't much care for open source, they don't get much money out of it and provide little to no support. A lot of proprietary wireless makers could fall here like broadcom who I've always had trouble with and avoid now in wireless area. [15:13] So where to go to know what is supported and working. [15:14] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport [15:14] Click the above link and take a look. [15:14] We have 3 options here I'll go into to get information when buying. [15:15] First is the Ubuntu Certification program. This is a program run by Canonical who works with their corporate partners to ensure that machines certified here work as a complete system. [15:15] That is they don't rate the hardware in particulare but the systems as a whole. [15:16] http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/ < Certified site. [15:16] Lets take a little test drive, and look at Dell. [15:17] Say we were looking for a notebook, we can click on the notebook link in the Dell row and get to > http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Dell/laptops === JanC_ is now known as JanC === CikK3lAp4 is now known as fadzL [15:17] From here we can peruse different models and see what was certified when. Note that each machine has versions listed. That indicates when it was tested. [15:18] If we were buying today we would look for those with the latest release (11.04 until the next one releases in october). [15:18] If you click the links you can see what OS and what notes were made at certificiation. I'll leave it to you to continue browsing at your leisure. [15:18] Next is Ubuntu Friendly. [15:19] This is more of a community oriented project, aimed at testing parts like the old hardware pages (I'll get to those in a minute). [15:19] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFriendly [15:19] The project is still in the early stages but is promising and definitely something to look into at a later date. [15:20] At the bottom of the page you'll see the old (now discontinued) wiki pages that aimed to test particular hardware like printers, scanners, notebooks and such. [15:21] Say we were looking for Scanners , click that and then HP you get to > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsScannersHp [15:22] This was the old way of rating hardware, a bit messy as one big table. I hope the new ubuntu friendly guys have a nicer presentation. These pages though discontinued do hold valuable information but it will likely be out of date and can't be perfectly relied upon the longer the time between it's testing and your purchase. [15:22] These are resources when your shopping from traditional makers that usually don't offer extensive support for Linux. [15:23] The alternative to this is buying from a Linux shop (usually smaller outfits) that will test and preload a linux distribution on their machines. [15:23] http://linuxpreloaded.com/ [15:23] ^ This site has a fairly good list of retailers. [15:24] I've bought from 76 and know others who've used Zareason, good choices I'd say. Of course it's important to compare around and see what best fits your needs but these machines are tested with linux and in general don't need any additional help with drivers. [15:25] my System76 notebook's wireless, webcam and bluetooth work without any extra steps on a clean install. [15:25] You can browse these at your own discretion and compare with other options. [15:26] * starcraftman is just taking a lil break to get some whater, been typing a lot. [15:26] and back. [15:27] Now, I guess we can go over a few guidelines that might help when shopping. [15:27] Rule 1: Don't break your system. [15:28] If your trying to get some new hardware working, be careful. If it's tricky and has some instructions asking you to compile, insert into the kernel and do other steps your not comfortable with be careful. [15:28] In general, if your not sure about it, don't blindly follow steps posted on the internet unless you trust the person (say it's posted by a community member like me or pleia2). [15:29] Rule 2: Search effectively over the net BEFORE purchasing. [15:30] I've said this before in my finding help session I deliver usually but it's a golden rule that remains true. If your having a problem, 99% of the time somebody else did before you. [15:31] This applies in particular to hardware, the difference is you should be looking for posts on the web, the wikis, forums and launchpad to see people experience with particular hardware BEFORE buying. Once you give a company money, it's hard to negociate eh? [15:32] I'll cover more specifically how to get effective help in a later session in 5 hours or so, don't want to overlap too much so I'll just use a quick example. [15:34] Say I wanted to buy from dell and was looking at labtops, I could come across INspiron 15 found here > http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-intel-n5040/pd [15:34] (Not that I'm endorsing Dell to be clear) [15:34] It's best to use the methods we've seen now to see how that would fair. [15:35] First we can go to the Ubuntu certified program and look under dell/labtops [15:35] http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Dell/laptops [15:36] We see inspiron 15 models listed, we'd have to get a bit more specific but good to read them all and see how it is overall. [15:36] We can also google and see the results. The important bit is getting a general feeling for the rpoduct. [15:37] This advice comes with the caveat that there aren't any guarantees, so take everything with a grain of salt. [15:37] Rule 3: Professional vs Community Help [15:38] This ones a note from MagicFab, it's important to remember that Canonical does provide Support to users and businesses if the need exists. You can use these services to get help directly from people who know what they are talking about. [15:38] I've never used paid support but MagicFab used to be there so I'm sure it's pretty good :). [15:39] Community help would of course be things like the Ubuntu Forums, the wiki and other unofficial pages like the Ubuntu friendly system. [15:39] Rule 4: Share your findings. [15:40] One of the best things about community is that people share. If you buy a labtop x and find there's a minor problem even if it was listed as ubuntu certified, write about it. [15:40] Be it on your blog, on the wiki pages, to ubuntu-friendly, etc... [15:40] We can only get more information by sharing. [15:41] The last and most effective weapon/rule. [15:41] The live CD. [15:41] It's important to remember that any burt CD of Ubuntu is in fact a bootable live CD, this means you can try hardware on a show floor (with permission) without damaging it. [15:42] By booting up such a machine you'll see if the drivers for say wireless or webcam work out of the box. [15:42] Quite a handy trick. [15:43] Anyway, hmmm, that's quite a bit of information. I think that covers most of the bases. [15:43] Oh and just another example > http://castrojo.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/asus-eeetop-2002-and-ubuntu/ [15:44] Many Linux members like to review their purchases, googling for "labtop model" and "ubuntu review" can often turn up good stuff. [15:44] I think that's about it now, I'll take questions for the last 15 minutes. Went faster than I thought. [15:44] Maybe I just type fast :) [15:45] lunzie asked: are talks about freedom boxes on the table yet for ubuntu? [15:46] I think I want a bit of clarification on this question. [15:48] We'll interesting question, a bit tricky. There are various projects that have attempted to be entirely FLOSS over the years, the most prominent to my memory is > http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/HomePage [15:48] I can't attest to how well it runs, the problem with a FLOSS only distro is that an unfortunate reality is a lot of hardware is proprietary still. [15:50] This is where buying from companies that support Linux and FLOSS comes in. Companies like Intel and HP for printers giving direct opensource support need to be favoured over others. Ultimately corporations work based on demand and if the demand shifts to those who support FLOSS we'll get better hardware drivers/support. Hopefully. [15:50] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [15:50] Hope that answers question. [15:50] rigved asked: what are your thoughts on the Emperor Linux vendor (http://emperorlinux.com/)? [15:51] Never used then rigved, so I can't really comment on how well they are. Nor do I know any friends off top of head who have. [15:51] Sorry. [15:52] lunzie asked: is there a compatibility site to check peripheral equipment, like camcorders, say? I can't get my sony handycam to work as a webcam [15:52] I would say the best bet is Ubuntu friendly once that gets up and running completely. That should be our new repository for all individual hardware testing by the community. [15:53] The old site for hardware on wiki has a section of webcams > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsMultimediaWebCameras [15:53] Also one for multimedia devices like cams > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsMultimedia [15:53] Don't really have many other definite sites. Hope that helps. [15:55] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [15:57] Hope everyone enjoyed session, was a little more impromptu than I'd usually do. Happy shopping for Linux Machines :) [15:58] Oh and just a reminder, my later session will cover getting help kind of overlaps with this, I'll go over effective power searching google and finding help. Kinda fits with this topic. === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu User Days - Current Session: Contributing to Ubuntu - Instructors: akgraner [16:00] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/24/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [16:00] Hi I'm Amber Graner - or otherwise known as "akgraner" [16:00] I've been involved in the Ubuntu Community since early 2009 when I started using Ubuntu and Blogging about my experience. [16:01] Thanks for joining this session! [16:01] Now I am a freelance journalist and write for publications such as Linux Pro and Ubuntu User Magazines (online and print), informIT, and I am one of the co-authors of "The Offical Ubuntu Book", by Pearson Publishing. [16:01] When I started out in the Ubuntu Community I just used Ubuntu and blogged about my experience. However, I wanted to contribute, but I was (and still am) not a developer - meaning, I don't write code, but I heard that there is a place for anyone to contribute to Ubuntu and I wanted to find out where. [16:02] My first year I went a little overboard, so I don't recommend anyone taking on as much as I did my first year - that will lead to burnout (which is another talk I give but I digress). My point is there are many, many, many places for non-developers to get involved with. I would stress that as you transition from End User Consumer (meaning you just use the OS) to End User Contributor you concentrate on doing one thing well rather than [16:02] many things half-way or so-so. (In other words don't be a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none). [16:02] I'm really excited to tell anyone who will listen that there is a place for everyone to contribute and participate and Contribute in the Ubuntu Community you just have to know where to look. [16:02] This is an overview of all the areas of the community I had to go and find out about when I started is what I wish someone had given me. [16:03] **** What is this talk about? **** [16:03] This talk is about making you aware of all the areas that you can get involved in the Ubuntu Community as a contributor and the resources that help you make the conversion from consumer user to contributor user. REMEMBER- THERE IS A PLACE IN THE COMMUNITY FOR *EVERY* TYPE AND SKILL LEVEL OF CONTRIBUTOR! :-D [16:04] **** What this talk is not? **** [16:04] This talk is not about addressing the community problem of the day. If you have complaints about areas of the community please address those with the proper governing bodies (we will discuss governance a little in this talk) [16:04] **** Questions **** [16:04] Please use the following format for all questions -- QUESTION: Where do I find all the Ubuntu Mailing lists? All questions should be asked in #ubuntu-classroom-chat and I'll use classbot to post them into #ubuntu-classroom. Please ask your questions as you think of them and I'll take time at the end of the session to answer as many as possible. [16:06] (I don't want to present this too quickly so just let me know in the chat channel if I am moving/posting to fast) [16:06] **** Contributing to Ubuntu **** [16:06] As I mentioned before, there is a place for everyone to contribute within the Ubuntu Community. I want to stress--YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A DEVELOPER TO CONTRIBUTE. Entering into Community Contribution is like a lattice not a ladder. Lattice - http://people.ubuntu.com/~akgraner/Contributing%20to%20the%20Ubuntu%20Community/wooden-lattice-500x500.jpg Ladder - http://people.ubuntu.com/~akgraner/Contributing%20to%20the%20Ubuntu%20Commun [16:06] ity/ladder.gif [16:07] Ladder - http://people.ubuntu.com/~akgraner/Contributing%20to%20the%20Ubuntu%20Community/ladder.gif [16:07] What do I mean by that - you don't have to go to step 1 then step 2 etc - you can pick a point in the community and start contributing. Hopefully this talk will give you short cuts and guides to find your way around the community and find the place you can start contributing to based on your interest, skills, and talents. [16:09] Let's First look at the resources that you will need to know about: [16:09] **** Resources **** [16:09] * Wiki Pages - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ - these are the pages where you can find out almost all information about any and all projects withing the Ubuntu Project - even the supported derivative distributions have many of these same resources (we'll go over links to those supported distributions later in the talk so you know how to find out information about those as well) [16:10] * Ubuntu Website - http://www.ubuntu.com/ - this is the official Ubuntu Website and also has links to ways you can get involved and contribute [16:10] * Ubuntu Forums - http://ubuntuforums.org/ - this where information about various projects, discussions, and questions are asked and answered and information is distributed [16:10] * Ask Ubuntu - http://askubuntu.com/ - this is a new official area to ask questions and get answers to questions. [16:10] * Mailing Lists - https://lists.ubuntu.com/ this is the list for all the Ubuntu Mailing list so you can see which list you want to sign up for [16:11] * IRC Channels - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/ChannelList [16:11] * Ubuntu Fridge - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/ (Official Ubuntu News Source) - You can find out about upcoming projects here [16:11] * Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter - Summary of weekly Ubuntu related news items and a source to find out about projects and needs within the community [16:12] * Fridge Calendar - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/fridge/ - where you can see when and where all the various project and team meeting are being held so you can participate and find out more about that project or team [16:12] * Classroom Calendar - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/classroom/ - where you can find out about classes you can participate in that are being held in #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat [16:12] * SpreadUbuntu - http://spreadubuntu.org/ - DIY is a material repository and resource for local initiatives and LoCo Teams wishing to spread the Ubuntu operating system. [16:13] * LoCo Directory - http://loco.ubuntu.com/ - The LoCo Team Directory is an excellent resource for LoCo Teams to use when planning events. The LoCo Team Directory allows users to set up events and venues for their LoCo Team, and then allow users to register their attendance to the event. This makes planning and tracking much easier for users. [16:13] * Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/ - Launchpad is an open source suite of tools that help people and teams to work together on software projects. All Ubuntu Projects have launchpad accounts. While contributing to many areas of the Ubuntu Community a Launchpad account isn't necessary, but the more involved you get the more you will find the need to have a Launchpad account. [16:13] * Planet Ubuntu - http://planet.ubuntu.com/ - Planet Ubuntu is a window into the world, work and lives of Ubuntu developers and contributors. (Ubuntu Members have the option to syndicate their blogs to planet Ubuntu) You can also find out about various projects and needs withing the community and projects by following the planet ubuntu. [16:13] * Ubuntu Weblogs - http://ubuntuweblogs.org/ - UbuntuWeblogs.org, also known as Planet Ubuntu Users, aims to create a central place for all Ubuntu-related weblogs. Unlike Planet Ubuntu, this Planet is open to anyone who writes about Ubuntu or any derivative. This is also a great place to find out what people are working on and might need help with. [16:14] I wanted you all to have a list of resources in one place - you can look through say the IRC List or MailingList and find out about teams you might be interested in for example [16:15] **** Supported Ubuntu Distributions and its Derivatives **** [16:15] I mention these because the list is growing and you may find yourself wanting to participate and contribute to one of these distributions as well. I'll list the names of the distributions and their websites and later you can look up more information and find out about these communities as well. Just like Ubuntu each of the derivative distributions have communities for you to contribute. [16:16] * Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/ [16:16] * Ubuntu Server - http://www.ubuntu.com/business/server/overview [16:16] * Ubuntu Cloud - http://cloud.ubuntu.com/ [16:16] * Ubuntu Netboot - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveCDNetboot [16:16] * Ubuntu Core - http://www.canonical.com/engineering-services/ubuntu-core [16:17] * Kubuntu Desktop - http://www.kubuntu.org/ [16:17] * Kubuntu Mobile - http://www.kubuntu.org/ [16:17] * Xubuntu Desktop - http://www.xubuntu.org/ [16:17] * Edubuntu - http://www.edubuntu.org/ [16:18] * Mythbuntu - http://www.mythbuntu.org/ [16:18] * Ubuntu Studio - http://ubuntustudio.org/ [16:18] * Lubuntu - http://lubuntu.net/ [16:19] There is more to the overall community and where your talents and interest can be used than just Ubuntu. I want to make sure you knew of the other areas are well. [16:19] **** Ubuntu Community (taken from the website - http://www.ubuntu.com/community) **** [16:20] Many areas have overlap where you can either get help or give help. This list is just to make you aware of what is available and the areas you can look into. [16:21] ** Contribution ** [16:21] Remember: Whether you're an experienced Linux user or you're just getting started with open-source software, there are lots of ways to get involved with the Ubuntu community. [16:21] * Developers/Development - Contribute by writing or packaging new software or fixing bugs in existing software. We're always ready to embrace new technologies. - http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved/developers [16:21] * Documentation - Help produce official documentation, share the solution to a problem or check, proof and test documents for accuracy. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam [16:22] * Artwork/Design - Put your creativity to work by improving the look and feel of Ubuntu. Help design themes, graphics or backgrounds for the next release. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork [16:22] * Support - Share your technical know-how with other users on email and discussion lists, or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels. Help users by answering questions in forums. - http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community [16:22] * Bug Squad - Help make Ubuntu even better by working with bug reports to ensure they're clear, complete and if possible, easy to reproduce. Anyone can help! - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad [16:22] * Testing - Ubuntu releases new versions every six months so we need lots of testers who can report or confirm problems. If you'd like to be on the cutting edge of the very latest Ubuntu developments, get testing! - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing [16:22] * Ubuntu Brainstorm - Everyone can participate in the Brainstorm website. It's full of ideas on how to improve Ubuntu. Once ideas mature, they can move on to become specifications , which are detailed blueprints of future Ubuntu features. Anyone can suggest new ideas and the community votes on which ideas are the most important. - http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ [16:23] * Translations - If your first language is not English but you have strong English skills, you can make a huge contribution by helping to translate Ubuntu applications into your first language. Even if you just translate a few lines you can make a difference to someone in your own country who is learning about computers and free software. - https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-translators - https://launchpad.net/rosetta [16:23] ** Help and Support ** [16:23] (Many of these resources I mentioned earlier but I wanted to go over them again here with a little more detail from the website) [16:23] * Documentation - Official documentation explains everything from adding new applications to configuring networks. - https://help.ubuntu.com/ [16:24] * Support - Access forums, live chat sessions or mailing lists and benefit from the technical knowledge of Ubuntu community members. - http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community [16:24] * Community Blogs - Planet Ubuntu is your window into the world, work and lives of Ubuntu developers and contributors. - http://planet.ubuntu.com/ [16:24] * News - Keep up-to-date with the Ubuntu news at The Fridge or read Ubuntu Weekly News – the community-created newsletter. - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/ [16:24] ** Community Structure ** [16:25] As I mentioned previously, we will touch on the way the community is organized as it helps to know and understand how the community is structured and who to turn to for what. [16:26] * Governance - Learn more about how the community is organized and how responsibility is allocated. - http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/governance [16:26] * Code of Conduct - Review the Code of Conduct to which community members subscribe. It's our bible for collaboration and helps define the way we all work together. - http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct [16:26] * Project Teams - Learn about the dozens of project teams, their contributions to Ubuntu and how they work. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Teams [16:26] (This page needs updating but it's a good page to bookmark - because updates should be coming soon) [16:27] * Local (LoCo) Ubuntu Teams - Find and join an official local community (LoCo) team near you, or get advice on how to create a team in your local community. - http://loco.ubuntu.com/ [16:27] This list of links will help you find out more about the structure of the community and how you can find teams and projects near you [16:28] **Ubuntu Events ** [16:28] These are online tutorials offered each cycle geared toward various users. These are easy weeks for users to participate in or if you can't attend you can read the logs after each session and find out ways where you can help and offer you time, talent, and treasures to make Ubuntu better. [16:28] (Like the one you are attending and participating in now) [16:28] * Ubuntu Open Week - Ubuntu Open Week is a series of online workshops where you can: learn about the Ubuntu landscape, talk to some of the key developers from the Ubuntu project, find out about the Community and its relationship with Canonical and participate in an open Q&A with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/ [16:29] * Ubuntu Developer Week - Ubuntu Developer Week is a series of online workshops where you can: learn about different packaging techniques, find out more about different development teams, check out the efforts of the world-wide Development Community, participate in open Q&A sessions with Ubuntu developers - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperWeek [16:29] * Ubuntu App Developer Week - Ubuntu App Developer Week is a week of sessions aimed at enabling and inspiring developers to write applications that scratch their itches. Our goal is to give all attendees a taste of the wide variety of tools on the Ubuntu platform that can be used to create awesome applications, and to showcase some applications that have been created and explain how they were put together. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/U [16:29] buntuAppDeveloperWeek [16:29] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuAppDeveloperWeek [16:30] * Ubuntu Cloud Days - Ubuntu Cloud Days is a series of online sessions where topics such as the following would be presented:, Answering your questions about Ubuntu and the Cloud, Ubuntu Cloud Images, using Ubuntu with Amazon EC2 cloud, Building your private cloud over Ubuntu Server platform, New virtualization and container technologies in Ubuntu Server, Crunching Big-Data on the cloud [16:30] and Scaling your web-apps on the cloud with Ubuntu - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuCloudDays [16:30] * Ubuntu User Days - User Days was created to be a set of courses offered during a one day period to teach the beginning or intermediate Ubuntu user the basics to get them started with Ubuntu. User Days is a series of online courses where you can: learn how to install Ubuntu, find equivalent programs in Ubuntu, learn how to get help, learn the basics of how to use Ubuntu, learn how to get involved in the community - https://wiki.ubunt [16:30] u.com/UserDays [16:30] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays [16:31] ** Remember there is no commUnIty without U and I. We're in this together. Hopefully this session will give you a handy dandy guide to find out more information about many of the areas where you can get started with Ubuntu Contribution. [16:31] This is by no means a list of every project and place where you can participate and contribute but hopefully it will give you information to get you started and navigate your way around the community ** [16:31] Ok any questions [16:32] philipballew asked: Do certain areas need more help then others in the community? [16:34] Great question - they do but they best way to find out is to go to those teams, and find out their needs - the is no one place where you can go to find out which team has the greater needs...however, the Ubuntu Community team does a great job of posting the needs of each cycle to the Fridge throughout each of the milestone points in the release cycle [16:34] Any other questions? [16:35] Remember each team and projects needs people of all skill levels - developers and non-developers alike [16:35] all teams and projects have people who will help you get started as well [16:35] for example the first mailing list I joined was Ubuntu Women [16:35] from there I found out about IRC and joined the project's IRC channel [16:36] then found the wiki pages etc [16:36] before I become an Ubuntu Member my blog was syndicated to the Ubuntu Webblogs link I listed above [16:36] and one thing lead to another [16:37] philipballew asked: if someone sees an area not present in the community they would like to start, is there a way to start that that the community officials find acceptable? [16:37] Basically it's what I and others call "do-ology" :-) [16:37] A good example of this very think is the Ubuntu Leadership Team [16:38] there was a group of folks (myself included) who wanted to offer leadership resources to the community - so we started setting it up and keeping the Ubuntu Community Team as well as members of the Community Council in the know [16:39] as far as LoCo teams go you should use the loco directory (link listed above) to see if there is a team in your area if not there is a section on how to start one [16:41] You really don't have to "ask permission" from anyone - but always check to see what is out there first - if it deals with forums talk to the forums council, if IRC talk to the IRC council, if it deals with loco teams check with the loco council, if you aren't sure where your project falls under ask the Community Council or other Ubuntu Members etc. [16:42] Any other questions? [16:43] I know this is a pretty long and concise list, but I didn't want people to have to hunt through a ton of wiki pages and web pages to come up with a solid list to work from [16:47] If there are no other questions then I'll end with a Thank you for joining me... If you find you need help and can't find what you are looking for on this list - then feel free to email me - I may not have all the answers but together we can learn and figure it out - akgraner AT ubuntu DOT com. [16:48] Thanks again everyone - looking forward to you all getting involved and again if I can help ya - just drop me an email....Have a great day, y'all! :-D [16:50] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:50] Oh I'll also be adding this list of resources to my blog and a googledoc for people to add to... akgraner.com so if you want to help keep the list updated that's a way to help as well... [16:55] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:58] Thank again everyone! See you online and hopefully at events throughout the FOSS communities! === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu User Days - Current Session: Commandline Basics - Instructors: the_hydra [17:00] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/24/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session. [17:00] hi guys [17:01] today, I am gonna discuss about few command line basics...to be precise, how to use Bash effectively [17:02] why Bash? strictly because that's the shell you will likely use in your terminal or text console [17:02] if you're in doubt, simple do "echo $SHELL" [17:02] it should yield "/bin/bash" [17:03] alright, so what's the good of using Bash? [17:03] if you just use it simply to type your command like typing machine...then you've missed whole lot features [17:03] start with Tab completion, for example [17:04] suppose you wanna do "ls /usr/share/doc/blahblah/alrighty.txt" [17:04] you type that one by one? [17:05] for God sake, please don't :) [17:05] use Tab completion here.... type "ls" first [17:05] follow it by / and u....press Tab [17:06] if there is no other directory started by /u (and AFAIK there isn't), it will be completed as "/usr" right away [17:06] proceed with "/usr/s" [17:07] press Tab..... no progress, just beep... yes? [17:07] that means you have more than one choices...press Tab again...they will be listed [17:07] that way you can look them up and know what to type ahead [17:08] add "h"...so now it's "/usr/sh"....pressing Tab here should complete it into "/usr/share/" [17:08] do it for the rest of the path [17:09] remember.....no beep....then it is already unique....beep....then press Tab....alternatives will be shown up [17:10] Tab completion works for path and commands [17:10] so far so good, people? [17:10] if you have questions, please keep it later in Q&A [17:11] ok, next...in my favourite tricks list [17:12] bash remembers commands you have type, up to HISTSIZE commands [17:12] usually it is 500 [17:12] and it helps you to recall your entered command [17:14] suppose you remember you've entered this jazzy one "find -xdev -type f -mmin -30 -exec cp "{}" /tmp \;" [17:14] that's great....and you wanna recall it [17:14] pressing up won't be a good solution, it could takes ten, maybe 20 or 50 keypresses [17:15] try this , type "find" and press Ctrl+r [17:15] bash will look up in the so called "history"...finding command you've entered starting with "find" [17:16] if that's only "find" you've entered,then great...voila....it will be there....retyped for you....simply press Enter to execute [17:17] what if that's not your "find"? press ctrl-r again and it will look up again....keep pressing it until you found it [17:17] to cancel, Ctrl+C is the key [17:18]