Full Circle BOOK REVIEW: THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY ISSUE #72 - April 2013 SSOOLLYYDDXX AANNDD SSOOLLYYDDKK RREEVVIIEEWWEEDD A DEBIAN BASED DISTRO WITH XFCE OR KDE full circle magazine #72 1 Full Ciircle Magaziine iis neiither affiiliiated wiith,, nor endorsed by,, Canoniical Ltd.. contents ^ HowTo Full Circle Opinions THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY My Story p.32 Programming Python p.08 Columns LibreOffice p.13 Command & Conquer p.06 Ubuntu News p.04 My Opinion p.33 Network Settings p.16 Ask The New Guy p.27 Ubuntu Games p.42 Review p.35 Letters p.38 Blender p.19 Linux Labs p.30 Q&A p.40 BACK NEXT MONTH BACK NEXT MONTH Inkscape p.21 Linux Certified p.44 Ubuntu Women p.XX Web Dev p.27 Graphics Web Dev The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: you must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Full Circle Magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license. Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be assumed tfoulhl acivrecleCamnaognaiczainlee#nd7o2rseme2nt. contents ^ EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL This magazine was created using : WELCOME TO ANOTHER ISSUE OF FULL CIRCLE! hat's right, folks. Full Circle is six years old this T month. Incredible! Never, when I started FCM all those years ago, did I imagine that it would still be going strong six years later. I can't stress enough that every issue is created by a team of folks, not just me, so a BIG thanks to all of them. Their names are listed on the last page of every issue and at the top of each article. My thanks also go out to the many translation teams around the world. The one thing I like to do each birthday issue is to have a survey where you, the Full Circle Podcast readers, can give us your opinion on FCM. What would you like to see more/less of? Released monthly, each episode covers all the latest Ubuntu news, What do you like/dislike? Full details are on page 38; the survey is at: opinions, reviews, interviews and http://goo.gl/hR7zc. listener feedback. The Side-Pod is a new addition, it's an extra I'm sure you Python fans will know about the Special Editions that Robin Catling has (irregular) short-form podcast which is intended to be a branch been putting together (which, by the way, is up to volume six). Well, he's now creating a of the main podcast. It's series of Special Editions from the LibreOffice series, so, if you've been wanting to somewhere to put all the general gather them into one handy dandy issue, volume one is up on the main Full Circle site. technology and non-Ubuntu stuff The easiest way to find the Special Editions is to use the search box on the site. that doesn’t fit in the main podcast. Anyway, I shan’t keep you any longer. Enjoy the issue, and please fill in the survey! Hosts: • Les Pounder All the best, and keep in touch! • Tony Hughes Ronnie • Jon Chamberlain • Oliver Clark [email protected] http://fullcirclemagazine.org full circle magazine #72 3 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU NNEEWWSS Written by The Ubuntu News Team CHANGES IN UBUNTU some other takes on the is in need of 9 Ubuntu Members http://www.canonical.com/content announcement: with a good community track RELEASES DECIDED BY THE /canonical-and-chinese-standards- record and enough time available body-announce-ubuntu- UBUNTU TECHNICAL BOARD Ubuntu Technical Board Meeting for meetings once a month. collaboration he Ubuntu Technical Board Decisions Regarding The New Nominations will be accepted T announce their decision to Release Proposals - through Friday April 5th at 12:00 This story has also been covered in change support for non-LTS http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03 UTC for ubuntu-membership- the wider press: releases from 18 to 9 months, and /ubuntu-technical-board- boards at lists.ubuntu.com the adoption of a mechanism to meeting.html China to create home-grown allow users to continuously track http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/03/ operating system - the development focus without Ubuntu To Halve Support Window 22/ubuntu-membership-board-call- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/techn explicitly upgrading from release for 'Regular' Releases - for-nominations/ ology-21895723 to release. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201 3/03/ubuntu-to-halve-support- CANONICAL AND CHINESE Ubuntu tapped by China for http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/03/ window-for-regular-releases STANDARDS BODY national operating system - 19/changes-in-ubuntu-releases- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013 decided-by-the-ubuntu-technical- Canonical to halve support for ANNOUNCE UBUNTU /03/22/china_makes_linux_os_with board/ standard Ubuntu releases - COLLABORATION _canonical_help/ http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/news/c he CSIP (China Software and Also read the follow-up post by anonical-to-halve-support-for- Integrated Chip Promotions China chooses Ubuntu for a Rick Spencer, Vice President of standard-ubuntu-releases T Centre), National University of national reference OS coming in Ubuntu Engineering, for his Defense Technology (NUDT) and April - comments on the decisions by the UBUNTU MEMBERSHIP Canonical join forces to create http://www.engadget.com/2013/0 Ubuntu Technical Board, and how Ubuntu Kylin, a China-focused 3/23/china-chooses-ubuntu-for-a- they will impact users: BOARD CALL FOR Ubuntu desktop system. This national-reference-os-coming-in- http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/03/ NOMINATIONS announcement represents the first april/ 19/ubuntu-technical-board-looks- lizabeth Krumbach, on behalf step into the government’s five at-shuttleworths-proposal-for- E of the Community Council, year plan to promote open source Goodbye Windows: China to create release-management- makes a call out for restaffing the software and accelerate the home-grown OS based on Ubuntu - methodology/ Membership Board, which is growth of the open source http://arstechnica.com/informatio responsible for voting new Ubuntu ecosystem within the country. n-technology/2013/03/goodbye- Visit the following articles for members. The Membership Board full circle magazine #72 4 contents ^ UBUNTU NEWS windows-china-to-create-home- Summit May 14th-16th, 2013 from grown-os-based-on-ubuntu/ 14:00 UTC to 20:00 UTC. He Many Thanks to the Ubuntu News UBUNTU 13.04 RELEASED! encourages people to register a Team for their contribution this blueprint and ask the track leads to month. Ubuntu 13.04 continues UBUNTU 8.04 (HARDY add a session for them. He also Ubuntu's proud tradition of outlines some improvements to integrating the latest and HERON) SERVER, 10.04 News this month comes from: the Google+ Hangouts, the greatest open source (LUCID LYNX) DESKTOP AND plenaries, the schedule, summit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW technologies into a high-quality, 11.10 (ONEIRIC OCELOT) scheduler, and registration eeklyNewsletter/Issue309 easy-to-use Linux distribution. processes. This release cycle has seen a REACHING END OF LIFE ON https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW significant push toward daily MAY 9 2013 http://mhall119.com/2013/04/uds- eeklyNewsletter/Issue310 quality, which has allowed most dam Conrad, on behalf of the 13-05-ubuntus-second-online- developers and users to A Ubuntu Release Team, developer-summit/ https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW participate more actively announces the formal End of Life eeklyNewsletter/Issue311 throughout the cycle, and we (EOL) dates of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy NEW UBUNTU MEMBERSHIP feel this also shows in the final Heron) server, 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) quality of this release. OARD EMBERS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW desktop and 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) B M lizabeth Krumbach announces eeklyNewsletter/Issue312 desktop and server. Along with performance the Ubuntu Membership Board E improvements to Unity, updates Members approved by the Ubuntu http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/03/ to common desktop packages, Community Council. Zhengpeng 29/ubuntu-8-04-hardy-heron- and updated core and toolchain Hou, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre, server-10-04-lucid-lynx-desktop- components, Ubuntu 13.04 also Jared Norris, Eleanor Chen, and and-11-10-oneiric-ocelot-reaching- includes the new Friends service, Penelope Stowe are welcomed (or end-of-life-on-may-9-2013/ to consolidate all social welcomed back!) into the 1200 UTC networking accounts via Ubuntu Membership Board and Iulian Online Accounts. Also included Udrea, Javier Lopez, and Benjamin is a tech preview of Upstart's Kerensa were welcomed (or new user session feature. welcomed back!) into the 2200 UTC UDS 13.05: UBUNTU’S Membership Board. Read more about the new SECOND ONLINE DEVELOPER features of Ubuntu 13.04 in the https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/u SUMMIT following press releases: buntu-news-team/2013- ichael Hall announces the http://ubunt.eu/1304Server and: April/001777.html M next Ubuntu Developer http://ubunt.eu/1304Client full circle magazine #72 5 contents ^ CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERR Written by Lucas Westermann UUbbuunnttuu TToouucchh FFoollllooww--uupp fter my article last month on Mail support was very effective in the reader's case, he mentioned it's impractical to deal with, and A Ubuntu Touch, I received a either of those applications, the TouchPal's Keyboard, Dialer and TouchPal's Contacts and Dialer app relative flurry of responses from last time I used them.