Ubuntu open week will be starting soon. What will you be asking Mark about PP ?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek

Takes place from Mon 17 October - Fri 21 October on IRC in #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat.

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

participate in an open Q&A with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu. (Mark is on vacation this week, but we'll schedule a separate IRC session with him, stay tuned!)

Dear Mark,

I work with seniors and educators. They are constanly worried about security, most importantly their AV programs that they run on Windows machines. When I try to encourage these people to try an Ubuntu install they always question me about the security aspect. 'Where's the antivirus program?' they quip. I tell them that the linux Ubuntu kernel (for the most part) is bullet proof. (I can attest to this personally), but when trying to convince a convert - it's a really hard sell .. so .. first question :

1. What is on the horizon in the security aspect of things with Precise Pangolin?

My second question is about upgrading from one version to another- ie; from Natty Narwhal to Oneiric Ocelot. Is there anything new in terms of reliability when it comes to *upgrading* from Oneiric to Precise? I ask this question because some educators like the look of the EdUbuntu package. As it stands , now, with Natty, it's almost perfect :) .. but some would be concerned about *upgrading* to Precise Pangolin, worried if this would bork their pristine Edubuntu install.

Thanks Mark for a really great Os & community.

regards, ventrical

Mark,

Canonical opened offices in Brazil in the beginning of 2011, assigned an executive to be country manager, sponsored events and magazines on IT and Linux, etc. This was considered by many as a risky move: End-users distros tend to die quick here and corporate ones will have to face Novell and RH.

Despite working with brands like Dell to put Ubuntu on end-user PCs, everyone believes the real long-term goal is to compete with the corporate market leader, Red Hat, in software and services.

How can Unity interface be a true competitor for the more "traditional" RH approach to corporate desktop? Why would a CIO choose Ubuntu over RH right now? (considering RH market are the 3000 largest national/international companies).

ventrical said: Dear Mark,

I work with seniors and educators. They are constanly worried about security, most importantly their AV programs that they run on Windows machines. When I try to encourage these people to try an Ubuntu install they always question me about the security aspect. 'Where's the antivirus program?' they quip. I tell them that the linux Ubuntu kernel (for the most part) is bullet proof. (I can attest to this personally), but when trying to convince a convert - it's a really hard sell .. so .. first question :

1. What is on the horizon in the security aspect of things with Precise Pangolin?

My second question is about upgrading from one version to another- ie; from Natty Narwhal to Oneiric Ocelot. Is there anything new in terms of reliability when it comes to *upgrading* from Oneiric to Precise? I ask this question because some educators like the look of the EdUbuntu package. As it stands , now, with Natty, it's almost perfect :) .. but some would be concerned about *upgrading* to Precise Pangolin, worried if this would bork their pristine Edubuntu install.

Thanks Mark for a really great Os & community.

regards, ventrical

good points. But i wouldnt exactly say the kernel is "bullet proof". More like highly security oriented (linux in general).

and about the bad upgrades just opened a thread and bug here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1863242

madjr said: good points. But i wouldnt exactly say the kernel is "bullet proof". More like highly security oriented (linux in general).

and about the bad upgrades just opened a thread and bug here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1863242

I left a note in the other forum. I am doing an *upgrade* at this moment and have most of it video taped.

I'll reply and comment when It's finished.

thanks

as for security .. I still have Lucid installs from over a year ago on active pendrives and I've surfed and surfed and surfed ..and those things are bulletproof my friend :) err... yes.. I see .. very good security .. your right . very good security. very dern good security indeed!!

The question I would ask would be something along these lines.

When will Ubuntu make mandatory access controls such as Apparmor accessible to the masses? Let's face it, apparmor-utils isn't user friendly enough for your average end user to give it the time of day.

Are there any plans to implement something similar to YaST?

If there aren't, how can you continue to justify marketing Ubuntu as "secure" when it is behind other Linux distributions in terms of desktop security, which ultimately is where Ubuntu should be ahead of the game.

I'd like to ask if the update cycles in ubuntu now help or hinder uptake in his opinion. As a follow on it would be interesting to know if Canonical see mobile laptop user requirements as high priority over desktop and netbook.

M.

I'd ask Mark a flexible ubuntu-desktop package.. let me purge some packages I don't like (i.e. software center, ubuntuone and friends..) without removing the entire desktop metapackage. I feel like I'm using a closed source OS :/

You don't really lose anything by removing the -desktop meta package.

(Also of Note, there is no Ask Mark this week as he's on vacation, but we're hoping to schedule something for another time)

castrojo said: You don't really lose anything by removing the -desktop meta package.

(Also of Note, there is no Ask Mark this week as he's on vacation, but we're hoping to schedule something for another time)

I lose the possibility to upgrade from a release to another (natty->oneiric) if I don't have ubuntu-desktop installed. Anyway not a major issue, just a refuse to lock-in when not strictly necessary.

lucazade said: I lose the possibility to upgrade from a release to another (natty->oneiric) if I don't have ubuntu-desktop installed. Anyway not a major issue, just a refuse to lock-in when not strictly necessary.

You're not locked in, the update manager (or do-release-upgrade) automatically reinstall ubuntu-desktop as part of the upgrade if you don't have it installed.

castrojo said: You're not locked in, the update manager (or do-release-upgrade) automatically reinstall ubuntu-desktop as part of the upgrade if you don't have it installed.

and reinstalling ubuntu-desktop will also carry the recommended packages I've removed previously :) anyway I usually do fresh installs or use a customized ubuntu-desktop stored in my ppa so I can live with it.. my friends instead I always complained about this and I can understand them. Anyway purging ubuntuone doesn't remove ubuntu-desktop, i was wrong.

lucazade said: and reinstalling ubuntu-desktop will also carry the recommended packages I've removed previously :)

anyway I usually do fresh installs or use a customized ubuntu-desktop stored in my ppa so I can live with it.. my friends instead I always complained about this and I can understand them. Anyway purging ubuntuone doesn't remove ubuntu-desktop, i was wrong. After install have you tried; {code] sudo aptitude keep-all This will list all packages as manually installed. This does not change the depends of any of the individual packages.

ranch hand said: After install have you tried;

{code] sudo aptitude keep-all This will list all packages as manually installed. This does not change the depends of any of the individual packages.

no, didn't know this keep-all.. sounds interesting! thx, i'll try it