• Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE and OpenSolaris Community Managers — A Radio Free Software Interview - Barton, Fedora, Glynn Foster, Jono Bacon, Karsten Wade - “Barton moderates a discussion between Karsten Wade of Fedora, Jono Bacon of Ubuntu, Zonker Brockmeier of OpenSUSE and Glynn Foster of OpenSolaris. (44:08)”
• Ubuntu landed on Berlin metro system | Screenage - “The guys from “Berliner Fenster”, a company responsible for the content of the television system installed inside underground vehicles (more than 3.700 displays) were so kind (thank you!) providing us with a spot for our release party this Saturday for free. So just on time with the release starting from today there are small spots viewable by an audience of about 1.5 million people per day according to their web site.” See pictures of the ad.
• n00.be » Ubuntu in Vermist - “we present to you the Belgian movie Vermist where police detectives apparently use Ubuntu as their operating system of choice…”
• iTWire - Why we love Ubuntu Linux (or maybe we don’t) - “Ubuntu had all the signs of being the most unifying and popular Linux distro of all time, but on the other I kept finding people grumbling about it. On reflection, the grumbles may be because Ubuntu has been so massively hyped that the reality can be disappointing when compared to expectations. Perhaps Ubuntu has made itself a victim by virtue of its own marketing…”
• Why Brazil Loves Linux : Gustavo Duarte - “These markets are also friendly towards Linux and pose significant challenges for Microsoft. This post is my take on the reasons for Brazil’s fondness of Linux. I speak for Brazil since I was born and raised there, but I think much of this applies to the other BRIC countries and emerging markets in general.”

• Digg - Official Booze of the Ubuntu distro?
• Unixfication II | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com - “Can the Linux community get over its “not invented here” ideology which has often hindered its ability to adopt technological improvements from outside sources? I keep saying to myself, I hope so. But recent events have shown me that we have a long way to go until we become a culture of inclusion and not of exclusion and isolationism…”
• Development of Automatix has been discontinued - From the founder of AX, “Ubuntu as a distro has been faulty by design from the start. It was always a mediocre Debian fork…it failed to deliver in terms of public anticipation. Automatix was the one of the biggest reasons…why Ubuntu succeeded in its second and third years as a distribution…Folks like Matthew Garrett do not understand DPKG well enough to understand that Automatix was NEVER a replacement for dpkg, or apt or synaptic (do not read Add-Remove which is an extremely poor implementation in itself). We made Automatix and we made Ubuntu as popular as it is today [my emphasis]. If someone wants a more technical discussion, feel free to write. If I read the kind of trollish crap that Matthew Garrett wrote, I will not bother to reply. I do not have time for beginners and learners who try to sound important.” WOW. Matthew pipes in on the thread.

edit: getautomatix.com seems to be down. Here is an image of the post: http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=axlivesty5.png

edit part II: getautomatix.com is back up.

• The heron has landed: a review of Ubuntu 8.04: Page 1 - “This release is disappointing because it falls short of what was promised, but it still delivers a lot of value for experienced users who will be able to work around the weaknesses…”
• Moving to Ubuntu | A Wor[l]d of Mentations - “My overall experience in these past days using Ubuntu has been really incredible and I would suggest each and every Windows user to atleast try Ubuntu using Wubi..”
• LinuxDevCenter.com — Meet The Hardy Heron: What’s New in Ubuntu 8.04 - Background on Ubuntu and its development and the Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo gets a plug.
• Why many MCSEs won’t learn Linux | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com - “Basically, to learn Unix you learn to understand and apply a small set of key ideas and achieve expertise by expanding both the set of ideas and your ability to apply them - but you learn Windows by working with the functionality available in a specific release.”

Some topics covered:

• Ubuntu Open Week Review
• Intrepid Ibex: Open for Business
• Ubuntu Stats
• LoCo News
• Launchpad News
• Ubuntu Forum News
• In the Press & Blogosphere
• In Other News
• Upcoming Meetings & Events
• Updates & Security

Read it here.

If you are interested in writing for the UWN, join and introduce yourself to the the marketing list.

If you think you have a story for the UWN, email ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com.

• VIA unveils open source driver development portal - vnunet.com - “The first offering is graphics drivers for the VIA CN896 digital media IGP chipset for the new Ubuntu 8.04 LTS distribution…”

• 451 CAOS Theory » Red Hat-Ubuntu pairing would have potential - “I’m starting to see some big potential for symbiosis between two Linux and open source leaders: Red Hat and Ubuntu. Red Hat’s departure from the consumer desktop Linux market comes at the same time Ubuntu continues rolling in the same market with the release of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron this week…”
• BlissPoint Blog: Five Reasons why the Ubuntu Server Revolution will never happen - “I have complete respect for the VAR Guy, so I am writing out a response to his post Five Reasons Ubuntu Server Revolution Begins Today that allows me to explain my position and how it differs from him. It isn’t criticism of the VAR Guy, it is a difference of opinion. I hope he sees it that way…”
• [Phoronix] Ubuntu 8.04 vs. Windows Vista Power Usage - “Without a doubt, however, Linux has been improving when it comes to power management in large part thanks to Intel and their various projects such as PowerTOP and LessWatts…”
• FOSSwire » Interview: Kenneth Wimer of the Ubuntu Art Team
• InformIT: Interview with Donald Knuth - Donald Knuth, author of The Art of Programming series is an Ubuntu user.

Some topics covered:

• Ubuntu 8.04 Released!
• Ubuntu Open Week
• Hardy Heron Release Parties
• Ubuntu 8.04 Press Release Translations
• Northeast Louisiana Regional Ham RadioFest
• Full Circle Magazine Issue #12
• Ubuntu Stats & Bugs
• Ubuntu Forum News & Tutorials
• In the Press & Blogosphere
• In Other News
• Team Meeting Summaries
• Upcomoing Meetings & Events
• Updates & Security

Read it here.

If you are interested in writing for the UWN, join and introduce yourself to the the marketing list.

If you think you have a story for the UWN, email ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com.

Even though Ubuntu 8.04 LTS came out this week, I still haven’t upgraded my main desktop from 7.10.

Recently, I got the Blackberry Curve 8320. Its pretty much dependent on Windows for everything. I needed to upgrade the OS on the Blackberry, so I fired up an old VMware instance of XP. Then I plugged in a random USB flash stick I had lying around.

Nothing.

Thats not completely true. It USB stick got mounted on my regular Ubuntu desktop, but I didn’t say any reference to it in XP.

After a quick Google search, I realized I hadn’t added USB peripherals to the VMware XP guest instance at all. Ok, so I added that, restarted VMware.

Once XP was loaded, I was expecting to see some entries under VM > Removable Devices > USB Devices. Nope, still nothing.

After Googling some more, I could across an Ubuntu Forums thread which referenced a VMware knowledge base article.

Basically, VMware uses USBFS to detect USB devices attached to the host. USBFS was not being mounted in some distros.

To get it working in Ubuntu, simply enter this in a terminal:

sudo mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

Then restart VMware.

For a more permanent solution, add this to your /etc/fstab:

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0

Links to translated versions of the Ubuntu 8.04 press release have been posted on the Fridge. If you have a language that should be added, leave a comment here mentioning the language and the link to the translation.

Or drop by #ubuntu-marketing or #ubuntu-news on FreeNode and let us know.

“Linux Ubuntu installation on PCs sold by Excimer and NT Computer is to be launched within the nearest month. Consequently, Ubuntu sales in Russia might reach 300 thousand units. Ubuntu 8.04 released on April 24, 2008 is more likely to be preinstalled.”

Nice.