Hey!

You were looking for some time to participate to a great Open Source project, and you happen to have some knowledge in PHP, HTML, JS, or SQL?

Ubuntu Brainstorm is waiting for you! Here is a list of mentored tasks, ranging from easy to hard. If you are interested, you should really contact us on #ubuntu-testing on irc.freenode.net (IRC), or alternatively use the mailing list. We will then help you to set up your working environment and work on the feature you choose, and if you are doing a great job, your work will be merged to Brainstorm!

Ubuntu X.org maintainer Bryce Harrington responds to Brainstorm Idea 2978:

Brainstorm 2978 and its comments detail problems with the level of support and quality of available open and proprietary drivers for AMD/ATI hardware. The desire is to have Canonical work more closely with AMD/ATI engineers to change this situation.

The short answer is this: AMD/ATI engineers have recently started working with us on both -fglrx and -ati issues, and I anticipate seeing significant improvements in this driver for Intrepid.

Keep reading for a lot more background and detail.

Ubuntu X.org maintainer Bryce Harrington writes in a response to Brainstorm idea 322:

Configuring X has been a long standing issue in Linux, and there's still room to improve.

Brainstorm 322 and its comments touch on a bunch of (partly unrelated) problems:

a) mis-detecting monitor resolution/refresh rates
b) supporting new hardware (and upcoming USB monitors)
c) binary driver issues
d) Importing Windows .inf/.icc files
e) multi-monitor configuration / detection; multi-card support

Around one hundred developers from distributions such as Debian, OpenSuse and Fedora, and from projects such as Gnome, KDE
and OpenOffice (imcomplete list here) traveled to meet at Prague for the FOSSCamp. During two days, various subjects were discussed, and the main topic was collaboration. How can the Linux distributions collaborate more efficiently? What should be done for a better collaboration between Ubuntu and FOSS projects? How could Gnome and KDE collaborate more?

These were some of the subjects discussed, amongst much more. Now is the turn of the Ubuntu Developer Conference, where the focus will be on the features that will be implemented for the Intreprid Idex.

Hello everybody,

In less than two weeks, the Ubuntu Developer Summit will take place, and the best ideas out there will be reviewed (See the previous post)! Meanwhile, we just upgraded Ubuntu Brainstorm:

Developer comments For a better visibility, developer comments now appear on the idea list pages. You can now quickly check the developers feedback on ideas. Expect some updates during the Ubuntu Developer Summit!
Bookmarks As requested by frandavid100 and many others, it is now possible to bookmark ideas. Just click on the star, and it's bookmarked. You can now easily follow the development of ideas that matters to you!
User infos and stats The user page has been reworked to provide you much more infos and stats. You can now see the ideas a user posted, which ideas he voted down or up, the latest reactions to ideas he commented, his bookmarks, and some nice stats. And the best idea contributor so far is ... Ubuwu!!
New categories lists Categories ideas can now be browsed in two more differents ways: latest ideas and most popular this month.
Get rid of bug submissions Finally, idea can now be marked as "Not an idea" by moderators.This will hopefully prevent further non-ideas, generally bugs, to be submitted on Ubuntu Brainstorm. Please remember that Brainstorm is a place to post ideas only! Any bugreports posted here won't be looked at. To report a bug, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.

So nothing revolutionnary yet, but tiny bit by tiny bit, Ubuntu Brainstorm is improving. Expect some nice new plans for Ubuntu Brainstrom from the UDS!

Hardy Heron has barely been released a few days ago that it's already time to focus on the Intrepid Ibex! And the first thing to do in a development cycle is... to choose what to do! That's the moment where the most promoted ideas at Brainstorm will be looked at.

Take a look at the planned schedule. You can notice two events in the next weeks: the FOSSCamp and the Ubuntu Developer Summit.

• The FOSSCamp is a two days un-conference that any Open Source project contributor can join. The goal of this event is to help get contributors to discuss how to work together. This semester, the event will take place the 16-17th may in Prague, Czech Republic. Take this chance to meet the Ubuntu Brainstorm and ISO Testing Tracker developers and discuss the evolution of these tools!
• The Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) is a week long event where Ubuntu developers from around the world gather to discuss what will be done for Ubuntu's next version. They will meet in sessions, discuss ideas, and write blueprints (also known as "specifications"), which are ideas with concrete technical steps to make it happen. At the end of the UDS, the roadmap will be set, and the work will begin towards the Intrepid Ibex! The summit is also open to anyone, and live audio streaming of the meetings will be available. This event will take place from 19th to 23th may, also in Prague.

Meanwhile, if you are not yet aware of it, the Ubuntu Open Week is now taking place: One week of IRC sessions on how to involve yourself in Ubuntu development!

It's already more than one month since the launch, and Ubuntu Brainstorm continues to grow! And here is another update to the website.

• As pointed out by one user, the "Implemented ideas" list was not clear enough. Now, the implemented ideas will be classified by release, and the ones concerning the website itself will be put apart.
• Many of you, such as treynolen on "Create way to dispute "duplicate" flag on brainstorm", are not happy with the current duplicate handling system. That's also our perception: the duplicate system is fine, but not sufficient: there should be a way to group similar, but not duplicate ideas. Thus, we will think of a similar idea handling system on top of the current duplicate system. But don't expect it too soon, as it may require some work!
• Contacting us will now be easier: A "contact us" link have been added on the footer of the Brainstorm website, and very soon (tomorrow?) a mailing list will be added. But please keep ideas for Brainstorm on Brainstorm itself, it is already doing a pretty good job!

Across the web, we have seen a lot of interest to the Brainstorm website in FOSS projects, with some of them trying to set up Brainstorm websites. We want to make an open call to them: we are working on making Brainstorm project-neutral, and anybody wanting to help on the Brainstorm project is welcome! Want some help to set up a Brainstorm? Please pass by or read the instructions. Use the upcoming mailing list, or pass by #ubuntu-testing on irc.freenode.net.

Finally, since the stats module is not here yet, here are a few stats: 14,400 users, 26,000 comments, 700,000 votes, and 6500 ideas (350 deleted, 1400 duplicates). Big kudos to bgfeldm, rawsaugage, and Auzy, our best duplicate reporters with around one hundred reports! And a bow to the best hardcore-voter, 7K, with 5500 votes casted alone!

Hey everyone,

So far, Ubuntu brainstorm is quite a success: more that 5000 ideas, 20000 comments and 600000 votes! That surprised us, and we are pretty pleased with it! That shows the will of the Ubuntu community to contribute, at any level.

But we understand brainstorming is not an one-way process: it is our duty to give you some feedback on the ideas you proposed. That will be the goal of this blog. We will try to regularly keep you informed about Ubuntu development, and where your ideas goes.

We also understand that for some of you, the Ubuntu development process is a blackbox, and one can be confused at how to start contributing. To *start* contributing is the hardest step! A second goal of this blog will be to be another entry point for you, prospective contributors: we will try to regularly post articles that demystify the different ways to contribute, so that you can actually take part in the implementation of your ideas!

Finally, if you want to contact us, please join #ubuntu-testing at irc.ubuntu.com on IRC.