OStatic

Ubuntu Open Week continued today with a number of presentations aimed at developers and software engineers. There were also sessions that offered an inside look at teams within the Ubuntu community and how they work together to create server software and manage security.

Daniel Holbach spent a couple hours with the community this morning talking about the basics of packaging. He taught the group how to package a small piece of software and addressed a few questions from attendees, including how to make sure a built package will work on both Debian and Ubuntu, and what to do with programs written in Python that don't need compiling.

Software engineer Adilson Oliveira ran a terrific session all about Ubuntu Mobile Edition, a version that's sponsored by Canonical and Intel, and "aims to derive an operating system for mobile internet devices using Ubuntu as a base and the Moblin project from Intel as upstream to parts of the project, mostly hardware support." Oliveira pointed out that the app is not designed for PDAs or cell phones, but rather for very small computer-devices with touchscreens. Although it doesn't yet run on ultra-portable computers like the EeePC, Oliveira says while "there's nothing defined yet... we are sure aware of this kind of device -- I have one myself -- and as it's easy to hack UME to work on it [so] I guess you can expect news on this field, from us or from the community." The first release of Ubuntu Mobile is expected within the next few weeks.

The day's sessions ended with a presentation by Kees Cook about the inner workings of the Ubuntu Security Team. He says that when a high-priority vulnerability is discovered, it is often fixed within a matter of days, although lower-priority security issues can take longer. According to Kees, the security team is also looking into new ways of authenticating authorizing users. "There have been discussions about fingerprint readers," he says, "and other 'something you have' style authentications. At present, passwords seem to remain the standard."

Ubuntu Open Week runs through Saturday and there are more than twenty additional presentation scheduled for the upcoming days.

• ubuntu open week
• security
• server
• mobile edition
• packaging