Updating the Ubuntu Packaging Guide
We’d like to get your input on where to focus documentation efforts on the Ubuntu Packaging Guide. There are all kinds of topics that need to be written, updated, or improved — so where should we start? What do you need most? Give your input via the this Google Docs Survey. I’ve provided some direction [...]
Top 50 technical writers on the web + Xfce and Xubuntu doc updates
This site lists who they’ve identified as the top 50 technical writers on the web, which I stumbled upon via a link from Scott Nesbitt’s blog. While this list will certainly provide me with additional documentation resources, I notice a dearth of open-source documentation names in that list. No Shaun McCance, no Emma Jane Hogbin, [...]
Xfce Documentation Licensing
Greetings! I hope everyone has been enjoying their summers, and that things are progressing along smoothly with the 9.10 release cycle. I want to share a brief note regarding Xfce documentation licensing with the hopes that others could provide some additional points for us to consider. Before I do that, though, let me pause to [...]
Apt-urls – Now available on the Ubuntu wiki
Good news on the wiki front. : -) As of this morning, apt-urls are enabled on the Ubuntu Wiki. What does this mean? In simple terms, this feature provides a simple, wiki-based interface for apt, the base of our software management system. It means that we can now insert clickable links on the wiki that [...]
At the documentation conference
I’m attending the WritersUA conference in Seattle this week, and yesterday was day one of the conference. The conference started with Scott McCloud talking about how he created his Google Chrome comic, and I attended other talks on ISO documentation standards, as well as architecting your content so it can be reused. McCloud’s talk was [...]
Making Strides Toward Xubuntu 9.04
As I’m sure is the case with other Ubuntu-related development groups, the Xubuntu team has been quite active as of late. We spent some time this weekend testing out configurations of system settings now that we have migrated to Xfce 4.6 for the 9.04 release, and have completed the transition to the new artwork for [...]
From the fringes of Xubuntu
Cody Somerville has been writing quite a bit lately about what’s going on with Xubuntu, focusing a lot on the strategy document and some technical goals for the next release, but we also have a couple of other things in the works – some items that are kind of on the fringes of the distro, [...]
Xubuntu News
The Xubuntu documentation for 8.04 is done, and the doc-centered folks are now working on updating the wiki. There are still quite a few holes in it for now, but we’re working fairly quickly. I like the new menu bar. It makes it easy to get around. Also, I know it’s not much notice, but [...]
Packaging: it might be helpful – even for documentors
Fellow Chicagolander, nixternal, provided the Ubuntu-Chicago local community team with a few links to packaging-related articles that are available from some Debian and Kubuntu websites: 1) http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy 2) http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#devref 3) http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide 4) https://wiki.kubuntu.org/PackagingGuide 5) https://wiki.kubuntu.org/PbuilderHowto 6) https://wiki.kubuntu.org/PackagingGuide/Lists/DocumentationResources He sent them out to the mailing list in advance of a packaging session that’s being held this [...]
Room for Improvement
Both this article and this article note how Ubuntu’s documentation needs to be better than it is. The first article describes (in the last point on the second page) that we should do more content scraping from the unofficial documentation (with permission) to improve our docs. We receive lots of requests for mentorship, so there [...]
