How can you use this new feature?  Here is an example of how you could use it in the wiki.  In this example, we’ll look at installing the xubuntu-artwork package:

If you are an Ubuntu user who wants to use the stylish Xubuntu artwork on your system, just [[apt:xubuntu-artwork|install the "xubuntu-artwork" package]].

Of course, the end user just sees, “If you are an Ubuntu user who wants to use the stylish Xubuntu artwork on your system, just install the "xubuntu-artwork" package." (If you are a Firefox user on Ubuntu, you will also note that the link I’ve provided here works, too.  This is because Firefox also allows apt-urls to work in regular web pages.)

After clicking on the link, the user would then be prompted to choose whether or not he or she wants to install the package.  If they select yes, they are prompted to enter their password, and the system installs their software. Easy enough!

Because it is using apt, it is relying on the user’s configured set of Ubuntu repositories.  (Note: if a user is using a PPA or another software repository, those software sources would also be available.)  The installed packages can still be uninstalled via any of the regular software maintenance tools (e.g., synaptic, apt-get, add-remove programs, etc.)  In this manner, it doesn’t introduce new tools, it just provides a great new way of interfacing with them.

So . . . wiki editors . . . I now call on you to go forth and make good use of this new feature.  : -)  Let’s start using apt-urls in our wiki documentation.

Thanks to the Canonical system administrators for putting this in place, and to Matthew East for following up on the support ticket.

We have yet to complete our agenda for the upcoming meeting, but one item that will be included is discussion of the new website.  I’ve passed along a draft project plan to Cody Somerville, and he seemed to like what I had prepared.  If we go by what I’ve prepared, we’ll have an internal team of Xubunteros to start things off, and will have an external team of interested, able parties to assist us once we’ve laid the ground work.  Again, I’ll be posting further details once we get that plan in order.

Of course, you could always just show up to the Xubuntu meeting to discuss it with us.  :]

In other news, we are considering using Yelp to display Xubuntu documentation, primarily to limit the discrepancies between common Xubuntu and Ubuntu documentation.  Of course, Xubuntu would still have its own set of Xfce/Xubuntu-specific documentation, but we would be able to base our documentation on the primary base of Ubuntu docs.  One part of the reason for this possible move is that Xubuntu doesn’t have very many system-doc contributors, and adapting the documentation from Ubuntu to Xubuntu is pretty time consuming, but there are technical and content-based reasons for the possible switch, too.

Why is it time consuming?  The root of the matter is that yelp uses special “ghelp” links within the documentation, but the Xubuntu documentation is currently presented in Firefox.  Firefox cannot display ghelp links, so we have to convert all of the ghelp links to accommodate our use of Firefox.  Of course, modifying links is not so difficult, but the linking differences also necessitate that a different structure be used for the documentation files.  In fact, the Xubuntu documentation currently gets validated as one large meta-document based off of the initial index.xml file, and this is not valid docbook.

Relying on Yelp and adapting our documentation later in the release cycle would also allow us to leverage the numerous contributions that are made by the hoards of crazy documentors that submit patches for the Ubuntu system documentation.  Going that route would make it so the Xubuntu docs would be more accurate and comprehensive in terms of the documentation’s relation to the final released product.  More accurate and comprehensive documentation == more awesome documentation.

As a final (seemingly unrelated, but nonethess important!) note, I’d just like to point out the great work that Cody Somerville and some of the other Xubuntu / Xfce contributors have been doing.  For one, Cody took over as the Xubuntu project lead in the early Spring, and has been doing some pretty remarkable work.  He’s not only doing a great job in terms of his own activities, but is doing a great job of enlisting and encouraging the help of others.  I would also like to thank Lionel Le Folgoc and Jérôme Guelfucci for their remarkable packaging and bug triage work.  It looks like Jmak is getting a good start on the artwork for this release, too.

Neato burrito.

One item is an update to the website.  Xubuntu.org is in need of a refresh!  We’ve had a couple of starts and stops on updating it over the last two releases, but nothing noteworthy ever came of it, so this time I’m putting together a project plan that will break the tasks down into smaller chunks with a clear plan for getting things in place.

I’m not going to guarantee that things will work like clockwork, and I’m not even sure who we’re going to get to help out with the website, but I figure that setting a plan with individual bits that people can do one-by-one is more likely to garner success than handing someone the keys to a base Drupal installation and saying, “Have at it!  Let us know when you’re done!”

I’m sure I’ll have more news on that once I’ve got the basic project plan in order, and (of course) we’ll be seeking out help with the website then, too.  If you think you might want to help out, please make a note of it – place a bookmark in the Firefox 3.0 of your mind.  :]  Or you can just read this blog aggregator thingy, and look for more info about the website project plan when I write about it.  Perhaps that would be better than trying to integrate Firefox 3.0 with your brain.

For now, though, work continues on adding poetic, beautiful content to the wiki, and a few documentation ideas are being tossed around amongst Xubuntu folks.  It’s kind of hard(y) to believe that the first Alpha release for Intrepid is less than a week away, but I suppose it’s how things go.