Lubuntu state before Alpha 2 release

Hi, This is quick summary of the state of Lubuntu, 3 mouths before the target release date.

=== Alpha 2 ===

– May be released at the end of this week.

=== New packages ===

– lxdm was committed, waiting for archive approval. It’s mostly working, but need some improvements. Currently, there is no plymouth support and Default language not working well. – libfm and pcmanfm2 are available for testing on the Lubuntu PPA [1].

=== Default applications ===

– Current discussion on the video player, music player and email client
– Future discussion on the browser. It will begin when chromium will enter the archive, or sooner if nothing arrive before 1st February.
– Some changes may happen in the futur, if the manpower is still the same (see below). We need to share the maintenance for non-LXDE applications with other teams, if we want to have good quality. I have in mind the network manager and the browser.
– For all the cases, I would like to stop all the choices for Feature Freeze (18th February), to have enough time for bug fixes and translations of the non-LXDE packages.

=== Maintenance and advertising ===

The main reason why I don’t make many advertising around Alpha releases of Lubuntu is because I can’t handle more feedback/testing for now. We don’t have many devs working on Lubuntu, and my time on it is also limited.

=== If you want to help ===

– If you speak English and 1 or more languages, you can translate LXDE packages and other applications of Lubuntu (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/TranslationSubTeam )
– If you like to play with unstable stuff, you can test Alpha ISO and report bug you have (We already have some nice testers :)) (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/TestingSubTeam )
– If you are an artist, you can imagine or create a new artwork for Lubuntu. (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/ArtworkSubTeam )
– If you want to get involve in Ubuntu development, you can begin to triage bug, improve packages … (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/CodingAndPackagingSubTeam ) There is available tasks for everyone 🙂

I can provide guidelines and mentoring, and I’ll try to maintain the wiki to share useful information. Just to be clear, the schedule is still good. There is currently no blocker for the release in April, but more help will make the release better. Regards, Julien Lavergne

[1] : https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop/+archive/ppa