Launchpad 2.0 radically improves collaboration for open source projects

Launchpad 2.0 Radically Improves Collaboration for Open Source Projects.

Canonical's Launchpad2.0 Improves Flexibility And Integration of Developer Collaboration Nexus.

Canonical Inc. announced today a major new release of Launchpad,including features that make collaborative development faster and more flexible and allowing users to integrate their standalone project infrastructure with Launchpad.

Launchpad is a hosting platform for free software that helps bring communities together. It is distinguished from other project hosting facilities in that it strives to make it as simple to collaborate within a project as it is to collaborate with other projects. For example, distributions can coordinate their bug work efficiently with upstream projects, and with Launchpad 2.0 this is true whether the project uses Launchpad or its own standalone bug tracker.

There are now more than 7,000 projects in Launchpad, and vibrant communities have sprung up around translation, quality assurance, development collaboration and user support. Launchpad's a great way to promote a project, and developers who register their projects on Launchpad are often surprised by the attention their software receives from interested contributors.

This 2.0 release includes a beta version of an Internet services API that allows external applications to authenticate, query and modify data stored in Launchpad's database programatically, bypassing the web interface. Launchpad 2.0 also includes an updated version of the Bazaar (bzr) distributed version control system which significantly improves the experience of developers hosting larger code bases.

“Launchpad was conceived as a nexus of collaboration for Open Source projects to make them more efficient to build, easier to collaborate on and more open to innovation from community participation,” said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO, Canonical.

“Launchpad 2.0 marks the culmination of months of work and a series of incremental releases that have smoothed the workflows for all projects using the service. A comprehensive set of API's, and the ability to reach out to other excellent development tools like Bugzilla and Trac, now make Launchpad even more useful to the entire community, blurring the line between projects that use Launchpad directly and projects that can now exchange information productively while still maintaining control of their own infrastructure.”

The Launchpad community has grown dramatically in the last 12 months:

• Over 5500 new projects have started using Launchpad
• 7000 new code branches added
• 10000 new translators registered
• 265 languages now represented for translation

Key new features in Launchpad 2.0

Code reviews: the Bazaar version control system makes it incredibly easy for anyone to create theirown branches for development of new features and bug fixes on your code. Now Launchpad makes it easy for you to manage the integration of their changes back into your project. The system keeps track of branches that have been proposed for merging into your mainline, and automatically creates a mini-mailing list for the discussion of landing. It also keeps track of approvals by key developers on whether it's ready for your project. With a web interface to reviews,anyone can get involved.

Mailing lists: Mailing lists are the heart of free software discussion and consensus building. Each team in Launchpad can have a hassle-free mailing list of its own, with everything you'd expect: subscriptions determined by team membership,automatic archiving and virtually no need for list administration.

Integration with Bugzilla and Trac:Launchpad helps different communities work together to find a fix for their common bugs by sharing their bug comment history. Now you can conduct a cross-project conversation even with projects that use Bugzilla or Trac, thanks to our new, GPL-licensed plugins.

Simpler, more intuitive web interface:easier navigation to allow users to more easily find what they need in the vast Launchpad environment.

The LaunchPad Tour

Launchpad 2.0 features a tour that describes its set of integrated tools including team management, bug tracking, code hosting, translations and user support. You can viewthe tour at https://launchpad.net/+about

About Canonical

Canonical, a global organisation headquartered in Europe, is committed to the development,distribution, and promotion of free software products, and to providing tools and support to the free software community. Canonical is the developer of Launchpad and lead sponsor company for Ubuntu,which since its launch in October 2004 has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and their associated logos are all registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd.