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I've signed up for the Ubuntu Newsletter (via the downloads page) several times (one of them I think being two years ago), and have never received one. I thought maybe they just didn't exist anymore, but then I saw this question, which provides a link to a recent one. Does Canonical still email out these newsletters?

PS I don't have a spam folder; the filter just adds "SPAM" in the subject of the email.

For clarification, I do not mean a downloads page for the newsletter. See image here

Zanna
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Pixelated Fish
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2 Answers2

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I'm getting my emailed copy of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. It's published at many locations, including

& more.

Traditionally posts published to Ubuntu Fridge (my first link) are mirrored to http://ubuntu-news.org/ , where an issue there does exist.

It was hoped that would be fixed Dec 26, 2020, but it wasn't possible, and with luck the fix will occur soon.

A number of feeds (eg. google use ubuntu-news.org for their info) have thus stopped at UWN issue 660 as that was the last post mirrored to ubuntu-news.org.

At this time, our next issue (#664) will go out in tuesday morning (my local time, <48 hours from now), and I'm hoping it'll appear on http://ubuntu-news.org/ as well, but I'll have to wait and see (ubuntu-news maybe back online later this week)

Email'd issues of Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter are being sent out, but after a number of returned emails, names on the list get removed. I don't have your email, so can't check if it's on the mailing list, but links to where you signed up may have been helpful in looking for reasons as to your not receiving copies. Emails go out

Reference in the question was made to a question which referred to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter so it was assumed it was that Newsletter which was being asked about. Instead it turned out in comments (below) it was a Canonical Newsletter signup, which is an ad-hoc publication used for marketing purposes. That newsletter comes out from the Canonical company (why you have to tick that you agree to receive information about Canonical's products & services) and is not a Ubuntu community newsletter.

guiverc
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  • I've avoided specifics as to the issue, Canonical are aware of the issue & keep me (& Ubuntu News Team) updated. The hosting was changed and mirror was missed.. – guiverc Jan 02 '21 at 22:25
  • Thanks for the answer and working on the News Letters in general. "links to where you signed up may have been helpful in looking for reasons as to your not receiving copies." As mentioned in the question, I signed up via the downloads page on Ubuntu.com (direct link here). IIRC I checked every box for topics in the sidebar. – Pixelated Fish Jan 02 '21 at 22:30
  • I'll add, the Ubuntu Wiki link is the authoritative link. Ubuntu Fridge is used to publish official information to other places (board nomination requests etc), , including of course Planet Ubuntu (another place readers get their copies...) – guiverc Jan 02 '21 at 22:31
  • That signup is NOT for Ubuntu News, but Canonical marketing information (Canonical Newsletter). That isn't a weekly publication, but an ad-hoc as required because there is marketing detail we want to make known... I was thinking in terms of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter (from Ubuntu Community, which has been around since 2006). Sorry I can't help with Canonical Newsletter (I receive some of that too) – guiverc Jan 02 '21 at 22:35
  • Ah, thanks. It's a bit confusing that they labeled it "Newsletter signup" and have tech-related topics if it's only for marketing, whether said marketing involves those topics or not. Also still not clear on why I don't receive THAT newsletter, but still answers the question that it does get sent. – Pixelated Fish Jan 02 '21 at 22:37
  • I too find their wording confusing... and wish it would change.. There are other times where I've disagreed with Canonical too (they with me), but they are a very community minded company and helpful (even when we've disagreed) – guiverc Jan 02 '21 at 22:40
  • I may need to clarify this answer.. (a comment I just saw in #ubuntu-news had me re-scan my inbox). The email'd copy of the UWN I see in my inbox isn't b/c of my name on the list, but my subscription to ubuntu-news@ lists.ubuntu.com – guiverc Jan 03 '21 at 23:40
  • I don't understand what you mean by "isn't b/c of my name on the list, but my subscription to ubuntu-news@ lists.ubuntu.com"... what list are you referring to? Isn't the subscription at lists.ubuntu the only way to sign up for this newsletter? – Pixelated Fish Jan 03 '21 at 23:45
  • There are multiple lists (for various purposes), and I don't manage that list; my name isn't listed at bottom of https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news and hasn't been there for some time :) . That list works (at least for me), as it's the weekly newsletter that hits my inbox. I won't clarify currently as I'll wait for replies to the question that led to my comment, from other team members.. (I've gotta review #664 on wiki for now) – guiverc Jan 04 '21 at 00:00
5

You can read the newsletter by copying and pasting the address into your browser:

For previous issues just decrement the number:

Next week you would increment the number:

Use cron to email yourself the newsletter link

NOTE: This was updated January 24, 2021. If you copied the script before that please revise it.

You could make a cron job that incremented the Issue Number and emailed you a link every week. It does take a few steps to setup cron for emailing though:

I made a sample bash script for cron to send a message each week with the Ubuntu Newsletter link. Create the script with sudo powers in /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter

#!/bin/sh
# 
# Note: Some bash commands (#!/bin/bash) won't work in shell (#!/bin/sh)
#       Shell scripts are preferred over bash scripts for cron jobs.

Each week /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newletter will email new issue number


NextIssue=cat /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue


[ -z ${NextIssue+x} ] && NextIssue=666    # First Time!


NextIssue=$(( NextIssue + 1 ))
echo "$NextIssue" > /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue


echo "Weekly Ubuntu Newsletter is available for reading online:"
echo ""
echo https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue"$NextIssue"

Then do a quick setup and test:

$ sudo chmod +x /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter

$ sudo /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter
cat: /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue: No such file or directory
Weekly Ubuntu Newsletter is available for reading online:


https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue666


$ ll /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 444 Jan  2 13:56 /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   4 Jan  2 13:57 /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue

NOTE: After testing script for the first time use:

sudo chmod a+w /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue

I had to use this on my system because the script doesn't give you write permissions to manually change the last Newsletter Issue number if and when you need to.

Each week cron will email you with the shell script's echo output:

Weekly Ubuntu Newsletter is available for reading online:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue666

NOTE: On my system cron weekly runs every Saturday. You can manually change the last issue with:

sudo echo 666 > /etc/cron.weekly/ubuntu-newsletter-issue

In this case, the next time cron weekly runs, it will email you issue number 667.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • "Subscribe: Get your copy of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter delivered each week to you via email at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news" from the newsletter so the answer to the q would be yes :) – Rinzwind Jan 02 '21 at 20:09
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    @Rinzwind I didn't subscribe, it's more like "scraping" :) – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 02 '21 at 20:10
  • @Rinzwind yes, I'm aware it says you CAN subscribe, I'm just asking whether or not it actually does anything, being as I hit a different button to subscribe and it appears to have not. – Pixelated Fish Jan 02 '21 at 20:12
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    I know @PixelatedFishThing is ... as it is a recent webpage you'd expect the answer to be yes ;-) I can not remember if I ever subscribed :D :D so I just did – Rinzwind Jan 02 '21 at 20:12
  • @Rinzwind so in a week if you get a newsletter, the answer is yes, otherwise no and someone should probably fix that :). Also as previously mentioned I signed up from a different page so we'll see what happens – Pixelated Fish Jan 02 '21 at 20:29
  • Note: I'd run it on Wednesday (or late Tuesday) & not Sunday. On Sunday (or Monday my local time) the newsletter is copied to the WIKI in draft format (along with WIP [work in progress] tags) for editors/previewers to read & look for errors. It's then published the following day (late Monday UTC time but that's early Tuesday my local). The job as you've timed may grab draft copies & not the final product... – guiverc Jan 03 '21 at 07:52
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    @guiverc Thanks for pointing that out. When the cron weekly job runs and sends me an email I'll revise the job appropriately. Then I'll update the answer accordingly. I also want to thank you for all the hard work you've put into Ubuntu and spreading the word. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 03 '21 at 16:42
  • @guiverc I had to tweak the script. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 09 '21 at 12:28