Sprint release 1.35

[harshad16]

This issue will be used for consolidating the release note for the Sprint 1.35

[atheo89]

Below is the text for our upcoming release 🥳 please feel free to suggest, enhance, propose or edit!

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Notable Changes

We are excited to announce the release of a major update for our notebooks, labeled as 2023b. This release brings several noteworthy changes and improvements. Here's a summary of what you can expect:

• Package Updates: In this release, all packages across various flavors of the notebooks and runtimes have been updated to their latest versions
• New Packages: Introduced two new packages. Firstly, the inclusion of the codeflare-sdk, is used to interact with the Distributed Workloads stack. Additionally, we've added sklearn-onnx, a package that enables the conversion of scikit-learn models to ONNX.
• Deprecation: The jupyterlab-s3-browser has been deprecated due to its discontinued development and the impediment it poses to updating other packages.
• Standard Databases Clients: The notebooks now come equipped with standard database clients for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, and MongoDB.
• Additional Libraries and Applications: We've incorporated several useful libraries and applications. Notably, the inclusion of Mesa-libgl an additional library for OpenCV tasks. We've also introduced Git-lfs, a solution for efficiently handling large files like audio samples, videos, datasets, and graphics. The integration of unixODBC provides a standardized API for accessing data sources, including SQL Servers and other data sources with ODBC drivers. Lastly, the addition of Libsndfile facilitates reading and writing files containing sampled audio data.
• Flavor Deletion: Dropped the ubi8-python3.8 flavor for PyTorch and TensorFlow notebooks, streamlining the available options and ensuring that we focus on the most relevant configurations.
• Security Improvements: To enhance the overall security of our notebooks, we have addressed security issues identified through the Quay security scan.

1. Upgrade workbenches for the 2023b release by @atheo89 in Upgrade workbenches for the 2023b release  #205
2. Add mesa-libGL on the base notebooks by @atheo89 in Add mesa-libGL on the base notebooks #262
3. feature: add codeflare sdk to datascience images by @harshad16 in feature: add codeflare sdk to datascience images #263
4. Update imagestreams with new 2023b images by @rkpattnaik780 in Update imagestreams with new 2023b images #270
5. Sec fix PR

All the updated notebooks are available on the Quay.io registry; please filter the results by using the tag "2023b".

Improvements and Bug Fixes

In this release, we've made significant enhancements to our development test framework, which plays a crucial role in ensuring the reliability of our notebooks. Our primary focus was to go beyond mere readiness checks and provide a more comprehensive evaluation of each notebook's functionality and its dependencies.

We've addressed several critical issues and bugs that were affecting the performance and usability of our notebooks. These fixes enhance the overall stability and functionality of our notebooks as listed below.

• Adding piplock-renewal GH action on 2023b branch by @dibryant in Adding piplock-renewal GH action on 2023b branch #238
• Re-adjust Auto Add Issues to Tracking boards by @harshad16 in Re-adjust Auto Add Issues to Tracking boards #239
• Add tests for TrustyAI Notebooks by @dibryant in Add tests for TrustyAI Notebooks #244
• Introduces basic JSON and YAML checks into this repository by @jstourac in Introduces basic JSON and YAML checks into this repository #245
• Update the digest updater workflow by incorporating the N-1 version (upstream) by @atheo89 in Update the digest updater workflow by incorporating the N-1 version (upstream) #249
• Fix the pytorch image reference in main to commit e868e30 by @harshad16 in Fix the pytorch image reference in main to commit e868e30 #250
• [tests] Allow to overwrite repository for testing script download by @jstourac in [tests] Allow to overwrite repository for testing script download #258
• Fix typo on tensorflow test notebook name by @atheo89 in Fix typo on tensorflow test notebook name #265
• Increase timeout on the makefile test recipe by @atheo89 in Increase timeout on the makefile test recipe  #266
• Add name for the notebook digest github action by @jstourac in Add name for the notebook digest github action #268
• Fix and improve CI unit test workaround by @atheo89 in Fix and improve CI unit test workaround  #271
• Remove depreciated bases kustomize feature by @strangiato in remove depreciated bases kustomize feature #272
• Fix trustyai notebook test by @dibryant in Fix trustyai notebook test #274

[harshad16]

Thanks all for working on this.
The sprint is complete and release is made: https://github.com/opendatahub-io/notebooks/releases/tag/v1.12.0