nixternal

This is in reply to Jordan’s post about taking a little Ubuntu break. Personally I hate to see it for many reasons. Just to let a few of you in on why, here are a couple of my reasons. Jordan has been a very good friend and has helped me out tremendously in a lot of areas:

1. Ichthux Linux - when we were active we were on! Hopefully one day Raphael will not be so busy and we can get back into it.
2. Documentation - Jordan helped me out in so many areas while I was becoming accustomed to how the project worked.
3. MOTU - I wouldn’t be a MOTU without the drive and support of Jordan. Granted I worked hard for a couple of years, but Jordan’s constant support lead me to believe I was ready.
4. Edubuntu - I was watching as Jordan and the crew over at Edubuntu were kicking some major arse and working hard. In a time of need over there I attempted to step up and help out. Seeing as Jordan is taking a well needed, and well deserved break, I am willing to step up and hopefully continue where you will be leaving off. I am up to help you on this!

This doesn’t include the day-to-day interaction with Jordan that was just amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better person to really enforce some of the deep meanings in Free Software that Jordan has done for me. When my eyes were cloudy, he always found his way over to me to clarify them.

If you aren’t heavily involved in the development of Ubuntu or Edubuntu, then you may not know just how important Jordan is to this community. Not to rain on Mark’s parade, but Jordan is the “sabdfl” of the MOTU world He is the most patient person you will ever run into, always stays level headed, and I can honestly say for the past couple of years, I have never seen him lose his cool.

So Jordan, here is to you and a speedy recovery Yes, burn-out is something a lot of us face in this community, and if it wasn’t for great people like Jordan, I am willing to bet you would probably see even more. I know Jordan will be back soon and ready to kick arse and take some names again. In the mean time, if I can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to ask buddy! I am willing to work more on the Edubuntu stuff (sorry for taking a hiatus, I am still here for you guys though), as well as the Packaging Guide in the mean time. So if you have any extra information you would like to pass along, feel free to hit me up anyway you feel!

Let’s get the Ubuntu Planet back on track here and tell all of the great readers about:

• What to expect in the Gutsy Gibbon
• Some more Ubuntu howtos
• Free software and why it rocks
• Your code snippets that people may find useful
• Behind MOTU (watch the Fridge for future releases)
• Behind Ubuntu (we need some more interviews…I love this behind the scenes stuff)
• Vi vs. Emacs (OK, that was a JOKE! Please don’t)
• Your community success stories
• SABDFL stealing the hubcaps off of the space shuttle

We apologize for any inconvenience and return you back to your regularly unscheduled programming.

PS: SABDFL didn’t really steal the hubcaps….

I highly agree and support both Jono Bacon and Melissa Draper with their recent posts concerning discrimination in the community.

I left a comment on Melissa’s blog today and I very much mean everything I said. I had my eyes closed, I will admit it at the blatent discrimination that has gone in the community. I know the one form I constantly see is the use of the terms noob and newb which references a beginner at anything as a newbie. I myself find that a little disrespective and it reminds me of the days a lot of us use to tell others to RTFM.

As a community we need to rise against this, we don’t need separation, we need equality. The greater the standards and the greater the collaboration between everyone will only result in better application, and most importantly, a greater way of life in the Open Source community. We can all come together to say Microsoft this, DRM that, yet some of us tend to voice ignorance and disrespect to our own members. Age, race, religion, sex, or amount of knowledge, we are all one in this community. If you can’t live with it, I suggest you either 1) grow up, or 2) get on with life and leave the open source community, there is no room for you here!

please enjoy the ride…

There are a couple of KDE extra packages in Debian that haven’t been touched in a while and I was interested in helping maintain them. StevenK from IRC, a super cool DD (Debian Developer), told me how to go about getting it done. So I emailed the current maintainer who seems to be on a hiatus for about the past year and a half. Next thing I know I am told to check out pkg-kde on Alioth, Debian’s version of Sourceforge or Launchpad. While there I noticed some names looked familiar in the development area (tonio, toma, Hobbsee, Riddell). So upon further research I said the heck with it and signed up! A couple of emails from ana on IRC (#debian-qt-kde on irc.debian.org or OFTC), I was a member. I was then told to go ahead and start a bug up and go that route and to attempt to bring the package into the pkg-kde/kde-extras area. So now that is rocking and I am working with Debian KDE people.

Also this week I was able to locate a Debian Developer, actually two, in Chicago and have agreed to meet up and get my GPG key signed. This is just the first step in many, but I am totally stoked to get the chance to help out big daddy Debian! So maybe one day I can be cool like StevenK and become an official DD.</daydream>. Overall I am super impressed on just how easy it is to become involved in 3 of the greatest projects ever! KDE, Ubuntu, and now Debian. In the words of Jonathan Riddell, “GROOVY!”

It doesn’t get said enough I feel. Everyone is always busy working their fingers to the bone to bring us all a better desktop experience. Or people are busy learning their new system with the dreams and the passions of eventually becoming a developer. So what doesn’t get said enough?

THANK YOU!

I want to say thank you to everyone who is involved with every process imaginable in bringing all of us the greatest operating systems and software applications known to man. So thank you to all of the developers, documentors, volunteers on any level, and most importantly the users. A lot of users get addicted and feel that they are to new to be important, let me be the first to say you are way more valuable than you could ever imagine. It is your new views that helps developers create a better application, a more user-friendly application. Don’t ever think you are to new, or are a newbie, and can’t do something. You obviously made a wise decision switching to free software, so I know you have it in you to do whatever it is you want. Everyone of you are a very important aspect of our community, a community that Ubuntu was built around. So thanks for all of the fish, and I look forward to sharing a lot more fish with everyone in the future!

NOW LET’S GET THE GIBBON ROCKIN!

Well, I gave my little talk today for the Ubuntu Open Week on the Ubuntu Documentation Project. The talk actually went quite quick, just under 30 minutes. However, even though I had a 1 hour time slot, it was still filled with some really great questions from Monika, Samgee, and Ryanaka. To see my little talk that I wrote up as well as the questions asked, take a look at the wiki page. The log file will not be much different than that, except for a couple of Addons I did. I am sure those will be posted shortly and accessable via the Open Week wiki page. Thanks to everyone who participated! Tomorrow I will be giving another talk on Creating a LoCo Team for those who are interested. Check out Open Week page for more information.