Ubuntu Development Update

With Alpha 2 out of the way, loads of new things are getting into Ubuntu: the first cut of the Unity greeter landed, lots of projects get ported to GTK3, bugs get fixed, etc. These are definitely exciting times. As always: the status overview should give you a very detailed look on how each feature is progressing.

What’s also happening this week is Ubuntu Developer Week. Every day from 16:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC we have excellent tutorial sessions on IRC that explain lots of different aspects of Ubuntu Development. Join in, learn, ask and discuss. Logs of sessions that already happened are linked from the timetable. What’s still to come? Today: Writing apps with QML, deploying to the cloud using Ensemble, fixing build failures on ARM, visual rendering with the nux library, Java library packaging. Tomorrow: fixing bugs in compiz, hacking on Ubuntu websites, triaging bugs, Lubuntu development and project lightning talks. Awesome!

If you want to get involved in packaging and bug fixing, there’s still a lot of bugs that need to get fixed, particularly packages that fail to build.

Since last week a bunch of people got their first upload into Ubuntu! I’m thrilled! This time it’s four gentlemen who deserve a round of applause! Alexander Fougner (who now got busy helping retheme the Ubuntu Packaging Guide), Christian Titze, Kent Baxley and David Smith. Good work everyone, keep it up!

New Contributor

This week I talked to Juan Negron from the USA, here’s what he has to say:

What was your experience like?
It was very smooth as I had a lot of support from my co-workers at Canonical and the Ubuntu community as well. There are a lot of smart (and patient) people hanging out on IRC able (and willing) to help out when needed.

Did you run into any problems?
Most of the problems that I ran into were due to inexperience, and for those, the people around me (Canonical/Ubuntu) where there to help.
A few examples:

• The induction into using the wiki as the first place to look for information.
• best practices when working with bzr and launchpad (bikeshed helps a lot with release-test, release-build and release)
• lintian on my side: How to use lintian to help you clean up your packages before uploading.

…. some other that don’t come to mind right now.

Fortunately, there has always been someone there to help me so I have been able to overcome those quickly enough where I can get the job done and now (thanks to all of the people that have helped me in the past), I am now in a position where I can pay it forward to those in need.

What do you think could have been easier?
There are some things in the packaging and its approval process that could be made easier but, so far, I think it to be a painful but necessary step to ensure that all the developers pay enough attention to details to maintain the high quality of Ubuntu. Going through that learning curve and process has forced me to be more detailed oriented… and that’s always a good thing!

How did you generally like it?
So far, I’m loving it!! I have been able to meet and work with some of the smartest people on the planet so, I feel more empowered to tackle more ambitious challenges due to the support that the community provides.

Get Involved

1. Read the Introduction to Ubuntu Development. It’s a short article which will help you understand how Ubuntu is put together, how the infrastructure is used and how we interact with other projects.
2. Follow the instructions in the Getting Set Up article. A few simple commands, a registration at Launchpad and you should have all the tools you need, and you’re ready to go.
3. Check out our instructions for how to fix a bug in Ubuntu, they come with small examples that make it easier to visualise what exactly you need to do.

Find something to work on

Pick a bitesize bug. These are the bugs we think should be easy to fix. Another option is to help out in one of our initiatives.

• Help out with the dh_python2 porting.
• Help out with fixing packages that don’t build anymore.

In addition to that there are loads more opportunities over at Harvest.

Getting in touch

There are many different ways to contact Ubuntu developers and get your questions answered.

• Be interactive and reach us most immediately: talk to us in #ubuntu-motu on irc.freenode.net.
• Follow mailing lists and get involved in the discussions: ubuntu-devel-announce (announce only, low traffic), ubuntu-devel (high-level discussions), ubuntu-devel-discuss (fairly general developer discussions).
• Stay up to date and follow the ubuntudev account on Facebook, Identi.ca or Twitter.

Ubuntu Development Update

Let’s have a look at the release schedule together: It’s Alpha 2 week! So watch the release team’s blog and get ready to test second alpha of what will turn into the Oneiric Ocelot. A lot of great stuff landed, see the kernel team update, desktop team update, and server team update as a snapshot of current ongoing works.

As always: the status overview should give you a very detailed look on how each feature is progressing.

There’s still a lot of bugs that need to get fixed, particularly packages that fail to build.

In the last weeks I pointed out bugs that were solved since the last report. I think this was a boring idea. Instead of bugs let’s celebrate people! Since last week we have three people who got their first uploads accepted into Ubuntu: Pavol Klačanský, Marco Trevisan, Daniel Polehn. Good work everyone, keep it up!

And there’s events coming up! I announced it a few days ago: Ubuntu Developer Week (July 11th-15th) is just around the corner. A week full of IRC sessions dedicated to better explain what kind of work goes into Ubuntu and how to be part of it. Awesome! Also the planning of Ubuntu Global Jam just started.

New Contributor

This week I talked to Sebastian Carneiro from Argentina, here’s what he has to say:

For me it is great. Being totally new to contributing in open source projects I am able to do that thanks to the help of reviewers and developers. Everyone has been very helpful and understanding and I am learning a lot.
I can’t easily think of something that could make things easier for me, at least so far. I think that in my area of interest, which is Development, there is a great deal of technical knowledge that has to be absorbed for someone new to Ubuntu, but there is a lot of good sources for that knowledge either in wikis, training logs, and specially, developers that are willing to teach beginners like me, and allow for new people to grow.

I find the quality of the work being done in Ubuntu, and the collaborative environment very inspiring. You can see that in the care that is taken in every project, source code, package, in the discussions in mailing lists, on-line trainings. I find that absolutely exciting and even a pleasure to be involved in such a great group of people.

I am a 35 years old developer and Informatics Licensee from Argentina.
I started programming and using computing in general at the age of 12. My day job is in a Development Center at Citi, I participate in Analysis, Design and Programming for regional systems based in Java and Midrange servers like IBM iSeries. I also worked as an Administrator in a Data Center for a Small manufacturing company for 7 years.-

My involvement with Linux started 6 years ago, my first distribution was Slackware. Also used Redhat, Suse and Debian. Around 3 years ago, I started using Ubuntu, and I like very much that it was easier to use than other distributions. Also, being a technical user, I liked very much the great work that was being done in this distribution, that I note looking at scripts, in the documentation, the tools that allow me to configure things very easily, and facilitate me to investigate the inner workings for the system and applications (which I liked very much).-

Unfortunately, in previous years, I wasn’t able to dedicate myself to contributing, but this year, a took that as something that I have to do. So, I started to look at the excellent wikis, IRC training logs (some of which were hosted by you, and I enjoyed them a lot!) , and bugs in Launchpad, and a few weeks ago I configure my development machine, and started to contribute to fix bugs in packaging, as I go learning from different sources, and discover what an rewarding experience it is! It feels great for me to contribute and being helped in so many ways by the Ubuntu community. I love developing systems, and for me this great ambiance couldn’t be better. I only hope to being able to grow myself technically to help the community in a greater way.

You and other members that help me daily are great examples to be follow!

So, I hope my responses are useful. Is great for someone really shy like my to feel a part of this community.

Thanks for noticing me!

Get Involved

1. Read the Introduction to Ubuntu Development. It’s a short article which will help you understand how Ubuntu is put together, how the infrastructure is used and how we interact with other projects.
2. Follow the instructions in the Getting Set Up article. A few simple commands, a registration at Launchpad and you should have all the tools you need, and you’re ready to go.
3. Check out our instructions for how to fix a bug in Ubuntu, they come with small examples that make it easier to visualise what exactly you need to do.

Find something to work on

Pick a bitesize bug. These are the bugs we think should be easy to fix. Another option is to help out in one of our initiatives.

• Help out with the dh_python2 porting.
• Help out with fixing packages that don’t build anymore.

In addition to that there are loads more opportunities over at Harvest.

Getting in touch

There are many different ways to contact Ubuntu developers and get your questions answered.

• Be interactive and reach us most immediately: talk to us in #ubuntu-motu on irc.freenode.net.
• Follow mailing lists and get involved in the discussions: ubuntu-devel-announce (announce only, low traffic), ubuntu-devel (high-level discussions), ubuntu-devel-discuss (fairly general developer discussions).
• Stay up to date and follow the ubuntudev account on Facebook, Identi.ca or Twitter.