precise

Apps are super-important for Ubuntu. Many of us have blogged about this in a more general sense, but I want to provide an update of what has been happening behind the scenes in the last few weeks. Before I start, I want to reach out to you to be part of the upcoming Apps Sprint. Join us on #ubuntu-arb on irc.freenode.net from Monday, 2nd July to Wednesday, 4th July to learn more about Ubuntu apps, get involved in reviewing them and bringing more progress to this effort....

One class of new contributors has always been successful: self-starters who knew what they wanted to do, where to get involved, with possibly some already existing experience or knowledge. For others it’s been a tougher ride. To remedy some of this, we set up the Developer Advisory Team. We figured that (among other things) reaching out to new contributors who just got their first fix into Ubuntu to thank them, encourage them and ask for their feedback would help us a lot in terms of bringing them into the fold and finding out what current stumbling blocks are....

New contributors who don’t have upload rights to Ubuntu yet get their code reviewed and their packages uploaded by Ubuntu developers. This process is called “sponsoring” and our current process has been in place since pretty much forever. It has even gotten easier over time, so new branches or patches show up on our review queue. Two years ago when we were struggling with getting code reviewed, we put in place “patch pilots”, a great concept we borrowed from the Bazaar team....

I’ve been using Google+ Hangouts for a while and some of you might have seen that Jono posted some evidence of these. Mostly I just used them for team calls with a fixed agenda or to keep in touch with friends. Yesterday I did a free-for-all hangout, using the new “named hangout” feature of Google+. It’s basically like a chat room with a fixed URL, where you can discuss whatever is on your mind....

Today is a good day to join Ubuntu development. Here’s your own, personal checklist: You like doing some detective work. Reading some docs or using the terminal does not scare you. You might have tinkered with some source code before. You love Ubuntu and want to help improve it! Here’s how we are going to help you: We have a bunch of friendly people on #ubuntu-motu on irc.freenode.net who are going to answer all your questions....

As part of our Fix-It Fridays we saw many many new faces joining the #ubuntu-motu IRC channel which always has many helpful developers who are there to answer questions and help if you should get stuck. Still it seems like some feel uncomfortable asking questions or getting their feet wet in this forum. After some discussion we thought it might make sense to have an additional low-key event where you can show up, get to know everyone and ask whatever you have on your mind....

Welcoming Monday is a lot easier if you have a great weekend to look back to. 32 LoCo teams in 23 countries definitely had a great time at Ubuntu Global Jam. The Fix-It Friday activity continued for hours and I thought it’d be a nice idea to go through just a few bits that came in and showcase what exactly was done, so it becomes a bit clearer what all constitutes as a “fix” for Ubuntu 12....

A lot of really great things are coming together right now: tomorrow we kick off Ubuntu Global Jam for the 12.04 cycle, additionally we will have Fix-It Friday tomorrow! The Ubuntu developer community is putting a lot of effort into this event. There will be experienced developers who take the time to answer all the questions you have, help you fix problems, review code for you, use the time to clear up the sponsoring queue....

Since I heard it, I always like the idiom “to hit the ground running”. There’s no really good German translation of it, but the thought of arriving somewhere, knowing what to do and how to do it definitely has its charm. In practical terms it’s often hard, especially if there’s complicated rules, tools and processes. I won’t deny that there’s an interesting learning experience involved if you want to get into Ubuntu development....

WOW. So this was our first Fix-It Friday and there’s still a few to come until release. Here’s what we collectively got through: Dmitry Shachnev requested a sync for retext. Michael Hall added a quick list entry for geany. David Baucum added a quick list entry for smplayer. bcbc fixed a bug in wubi. Paolo Sammicheli merged acm. Rigved Rakshit fixed a bug in live-build. Barneedhar Vigneshwar fixed a bug in software-center....

Every Friday… …we hack together with you… …on Ubuntu. It’s no Rocket Science… …but rather a lot of fun! Join us and… …you’ll make lots of friends! Here’s what you need to do: Read the first few articles. Join us in #ubuntu-motu on irc.freenode.net on Friday. Have fun and start making Ubuntu better! More info here.

Some weeks ago, I asked for feedback in a survey about Ubuntu development. Particularly, how well we reach out and how Ubuntu development is generally perceived were focus points of the survey. The great thing is: we had ~350 people replying and we have lots of great feedback and ideas in the results. You can download the summary (including all the answers) here. Let’s use all the feedback to make Ubuntu development even easier....

I love planning a new Ubuntu release. It’s a great experience to take a few steps back and look at the biggest challenges and opportunities in your area of interest and try to identify the most promising. Personally, I want us to get better at involving interested Ubuntu users in the development process. We have gotten better and better over the years, but there’s still things we can do better. The fantastic answers in the survey I announced recently helped a lot to see the issues more clearly....