Contact Information
Name:
Agostino Russo
Launchpad:
My Blog:
OpenPGP key:
Email:
<agostino.russo@gmail.com>
IRC:
xivulon on irc.freenode.net
About
Hi,
I am Agostino Russo, but everyone calls me Ago,
I am the author and maintainer of Wubi which in turns is based on the Lupin project and this original blueprint. I am now helping the ubuntu-installer team to make Wubi an official installer (InstallerForWindows).
I like to dedicate my (little) spare time to open source projects. Usually after my kids are in bed. I work as a quant in a financial company, I have a PhD in finance and a major in economics, but I have been programming since I was 11, starting with the fantastic Commodore64. I have been using Linux exclusively since 2000, and Ubuntu since Warty. Before that it was Red Hat, Mandrake, Gentoo, Debian. My preferred programming language is Python (not much of that in Wubi unfortunately).
Projects
Most of my activity has been focused around Wubi, which is now shipping with Ubuntu and it is fast approaching 1 million downloads. But have also done some other minor works.
Umenu
- I am the author of Umenu, it is the Winfoss replacement that now ships with Ubuntu. It also allows users to boot off CD sparing them the annoyance of having to change the boot order in the BIOS (using Wubi --cdboot).
LP project page: https://launchpad.net/umenu
Wubi
I designed and wrote most of Wubi (installer frontend) and Lupin (installer backend, see below) and am the project leader.
Original blueprint: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/ubuntu-setup.exe
Website: http://wubi-installer.org
LP project page: http://wubi-installer.org
Other people also helped with Wubi design and implementation, in particular, Geza Kovacs and Oliver Mattos created the first Wubi prototypes, and Colin J Watson rewrote a large chunk of the installation code now in partman-auto-loop (and initramfs), Evan Dandrea also provided a tremendous help with several Ubuntu patches. Please see http://www.wubi-installer.org/faq.php#credits for a full list of developers.
Lupin
Lupin is the back-end of loopinstallation, it used to be a mechanism to override a regular ISO at runtime, now most of its functionality has been incorporated into Ubuntu (thanks to the efforts of Colin J Watson and Evan Dandrea as well as myself). Nowdays lupin is mostly used to provide external hooks to customize a casper installation using an ISO and a preseed file on hard disk. Plus it adds a few twists required by a loopinstalled system.
LP project page: https://launchpad.net/lupin
ZoomMapWidget
I wrote the new PyGTK widget, which was used as a base for the new timezone selector in Ubiquity. The control was an implementation of the specification in HardyUbiquityUsability, the control has subsequently been greatly improved and extended by Evan Dandrea.
LP original code page: https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-installer/ubiquity/zoom-map-widget
Snappy
- Snappy is a C++ library to create a light and simple download manager with support for segmented downloads and metalinks. Hampus Wessman has done most of the work there but I hepled too.
LP project: https://launchpad.net/snappy
Yeat Another Sudoku Solver
Admittedly not very useful (unless you get stacked...), and a bit O.T., but anyway:
Other Activities
Bugs
I maintain Wubi, Lupin and Umenu and as such I take care of all the related bugs, where I fixed hundreds of bugs, but occasionally I roam in the neighborhood too. For instance I submitted patches for the following packages:
update-grub #175772
partman #177868
partman-auto-loop lupin-support #176019 #173659
casper lupin-casper #230716 #230703
ntfs-3g #229000
pm-utils #224697
For a full list of contributions see: bugs related to ago
Wubi Website Administrator
I am the admin of the Wubi website. I have written and designed most of the website content, php scripts and artwork (the Wubi 7.04 artwork was from Exsub).
Wubi website: http://wubi-installer.org
Code branch: https://code.launchpad.net/~lupin-team/wubi/website
Wubi Forum Administrator
I am the administrator of the Wubi forum (nickname: ago) where I have provided (and still do) support to literally thousands of users.
Wubi forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=234
Wikis
Blueprints
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/installer-for-windows
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/get-ubuntu-button
https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/supported-hardware-list
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/problematic-hardware-notification
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/zero-conf-server
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/setup-ubuntu/+spec/multiple-installation-modes