I, Alexandre Ghiti, apply for MOTU status within the Ubuntu community.

I am applying because:

* I have contributed quite a few packages now, to both Debian and Ubuntu and feel comfortable enough with the overall process.

* I sometimes worked on a package, waiting for a sponsor, and someone else uploaded it in the meantime: this is a waste of time for everyone.

* I will help clear the sponsorship queue.

* I want to get more responsibility, because the more responsible, the more I feel involved and happy to contribute.

Who I am

I am a software engineer living in Grenoble, France, I currently work in the Foundations team for Canonical. For a few years now, my focus is RISC-V, more specifically the kernel and when I don't work on this subject, I work on some personal projects (all involve my computer of course :)).

My Ubuntu story

I discovered free software late when I entered my engineering school in Grenoble where I studied operating systems. And I began contributing to open source softwares with the kernel as I had experience in this area from my first job and I was willing to help (and have fun too).

I usually had a Linux Mint distribution from the time of my cheap student laptop and then switched to Ubuntu when I installed it to some close relatives a few years ago, so I guess I have always used Ubuntu.

My involvement

My focus is on enabling the RISC-V architecture which consists in fixing RISC-V specific issues and adding packages to allow better support of existing hardware. But as part of the Foundations team, it often happens that I have to fix packages outside of the RISC-V scope.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Overall:

40 sponsored packages:

https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi?render=html&sponsor=&sponsor_search=name&sponsoree=*ghiti*&sponsoree_search=name

2 MIRs:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libisofs/+bug/1977959 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jigit/+bug/1978066

4 SRUs:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/+bug/1944741 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nezha-boot0/+bug/1965260 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/u-boot-nezha/+bug/1976594 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flash-kernel/+bug/1978923

2 +1 reports:

https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com/msg10177.html https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com/msg10425.html

Areas of work

Low-level packages such as u-boot, opensbi, flash-kernel...etc. But actually anything to enhance our RISC-V support.

Things I could do better

I don't communicate enough with the community. I think being a MOTU will make me more legitimate and will improve that.

I learnt a lot about the processes, but now I have to focus on the details, it happens that I forget a bug number, that I mess a version in my PPA and ask for my sponsor to fix these.

And I really need to pay more attention to all the tools that exist to help us.

Plans for the future

General

I want to work on the distribution fundamentals and by its nature, the RISC-V architecture may bring new kinds of problems that may need innovative solutions.

What I like least in Ubuntu

First it would be the sponsoring process: it is very long, random, discouraging and time wasting. I will contribute more knowing that I have upload rights and since nobody will check my work, I'll necessarily pay more attention to details.

Then I think it misses a documentation on the tools that we could use to improve our workflow.

Comments

If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.

Endorsements

As a sponsor, just copy the template below, fill it out and add it to this section.

TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)

=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:
##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi
=== Areas of Improvement ===

CategoryMOTUApplication