YourDeveloperApplication

I, Bjoern Michaelsen, apply for upload rights for package libreoffice.

Who I am

I joined Canonical in February 2011 and was with Sun/Oracles OpenOffice.org team before. I am:

  • a member of the engineering steering commitee for Libreoffice since the start
  • a Founder and Director on the Board of the Document Foundation.

  • a top 20 all-time code contributor to LibreOffice

Some of my ideas and opinions are expressed in these posts:

My Ubuntu story

I joined Canonical in February 2011 and was with Sun/Oracles OpenOffice.org team before. I now maintain LibreOffice and related packages for Ubuntu.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Packing all versions of LibreOffice on Ubuntu since its first release that came with Ubuntu. Writing a new build system (gbuild) replacing the ancient cruft OOo used before to build this >10 million lines of code project (including C/C++/Java/Python/Perl components) on various platforms (Linux, Solaris, OS X, Windows -- and now also IOS and Android).

Continued effort to clean up and modernize upstreams huge C++ codebase and bring it to C++11 (screaming and kicking) and improve its test coverage.

I also initiated "Bibisect" in the LibreOffice project: Having LibreOffice _binaries_ tracking the development branch in a git repository (e.g. populated from tinderboxes now). This allowed QA volunteers to bisect regressions (or even fixes) to individual changes without the need to do compiles on every step (which would take substantial time and electricity for LibreOffice.)

Work in generally bootstrapping TDF to be the strong NGO it is now, supporting progress of LibreOffice with developer tools, mentoring, QA, events (conferences, Hackfests) etc.

Areas of work

I am working closely with the Ubuntu Desktop Team, Debian LibreOffice packaging and LibreOffice upstream. For the 3.5 release we finally got rid of the old go-oo build and patch system, which should make maintainance a lot easier and quicker for the important LibreOffice 3.5/Ubuntu Precise LTS release. The bug situation is stable and under control now (>500 open bugs in launchpad, however most of those are upstream feature requests).

Providing versions of LibreOffice to the ppas at the LibreOffice Team, with rare exception in sync with upstream. This also provides good staging and testing for updates to the versions in the distro.

I also provided patches/backports/guidance to the Ubuntu security team for ~all CVEs to LibreOffice since the beginning. Given the rate of change/modernization of the codebase, even smaller patches can be nontrivial over the support life of LTS releases.

I also created an initial version of LibreOffice deployed as a snap package and maintain this.

Things I could do better

Bugs syncronization between launchpad and upstream (freedesktop bugzilla). Thankfully, Chris M. Penalver is currently doing amazing work there, so the situation isnt spinning out of control.

Plans for the future

General

Keep LibreOffice on Ubuntu the best free office suite ever!

What I like least in Ubuntu

Sometimes Ubuntu provides simple tools and leaned down workflows for usual tasks (packaging, bugtracking, l10n, SCM, etc.). However, with a project of the size of LibreOffice there is always an assumption in the 'leaned down/streamlined workflow' that is mismatching LibreOffice and needs to be workarounded. The solution is either adapting the project upsteam (lots of work, but might still make sense if the assumptions are sane) or custom tooling matching the requirements of LibreOffice for Ubuntu. The parento principle is hitting the LibreOffice/Ubuntu combination quite hard, but there is little blame to be distributed for this: two systems as big and complex as LibreOffice and Ubuntu will always have some friction -- the important part is spotting _needless_ friction and getting rid of it quickly.

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.

Martin Pitt

General feedback

I have sponsored all libreoffice package uploads for Bjoern so far. Bjoern has done an enormous job of making the package a lot easier to maintain by upstreaming a lot of Ubuntu's former delta, working together with Debian in a shared packaging git, simplifying the build system, etc. Due to the sheer size of package diffs between uploads and upstream releases it's quite impossible for me as a sponsor to verify all the changes anyway, so I usually only check the changelog and a few other marginal properties. Bjoern has picked up the necessary packaging skills quite fast, and I now trust him enough to handle day to day update situations on his own, and ask when he encounters something new.

He now also regularly test-builds new versions on the porter boxes (in particular ARM). In December we had an upload which broke a few things, these could have been avoided by more thorough testing of local package builds before upload. But again, I wouldn't have spotted these errors by looking at debdiffs during sponsoring anyway. So I support Bjoern's request to become a PPU for libreoffice, and want to thank him at this point for the great work he's doing in the upstream community and Debian packaging side as well.

-- pitti 2012-02-08 05:26:09

Sebastien Bacher

I've been sponsoring libreoffice uploads for Bjoern for a few years now and I can say that he is really doing good work with that complex package. He knows the upstream project, Ubuntu and Debian well, is handling merges with Debian, updates, SRUs and working with the security team when needed. He showed good understanding of the Ubuntu cycles, freezes, is keeping an eye on his uploads and proposed migration issues and he has quality in mind which is reflecting on the package. I strongly recommend giving upload rights for libreoffice.

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.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===

CategoryPerPackageUploaderApplication

BjoernMichaelsen/YourDeveloperApplication (last edited 2017-03-15 09:48:47 by seb128)