I'm ROCHE Didier, aka DidRocks.

About Me

I am a 24 year old French system administrator, living near Paris.

About my Linux profile, I started using Linux with Red Hat 6 in 1999. I then really become a regular Linux member since Mandrake 7.0 with a KDE based interface. I used Mandrake until 9.0 release of Mandrake, and then decided to try debian, and was truly satisfied with it, despite the long configuration time it took to have a working environment. I found the apt tools really cool compared to rpm one. With the project to go to Africa (see below), I was seeking for an easy-to-use and install Linux distribution. I found the "no-name-yet", known as Ubuntu today, and become to make some test with it. I have sticked with it and Ubuntu make me love the GNOME environment since this date.

As a programmer, I know C++, XHTML/CSS, PHP, XML/XSL/XPATH, shell scripting (Bash/Ksh) and java languages. I am currently learning python which seems to rock on!

Ubuntu Involvement

• I am involved in french [http://www.ubuntu-fr.org ubuntu-fr] loco team as a member of the administration team and part of the chair (as the secretary) of ubuntu-fr french association.

• I am also the author of [http://www.framabook.org/ubuntu.html Simple Comme Ubuntu], free book (under CC:By-Sa licence), part of [http://www.framabook.org framabook collection ], solded at more than 2 000 copies only by the Internet, and downloaded more than 200 000 times at the very moment. This book is always updated with the last version of Ubuntu.

• I contribute to french [http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org documentation] and wrote some wiki pages like [http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/ndiswrapper ndiswrapper] page or [http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/smartmontools Smartmontools] page.

• I also went in Africa for 1 month with a non-governemental organisation, [www.africedu.fr Africedu] : (project 1996 : Lome, capital city of Togo), shipping in a school 60 computers set up with Ubuntu 5.10 (and upgraded there to 6.06 from on old hard drive!). We made some training there.

• [https://translations.launchpad.net/~didrocks Few (unfortunately) translations] on [https://launchpad.net/people/ubuntu-l10n-fr Rosetta]

• My main goal now is to promote Ubuntu in France, and particularly in Paris with [http://www.ubuntu-party.org Ubuntu Party]. This is why I am one of the main organizers of Ubuntu events in Paris (like "Ubuntu Gutsy" and recently "Ubuntu Hardy"). In November 2007, 3rd & 4th: Gutsy Party was and amazed party with more than 3 000 visitors in two days. Main channels : #ubuntu-fr-party@Freenode

• Finally, I try to represent the French community at big events (like [http://2008.rmll.info/ RMLL] and [http://www.solutionslinux.fr/fr/index.php Linux Solution]) or smaller one ([http://www.libreacces.org/ LibreAcces], festival of free music where people can download the music from Ubuntu workstation).

About future involvement

In addition to my ubuntu-fr administrators tasks :

• Ensure stronger relationship beetween Press and Ubuntu-fr association
• Organize a monthly meeting of Ubunteros who live near Paris (many people are actively working on this)

• Creating a parental control GUI in a GTK style (projet available in launchpad: [https://launchpad.net/gchildcare])

• Begin to package in Ubuntu in order to become a MOTU.

Testimonials

JonathanMarsaud : Didier Roche has many times showed how he is involved on ubuntu-fr LoCoTeam : from the view of a moderator of #ubuntu-fr, I saw how his book has helped a lot of new users to use Ubuntu. His participation to Ubuntu Party and administration of ubuntu-fr.org merits to be granted

NicolasBarcet : Didier is a very committed Ubuntu actor in the french speaking community, and a very well known one, through his involment in documentation, translation, his book and participation in install party and numerous events. I therefore recommend to the board to grant him a membership he could have claim a long time ago.

JulienRottenberg : Didrocks is a very valuable asset of the Ubuntu french speaking community, he is really committed to any task he accepts to take upon (see the book "Simple comme Ubuntu"). He is very skilled (multiple patchs to the wiki engine doc.ubuntu-fr.org uses to accommodate ubuntu-fr growth) and passionate about Ubuntu, I got the opportunity to meet him on a few occasions, he is a very nice person.