JeremyBicha

Revision 8 as of 2010-05-09 13:10:51

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Who I Am

I am a United States Navy Sailor living in Bahrain since 2007 but expect to move to DC/Maryland this summer. I am studying Computer & Information Science with the University of Maryland University College.

Certifications

CompTIA A+, Security+, Linux Professional Institute Level 1, Ubuntu Certified Professional

My Ubuntu Story

I have been using Linux since June 2006. My first Linux distribution I tried was Ubuntu Dapper Drake. In fact, I had to wait an extra couple days for the then-latest-and-greatest to be released. Although I occasionally play with other Linux distributions, Ubuntu works the best for me. I happily run Ubuntu on my laptop, desktop, and home server. In 2009 I started making a number of minor contributions and then attended UDS-M in May 2010.

Edubuntu

In October 2009 I became involved with the Edubuntu project. (I am a long time fan of the KDE-edu project but haven't contributed there yet.) I was able to fix a few Moodle bugs at the last minute before Karmic was released which I also submitted the patches upstream to Debian. As my schedule allows, I'd like to help with more packaging and bug fixes for Lucid. I also intend to improve the Debian/Ubuntu packaging of Moodle since there are a few rough areas.

Bug Triaging

I'm a member of the Ubuntu BugSquad. A list of bugs related to me can be found here. I have a current application for UbuntuBugControl which I expect to be approved.

Kabikaboo

While my wife was working on writing a novel in a month for NaNoWriMo, I looked around for a suitable app to help her. I found Kabikaboo, a tree-based text-editor written in PyGTK. I jumped in and made numerous fixes removing deprecated code, adding spellchecker support, and cleaned up the Glade UI code. Helping out with this project taught me a bunch more about project management in Launchpad. I worked with the Debian Python team to get Kabikaboo into the Debian repositories and then into the Ubuntu Lucid repositories.

Contributions to Ubuntu

For the Future

Ideas for the Future

  • Perhaps the main thing I'm doing to help Ubuntu is by studying C++ and programming (my college doesn't really teach C++). Because I work full-time and am taking classes I am limited in my time to contribute.
  • I need to find a project I can help with. Having a mentor to work with should teach me a lot and help me help Ubuntu more than the random contributions I've made so far.
  • I think Ubuntu would benefit by moving to XMPP from IRC for chatting. Features include backlog (in case internet connection is briefly interrupted), greater flexibility for usernames, and support for remote-desktop sharing in Empathy.
  • I'd like to see a plugin for Software Center allowing users to donate to support developers of software that they like. A plugin would allow this concept to be tested more carefully than just integrating into the mainline. This idea is a bit controversial because money can discourage volunteers but I think if the donations are user-driven instead of committee-driven, it wouldn't be too big of an issue. I think it is reasonable for the middle-man provider to keep a small percentage of the donation for facilitating the transaction (and like many money-making schemes, that idea is probably controversial too).

Comments

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