Ubuntu Wiki

Contact Information

A Bit About Me

My name is Greg Beam ( amateur radio operator KI7MT ).

I am a veteran of the Semiconductor Capitol Equipment Industry; Integrated & Stand Alone Metrology, CMP - Chemical Mechanical Planarazation, HDP - High Density Plazma Vapor Deposition and HPC Modeling of Thin-Film Stacks used in chip manufacturing. I've held positions in Technical Training, Field Service Engineering, Application Engineering, Field Service Management, Director of Technical Support and Global VP / Business Unit Management.

I have been involved with Linux for many years (15-18). My Ubuntu experience goes back to Dapper Drake 6.04 LTS. I've tested and / or used every release since. Currently using Trusty and Developing on Vivid.

I am very passionate about FOSS, Linux and Amateur Radio. All my current community efforts are focused on promoting all three using Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Contribution Summary

• Ubuntu Questions and Answers
• IRC: #ubuntu and others
• Ubuntu Documentation: Provided patches, merge proposals, fixed bugs, server test cases
• Ubuntu QA: ISO and Desktop App Testing, Manual Test Generation
• Ubuntu Packaging: (11+) Packages on Launchpad
• Package Development: Develop tools for porting applications to Ubuntu

I do not focus all my attention on one area. I believe there is much to be learned and shared between all areas of the community. I think the more one interacts with various groups, the better his/her understanding of the community, it's mission and distribution becomes. No matter how experienced a user is, I believe something can be learned from everyone, every day.

Current Packaging Efforts

Development Package Efforts

* I am the author of KVASD-Installer. Its primary purpose is to prevent package omission due to the non-FOSS policies surrounding WSJT, WSJT-X and MAP65. The package itself in FOSS complaint, licensed under GPL-3. The package also reduces maintainer re-work of the upstream package to remove unwanted elements relating to the non-FOSS binary.

* I am also part of the WSJT Project, for my part, focusing on application build systems ( Autotools ) and documentation.

* I am the principal author of both JTSDK and FLSDK. Both SDK's are a pre-configured collection of open source cross platform development frameworks, Gnu tools, libraries and custom written scripts designed to ease compiling applications and documentation from source code. Supported distributions are Debian, Ubuntu, with progress toward ARMv7 on Ubuntu Core.

Ubuntu Contribution Details

ISO QA Testing

I test ISO's on a regular basis ( Ubuntu, Lubuntu ~ x86/x86_64 Desktop && server ), particularly running up to an LTS point release or distributions release. I try to help out testing flavors where participation is somewhat sparse. If I see a mandatory section that is in need, I will test it.

Ubuntu Documentation

In the past, I've updated several sections of the Ubuntu Manual along with generating QA Test Cases that were missing for server installations ( alternate command line installs ). Due to other time demanding efforts, I've not spent the time I would like on documentation. I plan to get more aggressive with documentation in the run up to the 16.04 LTS release.

IRC Work

When I am not working on packaging, I help out in #ubuntu IRC. I also monitor the Ubuntu development, documentation, quality and packaging and pitch in where I can help. I've received a couple Cookies, but would like allot more

Ubuntu Answers

When things are slow on the development front and IRC is is quiet, I will browse the Ubuntu Q&A pages to see if there are topics I can assist with. Due due to my resent packaging efforts, I've not been able to spend as much time in Q&A as I would like too.

Packaging

Several of the packages I'm working on are either new to Debian / Ubuntu or have policy issues ( WSPR, WSJTX-Dev, JTSDK, FLSDK ) which is very time consuming and in some cases difficult to resolve. Much progress has been made on the non-FOSS issues preventing WSJT and WSJT-Dev updates from occurring. Current efforts are targeting Ubuntu 15.10 for final inclusion.

Advocating Ubuntu

With Windows XP moving into EOL, coupled with the flood of ARM based mini boards hitting the market, there has been a rather large influx of Amateur Radio Operators moving from Windows to *Nix based operating systems; many are choosing Ubuntu or it's first level derivatives. I spend a great deal of time in various radio sector mailing lists advocating the use of Ubuntu and providing detailed How-To's for compiling popular applications. This support was the driving force behind creating the JTSDK and FLSDK projects. My goal is to make it as easy as possible for those wanting to test the "latest and greatest" versions of these applications, and provide a method of feedback to the upstream teams that can be traced back to a standard build process.

On a more local level, I assist many of my neighbors in our HOA (Home Owners Association) with their computing needs. The first question I am generally asked is, "can you build me a faster computer" .. my response is almost always; "yes I can, but lets install Ubuntu on your machine first, I think you'll be pleased with the results". Nine out of ten times, they are over the moon, not only with the cost saving, but how much better they like their OS over the previous setup.

I firmly believe, through continued education, mentoring and technical support, Ubuntu has the right combination of attributes to provide something for everyone. It is my aspiration to help those I can, find the right answer within the Ubuntu community.

My Primary Goals

Short Term

• Become a Ubuntu Member
• Become a Ubuntu Developer (MOTU, Ubuntu-Dev, eventually Ubuntu-Core)
• Become a committer for Ham Radio applications
• Regional Board Member and Ubuntu Advocate

Within the Ubuntu Community, It's my goal to first become a Ubuntu Member, with an aspiration to become a Ubuntu Developer and eventual Regional Board Member. I have a firm understanding of what it takes to operate locally as well as on a global scale and believe I could contribute to making Ubuntu the operating system of choice in homes as well as the workplace.

Long Term

* At the 1 to 2 year point, I would like to become a channel partner or even employee of Canonical Ltd.

Testimonials for Ubuntu Membership

If you would like to describe any of my contributions to the Ubuntu Community, please feel free to do so below. Your feedback is very much appreciated.

It has been a pleasure to meet Greg, and i am impressed about his endorsement. Talking with him about membership, and the trick question what he expects from it, made me want to write this testimonial. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/oerheks

Greg is a consistent and active contributor to the UbuntuHams group. In my capacity as his packaging mentor / sponsor, I have reviewed multiple instances of his work and have engaged in many conversations with him. Greg has a solid understanding of open-source philosophy, and is always a pleasure to work with. I am happy to offer my endorsement of Greg Beam for Ubuntu Membership. --Kamal Mostafa https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KamalMostafa