DeveloperApplicationMOTU

I, Martin Wimpress, apply for MOTU.

I am applying because:

  • Help Ubuntu flavours with package uploads/sponsorship.
  • Help bootstrap new Ubuntu flavours and assist with package sponsorship.
  • Help Ubuntu developers without upload rights to maintain their packages in Ubuntu.
  • Assist with maintaining packages in Universe and the general health of the Universe repository.
  • Work on enabling high-bitrate Bluetooth audio codecs.

Who I am

I have been using Linux since 1995 and progressed through Yggdrasil, Slackware, RedHat Linux, CRUX and Fedora prior to my first install of Ubuntu when it was a Warty Warthog. Ubuntu remained my only workstation operating system until early 2012 when I switched to Arch Linux and became an Arch Linux Trusted User. I've been contributing to MATE Desktop since 2012 and in the summer of 2014 I co-founded Ubuntu MATE with Alan Pope and have led the project ever since.

While I have become "known" for Ubuntu MATE, I've spent most of my career working with large scale Linux infrastructure and I've used Ubuntu server exclusively since 6.06. The first Linux OS I made was based on Ubuntu and specifically designed for the recovery, conversion and transmission of “black box” flight data. I also designed and built the massive compute cluster that analyses this flight data and is capable of producing safety and maintenance analysis for every commercial aviation flight in the world, every day.

Contact

My Ubuntu story

In October 2014 I attended the X2Go Gathering to meet with Mike Gabriel from the Debian MATE packaging team to determine how we can collaborate on MATE. I've been a significant contributor to MATE packaging in Debian ever since.

Ubuntu MATE 14.10 was the first "Remix" release and Ubuntu MATE debuted as an official flavour in 15.04. Ubuntu MATE was ported to the Raspberry Pi 2 during 2015 which proved very popular, so much so that I was sent an engineering sample of the Raspberry Pi 3 to ensure Ubuntu MATE 15.10 was a launch day operating system for it. I joined the Ubuntu Podcast team in March 2015.

I stepped down from Arch Linux in early 2016 to focus my spare time on Debian, Ubuntu and Snaps. I was voted in as an Ubuntu Member shortly after the 16.04 LTS release. During the summer of 2016 I was invited the Snappy Sprint in Heidelberg as a community contributor. I was hired by Canonical in September 2016, initially joining the Ubuntu Desktop team, then moving to the Snap Advocacy team in early 2017 and rejoining the desktop team in late 2019.

My involvement

For Work

  • Ubuntu Developer advocate for Snapcraft and Ubuntu.

    Ubuntu Community management.

    Ubuntu Ubuntu Desktop contributor.

For Fun

Other Stuff

Future Goals

  • Ubuntu Help organise a community event, perhaps an UbuCon.

    http://www.deb-multimedia.org/favicon.ico Become a Debian Developer.

    Ubuntu Expand my responsibilities in the Ubuntu Community.

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@.

Olivier Tilloy

I haven't had the opportunity to sponsor uploads for Martin, so my endorsement is perhaps less valuable to the DMB on a technical level. I've worked a few years with Martin when he was on the snap advocacy team and then directing the desktop team, and interacting with him has always been a pleasure. He is proficient in all things Ubuntu (how the OS works at many different layers, the processes governing teams and their interactions, derivatives, …), as well as a well-known and respected figure of the community. Not only does he have a deep understanding of how Ubuntu works and is made, he is also capable of sharing this knowledge in a very articulate manner. Like others in the endorsements section below, I was surprised to realize that with his level of expertise and experience, Martin isn't a MOTU already, so I would strongly recommend him for inclusion in the team.

-- osomon 2021-08-16 14:41:43

Endorsements

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

Rhys Davies

General feedback

I am not a developer but I have worked with Martin on numerous occasions when we both worked at Canonical. His technical expertise and willingness to dig in and do what needs doing is matched only by a handful of people, many of whom are already MOTUs themselves.

I have no specific development experiences to share, and I'm not sure how relevant our collaboration is, so let me give all of my endorsement in 'General feedback'. My experience collaborating with Martin was working on the Ubuntu Desktop, Snapcrafters snaps, and having technical discussions with partners while he was the Director of the Ubuntu Desktop and I was a Product Manager at Canonical.

Based on all of my experience in these things there is no one I would recommend more to be a master of the Universe. I can not point to relevant technical examples; bugs, repos, etc, the links he has listed himself say it all. But I can say whether in conversation with developers at Intel, Nvidia, Raspberry Pi trading, Dell, Lenovo, for snaps, and on and on there is no one I would rather have with me. For his technical expertise, his deep knowledge of Ubuntu and the community, and his willingness to support and contribute to the success of projects, even if they have little to nothing to do with him.

This, I think, makes Martin an excellent choice to support the Universe.

Areas of Improvement

Doing this earlier. If you had asked me before I saw this application for a list of MOTUs I simply would have assumed Martin would be there.

Didier Roche (didrocks)

General feedback

I fully and stongly endorse Martin as a MOTU. Not only because he is a good Mate (pun intended of course, even if maybe too easy to do TBH :)), but also understand the technical requirements and responsibility of big changes. In addition, he is a strong advocate over multiple communication channels of Ubuntu, while bringing up his technicality to the table to have more robust and accurate explanations of changes, impacts…

His work and progress over the years for both Ubuntu and Canonical is an excellent example to follow. Being able to do the needed changes, but, maybe even more importantly, being able to articulate and communicate them clearly to a wider audience shows a strong commitment to the community and the FLOSS philosophy. It’s a little bit sad that he has joined the Ubuntu community post-UDSes time, as he would have been a real asset in that time and we could have met him earlier!

Of course, he is leading one of the major flavor of Ubuntu, which gives a good alternatives to those who wanted to stick with a more traditional UI, while offering major improvements and innovation in more modern UIs. All those enhancements, even if he wasn’t alone in this task, is thanks to his leadership. He has a light-touch leadership, trusting peers when they have something to say, which was excellent as a manager, and I’m sure, as the same kind of impact on Ubuntu Mate.

Experiences of working together

I sponsored many packages over the years from Martin. From the first scripts on Ubuntu Mate to more recently, reviewing small fixes and patches he sent into the distro. There are been a very good progress over time in term of robustness of his work and the last ones were mostly "nothing to change".

We worked together on some strategy for the Yaru team to be able to share cross-flavors.

Areas of Improvement

There is one big area Martin could improve: come back to the Canonical desktop team and help us full time to make Ubuntu better! We miss you. Smile :)

Ken VanDine

General feedback

I'm really surprised to hear that Martin isn't already a MOTU, or even a core-dev! All these years of driving things forward with MATE and Ubuntu in general without MOTU, that takes dedication.

Martin is not only a pleasure to interact with, he is a force of nature within the community. Martin has strong roots in the community with big ideas and the ability to motivate others.

Specific Experiences of working together

I've worked with Martin on many occasions, however, I've never directly sponsored packages for Martin. I have reviewed his work on packages, steam comes to mind first. He was thorough and precise in his work.

Areas of Improvement

Since leaving Canonical, Martin has remained active in the community, hosting live streams of him hacking on various things in gedit (LOL, there's a story behind that), engaging on discord, the Ubuntu Podcast, etc. I would love to see Martin use some of those powers to organize efforts directly in Ubuntu, which obviously benefits all flavors. I've encouraged just that with some Pipewire improvements he would like to see.

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

MartinWimpress/DeveloperApplicationMOTU (last edited 2021-08-16 14:41:43 by osomon)