About Me

I'm a student of computer science and freelance developer from Hamburg, Germany. I've been an Ubuntu user since 4.10 and switched to it with 5.04. Until then I used Solaris at work and Windows at home while fiddling with Linux since the early Slackware releases in 1994.

I am a deep believer (not religiously!) that opensource software and the communities around it are playing a key role in building a better society. I credit the openness of the Ubuntu community with this realization.

Contact Information

Contributions

• I've been active in the German community on ubuntuusers.de since 2005, giving support in the forums and on #ubuntu-de.
• In my personal life I've always been an advocate of opensource in general and Ubuntu in particular among my peers (friends, fellow students, co-workers). Lately, though, it's the other way around and people come to me to ask for an introduction.
• The Ubuntu-Wiki lists me as a local supporter in Hamburg. Around once every two years I actually get an email (usually from elderly people) asking for paid support. As long as my schedule allowed it I set these people up for a cup of coffee and showed them how to help themselves (the German wiki is an awesome resource for beginners).

• I occasionally author posts in the German wiki.

• I occasionally try to help people on askubuntu (see above)
• I report bugs on Launchpad and if my skill allows for it I also fix them

• I'm a moderator at /r/ubuntu on Reddit.

Future Goals

• I'm currently trying to grow the Ubuntu community on Reddit and make it integrate better with the rest of the community.

• I'm learning more about packaging. I've recently gotten some great advice from a sponsor on correctly importing upstream libraries and patching Ubuntu packages when fixing a library for the trusty release. I used that to go through the complete process myself with a small fix in totem and I plan to become more active on this front.

Comments

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Testimonials

Note: This section is for existing Ubuntu members to leave testimonials. People who aren't Ubuntu members can leave a comment above in favor of the application.

If you know me and have something nice to say, please leave a comment here.

Matthias is a moderator on /r/Ubuntu and tirelessly works to keep the subreddit community positive and helpful. He joins in conversations with helpful advice, and tries to steer the redditors towards the best ideals embodied by the Ubuntu community and the Code of Conduct. Especially during the run up to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, he has worked tirelessly to remind redditors to be patient to Windows XP refugees and other newcomers, and best of all he leads by example. For this continuous effort, I would be proud to see his contribution to the Ubuntu community recognized by project membership. -- NathanHaines