Ubuntu Wiki

I am a software developer in Fort Worth, Texas. I have been an avid user and advocate of open source software for over ten years. I am the author of the Apress book Definitive Guide to SQLite and am currently collaborating with Symbian as a coauthor of a new book called "Inside the Symbian SQL Database."

I love relational databases, especially PostgreSQL (I wrote the original About and History pages on the PostgreSQL website). I have a special fondness for Unix operating systems (Linux, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD). Other technical loves include Apache and the Apache Portable Runtime (APR), the Ruby and Python scripting languages, and C/C++.

My hobbies include jogging, mountain biking, swimming, playing guitar and hunting in the Texas panhandle.

General Info:

• My Launchpad Profile

  Email: mikeowens at gmail.com

My Work

I work for Century 21 Mike Bowman. Our company's IT infrastructure in large part is made up of open source software. We have been using Ubuntu for about three years, and now use it for both in-house development and many of our core servers (web, email, security, file/print). In addition to Ubuntu, we use OpenBSD (routers/VPN/firewall), and FreeBSD (database server).

My Interests in Contributing to Ubuntu

I've recently discovered Launchpad, and I love it. I've convinced my boss to release a lot of our code that we use in house and we are in the process of putting it out there. One of the new projects we are working on uses a package called libconfigduo, which which currently is not included in either Debian or Ubuntu. As a result, I cannot get it to build in our PPA. I am interesting in joining the MOTU team to maintain this package in order to get it into Ubuntu.

I also like to write. I am interested in both contributing to Ubuntu documentation as well as doing some development as well. I use DocBook XML on a regular basis and love it. I am interested in helping with documentation that helps new users to Ubuntu and Linux in general.