XPL2011

Revision 3 as of 2011-10-15 13:17:21

Clear message

I'm Pasi Lallinaho, known as knome from IRC. I'm a 25 year old entrepreneur from Helsinki, Finland. I'm a self-taught professional, and I've worked with the computer business for over 10 years. My company Digitoucan provides services on graphic design, web and content consultancy. Education-wise, I am a bachelor of social services.

My work with Open Source

Xubuntu

I've worked with Xubuntu since 2008, working as the Marketing Lead from September 2008 to April 2010. During the years, I've worked with the Xubuntu team a lot, also involving on the user support on #xubuntu as well as operating in both #xubuntu and #xubuntu-devel. Through my work on the team and the Ubuntu community, I've become familiar with the standard Ubuntu processes and schedules.

Work before Xubuntu

Before Xubuntu, I worked with user support and the Rokymotion marketing team in the Amarok project for about two years from 2006 to 2008. In 2010, I founded the Shimmer Project with Steve Dodier. The Shimmer Project kept on contributing artwork for Xubuntu, but spread to help other projects too. These projects include the Albatross and Bluebird desktop suites, the "Shimmer" layout, extension and modification for gmusicbrowser as well as some WordPress plugins and themes not completely publicly released yet.

Current activities and future plans

I'm constantly very closely in contact with the Xfce developer community. I'm part of the Xfce Desing Special Interest group, which was former earlier this year. I'm sure my acquaintance with the project and the people will benefit the Xubuntu project too.

In the last few releases, I've been contributing to Xubuntu via the Shimmer Project, working together with Simon Steinbeiß on the Greybird theme, as well as providing a new wallpaper for Natty, new booting/logging in experience for Oneiric, and the soon-to-be-released new Xubuntu website. In the Ubuntu scope, I'm also helping Ubuntu Studio to build and launch their new website in the near future.

My main interests this far with the Xubuntu project have been in the artwork, web and marketing areas, and using these to grow the Xubuntu community, both users and developers. Xubuntu needs to keep on releasing good-looking, polished releases, because that's what appeals to many. I plan to keep on contributing on these areas in the future, but as the Project Lead, I'd be concentrating on the developer community wellbeing and efficiency as well as setting clear targets for the project, so we can create an even better product.

Although the lightweightness of Xubuntu is getting better again (especially compared to other Ubuntu flavors), it should not necessarily be the most important argument for Xubuntu in marketing: Xfce is the only so-called conservative and mature desktop environment after GNOME3 is released. That means it is possible that a notable amount of users switch to Xubuntu from Ubuntu. The marketing should be directed to these people, too.

In addition to well-planned marketing, the community should work under the hood too, to make the experience as good as possible, bringing the best of Xfce and Ubuntu for the user. Working closely with Xfce is a good thing for both of the communities, but we could do even better in cooperating with the Xfce community. Cooperation with other Ubuntu flavors could be better too, especially now that Ubuntu Studio is using Xfce too.