I, Scott Moser, wish to apply for Per-Package Upload rights for:

• cloud-init
• cloud-utils
• ec2-ami-tools
• ec2-api-tools
• euca2ools
• eucalyptus
• python-boto

Who I am

I'm Scott Moser, a member of the Ubuntu Server team. I'm personally in charge of building, publishing and maintaining the Official Ubuntu images for EC2. These same images are made available for UEC. Along with the rest of the Ubuntu Server team, I help to make Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud great.

My Ubuntu story

I began using Ubuntu around the Warty time frame. Prior to that I had used Debian since around 2001 and other Linux distributions starting with Slackware in 1995. When ubuntu appeared, I was in the same boat as many others. I loved using Debian. However, due to the long release cycle I wasn't ever satisfied with the 'stable', but wasn't so interested in keeping an 'unstable' system working. Ubuntu's 6 month stable release cycle was a perfect fit.

I remember a conversation with Manoj Iyer where I introduced him to Ubuntu after I had previously gotten him hooked on Debian. He was complaining about his custom kernels not functioning perfectly with his Thinkpad. I asked him why he wanted to spend his days maintaining a custom kernel, and told him that these guys (handing him a Warty CD) had people that did that for me. My persuasion half worked, Manoj was converted to Ubuntu, but still spends time maintaining a kernel (He's on the Ubuntu Kernel Team now).

The single greatest thing about ubuntu is that virtually nothing is closed. If I'm working on a package that isn't interacting well with another, or just want to see how something works, I can dig into that package with a simple 'bzr branch lp:ubuntu/package' (DistributedDevelopment rocks)

My involvement

I became involved in the development of Ubuntu in August of 2009. Since then, I've loved working with other Ubuntu developers and contributing to making Ubuntu better. I've enjoyed greatly the 1x1 interactions with other developers, both face to face and IRC where I learn from them and occasionally share knowledge.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

• UEC in Lucid. Because of my efforts and those of the rest of the Ubuntu Server team, UEC is much more functional, stable and usable than it was in Jaunty. Some things I've contributed to this are end-user fixes and tools (uec-publish-tarball, uec-publish-image) for making usage easier.

• Debian moved to python-boto version 1.9. Eucatools was only officially supported on boto 1.8. I made a few backwards compatible fixes that made Ubuntu's euca2ools work with either boto 1.8 or 1.9, and ran euca2ools through a fairly complete set of tests to verify it was functioning correctly.

Areas of work

I've worked primarily on core packages to UbuntuServer, and most specifically those that are related to "Ubuntu Cloud". However, I've branched out into other packages when the need arose (upstart, apport, ubuntu-dev-tools).

My biggest claim to fame is definitely maintaining the uec builds and developing automated build system and publishing scripts. I've helped to make the "Official Ubuntu Images" the best and easiest choice for an instance on ec2.

EC2/UEC Images

• Create and maintain the official Ubuntu images on EC2 and UEC

• I simplified and stabilized the production of these images. It is completely automated now, with nightly builds automatically published to ec2 and made available for download to UEC.

• I also added creation of EBS root images to the above process.

• Developed use a test suite for the EC2 images

Bug Fixes sponsored

• apport : 525003, 486122

• euca2ools: 522292 , 516738, 439366, 526697, 531453, 526591, 530296, 530816, 541468, 546526, 546567, 546551, 546548

• python-boto: 520707, 504530, 503541

• ec2-init: 308530 376740 431103

• vm-builder: 427288 423497

• UEC/EC2 Images: 420581 429106 434744 524020 444605 440757 450463 499522

• byobu: 408945, 408936

• upstart: 524484

• kernel: 364916 , Work with kernel team to make -virtual kernels boot without initramfs on kvm/ec2 hardware (494565).

• openldap: 556176 559070

• ubuntu-dev-tools: aufs support to mk-sbuild

• ec2-api-tools: 493792 497171 410328

• ec2-ami-tools: 439788 (sent upstream) , 493655

MainInclusionRequests

• ec2-init : 434693

• euca2ools : 434697

• python-boto : 434701

• python-cheetah : 434704

• python-configobj : 434717

• python-m2crypto : 434723

• pyyaml : 516924

• libyaml-dev : 516930

• cloud-utils : 518911

New Packaging I did the initial packaging of the following new Ubuntu packages:

• right-aws : 521002

• right-http-connection : 521006

• cloud-utils : 517696

• txaws : 521121

• cloudfusion : 522877

Cloud-init / Ec2-init

• Maintain ec2-init in karmic and hardy

• develop and maintain cloud-init Lucid. cloud-init represents presents a great deal more functionality and power than ec2-init did.

PPAs maintained

• EC2 Backports

• personal ppa (alpine with maildir patch

Things I could do better

The thing most difficult for me in Ubuntu is the fast pace of development. My background prior to Ubuntu development was in "Enterprise". Products there didn't have 6 month release cycles. You didn't "just do something", there was always planning involved and long cycles. Because of this, I can procrastinate on work items. The waiting till the last minute causes an even *shorter* period for development.

Plans for the future

General

In addition to being a member of CoreDev, I would like to become a member of MOTU. I hope to continue making Ubuntu server the obvious choice for cloud computing or server-computing in general.

What I like least in Ubuntu

Many bugs go ignored for large periods of time, or indefinitely. This may be because the reporter is not active any longer, or not techinically capable enough to provide the answer to a question. More than anything else I believe this to be a resources issue. There are simply so many Ubuntu users that the bug triagers and developers have a hard time keeping up.

I think launchpadlib, and generally improvements to launchpad are helping to make dealing with the huge number of bugs that are reported an acheivable task.

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@.

Endorsements

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

DustinKirkland

General feedback

I've sponsored dozens of Scott's uploads in Karmic and Lucid. I saw a very rapid increase in the number and quality of Scott's uploads early into the Lucid cycle. His contributions to UEC (eucalyptus, euca2ools, cloud-init, cloud-utils, vm-builder, qemu-kvm, libvirt) have absolutely contributed to the success of the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS cloud and virtualization offering. I totally trust his ability to make quality decisions when uploading packages to Ubuntu, and ask appropriate questions when he is unsure.

It should be noted that Scott is the already the guardian and sponsor of the official Ubuntu images and kernels published to EC2. As such, any user running said EC2 images is relying on the integrity and quality of Scott's work

Specific Experiences of working together

In particular, ScottMoser, MathiasGug, and I spent a week in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago focused specifically on UEC and Eucalyptus. Scott had numerous changes that were committed that week, most of which I sponsored. I was quite pleased with the quality of his work.

Areas of Improvement

If anything, I'd like to see a little more breadth in the areas of Ubuntu that Scott contributes. This isn't a problem per se, but I'm sure Scott's breadth of experience will expand with time.

Martin Pitt (pitti)

I merged some Apport patches which Scott sent via branches (486122, 525003, 494615). Two of these were for the eucalyptus package hook, where he is an expert, and one a general UI fix which was much appreciated. None of those patches changed anything in the packaging, though, and I never sponsored an actual upload from him, so I'm afraid I cannot judge about his packaging skills or experience with the release cycle/freezes.

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.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===