ScottRitchie

Differences between revisions 162 and 175 (spanning 13 versions)
Revision 162 as of 2010-07-09 07:33:29
Size: 10677
Editor: c-24-6-241-216
Comment: Cleanup, modernize
Revision 175 as of 2013-11-03 21:09:12
Size: 9846
Editor: 67
Comment:
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 9: Line 9:
|| '''Watch what I'm doing:'''|| [[https://trello.com/b/QZtdbTnh]] ||
Line 12: Line 13:
I want good, usable software everywhere in Ubuntu, especially Wine -- users shouldn't even need to know they're running it. My goal is to help make Wine easy and effective enough to be an official supported package in Ubuntu. Like most developers, however, I make myself useful throughout the entire Ubuntu project, doing everything from [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/~scottritchie/|filing bugs]] in other packages to drafting entire blueprints to working on the [[SponsorshipProcess|Sponsorship Queue]]. I want good, usable software everywhere in Ubuntu, especially Wine -- users shouldn't even need to know they're running it. My goal is to help make Wine easy and effective enough to be an official supported package in Ubuntu. I try to set an example and make myself useful throughout the entire Ubuntu project, doing everything from [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/~scottritchie/|filing bugs]] in other packages to drafting entire blueprints to working on the [[SponsorshipProcess|Sponsorship Queue]].
Line 14: Line 15:
== Summary ==
If you want to get a closer idea of what I'm working on right now, you can [[http://yokozar.org/blog/microblog/|check out my microblog]] and follow me on Twitter/Identi.ca
== Community Council ==
I am now a proud member of Ubuntu's principle governance board, the [[Community Council]]. This means I have taken on the obligation of providing genuine leadership for the project and its members. Everyone should feel free to email me personally about any issue or problem they see brewing in the community, even small ones that don't require any sort of official response.

== Rough Bio ==
Line 18: Line 21:
  * Moderator of the [[http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=313|Ubuntu Wine forum]]
  * I do both design and code
  * I love writing - both technical and creative
  * When I write code it's either Python or package scripts
  * Not just the Wine guy
  * I act as a liaison between projects, upstreams, and vendors. If you are a commercial entity who needs to make contact with a free software project, or vice-versa, I can probably help.
  * I design, code, and test. I am especially interested in arranging collaboration across normally disparate teams, such as using QA automated testing tools as a way of generating input for profile-guided optimisation.
  * I love writing - both technical, creative, and uncreative. Powerful writing is like a clear interface. You stop noticing the words, and instead just get the ideas.
  * When I write code it's either Python, shell scripts, or package build scripts
Line 24: Line 26:
== Interests ==
  * I am working on some Gnome-related packages that will someday be worthy of default install. The goal is to integrate Wine as a seamless part of the desktop. I work upstream a lot at Wine, and while there are a few others interested in usability, I'm the one who has to make the changes needed outside of Wine itself.
  * I would also like to improve the Desktop and Gnome in general - the UI design experience I have gained over the past six years in free software will be very helpful for this.
== Work tasks ==
  * I have tried to combine everything I need to work on in Wine into one blueprint: [[https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/precise-wine-integration]]
  * I am involved in [[http://winetricks.org|Winetricks]], particularly the testing and automation of video games. I also occasionally moderate the [[http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=313|Ubuntu Wine forum]] and answer questions on Ask Ubuntu.
  * I am working on some related packages that will someday be worthy of default install. The goal is to integrate Wine as a seamless part of the desktop. I work upstream a lot at Wine, and while there are a few others interested in usability, I'm the one who has to make the changes needed outside of Wine itself.
Line 29: Line 32:
=== Remaining Targets for Maverick ===
  * [[karmic-wine-integration]] this blueprint: work started on Karmic, continued in Lucid, continues in Maverick
  * Allow uninstallation of Windows applications through Software Center rather than Wine's dedicated uninstall program. This way we can put all software removal in one nice, convenient place.
  * Create a good System->Preferences->Windows Applications menu to replace the relevant parts of Winecfg.
   * ''Mostly done with the Vineyard project, however we're waiting on Wine1.2 for remaining integration tasks, which is not finished yet''
  * Move Applications->Wine->Browse C:\ Drive to the Places menu and give it a consistent icon
   * '''Waiting on Nautilus developers:''' ''https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=588733''
  * Once these three are done, we can remove their counterparts in the Wine menu and collapse it so the user needs fewer clicks to get to their application. So instead of Applications->Wine->Programs->Foo Company->Bar, they could instead just do Applications->Wine->Foo Company->Bar
  * Make gnome-exe-thumbnailer part of the default install so users can see the embedded icons for executable files
  * Create a good right click->properties menu for individual executables. Here the user would be able to modify what windows version they run in, and whether that application should be able to make itself full screen or be forced into a particular window. Currently in order to run Diablo 2 in a window a user has to mess with winecfg or run a cryptic terminal command.
   * '''Needs further investigation:''' ''would like this to be a part of the Wine package (or a dependency) rather than Gnome itself.''
 * Integrate deb-thumbnailer: https://launchpad.net/deb-thumbnailer -- it was based on my exe-thumbnailer package
== History of me in Ubuntu ==
If it's something Wine related in Ubuntu, odds are I'm responsible for getting it done. But, like all Ubuntu developers, I occasionally dabble in other areas that I often forget about. This is a partial list of those things. I try to update this once a cycle, and often forget things.
Line 42: Line 35:
=== Possible future work ===
  * [[lucid-time-based-parental-controls|Parental Controls]]: a feature to disable certain log in times. Requires code in quite a few places as well as some UI design, but should be a useful selling feature for Ubuntu.
=== Raring cycle ===
 * Migrated Wine to 1.6...only to have it not be accepted due to an overworked archive admin team.
 * Kept PPA in stable state for 1.6 and 1.7 series.
Line 45: Line 39:
== History of me in Ubuntu ==
If it's something Wine related in Ubuntu, odds are I'm responsible for getting it done. But, like all Ubuntu developers, I occasionally dabble in other areas that I often forget about. This is a partial list of those things.
=== Quantal cycle ===
 * Packaged opus 1.0.1, wine-mono0.0.4, wine-mono0.0.8, wine-gecko 1.7, wine-gecko1.8
 * Fixed the ptrace issue affecting Wine on Precise
 * Update Wine to include libosmesa6
 * Investigated Wine GCC issues, deferred removal of GCC 4.5 until Raring
 * Decided (as CC) to decouple membership and per package upload rights; Developer Membership Board is now responsible for it.

=== Precise cycle ===
 * Migrated Wine to a full multiarch package
 * Ported the Wine gecko packaging to multiarch and made it be coinstallable with itself so switching Wine versions is less messy
 * Fix up the WineHQ download page

=== Oneiric cycle ===
 * Made sure ia32-libs didn't regress, including an ia32-libs-multiarch package
 * Helped prevent 32-bit 3D applications from breaking entirely on 64-bit
 * Worked upstream at Wine to help plot the next stable release for 12.04 cycle.

=== Natty cycle ===
 * Integrated Wine1.3 into Ubuntu
 * Added winetricks to the archive, provided it with a lot of useful verbs for real games people want.
 * Showed some proof of concept Wine-based benchmarks.
Line 50: Line 63:
 * Created some tests for checkbox based on Wine's test suite and a few benchmark programs. These tests serve as both regression tests (for kernel bugs and X crashes) as well as standard benchmarks for performance work.
Line 55: Line 69:
 * Specced out [[lucid-time-based-parental-controls|Parental Controls]]: a feature to disable certain log in times. Requires code in quite a few places as well as some UI design, but should be a useful selling feature for Ubuntu. Someone else needs to implement.
Line 71: Line 86:
 * (./) Discuss the merit of having a "mute shutdown sound" checkbox when shutting down (if there is one)...or at least having no shutdown sound by default.
 * (./) Get community help making a free replacement to the tahoma.ttf font, like what Red Hat did with some other Microsoft fonts here: http://www.alldaycoffee.net/story.php/125
 * (./) Amd64BitWinePackage - my attempts at making a 64 bit Wine package that can run 32 bit apps.
 * (./) Nano, not vi, needs to be the default text editor for console programs throughout universe. A good example is mutt - a fairly intuitive program, until the user attempts to send an email with it and then gets dumped into a command line vi editor, where I myself couldn't even figure out how to save and quit after about 20 minutes of work. If this isn't the case with some application it is a bug :)
 * (./) Integrate the fancy icons posted to the mailing list by another user earlier (also need to upload a zip file somewhere since the archive is dead). Already using one of them for the Launchpad branding :)
 * (./) Fix shared-mime-info upstream and in Ubuntu so Wine can open .msi files: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229062
 * (./) Upload libtorrent-rasterbar (it's still waiting for debian sponsors, and debian import freeze is soon)
 * (./) Include the Wine Gecko in the package somewhere rather than have Wine get it off the internet
 * Discussed the merit of having a "mute shutdown sound" checkbox when shutting down (if there is one)...or at least having no shutdown sound by default. The next release we got rid of the shutdown sound.
 * Brought Wine packaging to 64-bit Ubuntu and made it work properly with 32 bit apps
 * Brought new icons to Wine from the community and helped get more of them made. Wine 1.2 shipped with a complete set as a result.
 * Fixed shared-mime-info upstream and in Ubuntu so Wine can open .msi files: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229062
 * Sponsored libtorrent-rasterbar (it's still waiting for debian sponsors, and debian import freeze is soon)
 * Created the Wine Gecko package rather than have Wine get it off the internet for every user
Line 83: Line 96:
=== WineTeam ===
Currently, I'm the only active member of the [[WineTeam|Ubuntu Wine Team]]. There are about 50 people who have joined the Wine Team by clicking on launchpad, however they haven't provided any actual package improvements. At this point the team is largely unused. After Karmic is released I will remove most members and use the WineTeam PPA as the official means of getting newer Wine betas (currently most users use my APT repository at winehq.org, which was made before PPAs existed).
Line 88: Line 98:
 * I'm actively searching for work. There's nothing I'd love to do more than work full time on Ubuntu and supporting users at this point. Chasing bounties or being community funded is another option I may pursue, given the massive amount of users Wine has.
 * I enjoy reading and writing short essays. Powerful writing is like a clear interface. You stop noticing the words, and instead just get the ideas.

gotchi.png

ubuntu-wine.png

Name:

Scott Ritchie

Location:

Northern California {us}

Blog:

http://yokozar.org/blog

Launchpad:

http://launchpad.net/~scottritchie

IRC:

YokoZar

Watch what I'm doing:

https://trello.com/b/QZtdbTnh

I'm Scott Ritchie. You can usually find me on Freenode IRC or the Ubuntu Wine forum as YokoZar. I keep a blog that you should read, which is syndicated on Planet Ubuntu. I also have pages on Launchpad, Wine's Wiki, and Wikipedia. I am a MOTU, and while my chief interest is maintaining the Wine package and everything that is related to it, these days I find myself doing a lot more. View recent uploads in Launchpad.

I want good, usable software everywhere in Ubuntu, especially Wine -- users shouldn't even need to know they're running it. My goal is to help make Wine easy and effective enough to be an official supported package in Ubuntu. I try to set an example and make myself useful throughout the entire Ubuntu project, doing everything from filing bugs in other packages to drafting entire blueprints to working on the Sponsorship Queue.

Community Council

I am now a proud member of Ubuntu's principle governance board, the Community Council. This means I have taken on the obligation of providing genuine leadership for the project and its members. Everyone should feel free to email me personally about any issue or problem they see brewing in the community, even small ones that don't require any sort of official response.

Rough Bio

  • Community Developer (MOTU)
  • Responsible for all things Wine in Ubuntu
  • I act as a liaison between projects, upstreams, and vendors. If you are a commercial entity who needs to make contact with a free software project, or vice-versa, I can probably help.
  • I design, code, and test. I am especially interested in arranging collaboration across normally disparate teams, such as using QA automated testing tools as a way of generating input for profile-guided optimisation.
  • I love writing - both technical, creative, and uncreative. Powerful writing is like a clear interface. You stop noticing the words, and instead just get the ideas.
  • When I write code it's either Python, shell scripts, or package build scripts

Work tasks

  • I have tried to combine everything I need to work on in Wine into one blueprint: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/precise-wine-integration

  • I am involved in Winetricks, particularly the testing and automation of video games. I also occasionally moderate the Ubuntu Wine forum and answer questions on Ask Ubuntu.

  • I am working on some related packages that will someday be worthy of default install. The goal is to integrate Wine as a seamless part of the desktop. I work upstream a lot at Wine, and while there are a few others interested in usability, I'm the one who has to make the changes needed outside of Wine itself.
  • I am a community developer, and will gladly sponsor any new package or bug fix you have, or even help you get started on packaging. Just shoot me an email.

History of me in Ubuntu

If it's something Wine related in Ubuntu, odds are I'm responsible for getting it done. But, like all Ubuntu developers, I occasionally dabble in other areas that I often forget about. This is a partial list of those things. I try to update this once a cycle, and often forget things.

Raring cycle

  • Migrated Wine to 1.6...only to have it not be accepted due to an overworked archive admin team.
  • Kept PPA in stable state for 1.6 and 1.7 series.

Quantal cycle

  • Packaged opus 1.0.1, wine-mono0.0.4, wine-mono0.0.8, wine-gecko 1.7, wine-gecko1.8
  • Fixed the ptrace issue affecting Wine on Precise
  • Update Wine to include libosmesa6
  • Investigated Wine GCC issues, deferred removal of GCC 4.5 until Raring
  • Decided (as CC) to decouple membership and per package upload rights; Developer Membership Board is now responsible for it.

Precise cycle

  • Migrated Wine to a full multiarch package
  • Ported the Wine gecko packaging to multiarch and made it be coinstallable with itself so switching Wine versions is less messy
  • Fix up the WineHQ download page

Oneiric cycle

  • Made sure ia32-libs didn't regress, including an ia32-libs-multiarch package
  • Helped prevent 32-bit 3D applications from breaking entirely on 64-bit
  • Worked upstream at Wine to help plot the next stable release for 12.04 cycle.

Natty cycle

  • Integrated Wine1.3 into Ubuntu
  • Added winetricks to the archive, provided it with a lot of useful verbs for real games people want.
  • Showed some proof of concept Wine-based benchmarks.

Maverick cycle

  • Added great icon thumbnails for Windows applications to show their embedded icon rather than a boring ? default. Found in the gnome-exe-thumbnailer package
  • Created some tests for checkbox based on Wine's test suite and a few benchmark programs. These tests serve as both regression tests (for kernel bugs and X crashes) as well as standard benchmarks for performance work.

Lucid cycle

  • Lots of upstream Wine work
  • Solicited and got tons of community translations for all the Wine Application menu items
  • Made a famous post complaining about Window controls: http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/194

  • Specced out Parental Controls: a feature to disable certain log in times. Requires code in quite a few places as well as some UI design, but should be a useful selling feature for Ubuntu. Someone else needs to implement.

Karmic cycle

  • Lots of fixes to app-install-data (over 12 bugs in Launchpad and this branch) so that the new Software Center actually has some good information about a lot of important packages. For instance, flashplugin now has a proper description, mentions adobe rather than macromedia, and actually has an icon.

  • Clean up the restart notifier in update-manager

  • Suggest Tomboy inform the user about search results better

  • Create a wine1.2 package with a recent Wine beta and begin merging some of my integration work in
  • New icons for Wine1.2 to match the Humanity theme, including various pixel optimizations
  • Create a gnome-exe-thumbnailer package to show embedded exe icons inside a generic "application" container
  • I packaged the game Kernel Panic and the Spring engine it runs on.
  • I created the new branding packages, with work contributed by the community.

Jaunty cycle

  • After presenting at wineconf 2008 the Wine developers agreed to create the interface we need for further configuration and integration work.
  • Started working on wine integration project, recruited some volunteers to help

Earlier

  • Discussed the merit of having a "mute shutdown sound" checkbox when shutting down (if there is one)...or at least having no shutdown sound by default. The next release we got rid of the shutdown sound.
  • Brought Wine packaging to 64-bit Ubuntu and made it work properly with 32 bit apps
  • Brought new icons to Wine from the community and helped get more of them made. Wine 1.2 shipped with a complete set as a result.
  • Fixed shared-mime-info upstream and in Ubuntu so Wine can open .msi files: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229062

  • Sponsored libtorrent-rasterbar (it's still waiting for debian sponsors, and debian import freeze is soon)
  • Created the Wine Gecko package rather than have Wine get it off the internet for every user

How I got to Ubuntu

After some bad experiences attempting to contribute to Debian, I was pleasantly surprised when Jeff Waugh came directly to me and asked me to sign up for Ubuntu. That was back in the Hoary days, and I've been directly helping ever since. In the past, my contributions had mostly been making the Wine packages at winehq.org, however now I do far more. Making Wine work just right for the user involves improving many different parts of the system, and now that I am a MOTU I can work on most of them directly.

Other interests

  • I taught myself Python for the purpose of conducting my own research into mathematical analysis of different voting systems. I plan to develop this research further and someday head into grad school, where I'll publish results as they come. I even see myself writing a book at some point, albeit that's around 4 years into the future.

See ScottRitchie/Work for more wikipage


CategoryHomepage

ScottRitchie (last edited 2013-11-03 21:09:12 by 67)