MOTUApplication

I, Sean Davis, apply for MOTU.

Who I am

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am the current Xubuntu Technical Lead, an Xfce Core Developer, a member of pkg-xfce and PAPT in Debian, and maintainer of catfish, menulibre, and mugshot packages in Debian. I've been maintaining packages in Xubuntu (as a member of ~xubuntu-uploaders) for some time. I'm now seeking MOTU membership to better support the Ubuntu community with future package uploads and migrations. I have significant Python experience which may be particularly useful.

Also relevant, my xubuntu packageset application from 2014.

My Ubuntu story

Tell us how and when you got involved, what you liked working on and what you could probably do better.

I've been using Ubuntu since 2005. I started contributing in 2011, became an Ubuntu member in 2013, and Xubuntu Technical Lead in 2014. In this time, I have worked with several community members and have contributed in many different areas: artwork, documentation, leadership, packaging, testing, and releases. I plan to continue contributing to the Ubuntu ecosystem for the foreseeable future.

I've worked with a variety of packages from blueman, xfce, and xdg-utils. This is a small number compared to what is available in universe, but I think I have pretty strong packaging experience and would not hesitate to reach out to others before uploading something I am unsure of.

My involvement

I first started contributing to Ubuntu in QA. I now spend most of my contribution time with application development and package maintenance. I help maintain several of the applications and packages featured in Xubuntu, including:

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Areas of work

Let us know what you worked on, with which development teams / developers with whom you cooperated and how it worked out.

Xfce

Catfish (with Simon Steinbeiß)

With Simon's design direction, I took over maintenance of Catfish and brought the application up to modern standards. We've since ported to GTK3, improved the search backend to support multiple engines, and incorported GTK client-side decorations to make a high-quality, very polished application.

Parole Media Player (with Simon Steinbeiß)

I've been working with Simon on Parole Media Player since we took over maintainership in 2013. Since then, we've fixed numerous long-standing bugs, improved the codebase, and ported the application to GTK 3 and GStreamer 1.0, and introduced a new Clutter-based video backend. The codebase has entered maintenance mode at this point, being quite stable and functional.

Xfce Display Settings (with Simon Steinbeiß and Lionel Le Folgoc)

I worked together with Lionel and Simon to improve multihead support in Xfce. Simon and I have continued maintenance on this portion of the Settings Manager, and introduced a new drag-n-drop interface with Xfce 4.12.

LightDM GTK+ Greeter Team

LightDM GTK+ Greeter (with Simon Steinbeiß, Lionel Le Folgoc, and Andrew P.)

Since taking over maintenance of lightdm-gtk-greeter, we've substantially improved theming support and reliability of the code. These days, I review merge requests of new features and review bug reports. Andrew has largely taken up the maintainership of this application, though I continue to manage releases.

Xubuntu Developers

As the Xubuntu Technical Lead, I currently help direct the development direction of Xubuntu. I work with other Xubuntu teams to determine release goals and work to meet those goals. I also maintain several core Xubuntu applications and add applications (such as Xfce Panel Switch in wily) to fill new feature proposals.

Things I could do better

I would currently like to expand Xubuntu development efforts and garner more interest in our project. Our development team is currently spread a bit thin, and upstream Xfce is not in much better shape at this time. So, improved/increased community outreach.

Plans for the future

General

My previous statement from my xubuntu packageset application still stands.

As a core member of the Xubuntu team, I am not going anywhere. My future plans remain consistent in helping Xubuntu grow in usability and popularity. I will continue to work with other teams to maintain the high quality software that is expected of our team.

I am going to lead the development efforts of Xubuntu to continue to provide our users with a stable, modern, and consistent experience in Xubuntu.

What I like least in Ubuntu

Please describe what you like least in Ubuntu and what thoughts do you have about fixing it.

I don't have any current complaints about Ubuntu. In the past, I've cited last-minute, late-breaking changes as a significant issue that would catch (at least) our flavor off guard. Fortunately, this no longer seems to be an issue. Smile :)


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.


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.''
## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:
## http://ubuntu-dev.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi?
=== Areas of Improvement ===


SeanDavis/MOTUApplication (last edited 2015-09-21 00:33:43 by bluesabre)