Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

My name is Matthew Lye, I'm Senior Computing Support Officer for Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. My first interest in Linux came about late 2006, when I first found Ubuntu, Fedora, and FreeBSD. I had previously made the mistake of trying Mandrake which put me off Linux for a few years. I had not installed Ubuntu to a production machine until events occurred that left me to manage 60+ linux lab environments in July 2007.

I have a little baby girl who I am currently looking forward to converting to Ubuntu soon as she is old enough. For the moment she amuses herself hitting buttons on daddy's old laptops and keyboards.

Participation

Summary

I promote Ubuntu within my community at the university and work on developing computing lab images in Ubuntu. I manage 4500 computers with a combination of Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu as well as helping to support various research and staff environments using Ubuntu, and Redhat. I contribute to the Ubuntu Forums whenever possible but most of my focus is to help new users integrate into the Ubuntu community and troubleshoot problems on IRC. I am a member of the Ubuntu Beginners Team and am an instructor preparing materials for tutorials and guides on a variety of topics.

I am a Member of the Ubuntu Community Learning Project which is dedicated to improving the quality and quantity of training information available for the community.

I am an Idea Reviewer with the Brainstorm team, helping to work through the ideas submitted by the community to improve Ubuntu.

My greatest impact on the Ubuntu community is evangelical through the work I do supporting Linux environments at work. Through the large scale implementation of dual boot (Ubuntu/XP)environments I expose thousands of university students a year to Ubuntu and assist their lecturers and professors in teaching them how to use it to their greatest advantage.

I have also spoken at Linux.conf.au about managing large scale (Ubuntu) Linux deployments and other technical matters.

Launchpad Groups

I have recently refocused my efforts in Ubuntu and an no longer participating in several groups to prevent burning out.

Ubuntu Member
Ubuntu Community Learning
Brainstorm Moderators
Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team
Ubuntu Australia
Ubuntu Marketing
Ubuntu Testing Team
Launchpad Users
Ubuntu Users

Ubuntu Forums

As above, I am a member of the Ubuntu Forums. My participation on the forums varies widely based on what im working on at the time, but usually focused on the Beginners, Desktop Environments, Desktop Effects, and Security Discussions section.

If you ever PM me on the forums, I'll get back to you ASAP. Just be patient and polite.

Im currently working with a Securing Ubuntu/Ubuntu Hardening Guide found Here and working on a guide for building Ubuntu images for school and university computing lab environments, currently being worked on here.

Ubuntu Beginners Team

I am a highly active member of the Beginners Team. The Beginners Team is a support group focused on assisting new users to migrate to Ubuntu and learn about Open Source. The efforts of the team are focused on the Absolute Beginners Talk section of the Ubuntu Forums, as well as our education focus group, and IRC support. We have also recently started to make a push into improve the support answers in Launchpad as well. I am particularly focused on IRC support and the Education Focus Group working on developing teaching materials as well as instructing. We are also beginning an effort to improve the quality and quantity of documentation and guides available in the community user help.

As part of my activities within the Beginners Team I have taken new applicants under my wing and helped mentor them as part of our Padawan system. Every person I mentored is now a member of the Beginners Team, and a Ubuntu Member.

IRC

I'm often found on IRC on irc.freenode.net - Channels I'm usually in when I'm on are:

• #ubuntu
• ##club-ubuntu
• #ubuntu-au

I can also sometimes be found in:

• #ubuntuforums
• #ubuntu-bugs

I regularly help while on IRC so please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Greater Community

• Member of K-12 Open Source Community and active in promoting Linux and Ubuntu in Higher Education. Also a member of its sister group Classroom 2.0.

• Member of Australian Higher Education Linux Support Group (Linux support staff from a variety of Australian Universities)

• Member of Linux Australia

• Core organizing team for Linux.Conf.Au 2011.

• Presenter at LCA2010

Future Hopes

• Contribute to the development of Ubuntu specifically in regard to usability and the new user experience (the WOW factor)

• Help get the AUS LoCo up and running again (At the time of writing last listed meeting 13th of May, 2008)

• Improve the quality of documentation available for Ubuntu beginners
• Further the use of Ubuntu in universities and schools to encourage further exposure and uptake of Linux.
• Become a member of the Asia-Oceania Membership Board.

Development

As I learn more about coding C/C++ (then python and perl), I would like to contribute more to the development of Ubuntu, and other Open-Source projects (I'm particularly interested with the release of chromium and addons/extensions integration).

Testimonials

Asia-Oceania Membership Board

Ubuntu Membership

Testimonials supporting my application for Ubuntu Membership

BodhiZazen It is a pleasure to write in behalf of Vantrax. I have known Vantrax from the Beginners Team and he is both knowledgeable and courteous. He is very open minded and is willing to both teach and learn. He is assuming a leadership role on the Beginners Team and is assisting with Education, which is a natural fit. I support his application for membership

Charles Profitt I whole heartedly support Vantrax for Ubuntu membership. He has been a tremendous contributor to the BT Education Focus group by writing guides and he will be running some IRC sessions in the classroom. I am also particularly impressed by his work on the Ubuntu Lab Project -- cprofitt 2009-01-20 03:30:07

Andrew Morris Vantrax is a committed member to the UbuntuForums Beginners Area Team. I have worked with him on various occasions, in both the Forums, and on IRC. He has a positive attitude towards all users, beginner or guru, and embraces their problems and/or questions with open arms, and I support Vantrax's application for membership whole heartedly.

Nathan Handler Vantrax is a valuable member of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team. He is always willing to help people with any problems that they might be experiencing. Vantrax is kind, knowledgeable, and devoted to contributing to the Ubuntu community. He has my support for Ubuntu membership. -- nhandler 2009-03-05 04:29:47

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