I, Clive Johnston, apply for the role of Kubuntu Developer.

Who I am

I'm Clive! I have many hats which I try to juggle, from being a mapper with the OpenStreetMap, to local history and genealogy.

My involvement

I spent a long time lurking in the shadows, testing development releases and popping into the development channels to verify bugs. I am very interested in the Kolab groupware suite and was asking questions regarding packaging it for Ubuntu when Jonathan Riddell convinced me to learn how to package.

Jonathan took me aside and taught me the basics of how to package, and I must say I appreciate that level of one to one mentoring and friendly, helpful advice which helped me stick with it, even though a lot of the material was so far over my head in the beginning.

Following Jonathan's departure from the project, the friendly, family-like environment continued from the likes of Philip and Scarlett. They have made learning fun and rewarding, as well as lots of peer-based encouragement.

I now want to step up and help the people who have helped me, by trying to take some of the workload and spread it more evenly, rather than one or two people having to do everything!

Areas of work

• Packaging KDE software
• Testing development release (aka +1)

• Helping with the git move from Debian servers to LaunchPad

• Helping to fix packaging issues reported by the Kubuntu Continuous Integration (KCI) Jenkins server

• Full list of my package uploads

Things I could do better

There are a lot of areas I could do better and consider all of these to be work in progress, but with the help of the rest of the team, I know I will learn and develop my skills.

Plans for the future

• To encourage and facilitate newcomers who want to learn about packaging and how things work in Kubuntu. Basically give back what was provided to me when I was a newbie.
• Learn how to manipulate the tooling and contribute to the management of KCI.
• Package Kolab and have it available to install easily on Ubuntu servers.

General

I plan to continue all of my current efforts and much, much more! I believe Kubuntu is the best flavour of Ubuntu and want to show others what it is capable of. The only way, I believe, to do this is to provide first class user support and stable packages which users can trust to be stable and install effortlessly on their system.

What I like least in Ubuntu

I think there could be better communication and a better working environment between Ubuntu and Kubuntu. There are key areas we could use some better support from Ubuntu core developers; one example of this was the upload of a new version of MySQL a couple of weeks before release of Xenial. This update broke a few KDE applications and put us under a lot of pressure trying to get a stable release of Xenial shipped.

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@.

Clive has had my encouragement for quite awhile to work towards being a Kubuntu Developer. He has the calm, friendly, capable demeanor we need as a leader for our team, both socially and technically. It was fantastic that he took the step to apply for sponsorship to come to Qtcon and Akademy this year, and grow his personal ties with the rest of the team. -- valorie-zimmerman 2016-09-21 19:24:52

Clive is a useful, friendly and keen addition to the team. He has shown his ability to pick up packaging and be able to contribute to the project. -- jr 2016-09-23 11:31:27

Clive has been awesome to have around the channels and has always been more then happy to help in any area of packaging. Any advancement to position he has aimed for has been to help the Kubuntu community grow and live. 1 billion yes's to his application to Kubuntu Developer. -- aaronhoneycutt 2016-09-27 15:40:32

Since I first started seriously interacting with the Kubuntu team via IRC, Clive has been a constant source of encouragement and help. His help on the technical side of packaging and other contributions has been invaluable, and his example of a steady determination to progress in all aspects of his knowledge and ability to contribute to the project has been inspiring. I have no doubt that at present he will make an excellent developer, and that he will continue to strive to enhance his skills and knowledge to new levels. -- acheron 2016-09-28 17:33:56

Endorsements

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

<Scarlett Clark>

General feedback

Clive is an excellent addition to the Kubuntu Dev team. He has proven his skill beyond expectations. The Kubuntu community absolutely must have him to survive. + 1000 from me to sponsor Clive as a developer.

Specific Experiences of working together

We have worked on many packages together. Too many to count.

Areas of Improvement

Nothing I can think of.

<SPONSORS NAME>

General feedback

Specific Experiences of working together

Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.

Areas of Improvement

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