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About me

My name is Elias, I was born and raised in Greece, studied Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Crete. I am a member of the Greek Ubuntu community and a moderator at the Ubuntu-gr Forum. My main interests are in science in general, computers and of course contributing to Ubuntu, Linux and F/OSS. Since 17 July of 2013, I am an Ubuntu member.

Ubuntu and I

I had my first contact with Linux when I first saw it in the university's computer labs (Debian), which I used as part of a course about introduction to Computer Science. To get familiar with it, I decided to install a Linux distribution, so I searched the internet and the first results I got were about Ubuntu. I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04, installed it alongside with Windows XP and started my first steps into a whole new digital world.

As the went by, I faced several issues, but I was able to solve all of them by searching in threads of Ubuntu Forums and other Ubuntu-related sites. I hadn't realized at the time that my problems were solved because of the contribution of the community. As I was getting familiar, finding Open Source alternatives of the applications I was using, I found myself booting into Windows less and less by the day, when I finally deleted it in 2009, after being fully satisfied with Ubuntu. Now, I use Ubuntu exclusively because per my opinion, it's the right distribution for inexperienced users as well as for power users.

Ubuntu-gr and I

I registered in Ubuntu-gr Forum in December of 2011 to get help solving a problem I couldn't figure out. Waiting for that, I started searching in general around the forum and happened to know how to help a few other members to solve their issues. Doing that, I interacted with other experienced forum members and finally experienced first hand that the community is doing a tremendous job, helping and supporting users, advocating the use Ubuntu and F/OSS and guiding users through their troubles.

Community's contribution inspired me and I decided to get involved and be a part of it, a part of something bigger, both technologically and philosophically. I kept logging into the forum, interacting with other members, learning from their experiences and helping members to deal with their problems, as the community helped me when I was in need. After a year and a half, in April of 2013 some members encouraged me to apply for a moderator's rank when the moderating team back then called the forum members to apply, so I did. And during the 1st - 20th of May, 2013 the members of the Ubuntu-gr community honored me by voting me to be one of the forum's moderators. I had the opportunity to meet in person many of the members that inspired me to get involved, by attending the Ubuntu 13.04 Release Party in Athens at May 12, 2013, organized by Ubuntu-gr.

Contribution

• Active member at Ubuntu-gr Forum: Since my registration at Ubuntu-gr forum and after realizing the vast contribution of the community, I decided to be a part of that contribution. As an active member of the community I had the opportunity to learn a lot of new stuff and I'm using my experience to promote Ubuntu, motivate people to get involved and help users with their problems in any way I can. I believe that everyone can contribute in many ways, and by helping others I try to move their curiosity so that they as well can get involved. I also try to translate into Greek several resources, like the Linux Sysadmin Tutorials from The Linux Foundation to help the readers further expand their knowledge base (and mine).

  Former Moderator at Ubuntu-gr Forum (currently over 12.000 members): As a moderator, I try my best to create a very friendly environment in the forum and keep it organized, so the users can feel comfortable and get support effectively. Of course, older and more experienced moderators have helped me a lot with my first steps as a forum moderator. [May 2013 - January 2017 (stepped down because of pending military duty)]

  Former Moderator/Administrator at Google+ ''Ubuntu Greece'' community (currently about 1500 members) & Facebook ''Ubuntu-gr'' group (currently about 5500 members): I believe that social networks can truly serve the cause of spreading the word about Open Source, even using the wrong way to do it. A very large percentage of the world is using social networks. And the community's presence in social networking is very important for advocating Open Source Software in Greece. So, I try to keep the users updated about Ubuntu news and development. I also administrate Ubuntu-gr's pages on Facebook & Google Plus, as well as Ubuntu GNOME's Facebook and Google Plus pages. [May 2013 - January 2017 (stepped down because of pending military duty)]

  Designer & Co-ordinator of Ubuntistas: Ubuntistas is the magazine of the Ubuntu-gr community. I am a member of the team as a designer and by using LaTeX, I bring the magazine into its final form. Ubuntistas is available at Ubuntu Software Center and it's free and open for everyone. Working with the team it's been an amazing experience and I hope for many more issues in the future.

  User support on IRC (#ubuntu-gr): I am present in Ubuntu-gr IRC channel (#ubuntu-gr) in case someone needs direct support. There have been cases in which users needed help with Ubuntu installation and advanced partitioning, that got solved in IRC. I created a tutorial called "Dual Boot Windows 7-Ubuntu 12.10 (Windows: pre-installed)" to help new users to install Ubuntu. I try to guide new users and motivate them to learn more about Ubuntu and be a part of the community.

  Translating Ubuntu in Greek: Translating Ubuntu helped me a lot to get a closer look into the system. It's one way to contribute to Ubuntu without having any special technical knowledge, but just the willingness to contribute. I have translated several messages. In the future I plan to translate way more.

  Testing Ubuntu: Testing is essential for having a high-quality operating system on our computers. As a tester, I like tweaking the system in various ways to detect bugs and report them using the current Ubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME releases, as well as the unber-development releases of those distributions.

  Author at ubuntu-gr.org: Trying to keep our main website up to date with upcoming events and developments from the world of the community, Ubuntu and F/OSS.

  Motivating users to get involved: Every user can contribute to Ubuntu and the community. For instance, if one gets a solution to a problem, one can write a tutorial about that. In an collaborative project, two members (fkol k4 & NikTh) and I wrote a tutorial on how to create effective guides, called "Πως δημιουργούμε έναν πλήρη οδηγό (tutorial) για το forum" (How to create a complete tutorial for the forum), in which we encourage and guide members to write their own tutorials, while promoting collaboration.

  Contributing to Ubuntu GNOME: I am a supporter of the GNOME Project and I think Ubuntu GNOME is a great way to conbine my favourite Desktop Environment and my favourite Linux distribution. I try spread the word about Ubuntu GNOME, contribute on its development cyrcle and help with the organizing process. I wrote a turotial called "Εισαγωγή στο Ubuntu Packaging" (Introduction to Ubuntu Packaging) to help Greek users get started with the packaging basics, as we lack documentation on that area in Greek. It's a privilege for me, being a part of the Ubuntu GNOME team!

  Advocating Ubuntu, Linux and FOSS: All of the above result in this. Making Ubuntu better means making computing and user experience better. The community is of critical importance for bringing freedom into the digital world and we can accomplish that by helping and motivating users to join an already vast growing community.

Memberships

• Joined Ubuntu-gr in December of 2011 (Elected moderator in May of 2013, stepped down in January of 2017).

  Joined Launchpad in January of 2012.

  Joined UbuntuForums in November 2012.

  Joined AskUbuntu in April 2013.

  Joined Ubuntu Discourse in July 2013.

Launchpad

• Joined Greek GNOME Team team on June of 2012.

  Joined Ubuntu Quality team on June of 2012.

  Joined Ubuntu Greek Translators Starters team on June of 2012.

  Joined Ubuntu Greece team on June of 2012.

  Joined Ubuntu GNOME team onn November of 2012.

  Joined Ubuntu Greek Translators team on May of 2013.

  Joined Ubuntu members team on July of 2013.

  Joined Ubuntu Greece-QA team on Semptember of 2013 (Administrator).

  Joined Ubuntu Cyprus team on November of 2014.

  Joined Ubuntu BugSquad team on November of 2014.

  Joined Papercuts Ninjas team on September of 2015.

  Joined Ubuntu GNOME Administrators team on May of 2016.

  Joined Ubuntu GNOME Marketing team on May of 2016.

  Joined Ubuntu GNOME Development team on May of 2016.

Events

Physically attended:

• Ubuntu 13.04 Release Party in Athens on May of 2013, helping users with various issues on their Ubuntu.

  Ubuntu Hour in Athens on July of 2013.

  Ubuntu Install Fest at Innovathens in Athens on July of 2015.

Future Goals

I have many goals that I would like to accomplish in the future regarding my involvement in Ubuntu. I believe there are other ways as well to contribute to Ubuntu and so I intend to:

• Develop applications for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Phone: I am a C, C++, Java and Python developer and I have many ideas for applications which I will try to create, given enough time free of responsibilities, to make Ubuntu user experience even better.

  Get more involved in the Translation Project: Although I have translated messages in Greek, my involvement in translation is not as strong as I want it to be. I believe I can contribute more to the work of the Ubuntu Greek Translators team.

  Test Ubuntu releases for detecting bugs and reporting them: I believe bug tracking and reporting is an essential part to improve Ubuntu. So I will try to do just that and encourage other users to do so. For that, I wrote a tutorial called "Πως αναφέρουμε σφάλματα (bugs) στο Launchpad" (How to report bugs in Launchpad) to guide users through the process of bug reporting and another one called "Ubuntu +1: Testing & Bug Triaging" (Special thanks to NikTh who created the video presentation of the QA Tracker that is a part of this turorial) to help users get involved with Ubuntu testing and bug triaging.

  Join more teams in Launchpad: For testing hardware and contribute in general as a tester or developer. I have already started searching for teams where I can be useful.

  Keep advocating Ubuntu and helping users: Always under the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, I intend to continue helping users where I can and advocating Ubuntu and F/OSS.

Testimonials

• My name is George Christofis and i am the LoCo contact of Ubuntu Greece. eliasps is an active and heartily member on ubuntu-gr community with participation in all open projects of ubuntu-gr. He is friendly and likes to support everywhere is need it. He is ready and willing to help improving ubuntu and our community. ~geochr

• I'm NikTh and I'm an Ubuntu member. Eliasps is one of the most active users in Ubuntu-gr forums. At the moment he has more than 1800 posts and all are for assisting others. I'm tracking his progress from day one and I can say that I'm very happy about him. Recently he was elected as one of the moderators in Ubuntu-gr forums and what impressed me, is that he did not get even one negative vote. He is doing a great job as moderator in Ubuntu-gr forums, one of the most active FOSS communities in Greece (currently with over 10.500 users). I'm certain that he would be a valuable addition in Ubuntu Community, as an Ubuntu member. ~NikTh

• My name is SalihEmin and I'm an Ubuntu member. Elias, being one of the most influential members of Ubuntu-gr, actively contributes/translates, constantly provides help to newbies and experienced users, and participates in forum (moderator), and IRC. One of the most astonishing work he is doing is with Ubuntistas Magazine of Ubuntu-gr community. He has dedicated an enormous amount of time to make it gorgeous, easy to read and easy to understand. It would be an honor to our community to have him acknowledged for his efforts and be accepted as Ubuntu Member. ~Salih Emin

• Eliasps as a member of the community in Greece has shown a lot of serious work and responsibility.The assistance provided to other members is essential.As monterator helps users who have a problem or questions.For the Ubuntistas Magazine devotes long hours without fatigue to give perfect results and accomplishes.Ηe deserves to be included in Ubuntu Community as Ubuntu Member~George Makris

• Elias is a hard-working member of the Greek Ubuntu community and can get things done. For example, there was a need recently for XeLaTex typesetting for the Ubuntistas e-magazine, and Elias stepped in and quickly managed to complete the task. On a different occasion, we have been trying to resolve a critical bug for Greek and 13.04 (Bug 1158750. Elias tested several cases by installing Ubuntu with different parameters in order to identify the source of the problem. I believe that Elias has contributed substantially to Ubuntu in the last 2.5 years, and he will continue to do so. simosx (Ubuntu Member)

• Eliasps is the kind of person that always tries to contribute in every way possible. So, given his wide spread skills in a lot of areas, he is one of the first persons to appear to the contributors list in everything that concerns the Greek Ubuntu community. May that be user support and moderation tasks in the Greek Ubuntu forums, translations for Ubuntu, work in the communitie's magazine or any other area. He has a great collaboration spirit and it's a joy to do things with him. I am sure that he will make a valuable Ubuntu member. fkol-k4

• Eliasps is that kind of person that will stay awake all night long to help someone on his way to Ubuntu, have plenty of knowledge and patience. lepidas

• Elias is one of the most active contributors in our community and has helped many users in numerous cases. His work has certainly helped spread Ubuntu and improve the user experience. Moreover his work does not stop there. He also works in the backstage building Ubuntistas e-Magazine typesetting (http://ubuntistas.ubuntu-gr.org). Great work. ntoulasd (aka the_eye) (Ubuntu Member)

• Elias is a member that knows very well the debian based systems.He has a wide and deep knowledge on linux. He contributes with several ways on supporting and spreading ubuntu.He is kind and tolerant and works until your problem fixed .His work at the forum is excellent so he became moderator in the Greek-ubuntu-forum without any negative votes. konnn