UbuntuCinnamonPPUApplication

I, Joshua Peisach, (also known as "jpeisach", formerly known on Launchpad as "itzswirlz") apply for upload rights for (source) packages:

  • cinnamon
  • cinnamon-control-center
  • cinnamon-desktop
  • cinnamon-menus
  • cinnamon-screensaver
  • cinnamon-session
  • cinnamon-settings-daemon
  • cjs
  • muffin
  • ubuntucinnamon-artwork
  • ubuntucinnamon-environment
  • ubuntucinnamon-meta
  • ubuntucinnamon-wallpapers

Which are all locatable within the universe repository.

Note: I am currently in the process of renaming my Launchpad and Ubuntu usernames to jpeisach

I am applying because:

  • I'd like to eliminate delays in getting my work sponsored.
  • I'd like to be more recognized in the Ubuntu community.
  • I'd like to be able to have more management in updating and maintaining the aforementioned packages in Ubuntu.
  • I'd like to be able to have more benefits to Ubuntu and my future life.
  • I’d like to be able to grow connections with other developers.
  • I’d like to help assist people in their work.
  • I'd like to migrate to the "ubuntu.com" Matrix namespace (time constrained, information below).

Who I am

I’m Joshua Peisach, lead of Ubuntu Cinnamon (also known as “ItzSwirlz”, currently renaming more professional accounts to "jpeisach"). Currently, I am a high school senior at the Academy of Technology and Computer Science at Bergen County Academies, a magnet school in the United States. Aside from Ubuntu Cinnamon, I also take part in other open source projects, but I often find myself identifying as primarily an "Ubuntu person".

I do not like to say I am in a specific area of CS or technology, because I feel like I play in almost all of them. Aside from Ubuntu Cinnamon, other projects I have done include:

- Decompiling LEGO Island (1997) and porting it to the Nintendo 3DS - Running a HTTP server on a modded Wii U for integration with IoT (currently looking into other protocols and possibly doing Wii + IoT integration)

However, Ubuntu Cinnamon is my longest running project that I stick with. It showed me a lot into the world of FOSS, where a lot of what my knowledge of various applied CS topics came from.

Since I was young, I found my love for technology and computers in general. I first began playing with Windows 7, and through virtual machines, (thanks to my Dad who works at a university), I discovered the world of Linux, and in 2014 (estimation) for the first time I launched Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in a Virtual Machine running Unity DE. Later on I came back to the Ubuntu Community and began developing by:

  • Creating an “Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix (UCR)”, later becoming an official flavor.
  • Bug reporting, squashing and patching.
  • ISO Testing and QA
  • Improving features

Matrix Namespace

On August 7th 2025, Matrix will require its users of the matrix.org homeserver to be at least 18 years old. My 18th birthday is not until October 18th 2025. I am looking to switch to the ubuntu.com namespace as not being able to have communication towards the Questing release would be detrimental to Ubuntu Cinnamon.

My Ubuntu story

Ubuntu has done more for me than I realize. Looking back on my original application, I wrote something like this:

"I wanted to use Linux for programming-but the early laptop I had access to had 4 GB RAM running Windows 7. I didn’t have the disk space (only 100 GB) to dual boot anything."

Which I find hilarious today because I absolutely could have dual-booted that laptop (Dell Latitude E6500), and it shows how much I have changed since then. It also shows how spoiled I am now that I know what 100 GB of storage actually means with historical context.

I do not know where to relocate this, but here is what I detailed the start of my "programming experience":

"My main knowledge of computer programming came from (please forgive me), Minecraft. I started playing the game when Minecraft Java Edition 1.6.3 came out (2013). It was such an amazing game, but more could’ve been extended to the actual game. Due to the Forge Mod Loader, you can add mods which can add items, or literally anything to Minecraft if you just refer to it as a new (Minecraft reference) item in a new mod.. Using tutorials I learned how to open eclipse and I began programming the Obsidian Diamond Ores Mod. Yet it still stands on Planet Minecraft, a Minecraft Community Forum today. (Beware of cringe and horrible textures)"

I did not really end up touching code used in programs until I started with Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, which pretty much was my Launchpad (pun intended) for everything else I do.

But I did want to dual-boot Linux for a long time. In October 2018 I got a better Dell Inspiron 15-3567 that I began distro hopping on, starting with Fedora Cinnamon, and ending up back home, to Ubuntu. Later on I’d come to the Ubuntu Discourse Community, suggest an Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix idea, and make one with the initial release on December 4 2019 (19.10 Eoan Ermine) with the help of fossfreedom.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave me lots of time to polish Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix for the 20.04 Focal Fossa release. It laid the foundation for my later contributions to Ubuntu and having Ubuntu Cinnamon reach flavor status, which was achieved in March 2023.

The things Ubuntu has done for me include teaching me:

  • Debian software packaging, for Ubuntu Cinnamon packages, but also for working with the Debian Cinnamon Team and maintaining some other packages.
  • Building and compiling software
  • Patching and distributing the software (I found Snaps neat for this reason)
  • Linux, and how Ubuntu as an OS works in general with other packages like systemd, grub, etc.
  • Understanding how computers work; the concept of a BIOS, boot loader, kernel, drivers, user interface, desktop environment - all these terms prior to Ubuntu Cinnamon I had little knowledge with.
  • Security, the CVE system, and various kinds of vulnerabilities and exploits (I even submitted some security patches and tried some fuzzing myself)
  • Collaborative FOSS development workflow (Git, pull requests, patching, testing)

Today I continue to maintain Ubuntu Cinnamon along with maintain other relevant packages, or any that interest me. As I have been exploring various other areas of technology, in all honesty I feel like I am a bit less connected to Ubuntu, but I wish to change that and find a healthy balance between my projects and various areas of interest.

As I revise this page for my second application, it is truly hard to comprehend how much of an impact Ubuntu has had on me, growing up. I know so much about how the world works at such a young age.

My involvement

I will keep this section to Ubuntu stuff only.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Here is a full list of everything I have been sponsored on.

The later ones have been for Ubuntu Cinnamon packages around release time.

Some of my earliest sponsors, which taught me about the bug cycle and various aspects of computer software:

My involvement has mostly been through Cinnamon, other DE’s and other main Desktop-side features. Access to upload to the cinnamon packages would speed up bug patching and be beneficial for Ubuntu Cinnamon, along with the Ubuntu Cinnamon source packages.

Debian Cinnamon

I am a member of the Debian Cinnamon Team, and along with Fabio Fantoni (He cannot be thanked enough, he does way more than he needs to when school plagues me).

Here, we continue Cinnamon maintenance; and we will need to check-in it again when new versions of Cinnamon arrive.

Debian Packaging

I have packaged a handful of things. The simplest way to view this is by looking at my DDPO dashboard.

Aside from helping out with cinnamon, there are some packages I have initially created and fully packaged myself:

  • cppimport, a python module to import C++ code
  • kotlin-mode, an emacs major mode for Kotlin
  • python-patch-ng, a patch utility for python
  • pyupgrade, a tool to help upgrade code to newer versions of python
  • sc-im, spreadsheet calculator improvised, continuation of sc

For other stuff I've done outside those, see my Salsa activity.

Ubuntu Cinnamon

All Ubuntu Cinnamon code is hosted on GitHub.

Here is our launchpad team. We now primarily have everything in universe, so we currently do not have any backports or PPAs available (yet).

My Contributions to Ubuntu and it's flavors

I have done a bit of bug reporting..

I show up regularly at the Flavor Sync Meetings, and I have become close with all of the flavor leads. We all support and help each other when needed, and I am grateful to be a part of this circle.

Ubuntu MATE Colored Wallpapers

A story that I had in my first application attempt which I thought was worth keeping.

Around 2020, I found out about the Color Selection tool and wanted to add wallpaper support for it. I was not really at Python and shell work but I learned a lot. Thanks to Luke Horwell, we managed to scrape it just in time for 20.04. Always good to see that MATE colorized wallpaper on the Linux News Articles!

Other

In general, I keep in touch with all flavor leads and work with all of them.

ISO and QA Testing

Have I done a lot with ISO and QA testing! I've done well in my opinion, and placed in decent spots on the testcase leaderboard. Here's the scoop.

Version

Type

Testcases

Bionic

Daily

2

Disco

Final

1

Eoan

Daily

17

Focal

Beta

7

Focal

Final

16

Focal

Daily

77

Focal

20.04.2.0

7

Groovy

Daily

8

Groovy

Beta

2

Jammy

Daily

15

Noble

Daily

5

Noble

24.04.1

1

Noble

24.04.2

4

Oracular

Beta

1

Oracular

Final

1

Plucky

Beta

1

Plucky

Final

3

Total

168

Yes I know that this is not a competition.

Bionic isn't much due to me actually using Ubuntu when Cosmic was out. Focal Daily results were mainly before release and Groovy is so far, when I originally wrote the draft. Hirsute, Impish, Lunar and Mantic is when I had been dealing with school, so I had not been testing as much then.

Areas of work

I don't know if I need to go more in depth... but basically, Ubuntu Cinnamon.

Things I could do better

Looking back to reflect, this is what I said back then:

"It is especially my fault that I don’t exactly stick with programming goals often. Sometimes when I have trouble with things, I sort of just leave it to the side and never come back. When I learn a programming language too, I also likely end up not knowing how to do actually good things that could benefit me in development. I could personally learn programming and better scripting more as it would help me stabilize my code and have a better understanding of everything.

Socially-not much to say, but I want to try to continue diversely helping everyone regardless of what the problem is so I can try to become a better maintainer for packages. I feel great helping people and I’m sure I’d like to help even more as time goes on."

I personally believe, and I'm saying this honestly, that I have grown up to reach most goals that I start. I put a lot of talk about programming languages, but ultimately as long as you know general computer science concepts, and how languages differ (environment, compiled vs. interpreted, etc.), the language is no big deal. It's more about the actual application of how things will actually work that is more important.

I have a lot of GitHub repositories, but as time goes on I have made less repos but with more quality complete code.

I would like to continue working on my social life, in person and in the Ubuntu space. I want to be a bit more active within the community-that's my duty.

And speaking of being active, as I go through high school, and soon, college, and as I take part in many other projects (that again, I would not be able to be a part of if it were not through what Ubuntu has taught me), I have been a bit less active. I am glad that communication happens on Matrix, as it is easier to communicate when I am on my phone or away from my computer. But as I continue to expand my horizons, I also need to keep the high standards I put on myself when it comes to Ubuntu Cinnamon. Even the small blemishes and imperfections, I want to fix. I do not know exactly where my future is; but Ubuntu Cinnamon is one of the many things I am a part of.

I stress to everyone that they can always contact me through email or Matrix whenever they need. And I hope I can take more opportunities Ubuntu has to offer, even outside of the desktop space.

My Mistakes

Here are some of the mistakes I have made in the past:

  • "Instead of syncing from Debian latest or going to Ubuntu unstable for building the latest version of Cinnamon, I’d just rebuild everything for no reason." - Did this one time a while ago, I didn't know better.
  • "I did read the Debian Policy Manual, but I didn’t take an actual deep-through look of it until May 2020."

I wrote back then that I was often did things before I thought, I would say it's about the other way around now. I've just changed that way.

Plans for the future

General

Continue maintaining Ubuntu Cinnamon, engage in other projects, continue to explore and overall leave this world being known for something, Ubuntu related or not.

What I like least in Ubuntu

I think the ubuntu.com website just does not really show the love for Ubuntu Desktop anymore.. that's just an opinion though and I know the factors behind the way the site is the way it is are complicated.

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@.

ItzSwirlz has been leading and managing Ubuntu Cinnamon really well, with regular releases and following the Ubuntu release schedule. Kudos to him! I'm sure he'll be an excellent Ubuntu Contributing Developer. -- rs2009 2020-09-29 17:02:07

ItzSwirlz has taken on the challenging task of not only building a community but a remix. Spinning up, developing and driving a project like this can be very challenging. I see passion like this as something we in the Ubuntu community can always do with more of. While that endeavour can be a full-time job, seeing the attempt to give back to the broader community shows a "one for all" vs an "all for one" attitude. We need this, as well as new people entering the larger community. A welcome addition. -- bashfulrobot 2021-01-15 19:20:16

I'm not just commenting because ItzSwirlz' work enabled me to have a beautiful teal Ubuntu MATE experience! He has been a dynamic developer and remix lead, who has stayed remarkably hard-working and consistant, even with his responsibilities outside of the community. Someone with this sort of "can do" attitude who embraces a broad community spirit, in my opinion, is exactly the kind of developer we should be supporting. He has my earnest and enthusiastic support. -- -- madhens 2021-03-03 21:33:35

Endorsements

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

Erich Eickmeyer

General feedback

I have sponsored four packages for Joshua, and was quite surprised as to the quality of packages I encountered upon review. There were just a few issues, such as executable bits where they didn't belong and a missing copyright field, but for the most part the packages were completely spotless. Upon upload, the packages were accepted without question from the Ubuntu Archive Administrators, although we did find out that the priority was wrong and needed to be fixed later, which was a minor oversight.

Honestly, I think Joshua is ready to maintain these packages on his own with full PPU rights, and has done a great job in upstream Debian on the packages he has worked on there.

Edit 3/2025: Since then, with my mentorship, Joshua has improved to the point where I only do a quick spot-check to make sure everything is good, and proceed to upload without question.

Specific Experiences of working together

I have sponsored all of the ubuntucinnamon-* packages for Joshua. As said above, the packages were of a quality that I would expect from a more seasoned packager.

https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi?render=html&sponsor=Erich+Eickmeyer*&sponsor_search=name&sponsoree=Joshua+Peisach&sponsoree_search=name

Areas of Improvement

Like most packagers, Joshua just needs to pay attention to d/copyright, and make sure he has priority correct in d/control. Other than that, I think he's ready for PPU upload privileges, and in a few months, perhaps even MOTU. Smile :)

Edit 3/2025: I have yet to find a problem in the d/copyright (DEP-5) files for quite some time now, this issue seems to be rectified. Now, the only issue I have is that Joshua seems to be somewhat timid when asking for help or communicating with people of authority (TB, DMB, etc.), which will come better with time as relationships are made.

Jeremy Bicha

Joshua's work on packaging Cinnamon is interesting because although he has done a lot of work on Cinnamon packaging with the intent of improving Ubuntu, his upload count to Ubuntu is low. This is because he has a strong upstream-first philosophy. I don't believe this is a negative point. I encourage him to submit changes directly to Ubuntu where it makes sense because of, for instance, where we are in Ubuntu's release calendar.

Most of my interaction with Joshua and the Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix has been in helping sync packages from Debian. The team-maintained packages have been high quality.

Joshua has been team maintaining the Cinnamon packages for years which meets the threshold of sustained significant work on these packages. I believe that it would be better for Ubuntu and users of the Cinnamon desktop in Ubuntu if Joshua were given direct upload rights to Ubuntu for these packages.

I am confident in his packaging skills and I endorse his application for PPU rights not just for the 4 packages specific to Ubuntu Cinnamon but for all the Debian Cinnamon packages except libtimezonemap (used by ubiquity). I do note that Ubuntu Budgie also ships these packages: nemo, nemo-fileroller, python-xapp, and xapp. I believe that the Debian Cinnamon set are core packages for the Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix and there ought to be a Ubuntu maintainer for these packages with upload rights. I encourage the DMB to grant upload permission for these additional packages today to avoid needing to vote again for them at a future meeting (probably soon).

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:
##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi
=== Areas of Improvement ===

itzswirlz/Applications/UbuntuCinnamonPPUApplication (last edited 2025-07-30 14:02:00 by itzswirlz)