I, Pau Garcia i Quiles, apply for MOTU rights.

Who I am

Born 1979, started with computers with a Sinclair Spectrum at 8. Linux user since 1998 (Debian), Ubuntu user since 2005. I used to work as a sysadmin (SAN, NAS, Linux and Windows servers) but I had always loved programming, so I became a software developer in 2007. Currently, I work as a R+D Software Engineer. I'm a KDE developer since 2005, I lead several open source projects (Javascript Browser Sniffer, libdigest/libcppdigest/PAM-digestfile, libsudo and others) and have contributed to many other open source projects (CMake, OpenSceneGraph, http://webtoolkit.eu, lilina and many others)

My Ubuntu story

I started with Linux because I was trying to flirt with a girl. Plain and simple. After trying Slackware, Red Hat and Debian, I chose Debian because of apt. In 2005, I moved to Ubuntu because stable versions of Debian were (are) released only every 2-3 years and because it makes easier to use proprietary drivers such as NVidia, modems, etc. I have since deployed Ubuntu Server to countless servers at many companies as the base operating system and as virtualized instances.

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

In 2007 I found Wt, a very interesting set of C++ libraries for web development. I immediately loved it. As installing non-packaged software is annoying (esp. when you want to uninstall), I packaged it. It was uploaded to the Debian archive, sponsored by Vincent Bernat.

I also maintain the libmsn Debian package, sponsored by Sune Vuorela. Both packages are now in Ubuntu and I provide the latest versions for Hardy and Jaunty in my PPA

Other software I package but it's not yet in Debian because nobody has stepped forward and sponsored it and I was (am) just too busy to seek Debian Developer status are osgppu and libsnmp++. Both of them are available for PPA.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

I maintain the largest PPA in Launchpad. It's also one of the first PPAs, according to Celso Providelo. For the Ubuntu versions I have in use (Hardy and Jaunty at this moment), I:

• provide backports of Ubuntu and Debian packages,
• package new versions not yet in Ubuntu or Debian
• package stuff not yet accepted in Debian (e. g. osgppu, libsnmp++, etc; it might be that the packaging is not good enough, that I have no sponsor yet, etc)

My PPA started as a convenient place to upload packages I would then use in several computers/servers: downloading from a repository was easier and more convenient than burning a CD or carrying a pendrive. Time passed and people started using the PPA for their own use. It was very satisfying when I received the first "thank you for having Hardy packages for XXX" (I think it was for the git package)

Areas of work

I've already mentioned this before: I'm a KDE developer, I've contributed to many open source projects, I am a member of the debian-qt-kde packagers team, I package lots of new stuff and backport a many, many packages.

I get e-mails from time to time thanking me for my backports, asking me for other backports and (only once) reporting a bug. I'm used to Launchpad (I love it!) and the Debian bug tracker (ugly and difficult to manage but effective).

Things I could do better

I could not sleep and do even more work and backporting but I'd say it's not really a good idea

Plans for the future

General

Keep working on my PPA: - Adding new packages not-yet-accepted in Debian - Providing the latest versions of my Debian packages for Hardy and Jaunty (or the Ubuntu versions I will be using at that moment) - Backports

What I like least in Ubuntu

Too Gnome-centered.

Comments

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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.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===