Ubuntu Wiki

Contact Information

About Me

My name is David Pires, I am 45 years old, live in Porto, a fabulous city in the north of Portugal, and I work in a Portuguese government agency as a programmer, primarily in Java and SQL, since 1994. Aside from my family, there are three things without which I could not keep my mental sanity, which are cinema, music and my books.
My first contact with computers goes back to 1984, when my parents offer me my first computer, a ZX Spectrum 48K, and with it I started to learn my first programming language, Basic.
I started using Linux by the time of Jaunty Jackalope release, in 2009, and since then I've tried several other Linux distributions such as Arch Linux, CentOS and Debian, but I always came back, one way or the other, to the one I feel more comfortable with, which is (X)Ubuntu.

Involvement

Currently, in Launchpad, I'm a member of the following teams:

• Laptop Testing Team	Ubuntu Portuguese Translators
  NewDocs Team	Ubuntu Quality
  U+1 - Ubuntu Development Releases Testing Team	Xubuntu Documentation
  Ubuntu BugSquad	Xubuntu Quality Assurance
  Ubuntu Manual Team	Xubuntu Team
  Ubuntu Portugal	Xubuntu Testers

Contributions

Despite having started to use Ubuntu and Linux-based operating systems in 2009, it was only in late 2012 that I began to somehow try to reciprocate what I always received from the Ubuntu Communities, which is help and a sense of purpose. So in November 7th, 2012, I joined the Ubuntu Forums, and in November 9th, 2012, I joined Launchpad.

Launchpad

As a member of the U+1 - Ubuntu Development Releases Testing Team, I keep several virtual machines to perform not only ISO testing of the development releases in Ubuntu ISO Testing but also package testing on Ubuntu Package Testing.
I first join the Ubuntu Manual Team in January 17th, 2013, proof-reading spelling and grammar, checking consistency of formatting, checking consistency of language and style, writing glossary entries and adding entries to the index. Since then I helped producing, as an editor, the Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.04 and the Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.10 editions of the Ubuntu Manual.
One of the goals I set for myself when I became a member of the Ubuntu Portuguese Translators, was to try to produce as much documentation translated into Portuguese as I could, not only of the Ubuntu operating system but also of applications, since there are very few translations made. To date, I have translated in its entirety the the onboard system documentation shipped with Xubuntu and the Catfish, Mugshot and TestDrive applications, plus some of excerpts from Silva CMS and Terminator, besides a large portion of the Ubuntu Manual Website.

I wrote several manual tests utilized by Ubuntu Quality for testing Ubuntu (and its flavors) packages and images, namely:

Other than my involvement in the aforementioned teams, I am a answer contact in Launchpad Answers, answering support questions as much as I'm able to, whenever I can spare some time to do it.

Ubuntu Forums

In the Ubuntu Forums I try to provide help to the extent of my knowledge, mainly in the Programming Talk sub-forum, particularly in questions regarding my area of work, like in the DB Queries in Java Program and Dynamic Displays in Java threads.
One sub-forum where I try to be as much active as I can is the General Help section of the forums, where sometimes a few challenges arise like in The installation or removal of a software package failed thread or a surprising misplaced thread, like Backup databases to desktop.
One of the sub-forums for which I have a special predilection it's the Absolute Beginners Section, and from where I recall this thread, Not fully installed java problems.
Ubuntu Forums is for me, and always has been, not only a place where I continuously delve my level of knowledge in Linux and programming, but is also the place where I turn when I need help, like when I faced myself with an Error on iptables implementation.

Other contributions

I, and some of the regular contributors of the Ubuntu Forums, created an alphabetical index of the most popular Ubuntu Documentation Pages, with links to the actual documentation pages.
The index is called NewDocs and it aims not only to be a learning medium and resource tool, regardless of the user's degree of knowledge of the Ubuntu/Linux universe, but also a versatile and fast work tool, as it enables faster searches and is user friendly.

I helped building up the Parole media player documentation, having written the Command-line Options section and the Play Media, Playback, Audio and the Video items of the Usage section.
I also helped building up the Xfdesktop application documentation, having written the Command-line Options and the Usage sections.

In what documentation is concerned, one of the projects I enjoyed the most was the Mughsot documentation, which I build up completely by myself, and am now migrating it into docbook format in order to be shipped with Xubuntu Trusty Tahr, since Mugshot is going to be included in Xubuntu 14.04 LTS seed.

Future Goals

In January, 2014, I got approved to the Xubuntu Team, so my immediate goals essentially consist in the intensification of my work towards the team, working on new developer documentation, end-user documentation, translating documentation or elaborating some more package and image tests for Xubuntu QA.
One other goal I'll pursue is to widen the scope of my collaboration with Xfce Docs.

One area I also will be focusing is the Community help wiki where, with other members of the community, we intend to make the already existing documentation more easily and readily available for end-users.

Besides that, I want to continue to spread awareness of Ubuntu in my country and to continue my participation on the Ubuntu Forums helping as much as I'm able to and trying to make everyone's user experience better.

Comments

Note: This section is for people who aren't Ubuntu members to cheer or comments that aren't testimonials from existing members.

Slickymaster, or David like some people insist on calling him, has been a very supportive and helpful member of the Xubuntu developing team for a long time. His help has made us faster to find and fix several issues over that period. If someone deserves to be an Ubuntu member its people like him that actually do things to make the whole system better for us all. -- GridCube

David was one person who saw the value of NewDocs from it's early days. His support continued to the extent that he was instrumental in creating our Launchpad Team. From my point of view David is the one we rely on to come up with the sound judgement decisions. How he spreads himself so wide as to be so helpful to so many others continues to amaze me. He will be a very valued Ubuntu Member if elected. -- Geoff Smith

I became acquainted with David through the NewDocs team. I immediately appreciated his technical skills and expertise, as well as his positive attitude. He always has the good of the project and its goal in mind, which encourages the rest of us to do the same. One skill that is especially inspiring, is his ability to encourage us to work together as a team. We are not of equal skills and abilities, but with David's input, we find our best strength in pulling together.
As I've gotten to know him better, I've been truly amazed at how busy he is with various Ubuntu teams and projects. Yet he always finds time to answer NewDocs teams' questions or volunteer to get a particular task done. And even though NewDocs is a team project, David is most certainly key to its success.
If I had to sum it all up, I'd say he embodies the spirit of Ubuntu. -- Leigh Tate

Testimonials

Note: This section is for existing Ubuntu members to leave testimonials. People who aren't Ubuntu members can leave a comment above in favor of the application.

If you know me and have something nice to say, please leave a comment here.

David is one of the unsung heroes of the Ubuntu world, tirelessly working to make things better for us all. I have had the pleasure of working with him for almost 2 cycles in Xubuntu QA, I have seen him working on the forum helping people with support issues, I have seen him working on translating into Portuguese, I have seen him take a role in a forum/wiki based effort to link popular pages on the wiki. In short, he has my full support in his application for Ubuntu Membership. -- elfy

I have worked with David on quality assurance and documentation (including translation) for Xubuntu as well as on the Ubuntu community wiki and quality assurance at large. Since the beginning, David has worked hard on the issues at hand and is also able to bring in his own ideas to the table. It's a pleasure to delegate to and work with him, because he doesn't only deliver, but he does it promptly and quickly. I had the pleasure to make him a Xubuntu team member and I fully support him in his Ubuntu membership application as well. -- Pasi Lallinaho (knome), Xubuntu Project Lead

David has been a huge help to the Ubuntu project since he joined. He is one of the most vital parts of the xubuntu QA team and translated the entire xubuntu-docs to Portuguese. I support his application wholeheartedly. -- Noskcaj

David has been a wonderful help to QA, writing and mainlining tests. He brings a positive attitude to whatever he is working on and with. I gladly support his application for ubuntu membership and encourage you to look favorably on his application. -- balloons

David is constant in his commitment to the Ubuntu project. He has proven him self to be a great asset to the community and the projects that he is involved with. I fully support his application for Ubuntu membership. -- dpniel