Introduction

Hi, my name is Zach Hogan. I currently am in between employment, just working a series of part-time jobs, but most recently I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, where I taught Maths and Physics at a rural secondary school. That was when I began using Ubuntu. I had been a long time Mac user prior to that and I wanted to take a netbook with me to Tanzania but did not want to run Windows, so I installed eeebuntu. After playing around with it, and reading more about Ubuntu, I became even more interested and enthusiastic and I do not foresee a return to Mac in my future. The main appeal to me of Ubuntu, and free and open source software in general, is its potential application in developing countries' education systems. For example, the school I taught at in Tanzania had a couple old computers, but no operating systems to run on them. I immediately thought of Ubuntu. In the end, we were short of a few key pieces of hardware to make the computers run, and I finished my service before being able to obtain them, but the potential remains.

Goals

I realize that the power of Ubuntu is derived from its enormously generous community contributions, and I wish to contribute in any way possible. From what I've been reading, I think the best way that I can make the most immediate contributions is with the Bug Squad. Contributing in this way will also help to build my knowledge of Ubuntu. I have also been trying to teach myself to operate from the command line as well the Python programming language, with the goal of being able to make more technical contributions in the future. A long term goal would be to eventually work on the Edubuntu project, and one day try widespread deployment in Tanzania schools. I know this last goal is especially lofty, but one can dream.

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