Cody Somerville

Jonathon Carter’s recent post about his recent realization that he needs to make some changes in his life got me thinking about all the changes that have occurred in my life recently.  It was only a year ago that I had the hit lowest point that I have ever hit in my life. It felt like I had lost my job, my family, my friends, and my life to a disease. I’m very much a “goal orientated”, tackle it head on type person and it was very frustrating for me to not be able to apply the same methodologies I usually do to solve my problems. At the time, I thought things would never get better and when your hospitalized for months upon months then it can be difficult to help yourself as much as you’d like to be better. It hasn’t been easy but I can now say that I feel like I’m hit the highest point I’ve ever reached in the last few months and things seem to be continuously improving. Are things perfect? No, never but I’m finally really “okay” and I take solace in that. I have an awesome job, I’m going to Prague in a few weeks, I’ve gotten healthier, I’m more mature, I’m meeting all kinds of awesome people (such as Jonathon) and I can see a future for me. These are all things to be excited about.

What have I learned? Life is is good… it is just that batteries aren’t included.

On a Ubuntu note, I’ve unfortunately been unable to finish the Xubuntu strategy document that I had promised for last Monday due to the flooding. However, I really do hope to have that finished soon. I’ve also realized that we forgot to upload the translations for the Xubuntu docs before the release - I plan to do the upload as soon as I’m done writing this blog post.

On an unrelated note, I’ve started listening to music a lot more now that I’m working. I’ve discovered artists such as Newton Faulkner, Peter Cincotti, Two Hours Traffic, Counting Crows, Damien Rice, Anna Nalick, City and Colour, Eisley, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Junior Senior,  Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sarah, and finally Sara Bareilles. Some of you might say my taste in music sucks (and maybe it does) but if you’re into the above kind of music (ie. I like soft rock, alternative, indie rock, classical rock, jazz, easy listening, pop, blues, techno, house, etc.) please feel free to share some names with me. Heck, I’ll give anything a listen so feel free to throw names at me. I only currently have 151 songs so I’m starting to get annoyed of listening to the same stuff over and over ;]

My city is flooding! Power is off in most of the city, access to the bridges restricted, and traffic is horrible!

As I’m sure you know, 8.04 was finally released this past Thursday. Boy, what a day that was! Quite the rush After I had some time to sit back and relax, I reflected on what I’ve learned and the people I’ve met and my plans for the future. Did I learn a whole bunch? You bet. Did I meet all kinds of people? Sure did. Do I have plans for the future? Still working on that. More specifically, I’m finishing up my strategy document for Xubuntu which I’ll be sending Jono tomorrow for commenting and further brainstorming. If you’ve been following the recent developments in the Xubuntu community, you would know that a community meeting is supposed to be planned once I publish my strategy document.My question to people is: Do we want to have the meeting before the Ubuntu developer summit, during the summit, or shortly following the summit? I can see why people might have different opinions so I’d like to get some feedback. Regardless, the strategy document will be posted within the next seven days.

Focus back on Hardy, I’d just like to take a few minutes to thank and show my appreciation for a number of individuals who I feel have been instrumental in producing Xubuntu and more specifically Xubuntu 8.04. This list is by no means exhaustive - feel free to add the names of other contributors in a comment (or in your own blog entry) who you feel should receive some appreciation. In no particular order:

Jim Campbell - Jim is an amazing guy who I personally consider a friend. The Xubuntu documentation finally got the attention it deserves thanks to Jim. In previous releases, Jim headed up the testing team. It doesn’t matter how Jim helps out, I know that what ever component he gets involved with will flourish.

Dave More - Dave is a machine! Dave did an excellent job helping test the Xubuntu ISOs for Hardy. I think we got the best coverage we’ve ever had thanks to Dave and another awesome dude Daniel M.! I’m hoping Dave will fill the currently vacant Xubuntu testing lead position for Intrepid.

Lionel Le Folgoc, Gauvain Pocentek, and Jani Monoses - Bigs thanks for past and present contributions. These three dudes have done an awesome jobs. Kudos to Lionel and Gauvain for helping me with Xubuntu packages (Xubuntu simply wouldn’t be in the state it is today without them). Kudos to both Lionel and Jani for their previous periods of leadership. These people really deserve a *lot* of credit. I’ve gotten a lot of “You rock” or “Good work” type comments when Xubuntu was released but you should really tell it to Lionel and Gauvain and not me :).

Ubuntu Release Team - You guys rock. Enough said. Steve did an excellent job as the release manager.

Jmak - Jmak was nice enough to take care of the artwork for Hardy. Thanks Jmak!

Cory Kontros - Cory took me under his wing and has taught me a lot about being a leader of a Ubuntu derivative. A great guy who I look forward to meeting in Prague.

Jono Bacon - Jono is another great guy who does a lot of hard work. Big thanks for helping Xubuntu and me out!

Big hugs and thanks to Daniel Chen, Vincent, Jelle de Long, Jonathon Carter, Stephen Arts, Jeremie Corbier, The-Kernel, Radomir Dopieralski, Odd-Rationale and extra bug hugs and thanks to Jerome Guelfucci.

Kudos to the folks who help others folks in the #xubuntu support channel.

All the above people would be great candidates to nominate for the 2008 Open Source Awards.

So, Xubuntu 8.04…. what do you think of it? I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, concerns, etc. There are a few bugs that slipped through unfortunately but I intend to fix a number of them early this week. If you’ve encountered any show stoppers dealing specifically with the Xfce4/Xubuntu desktop then feel free to get in a free nag for me to fix it ;].

Also, I tried to get the Xubuntu website redone for Hardy but it unfortunately fell through. Is there anybody out there who would like to take that project on? If so, just get at it and let me know when you have something for me to review!

Anyhow, I need to get to work. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend (I know I did). You’ll be seeing a few more blog posts from me over the next week, so until next time… chow!

Hello Everyone,

Xubuntu needs your help in testing some changes that were just made. Once the new daily builds come out for today, I’d really appreciate if you could download, burn, and test them. Give ‘er a real good scrub down and make sure to report your bugs on launchpad.net (if you’re not sure what package to file it again, just file it against xubuntu-meta and a member of the Xubuntu team will make sure it gets assigned to the appropriate package) or if you just want to give a general report then please feel free to e-mail the xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com mailing list and/or myself (cody-somerville@ubuntu.com).

There are a number of things you might want to test specifically:

• If you have a laptop, please test the xfce4-battery-plugin. Does it report the correct values?
• Open up thunderbird and ensure spell checking works. If it doesn’t, let us know (by either filing a bug or commenting on the existing bug) what your locale is.
• Do all the other applications you generally expect spell checking still provide it? (make sure you haven’t accidentaly disabled it before you report a bug).
• Do your notes in xfce4-notes migrate properly? If they disappeared after upgrading then the answer is no.
• Does the GDM login screen render correctly?
• What do you think of the theme? (I tweaked it last night).
• Does the xfce4-mpc-plugin work correctly? Does it crash if you loose connection with the server?
• Xubuntu now ships Ristretto 0.0.18 which should fix some of the crashers you may have been experiencing with it.
• In the applications menu, under networking, does the Firefox icon display correctly?
• Can you find “Users and Groups”, “System Monitor”, and the like in the menu under system?
• Can you launch “Users and Groups” and successfully unlock it?
• If you add the lock applet to the panel and click it, does it lock the screen? If not, does it after you run gnome-screensaver?
• Does Thunar crash if you browse /proc/ ?
• Put a couple of shortcuts to local directories in the Shortcuts pane in Thunar. Rapidly jump from one to another with the mouse until something bad happens (probably works best with large directories like /usr/bin). If it crashes, please report to bug #214415
• Does Thunar hang when you have mutliple windows open displaying a large number of files?
• You may notice that xfce4-governor-plugin is now shipped with Xubuntu (although not enabled by default). A useful tool if power management is a concern.
• Any other bugs? Other feedback? We’d love to hear it!!

Unfortunately, we haven’t update Abiword to 2.6 yet but there are efforts underway. If Abiword 2.6 is able to make it into hardy, you’ll benefit from a large number of bug fixes. Keep your fingers crossed and visit bug #202174 to help Ryan test his work in progress!

If you haven’t visited the Xubuntu wiki lately, I’d encourage you to do. We’ve worked hard to revamp it to make it more useful and easier to use.

Thanks!

After learning that Automatix has been uploaded to Ubuntu, I’ve decided to pack my bags and hop on the bus to Mars.

The important Xubuntu community meeting I talked about in my last post took place earlier this evening. I’m very happy with the results and I’d like to share the following awesome summary written by Jim Campbell. I’ll be sure to write another blog entry soon discussing the whirlwind of thoughts moving through my mind as I get ready for bed after a very exciting day for Xubuntu.

Hello Everyone,

I’d first like to start off this e-mail by announcing the Xubuntu community meeting was a *huge* success. We had roughly two dozen people take part (including old, current, and new faces) and a number of other individuals who sent in e-mails or left a quick IRC message to let us know that they were unable to attend but would be following up with much interest. After just under an hour of constructive discussion led by Jono Bacon and several free form votes, I’m happy to present following mission statement for Xubuntu:

“To produce an easy to use distribution, based on Ubuntu, using Xfce as the graphical desktop, with a focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on low memory footprint. The integration in Xubuntu is at a configuration level, a toolkit level, and matching the underlying technology beneath the desktop in Ubuntu. Xubuntu will be built and developed as part of the wider Ubuntu community, based around the ideals and values of Ubuntu.”

Although 100% consensus was not arrived at, all participating parties did agree that it was an acceptable initial mission statement. It was decided that Cody Somerville (cody-somerville) would utilize the above mission statement to develop a strategy document which would describe how Xubuntu would adhere to the agreed mission statement. After which, another meeting would be called to discuss and find consensus on the new document.

Jono then asked the crowd if they felt Xubuntu needed a leader and, if so, would it be Cody Somerville. He continued by asking if everyone would be happy if Cody lead the project based upon the earlier agreed goals, and if everyone felt that Xubuntu would REALLY KICK ARSE with Cody leading the project. Besides Jonathon Carter pointing out that Xubuntu already kicked arse (seconded by Vincent), everyone agreed that Xubuntu required a leader and that they would be happy with Cody Somerville being that leader.

Finally, Jono asked Cody if he would lead the Xubuntu project. Cody agreed.

19:40 <jono> in which case we have made three important steps forward here:
19:40 <jono> 1) picked a leader
19:40 <jono> 2) agreed on a general mission statement of goals
19:40 <jono> 3) agreed that cody-somerville will develop a strategy based on that mission statement

The meeting was full of energy, motivation, and excitement. You can read the full log at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2008/03/26/%23ubuntu-meeting.html between hours 1900 and 2000 or at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/Xubuntu_2008-03-26.

If you weren’t able to make it out to this meeting, be sure to catch the next one! We will announce the meeting time once Cody has had a chance to prepare the strategy document. Until that time, please feel free to join us in #xubuntu-devel.

Thanks,

Jim

Hello Everyone,
As you may or may not be aware, the Xubuntu project has unfortunately been dealing with some difficult challenges as of late in regards to consensus on Xubuntu’s direction, focus, and vision. After a recent disagreement over package inclusion and seed changes, several key contributors have become so frustrated that they have decided to withhold contributing to the Xubuntu project for the time being. With Xubuntu already suffering from a lack of manpower, this new situation will undoubtedly (as already seen by some) seriously affect the quality of the Xubuntu distribution. After meeting with Jono, I’d like to call a meeting on March 26th, 2008 at 7pm (1900) UTC in #ubuntu-meeting which will be chaired by Jono himself. The goal of this meeting is to define a mission statement for Xubuntu, establish core objectives, and develop a strategy to accomplish what we’ve set out in the hope of resolving the conflict that currently afflicts the Xubuntu project. Jono and I believe that once the Xubuntu definition has been arrived at and more definitive procedures and policies have been adopted, Xubuntu will once again be able to grow healthily.

I encourage everyone with an interest in the Xubuntu project to come and participate. Although we may not be able to arrive at 100% consensus (something we all know is very difficult to come by), we will be able tofinally bring some tough questions that have plagued Xubuntu for sometime to a close. If you’re a MOTU-hopeful, MOTU, or core-dev who has been thinking about contributing to the Xubuntu project, now is an excellent time to do so. If you’re one of the frustrated parties, I hope you you’re able to make the meeting - I’d like to take a shot at addressing your issues.

If you have any comments, questions, tips/suggestions, or concerns then please feel free to contact me either via e-mail or IRC (cody-somerville or somerville32).

Thank you,

Cody Somerville
Xubuntu Lead

Originally posted on Sun Mar 16 14:10:51 GMT 2008 at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2008-March/005242.html (among other locations).

I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia this weekend and I had the pleasure of meeting Johan Brannlund (a post-doctorate at Dal) at the Coburg Coffee shop. Johan, like me, uses Ubuntu. It is always nice to meet new people when I travel and even more of a pleasure to meet up with other Ubuntu users.

The next time I’m down, we’re going to see about getting some of the other Ubuntu users in Halifax together to discuss getting some sort of loco-team going there. If you’re a in Halifax, make sure to drop in to #ubuntu-ca on irc.freenode.net or subscribe to the ubuntu-ca mailing list and say hi to Johan (johanbr) and let him know if you’re interested. If you’re in my hometown, Fredericton NB, be sure to subscribe to the mailing list or drop in to the channel too so you don’t miss the announcement for the next Fredericton meeting.

Btw, have you heard anything about
a certain special number?

Ugh… did I say I broke it? No wallpaper helps to distinguish it as an alpha. It was intended all along.
ktnxbi.

I’ll just come out and say this before you hear it through the rumor mill: I broke it. I’m reason that Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 had no default background. And you know what? Thats an exhilarating feeling. I’ve uploaded ubuntu-wallpapers 0.20 now to fix the issue and you’ll get a chance to see the new (proposed) default background for Ubuntu Hardy in the next roll.

But wait… why am I “exhilarated” over breaking something? Shouldn’t I be ashamed and hiding in the bushes? Nah, stuff is meant to break during this part of the cycle. But why “exhilarated?” The answer is simple: I broke it. I fixed it. I visibly contributed to the best distribution ever. Sure, this isn’t my first package and it isn’t my first contribution. However, this is the first time I’ve visibly broken something. I hope you get what I mean So… why don’t YOU get out and contribute too? Even if you don’t break something, it still feels great. In fact, it feels amazing when you actually get what you want to work!

However, I do have a concern to share. I didn’t have a burner for Alpha 2 so I didn’t get chance to try it myself so I didn’t see that my upload borked the wallpaper for Alpha 2 and no one told me. If I hadn’t happened to look at the moment I had, I would never have noticed pitti mention the issue offhand (and we would never have giggled about how much of a release blocker this was :P) for Alpha 3. Does this lapse expose a weakness in our current QA? From now on, I know I’m going to be burning the Alphas to test myself so that I can’t be blamed for at least not trying! hehe.

To follow up on my last post, thanks for pointing our Envy. I did try those drivers as you recommended but there was some definite bugs in them and it didn’t give me maximum resolution. So, we did end up going and buying a higher end gForce 7 card and after beating Ubuntu with a stick, it works great :). Whats even more exciting, is that my friend got his friend who just bought a new computer to give me his old computer. I’ve upgraded from a 333mhz w/ 192mb to a 1.6Ghz w/ 512mb of ram (and I got to use the new graphics card I got from Christmas so now I have the spinny cube (in Xubuntu) too following Vincent’s awesome tutorial).