Cody Somerville

As I’m sure I’ve already mentioned either on my blog or in my video interview on Youtube (which makes me look weird due to some ratio/pixel issue, hehe), the Ubuntu Developer Summit is and has been an excellent opportunity for myself and the Xubuntu project. Wheres the proof in the pudding? Well, I’m here to show you! It has been half a dozen weeks or so since the hugely successful Xubuntu community meeting led by the community manager Jono. At that meeting, it was decided that I would be tasked with developing a strategy document which participants agreed would enable Xubuntu to overcome some of the difficulties the project had begun to encounter from its ever enduring growth. After yesterday’s Xubuntu strategy session at UDS, where I was able to get feedback from other developers and colleagues, I’m happy to present to the community at large the first public draft of the Xubuntu strategy document. I encourage *everyone* to take a read and send your feedback, comments, suggestions, concerns, etc. etc. to my e-mail inbox: cody-somerville@ubuntu.com

So, when is the next big Xubuntu community meeting to finalize and find consensus? I’ll be announcing the date and time on either Monday or Tuesday of this upcoming week. Please keep your eyes posted!

Xubuntu rocks!! Be sure to join us on IRC in #xubuntu and #xubuntu-devel - woot woot!

 There was some fancy feet shuffling after the last release of Xubuntu. Jani Monoses officially announced the Xubuntu project on September 25th, 2005 and since then has lead Xubuntu few several strong releases. However, near the end of the Gutsy development cycle, Jani announced that he would be stepping down as the project lead and handing the reins over to Lionel Le Folgoc. We’re all sad to see Jani go but we look forward to new opportunities and  new ideas as we move forward with the development of Hardy.

Lionel Le Folgoc isn’t the only new member of the Xubuntu team though, we’ve also welcomed Mario Limonciello (superm1), and Jérôme Guelfucci (jerome-guelfucci). Mario works hard on the Mythbuntu distribution which is now derived from Xubuntu and contributes back regularly. Jérôme has been a huge trooper when it comes to triaging our bug reports and has strong upstream relations. Big belated welcome!

Regarding the website, the development of the rehaul done similar to the Ubuntu website is stalled but still underway. However, in the mean time, Vincent (vinze) has does some polishing to the current website which I think is very well down! Big Thanks to Vincent!

The other Xubuntu sub-teams and for sure the community has been growing and strengthening steadily since our first “real” release. I remember when it seemed like we all ran around with our heads chopped off but the mass of new contributors that came during the Dapper cycle seem to be pretty well strapped in and ready to make Hardy the best Xubuntu release yet. Our focus for Hardy, since it is a Long Term Release, is to be able to provide just that - an LTS.

Well, it has been awhile since I’ve blogged. Unfortunately, I’ve had to spend some more time in the hospital and now I’m making some big life changes which means, unfortunately, less time for my personal projects like Ubuntu. So, what have I been working on? Well, during the past week I’ve been hacking on the new Ubuntu theme for the Xubuntu website (Kudos to Radomir Dopieralski for his huge help with the theme). It still needs a lot of work but it is coming along nicely. Currently, I’m working on staging the front page so that when I start tweaking the css more I can get a clear perception of the changes I’m making.

If you’re interested in helping out with the new Xubuntu website, which it seems will be the first to implement the new Ubuntu07 drupal theme, there is two bazaar branches - one for the entire setup (excluding sql dump) and one for just the theme. You can find them at http://launchpad.net/xubuntu-website

If you’d like, you can check out the progress at http://xubuntu.no-ip.org

“Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.”