MOTU application

[Rick Clark]

On Monday 21 April 2008 04:58:58 Daniel Holbach wrote:
> Hello Rick,
>
> Rick Clark schrieb:
> > I would like to apply for MOTU.
>
> thanks for the great work you've been doing in Ubuntu Server land! The
> testimonials speak for themselves.
>
> I have a few questions: What did you find the biggest challenges when it
> came to packaging and package maintenance? Do you think there's anything
> we could do to make it easier?
>
hello Daniel,

The biggest challenge for me was the making the switch from RPM's to Deb's.  
It wasn't a technical difficulty though, it was more of a philosophical one.  
I did not come from a Debian background, so I was totally unfamiliar with 
Debian policy.  I would attempt to solve a problem in the best technical way 
I knew how, only to find that my solution was not compliant with Debian 
policy.   In almost all the cases, after understanding the reason behind the 
constricting policy, my opinion changed and I saw it's value.  

It would have been very useful to me to have had a tutorial on the Debian 
policy and it's place in Ubuntu. 

Another issue I found was varying package quality.  I would examine a package 
in the archive that was similar to the one I wanted to create/modify, and use 
it as a guide, only to be told by a sponsor that it was incorrect.  In the 
end, I chose as guides, only packages that were uploaded by specific 
developers that I trusted.  However, I wasted quite a bit of time looking at 
things that were not done the way my sponsors wanted,



> Also I'm very happy to see the Ubuntu Server community grow like it did
> in the last months. It's great we have an overlap in the MOTU Community
> and the Server Team - where do new server enthusiast best get involved?

It really depends on how much time they have, and their level of interest.  I 
hope it is more of a starting point than an overlap, though .  The best thing 
to do if you want to be involved in Ubuntu, is to go through the process 
leading to MOTU, however, we felt that that we were missing out on many 
potential server community members, that can't, at this time, make the 
commitment necessary to become MOTU.  They might only be interested in one 
package, such as Apache, because they have to support it at their job, or 
they might work 12 hours a day managing thousands of systems and have little 
time for extra development.  

We hope that we can give them a way to contribute, and that once they start 
contributing and see their work paying off they will want to be more involved 
and eventually become MOTU.

The Ubuntu server community has sprouted, but we always need more help. 

If you want to get involved you should first look at our wiki 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/.

There you will find information about what we do and how to get involved.  I 
would also encourage anyone interested to come to our IRC meetings, we are 
always asking for volunteers to help with different tasks.


Cheers,

Rick


>
> Have a nice day,
>  Daniel

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