There comes a time when .........

[Paul White]

Well it's time for me to say good-bye to most if not all of the Ubuntu
community after seven years of contributing to a vibrant and caring
community and being successful in becoming an Ubuntu member. I've yet to
decide what to do with my Ubuntu Forum 
profile but this email is being copied to the Forum Council mailing list
as I have been an active contributor there for most of the past seven
and a half years.

I've made several mistakes recently but no-one who is either an Ubuntu
Member or a Canonical employee has taken exception to anything that I
have inadvertently done in error. So a *big* thank you to all those
concerned. Other community members or those that contribute as so-called
members of the community have not been so kind. I've also received
adverse comments about matters on which I have made comments on
non-Ubuntu matters.

So I'm taking this opportunity to say good-bye. I've done all I can for
Ubuntu. I could have and may be should have achieved far more than I
actually did. As of today I've made a commitment not to contribute to
Ubuntu apart from submitting occasional bug reports and making ISO tests
for whichever Ubuntu flavour that I may be using at the time of a
milestone release.

A former Ubuntu acquaintance told me that we have no age on the internet
but of course we do in real life. As one of the community's older
members I can assure you that I have quite simply *had enough* and will
now resort to being a user rather than an active contributor. I value
whatever time I have left on this earth and will now (re)turn to
activities and interests with which I feel the most happiest. I'm in the
process of removing most of my online profiles, a task which is not as
easy as it should be.

I recently wrote a blog post about the decline in Ubuntu Membership. Due
to an error on my part my blog was deleted along with other online
content much sooner than I intended. The post was picked up by the
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter and the Ubuntu UK Podcast but the supporting
blog post is no longer in existence. My apologies for any inconvenience
that I may have caused. For those that would like a look at the figures
of surviving Ubuntu Members for each year that their membership was
granted I have uploaded a spreadsheet to
http://files.pcw.me.uk/membership.ods. I may well update and improve the
file to reflect means of membership other than by the general membership
boards.

Unfortunately, I see some of Ubuntu's projects or teams in fear of
becoming extinct through lack of interest. There is certainly a  lack of
leadership amongst certain strands of Ubuntu related activity. It seems
that it is far too easy for team leaders to just walk away and leave
their teams with little leadership or training. I would love to stay
around and be in a position to help those parts of the community but I
am all out of energy and enthusiasm. Moving on to other interests away
from Ubuntu is the best way for *me* to now go.

So good-bye everybody. Long live Ubuntu!
-- 
Paul White
PaulW2U at ubuntu.com