Getting involved in Ubuntu development/testing...

[Murat Gunes]

Hi,

The following will probably help you get started:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU
http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/packagingguide/C/

It's also a good idea to be present in the IRC channels of the teams you
want to work with (#ubuntu-motu for MOTU, #ubuntu-bugs for Bug Squad,
#ubuntu-devel for general development; all on irc.freenode.net), where
you can ask for help and mentoring on things you want to get involved
in.

Regards

m.

On Mon, 2007-07-16 at 03:43 -0400, Tim Hull wrote:
> For the past several years, I have dabbled in Linux/GNU/open
> source/free software, starting in 1999 when I managed my first Linux
> install, which was Debian 2.0 (now THAT was dependency hell - no apt
> back then).  Since then, I have always been partial to the "Debian
> way" of doing things, as compared to the world of RPMs or building
> everything from source.  However, I have been frustrated by Debian's
> somewhat-slow pace of development, occasional hostility towards new
> users (both in the system sense and community sense),  and the "free
> software or no software" mentality some have in the world-of-Debian.
> I do, however, greatly appreciate and respect the contributions the
> Debian Project has made - it's truly quite amazing for an
> all-volunteer project. 
> 
> Now, Ubuntu has taken the Debian base and added many things to it that
> I like - regular releases, support for hardware that doesn't have 100%
> Free drivers, ease of use, and a general friendliness towards new
> users in general.  As such, I have been following Ubuntu since it
> first came out.  However, though Ubuntu has done a great job overall,
> I still see many issues that need desperate attention - laptop
> support, iPod support, and ease of application installs/upgrades
> outside of distribution releases, to name a few.  As a result, I have
> ended up flip-flopping between Ubuntu and Mac OS X - which I actually
> started using after I got sick of Windows and couldn't get ACPI going
> well in the very early days of Ubuntu.  On OS X, however, I sorely
> miss the sense of community and the world of open source/free software
> from Ubuntu. 
> 
> Anyway, I am very interested in helping out with Ubuntu in any way I
> can.  While I can't code C very well, I have extensive experience
> beta-testing software for a couple proprietary OS vendors.  I also
> have a large amount of general experience, and have managed to do
> things as weird as putting the home partition on an HFS+ volume (to
> keep files in sync with OS X).  Also, I have begun filing bugs in
> Launchpad for Ubuntu.  However, I feel like I can do much more - as in
> many of these cases, I have pinpointed the source of the problem and
> feel that something could be done about it. Additionally, in using
> Ubuntu I have come up with many of my own ideas for improvements.
> Filing a bug in Launchpad, however, doesn't seem to result in much in
> any of these areas.  
> 
> How can I get involved?  I've seen some things about the Bug Squad,
> the Laptop Testing Team, and Masters of the Universe, and I'm not
> exactly sure how it all works.  In particular, I'm interested in
> helping report and fix bugs (though not in the raw, in-depth coding
> sense), possibly packaging some software (I noticed xcalib - a useful
> CLI tool for adjusting your color profile/gamma in X using a profile -
> isn't packaged), and helping identify issues with Ubuntu and possible
> solutions to them (such as the afore-mentioned iPod support).  
> 
> One issue of mine is that I am somewhat limited in my testing hardware
> - currently I have one system - a MacBook - and have waffled between
> running Ubuntu natively and on VMware in Mac OS (mostly due to power
> management issues). At the moment, I don't run Ubuntu full-time, but I
> hope things mature to the point where I feel I can do so without
> giving up anything.  Furthermore, I want to help towards that goal. 
> 
> Comments, suggestions, etc welcome...  I'm curious from hearing from
> Ubuntu developers on this..
> 
>