Getting involved in ubuntu (was Re: metapackages)

[Taryn East]

* Dennis Kaarsemaker <dennis at kaarsemaker.net> spake thus:
> Same for getting involved with ubuntu, which is where ubuntu-devel comes
> in. A not-so-experienced programmer or even a seasoned one getting
> started on ubuntu-specifics needs to be given an easy route.

being one of said programmers I figured I should take this opportunity
to leap into this conversation and say: what sort of stuff do you need
to get involved in ubuntu development?

Apart, of course, from joining this list...

mostly the wiki seems to describe stuff that goes beyond "just getting
started" - such as becoming a memberi/official maintainer.

The "how to contribute" page points you vaguely at MOTU, which then
points to MaintainerCandidates which mentions something about Launchpad
(without explaining what launchpad is, but it seems to take you to the
dedicated ubuntu-dev team which seems more than I'm able to do right now).


It also seems to be a bit circular as it states that:
"In order to become a maintainer, you must first be a member of the
Ubuntu project."
but to become a member... you have to have contributed to projects
right?  which means you need to become a maintainer...


Also, it seems to be a bit more on the extreme side than I am ready to
put myself forward for atm - I'm not ready to own a whole package... I
don't have specific interests yet, just interested in contributing a
little - when I have time to do so, and to start with on some fairly
basic stuff. Maybe a few easy bugs, working up to something more
serious... then eventually submitting the bigger stuff and maintaining
packages.

I guess for me the issue lies in the fact that I've never really
contributed much to OSS at all - and this is my starting point.

Do you guys support this approach? If so - may I ask for a clear idea of
how? :)


Cheers and thanks,
Taryn
[who really isn't criticising the doco on this, just pointing out that
it seemed unclear to me...]


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