Dear Glen MacArthur, Hello, I'm Eric Hedekar, a fellow linux audio enthusiast and a contributor to the Ubuntu Studio project. I recently was directed toward your AVLinux project by a person on ubuntuforums and I must mention that your solo work modifying the Ubuntu system is quite impressive, to say the least. I don't doubt that you've put an extremely large amount of work into it. It's also apparent that your packaging and linux customization abilities are very well developed. As you may or may not know, the Ubuntu Studio development team is quite a small (but growing) team of dedicated individuals. It seems your work parallels the goals and aspirations of the Ubuntu Studio project and in some cases may even duplicate our work (the 'do the same thing twice' sort of duplicate). I personally believe it would serve everyone well for both projects to join forces; I think your energy and exuberance for getting the latest and greatest packages distributed combined with the Ubuntu Studio's rigorous testing, strict standards, and large community base can accomplish great things. Lately, some of the key Ubuntu Studio developers have expressed concern with the lack of other developers getting involved in the project and it seems to be an issue that has no easy solution. I for one am attempting to ramp up my contributions to the project in hopes of creating an even better Ubuntu Studio distribution. However, as with all open source projects, success increases exponentially as the development team grows, and I would hope that you've also noticed this phenomenon. I encourage you to join the Ubuntu Studio development team either through the IRC channel #ubuntustudio-devel on freenode, or the mailing list at <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel</a> or, even better, both. We would love to have your assistance! So to recap: come hack with us! There's power in numbers and we need your help. Yours Truly, Eric Hedekar