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Wikinews interviews Ubuntu developer Fabrice

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Ubuntu logo.

The 10.10 version of Ubuntu (codename Maverick Merkaat), a free operative system is to be released in the next few days. French Wikinews contributor Savant-fou (Baptiste) has interviewed Fabrice (fabrice_sp on Ubuntu), an Ubuntu's MOTU (Master Of The Universe), member of the development team of the operative system.

Ubuntu is a computer operating system, based on Debian, which is created collaboratively by thousands of people. There are three official Ubuntu versions: Ubuntu Desktop Edition (for desktop and laptop PCs); Ubuntu Netbook Edition (for netbooks); and Ubuntu Server Edition (for use in servers).

Interview

 Baptiste  When did you first become interested in computers? When did you start programming?

 Fabrice  About 12–13 years ago. My first computer was an MO6, and I started to get interested in programming at that age. I wrote my first program (a game) in Basic, and it was so big that it used two tapes (yes, yes, tapes). I am 39, so it's been quite a while since I became interested in computers. I was, and continue to be an autodidact.

 Baptiste  What is your profession?

 Fabrice  I am Product Manager in a Madrid computing store, so I am still in the same field, even when I have not written a line of code in my job for a long time! My participation in the development of Ubuntu consists of maintaining the "technical" side.

 Baptiste  You participate in the development of Ubuntu as "MOTU". What is it?

 Fabrice  MOTUs are responsible for the software packages that are not included on the CD iso image, about 14,000, for Maverick. We are called "packagers" (those who build packages).

 Baptiste  Becoming a MOTU is not so easy, right? How did you become one?

 Fabrice  It's not that complicated: you should understand well how the Debian packaging works. And after convincing other MOTUs that we can not break everything, we can do it! It is a question of integration into the community and being trusted by other MOTUs. Basically, between my first collaboration in the development of Ubuntu until I became MOTU, I spent a year and a half, but some [users] became MOTU faster (I think the record is 4 or 6 months).

 Baptiste  How do you join it? Is there a vote (like Wikipedia, to elect administrators), an examination?

 Fabrice  It is a vote during a virtual meeting via IRC. However, you must have previously prepared your proposal, by collecting the opinions of other MOTUs. The entire process is described here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeveloperMembershipBoard/ApplicationProcess, for those who are interested.

 
Ubuntu 10.10 screenshot.

 Baptiste  Is there training to become MOTU?

 Fabrice  There is no training itself: the simplest way is to take charge, and connect to the MOTU IRC channel: #ubuntu-motu. There is also plenty of info in the Ubuntu wiki on how to participate. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/GettingStarted is a good starting point, and at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Contributing. There are also special weeks of presentations dedicated to people interested in the development of Ubuntu (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek for details). Being self-taught helps a lot for that.

 Baptiste  How many MOTUs are there?

 Fabrice  123 MOTUs, depending on Launchpad [the project management system for Ubuntu on the Internet], but the exact number of assets is less. It is a few people for 14,000 programs maintained by the Ubuntu MOTU. We work closely with Debian, and currently, only 2,000 applications from Debian are suitable for Ubuntu. But it's still not bad.

 Baptiste  How do you manage to work? Do you work alone instead, or rather a group? Which language?

 Fabrice  A bit of both. English is clearly dominant and much of the coordination is via IRC, as well as through mailing lists. There are ten MOTU teams, dedicated to certain subjects (the full list appears here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU#MOTU Teams). Every MOTU does what they think is best for Ubuntu, within the limits of their rights, of course.

 Baptiste  An operating system is very large... on what parts does MOTU focus? What language is used?

 Fabrice  As I said before, MOTUs are 'packagers'. This means that we maintain these applications in Ubuntu so that they compile, install and work correctly. I tend to say that we are inclusive. We work on those parts of the archive that are not 'seeded', ie not distributed in the ISO images (server, AN, desktop, Kubuntu, ...). MOTU methods are similar to the 'QA' team in Debian. We have the challenge of having the latest applications possible without destabilizing Ubuntu. The concept of Universe/Main is being lost and this is the definition that comes closest to what we do now.

 Baptiste  What advice would you give to someone wanting to become a MOTU?

 Fabrice  To be self-taught! Do not be ashamed to ask questions. On IRC: I "lost" four months while waiting for things to happen by themselves, and them to be pro-active.

 Baptiste  What did you work on on Maverick Merkaat? How much time did you spend?

 Fabrice  I worked mainly at the beginning of the cycle to update the applications that I had uploaded during the previous cycle and to sponsor the uploads of non-MOTU contributors. It is important that MOTUs help "train" the new generations, and the closer we approached the end of the cycle, the more I was in QA, that is fixing applications that do not compile, or that are not installable. That represents about 3 to 4 hours a day (in addition to my job).

 Baptiste  How was the development of Maverick?

 Fabrice  Relatively better than Lucid: Ubuntu was more stable throughout the development, and no major problems occurred (I still remember that during the development of Lucid, I could not boot my PC for 2 weeks), even if the cycle was shorter (due to be released on 10/10/10).

 Baptiste  In your opinion, what are the best innovations on the new version of Ubuntu?

 Fabrice  Maverick is a version of consolidation, so there are few major innovations. I think a strength of Ubuntu is that the installation is simple and the options selected by default are those that are most recommended. So I appreciate having particularly stable, but recent versions of software that I use regularly.

 Baptiste  Are there still things to tweak for this Sunday?

 Fabrice  Yes, still, even if since this afternoon, the uploads are fixed. As the version is not massively installed, we can't discover all the bugs. So one month after the release is as important as the month prior to the stabilization of the release.

 Baptiste  What is the future of Ubuntu, and what major projects are under construction after 10.10?

 Fabrice  All of this will be defined during a meeting that will take place in Orlando between October 25 and 29, called UDS (Ubuntu Developer Summit). I do not know what will be decided, although some guidelines are previously known (virtualization, performance, compatibility, hardware...). Anyone can go there: it's open to everyone. By cons, as it is in Orlando, it's limited.

 Baptiste  Overall, what is your opinion on Wikipedia?

 Fabrice  I use it regularly to read articles, including the duties of my kids. Yet, their teachers forbid them to take the content and ideas on Wikipedia! And wikis in general: it is a good tool for collaborative work, I set it up in the store in which I work for some subjects.

 Baptiste  Thanks for this interview, and good luck!

 Fabrice  Nothing: it was a pleasure!

Sources

 
Wikinews
 This exclusive interview features first-hand journalism by a Wikinews reporter. See the collaboration page for more details.
 

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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.


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