Archive for October 20th, 2009

Posted on October 20, 2009 - by jono

Humanity To Others: Five Years Later

Five years ago today, the first ever Ubuntu (Warty Warthog) was released. Back then I was an Open Source Consultant working for the government-funded OpenAdvantage and had a (more) stupid beard. Five years later, I am working on my seventh release since I joined Canonical three years ago, and a more refined beard.

I really believe Ubuntu has been a force for change, and I am hugely proud that I have had the chance to be involved in this rollercoaster of opportunity. When Warty was released, what excited me was not only it’s technically adventurous approach and it’s commitment to simplicity and usability, but also that the Ubuntu community was forged in a way that I felt got it right. At the time Linux was already in the sights of the industry but many organizations were merely tolerating community as opposed to embracing it. I admired that the Ubuntu community had an open governance model, a code of conduct and a real meritocratic approach complete with commercial sponsor. This was brave for a commercial sponsor, and credit Benjamin Mako Hill and Mark Shuttleworth for this commitment to community. Both have been an inspiration to me before I joined Canonical and since. Thankyou, guys.

We have made tremendous progress since Warty, but we are still only at the beginning of a long and fruitful journey for us all. As we work feverishly to add the finishing touches to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, everyone in our community, be it developers, translators, documentation writers, LoCo teams, governers or otherwise, should step back for a moment and breathe in what we have all accomplished. Karmic is shaping up to be a rocking release, and speaking personally, even though I am seven releases in, I have never been so passionate and committed to the journey. The future holds incredible promise, and I feel privilaged to work with such a devoted and inspiring community and so many wonderful people at Canonical. Tonight I will be grabbing a glass of something sparkling and toasting to another five years!

Posted on October 20, 2009 - by jono

Ubuntu One Rocking The House

I have a crazy-busy day today, so I am going to keep this short. I just wanted to share how cool Ubuntu One is working out for me, and how it can rock your world too as it ships in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, released next week! There are two particularly cool things that Ubuntu One has enabled me to do, which I wanted to share.

I use TomBoy to manage my world. I manage my TODO list there, I track each member of my team’s work there, and I use it as a means to note down ideas and other bits of information. If I lost my notes, I would be devastated: I can replace software, but I can’t replace information. For some time now TomBoy has supported syncing, but it was a faff to set up. To do so required SSH keys and my own server. In Karmic, you can sync your TomBoy notes to Ubuntu One, and not only that, but I can also go to the Ubuntu One web interface and browse and edit my notes there, and changes will be synced back to my desktop. Awesome does not sufficiently convey how tip top this is.

Secondly, with the freshly announced Shot Of Jaq out there in the open, when Aq and I recorded our first few shows, we used Ubuntu One file sharing to move the content around. Aq, based in England, and myself, based in California, would record our respective side of the conversation locally and then Aq shared a folder with me and he would drop his recording in there and it would appear on my desktop. Simple as that. Wickeed.

Karmic is rocking, and Ubuntu One is just another great reason why. Good work, Ubuntu One folks!