DoctorMo's Blog

So you’re an admin eh, and you find yourself out of work or just down on your luck?

Perhaps there is a way to satisfy the hunger that small businesses have for properly maintained systems by using the cloud, the power of the canny businessman and Free and Open Source software and target customers which none of the big dogs are chasing. Basically the plan is this:

Use your nouse to get together a bunch of SMEs, charities or other orgs and nail down some simple requirements for services they could very much do with having. Sign them up for a time share in yourself or some other sys admins that could do with the cash and set them up everything from email and authentication to storage and version control.

No service is too complex for FOSS and no help page too long to read to get the job done.

With the cloud you can set each of your customers up with their own dedicated and secure “machine” and run their services in non conflicting ways. The users are happy because they have all their services delivered by contactable and usually local businesses in a way that doesn’t open them up to much of a security problem (if you do it right of course). And sys admins are happy because they get to eat more than pot noodle and beans on toast.

Extra bonus points for hosting it in a very reliable location and super extra bonus points if you have terms in your contract with your customer that allow them to move providers and take their instances with them.

Your Thoughts?

P.S. I just got back from Orlando and UDS so my brain _is_ a bit fried and this entry isn’t as edited or refined as some of my readers are starting to expect.

Free Culture Showcase

We’re organising the free culture showcase for narwhal with the view to increase participation. There is talk of using celebrities as judges. We’ll need leaders of various communities like YouTube, Blip, deviantArt, Flickr etc. Each for each of the different media sections.

Do you want to be involved?

To celebrate the 500th member of the Ubuntu DeviantArt group. I’ve put together some stats for Operating System Use based on self stated use on profile pages:

Windows 7/Vista/XP – 410,000 (76.9%)
Mac – 87,700 (16.3%)
Ubuntu – 20,300 (3.7%)
Linux – 16,000 (3%)
Total: 533,300

These results were compiled by using a strict google search for deviantArt profile pages with the “Operating System: X” as a term. The number of found results were given as the size of the population. Windows and Ubuntu varients (XP/Vista/7) and (Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu) where folded in.

Kubuntu actually accounts for 25% (5k) of the artists who use Ubuntu. 5% use Lubuntu and Xubuntu with the rest saying they use just Ubuntu (not specifying).

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have equal populations with 100k each, 210k is left for windows xp users.

We have a long way to go to attract for artists and creators to Ubuntu and making the open source ecosystem of tools the creators choice for their work. Although these stats may not be reliable, only half a million users out of an estimated 9 million deviantArt users had specified what os they use on their profile page.

Note: Linux is a compound of “Linux”: 3,700, Slackware: 3,160, openSuSE: 2,970, Red Hat: 1,220, Debian: 937, Fedora: 344

Your thoughts?

Community Canonical Relations

The community wanted to make sure Canonical is doing the right thing and communicating with everyone in best place places and the best ways. So we had a heavy discussion about all the issues surrounding this relationship and how we can make it better.

Improving UDS Sponsorship

We really need to improve the UDS sponsorship process, there was many people who it was desirable to sponsor or who were nearer (and cheaper to sponsor) to the event and then there were plenty of people who just needed a little help to cover the costs instead of paying for everything. We didn’t manage to make any tasks for this item but I need to follow up on it.

Ubuntu Themed Websites

We have a set of code on launchpad for the designs behind the wiki, php, django and other websites to make sure ubuntu sites have lovely branding and we aren’t duplicating this branding work with each website. This session was about how we can make this better, easier to use etc.

Ubuntu Developers Manual

There is a manual which we need to make to teach programmers how to quickly get involved with Ubuntu development. Part of this session was dedicated to finding the right people to write chapters, look after translations and other issues. Hopefully a manual for the Natty release will give us a basis to teach as much as learn about how the Ubuntu development process works.

Ubuntu Light – Plannary

Ubuntu light is a system in co-development with Dell (I believe) and this system is quick, small and dedicated to launching web applications. The system will be installed dual-boot with windows machines and hopefully will help in fixing Bug #1.

Where you there?

Date/Time and Calendar for App-Indicators

One of the barriers to getting Unity as the default interface for the Ubuntu desktop is the deficient clock applet. In order to fix the issues there will be a made a ui for changing the existing settings which are currently only available from gconf, plus changes to allow calendar entries to be taken from multiple sources with a default plugin for data from evolution. There will also be geo-location information used for changing the time zone automatically if possible.

Developer Outreach and Education

We need better documents for explaining how the development process works in Ubuntu and how new developers and existing programmers can get involved. Part of this will involve writing new documents, some new diagrams to give good overviews. There was talk of improving the mentoring system and improving the social relationship between experienced and new developers.

“Donations” through the Software Center

An exciting discussion about using the software center to accept payment/donations/flaters so that users can put money into the projects they love. This proposal is more of a donation system than a payment system so free Free Software would be able to register their donation method. Normally a commercial FOSS package should be added to a different part of the Software Center system. Participation will be initially limited to google summer of code projects since google have done a lot of the hard leg work for identifying project authorities for accepting payments.

The Ubuntu Artwork Team

The artwork team is getting a boost. We’ll be working on researching and designing a website for supporting artwork and design processes. This web presence will be our main goal for this cycle.

Keynote

Mark Shuttleworth kicked off this week’s UDS with a couple of interesting messages.

First was the focus on quality now that we’ve got a fair way through both the cadence and design pushes which Mark has been keenly interested in. We’re told to be super attentive to little issues and to demonstrate this Mark got together all of the best Canonical people involved in the Maverick release and gave them ice cream as a special treat. He then revealed that one of the bowels of ice cream had a fly in it. “This sweet ice cream doesn’t look so sweet now” he said. We need to pay attention to all the little flies like flickering screens and slow shell use because no matter how sweet we make Ubuntu, it won’t be attractive if there is even one fly in there. “we can do much much more, and be much much better”

The Unity interface will be coming to the default desktop. Thanks to demand and feedback the unity interface will be enabled for all users who have the hardware support and it’s being promoted as an easy to use interface. I agree with this, I’ve had the netbook launcher on my mum’s desktop for years now.

There was a note about Ubuntu’s relationship with the Gnome project. Part of this was the emphasise that Unity is a shell on Gtk/Gnome just as much as gnome shell will be, everything is the same Gnome in all other regards. The second part was a short clip of Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the Judians People’s Front is raving about how their not any of the other groups. This is trying to show us that groups that are trying to change the world too often focus on the very small differences between themselves instead of the main goals. The main message is: “We’re here to fight the Romans”

I was personally very happy with the mention of Ubuntu economics. Mark affirmed that the Ubuntu Software Center will support Free and Open Source software sponsorship where anyone can push money into projects and programs in order to move development forward. Improving the position of Free Software projects in the software center and allowing non contributing members to still contribute to projects. I know this is a bit of a dirty subject to a lot of people, but economics is _really_ important for Free Software and we ignore it at our peril.

Content Media Library

A really interesting project to create a multimedia sharing and collaboration platform which involves sharing and streaming your content around. It’s early days but it’s looking like Shotwell, Ubuntu One and PiTiVi are all excited about the possibilities presented here.

Development Learning Events

We’re discussing the organisation of further events to teach people development skills and introduce them to key technologies in the FOSS ecosystem. Brought up was linking up more of the existing documentation, making screencasts and having the information available on the project pages. Having development sessions which focus on how to get involved with projects rather than the basics on some technology was also brought up.

Drawing of my Cousin’s best friend, Timmy:

When ever a new art tool gets bundled onto the LiveCD, I keep my eyes peeled in all the submissions we get to Ubuntu Artists deviantArt group to see when it’s first mentioned.

Ubuntu and Simple Scan is mentioned today: http://lucashappy.deviantart.com/art/mel-ancho-lic-01-183354982

Congratulations

I thought this was an interesting meme to do, it’s pictures of influences:

Can you recognise anything?

I keep seeing this message over and over as Boston moves into the week before samhain, you know that Irish/Celtic time of the year when the vale between the living and the dead is at it’s thinnest. When you’re likely to hear the wail of lenanshee or be visited by long lost relatives.

this is the time to be scared our of your pants, mourn the passing of friends or respect the life of the spirits. There is very little jollity in this Christmas sense to be had. And jet these plastic jerks keep trying to make Halloween into some Clinton card picturesque event that you’ll remember with nostalgia when you’re all grown up.

If you want to have a chilly spine this samhain then pop on over to Celtic Darkness and read some of this years stories: http://celticdarkness.com/stories.html

And comment here about what you think about plastic eventing.