Ubuntu Community Involvement

Just recently, I've been looking at the community structure in Open Source development in general and Ubuntu in particular, and how users can get involved in helping out.

I have been active in the Ubuntu Forums for a long time now, specifically in answering questions and helping new users in the Security and Server Edition sub-forums. I got involved in this because the Ubuntu Forums helped me immensely when I started using Ubuntu, and then when I felt confident about the new skills I was developing, I wanted to help others who were in the same boat as I had been. I still ask questions too, the forums are a fantastic resource, but it is also very satisfying to be able to help people solve  problems they are coming up against.

On the foot of this, I have applied to become an Ubuntu Member, and I am waiting on whether this will be approved or not, but as a part of this application process, I was pointed to Launchpad and the myriad of ways that users can contribute there.

While I am not a coder, I feel that I am able to help out with documentation and translation, and as a result I have joined both a Ubuntu Community Documentation Team and a UK English Translation Team. This means a whole new world of IRC meetings and mailing lists, but I find it very fulfilling to be a part of the community who is attempting to give something back.

So for those out there who use Linux and have often felt they would like to give something back, but are unsure how, it is worth taking the plunge. Read plenty, listen plenty, help in small ways first. Whatever you do, get involved, and become a part of the Free/Open Source Software revolution.

Unity Part 2

Ok, it's now official. I like the new Unity desktop environment on Ubuntu. In my last post I said I'd give it a fair crack, and it has really grown on me to the point that I now am back to using Ubuntu almost exclusively, only booting to Windows 7 when I need to for some MS Word/Internet Explorer integration work for a customer, where I need to test that out, but that is the only time when I need to use Windows.

It is nice to be able to hit the Windows key on the keyboard, type the first few letters of the name of the programme I want to use and just hit enter. I still have my most used programmes on the Launcher, like Chromium, Thunderbird, the Terminal, LibreOffice Writer and Tomboy Notes, but so far I've not had the need to create desktop shortcuts, which is a novelty for me!

I was at this stage before of course, but the Unity DE did slow me down for a while when I installed Natty, but at this stage I don't think I'll go back to Gnome. I know there is still a lot of Unity hate around out there, but I really think that it is not the disaster it has been made out to be, and that it can actually make Ubuntu useable to a whole new range of people while allowing the "old hands" to do pretty much anything they were doing before.

Now I just need to work on convincing everybody else......