Ubuntu Wiki

Hello Ubuntu World!

I'm Adam Sommer, I started using Ubuntu during the Gutsy release cycle, and find to be a really great distro. I guess all the people who've made Ubuntu one of the most popular distros can't be wrong.

I'm a Linux Sys Admin at a small women's college in North Carolina and have been using Linux since 2002, mostly Redhat/Fedora. I started using Gentoo around 2005ish and really liked the customizationability of it.

• customizationability (Remember I said that!)

I've been interested in becoming a Linux developer for quite some time, and am glad to join the Ubuntu community to help the plethora of people involved create one of the best distributions ever!

You can reach me by:

e-mail: <asommer70 AT gmail.com>

Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~asommer

IRC: sommer

• I'm usually loitering in #ubuntu-motu, #ubuntu-server, and #ubuntu-devel.

TODO

Currently Working On

• HelpWikiQualityAssurance -- submitted a MoinMoin macro to the list to address the 2nd item displaying what Ubuntu releases a wiki page applies to.

  • Need to work on a way to possibly allow users to select which version a page applies to when Editing a page. Probably not needed: I don't think there's a clean way of creating a selection. If there is a Release Selection menu, check box, drop down, or whatever do you include past supported versions as well as the different releases (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc)?

  • Should be enough to document using the Macro in the Wiki Style Guide.

  • PhilBull also modified the macro to work for the 3rd part of the spec.

  • Macro has been tested by myself and PhilBull and the code has been linked on the spec page.

Contributions

• Worked on updating the Server Guide for the Gutsy release, but didn't start with enough time to finish.
• Updated multiple help.ubuntu.com server and development related pages for supported releases.

• Helped test the ClamAV for the Back Port effort.

• Updated the Server Guide for Hardy.

• Helped test, report, and triage some server related bugs for Hardy.

My Other Wiki Pages

Asommer/UbuntuServerDocumentationReview

Philosophy

ServerTeam

Just a short section on my philosophy regarding the Ubuntu ServerTeam, and the goal to make Ubuntu server the best server platform on the market.

I absolutely believe that Ubuntu can accomplish this goal. The main reason for this belief is the strong community that has grown around Ubuntu. The way the various team members work together toward the common goal of releasing the best Linux distrobution possible is fantastic.

I think the best way to make the server release as popular as the desktop version is to lower the barrier of entry for System Administrators. Especially System Administrators not familiar with Linux or Unix. My view on the history of the Work Group server market is first there was Netware which really wasn't that admin friendly. Then along comes Windows NT which was more friendlier to admins than Netware, because now they could run the same OS on the server and the desktop. During the time Windows and Novell were fighting over the Work Group server market admins with the curiosity and skill were running Linux wherever they could. Evidence of this is the fact that Apache/LAMP is one of the most popular web hosting platforms today.

In order to lower the entry barrier to Linux I think the best starting place is great Documentation. Up to date and accurate documentation on configuring a standard set of applications that provide common services to clients. For example Dovecot for IMAP/POP, Apache for web, MySQL/PostgreSQL database servers, Postfix MTA, etc.

The next step is to create/package a GUI administration interface. One frequently asked question on the dev mailing lists and in the IRC channels is where did Webmin go. To address the lack of a GUI admin interface work is being done to package and integrate EboxSpec for Ubuntu.

Once an admin gets exposed to Linux and has success configuring services using a GUI interface they'll naturally progress to the CLI. This could be from either the need to further customize a service beyond the capabilities of the GUI, or from natural curiosity about the power of the CLI.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the current state of Ubuntu as a server platform.

DocTeam

Here are my current thoughts on the "official" documentation released with Ubuntu.

Maybe it's always been this way and I'm just dense, but I think there should be a wiki page for every page in the DocBook version. The primary issue I have with the "official" documentation is the slow rate of update, but that is also the reason for the creation of the community wiki.

The issue with the wiki is most articles are out of date or it's not clear which Ubuntu version an article applies to. This is being addressed by this spec: HelpWikiQualityAssurance. Once the spec is implemented I think we'll be cruise'n.

Once the corresponding wiki page is updated it can be "tagged/categorized/labeled" as part of the Official Ubuntu Documentation. Then when it's time to the official docs can be updated from the wiki page or a portion of the page. Obviously some grammar formatting and what not will need to be "translated" to the DocBook version.

My plan is to create/update a wiki page for every page in the Server section of the official docs. Hopefully this can be accomplished before the Hardy release.

Party On,

Adam

Testimonials

Adam has been invaluable in getting the Server team documenation updated, regularly contributes to testing and provides good ideas all around. He clearly merits membership. --NealMcBurnett 2008-04-12

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