I, Mike Gabriel, apply for upload rights for packages that belong to the MATE desktop environment (step 1) and finally would like to gain MOTU status (step 2). I am happy to skip step 1, if possible.

Who I am

My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 41 years old and live in Fleckeby near the county capital of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed by Angela).

During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator and FLOSS developer (supported by the Computer Science Institute at Kiel University) and I am part-time working as a FLOSS IT consultant. The consultancy work touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in becoming an osteopath (the official training has nearly come to an end now, I am in the middle of my final exams, the real training never ends...).

Since 2012 I have been contributing to Debian as a Debian Developer. Together with a fine team, I gave much of my time to bringing the MATE desktop into Debian and thus Ubuntu and other Debian derivatives. For Debian, I maintain several other packages. For some one of them, upload permissions to Ubuntu might be useful in the future, but currently this application targets at supporting the upload / upgrade / sync process of MATE packages in Ubuntu.

Another field of work, I give much time to, is the development (as upstream) of the X2Go Terminal Server solution. Currently, X2Go is "only" available to Ubuntu users via a Launchpad PPA. Once I have gained MOTU status, my plan is to provide X2Go via Ubuntu universe.

My Ubuntu story

My first installation of Ubuntu was some time around Ubuntu 8.04 (maybe earlier). I had been a Debian user before then already (since Debian woody).

I have been to the Ubuntu Developer Summit 2012.10 in Kopenhagen, Denmark and enjoyed it very much.

My involvement

I have not worked so much on Ubuntu directly, as my philosophy-so-far was: package software for Debian, maintain it there, this will be an asset for Debian _and_ all its derivatives.

However, I currently contribute to two projects (MATE and X2Go), that require a more concrete focus on Ubuntu packaging / development. Also my work on Ubuntu MATE with X2Go (in that exact combination) will be sponsored by one of my customers.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Well... Hard to say. Let's make a list:

• ... leaving everything non-IT out... (otherwise, first on the list: my family and our children!!!)

• Providing X2Go packages to Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE

• Being a lead developer and community leader in the X2Go project

• Being a Debian Developer
• Contributing to peoples' freedom by working on Free Software projects
• Bringing the Free Software ideology to local schools / kids (as a local IT consultant for schools and a Debian Edu developer)

Areas of work

Current areas of work in Debian:

• MATE desktop environment

• GOsa² / FusionDirectory

• FreeRDP 1.1 transition

• X2Go (client-side) packaging

• ... (see my DDPO page)

Current areas of work in X2Go:

• Packaging X2Go for openSUSE / SLES

• Working on a multimedia player for X2Go that works over WAN connections

• Working on X2Go Server's next generation

Current areas of work in Ubuntu:

• Maintenance of X2Go packages on Launchpad

• Planned: Supporting the team preparing the Ubuntu MATE Remix

Most of the MATE packages relevant for the first step of this application (PPU) are listed on the DDPO page of the MATE packaging team for Debian. Some more packages only exist in Ubuntu.

Things I could do better

The real list is probably longer, but here are some items...

• Fix more LP bugs via Debian uploads
• Be quicker with uploads of security and/or bug fixes to Debian
• Do better marketing for myself as a FLOSS developer (so that my work gets better financed by my customers)

Plans for the future

• X2Go -> Ubuntu

• Unity Remote Login -> bring the X2Go backend for Remote Login in shape

• Make X2Go work with Unity (again)

General

I am curious about what this next step (joining the MOTU team as its final outcome) will bring. I am curious what people I will meet and work with and how the world changes if I change.

What I like least in Ubuntu

I am not sure if this still applies to the latest Ubuntu release, but I was quite unamused about all this Amazon stuff (and other commercial dust) popping up in Unity after I had installed Ubuntu the last time on someone's PC.

Another issue is that Ubuntu does not have a concept at all about remote desktop computing and is actually moving further away from it (Mir / Unity Next). I understand the market situation around mobility and BYOD. But customers of mine often ask about the TCO and the security model of such solutions in business and we end up deploying X2Go or LTSP diskless workstations while dropping the mobility aspect in favour of maintainability and security.