Ubuntu Wiki

Obligatory Disclaimer

This page does not conform to the technical requirements, nor the writing style, beloved of venerable institutions like [http://www.tldp.org/ The Linux Documentation Project]. You have been warned. Your hacker's soul will be offended. Your sense of what is right and proper for a person to be involved in such a serious undertaking as Ubuntu will become warped. [http://interlink.webhop.org/dil-unix.gif Unix veterans] will whisper [http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/P/PEBKAC.html "PEBKAC"] about you in /msg on IRC channels, if you read on. But you will anyway, so, welcome to Ubuntu...

I was asked on IRC if I wanted to become an Ubuntu member. Apparently this requires, amongst other [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda?action=show onerous tasks], that I

"create a wikipage that describes (my) past work, ... plans and ... vision about the future of Ubuntu."

So this is my introduction to wiki editing. I seem to be turning into a geek... Well, perhaps I already was, and this is just a rite of passage involving the denial of Denial

Contributions and Interests

My main contribution and work has been answering questions in #ubuntu. Calling in the ops when someone misbehaves has been an occasional necessity as well, since unlike apt, I have not (yet?) been granted [http://www.eeggs.com/items/36008.html Super-Cow Powers]. Some people have asked if I am a bot. I'm unsure as to whether this might be considered a compliment, in the IRC help channel context...

I am not a coder, unless you call [http://interlink.webhop.org/Timer_Script.html my Pizza Timer] "coding" !

You can explore the small maze I have created at

http://interlink.webhop.org

Lest this wiki page be accused of being [http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/C/content-free.html "content-free"] , or merely frivolous and flippant, I will append some quasi-serious comments. Real Soon Now...

Serious Comments (tm)

I started using GNU/Linux about three years ago. I was tired of That Other Operating System treating me as a suspected thief at every turn, trying to stop me changing aspects of its operation, requiring me to agree to draconian license terms, and all the other familiar but infuriating messages it constantly popped up.

After going through the usual pattern of puzzlement (what do I do with a tar.gz file?), and trying a few distributions, I discovered first Knoppix, then Debian. I made my first connection to IRC with Knoppix. At the time the Knoppix channel was very lively, and I remember learning arcane commands like dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86 from people like tech2k, who also introduced me to simple Bash scripting.

Inevitably, I moved on to Debian, and ran it on two machines, one with Woody and one Sid. When I heard about Ubuntu, I read quite a bit about its philosophy, and saw that it had good reviews, so I started to lurk in #ubuntu. I noticed a lot of misinformation from well-meaning converts from non-Debian based distros, and started to answer some questions. When I installed Warty, I was immediately impressed. I currently run Ubuntu on two PCs and an Apple iBook G4.

I hope in the eight or nine months that I have been a "regular" on #ubuntu, that I have helped a number of people. Grepping through my IRC logs suggests that I have. This has been my main work and contribution to Ubuntu, my way of returning something for my free Ubuntu CDs ! I have also followed the ubuntu-users mailing list, at Rob Weir's suggestion, and answered some questions there.

IRC Issues

The #ubuntu and #kubuntu IRC channels on freenode.net are the friendliest I have participated in, and increasingly contain a core of very clueful people who are helping many newcomers to Ubuntu. There are problems, however: and these have been discussed for some time, for instance at InternetRelayChat.

A few points that I have noticed:

* We are seeing a high proportion of Windows converts. The whole culture of Free Software/ Open Source is foreign to them, and they are floundering in their attempts to understand new paradigms, particularly for package management. I hope to find time to write some simple wiki pages on the problems I feel competent to address.

* There are still issues of control, with long periods where no ops are available. Quite a number of regulars try to moderate unofficially, but there are times when a +q or a ban would improve the tone and efficiency of the help channel. A sense of powerlessness prevails...

Email: MailTo(peter.garrettAT SPAMFREE optusnet DOT com DOT au)

...

This is a place holder which I intend to edit further in the next couple of days. ...

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