Well, I am delighted (and surprised) to announce that I am now an Admin on the Ubuntu Forums 
Congratulations must also go to Artificial Intelligence and Iowan who are now also admins.
I would like to thank the community for the support and encouragement I have received over the years.
If you already have Firefox installed run this:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
If you do not have Firefox installed then you will need to follow these steps:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox
Alan Bell is Team Leader for the UK Local Community Team. I must admit I didn’t really know a lot about him before this interview, so I am glad he agreed to do one. Thank you Alan!
1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
Hi, I am Alan Bell, a 36 year old geek from Surrey in the UK, where I live with my family and pet chickens. My day job is helping organisations to use and get value from Free Software. As for education, I pursued a degree in Computer Science at Nottingham University, but never quite caught the thing.
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
My first home computer was a ZX Spectrum +2 (the one with the built in tape drive) which I loved, especially the manual which taught me programming and trigonometry and calculus and electronic logic circuits. I was quite disappointed when I got a Commodore Amiga and there were no circuit diagrams in the manual. Now computers just come with an EULA which doesn’t teach you anything useful. Kids these days don’t know what they are missing! When I first encountered Linux it didn’t have a GUI and I wasn’t that impressed (but I did like the GPL from the moment I read that). It was some years later when X worked on Linux and graphical toolkits became available that it started looking interesting to me, but it took quite a lot of additional years before I started using Ubuntu full time.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
I met a bunch of folk from the Ubuntu UK loco team at an exhibition in London where we were demoing a range of Linux based computers, they dragged me on to IRC and I gradually got sucked in to the Ubuntu community.
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
Yes, I am a member, and quite pleased about that. I contribute to Ubuntu in a number of ways, I have recently been made the Point of Contact or Team Leader of the UK LoCo team (we are still figuring out which title it is) and with the UK team I am involved in organising events and keeping a steady stream of promotional and social activities running. In a more international scope I set up the Ubuntu-For-All project and team which provides continuity and support to a collection of other Ubuntu projects that address outreach and equality issues. In connection with that I am interested in getting more women engaged with technology and I produced and still maintain some interesting statistics on the number of women Ubuntu Members. With the Accessibility team I am working on a series of design personas, which are fictional characters designed to educate and motivate developers to ensure that their software works for everyone.
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
I only use Ubuntu really, it does everything I want. I keep intending to have a deeper dive into Debian in order to learn packaging and get some stuff I want into Ubuntu but I haven’t got round to it yet. My favourite application at the moment is OpenERP (sounds fun doesn’t it!) a python based system for doing pretty much everything imaginable in a business context, including finances, bill of materials, inventory, stock control, HR, warehousing etc. My least favourite application would probably be Gwibber, not because it is especially bad, but every time I use it I end up thinking I would have built it completely differently if I was writing it.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
I have great memories of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Brussels and I have made some great friends in the community. As for worst memories, I tend not to dwell on negativity!
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
I tend not to go out looking for people to convert! If someone has decided that Ubuntu makes sense for them or their organisation we help them make it work in practice. It is the same process for all the Free Software we support, customers decide for themselves that they want it, we help make it work.
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
I would like to see more of a business focus in innovations such as Unity, there has been quite a lot of focus on Ubuntu as a consumer operating system for getting to social networking sites and buying music etc. but not so much attention on using Ubuntu in the office environment.
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
Get involved in your local community team, you will meet all sorts of interesting people online or in person who are doing amazing things with Ubuntu.
Hello!
It has been sometime since I last posted a situation update from me. Well good news is for the most part I am a lot happier with my life than I was. I am certainly having more fun and no longer feel like I am in a hole with no escape. I’ve climbed out of it and I am not going back.
My Fitness
As some may know I take personal fitness very seriously. I suppose the main reason for this is that I sit in a big office chair all day at work, so feel like I have to do something in the evenings and weekends to keep in shape. I also like doing exercise in the evenings after work because it is my outlet for when I have bad days in the office or just need to clear my head.
So, what is new with my exercises? Well, I really like running and it has been my goal to run a half marathon (13 miles) before the year is out. I have achieved this goal. It took a lot of preparation, effort and determination but I can now do it. My next goal is to run the distance for a charity. I have not really looked into it, but it is something I think I could do. I have also done a little experiment, a mile sprint. I would not classify myself as a sprinter so thought a time of 4 minutes 30 seconds would be okay. To my great surprise I ran it in 3 minutes 44 seconds. I think it was a fluke, however I am delighted with the result.
PERL
Work has been really busy with a couple of projects on the go at the same time. This is a good thing because the time just flies by. I have also been dabbling with PERL for one of the projects. Nothing that complicated, but still fun learning. Some of the things I have learnt how to do include:
- Reading in a file
- Search and replace on strings
- Parsing XML correctly
- String concatenation
- Arithmetic operations
- IF / Else logic operations
- Saving to a new file
- Assigning passed values to variables
I am really happy to be learning something new and would like to continue to enhance my knowledge. I think also I may make more use of this language in future as it seems to execute quicker than some other languages I use. I guess best tool for the job applies
Zenix
Zenix has had a HUGE overhaul. Completely new base (Debian), new website and new forum theme. I have been involved with the softer aspects of the development, such as how it looks. I have contributed artwork for this release, as well as testing the release during its many development stages. Here are some examples of my artwork for the bootsplash and installer. I also got involved giving the Zenix website a major overhaul, both the website itself and also its forum. The new site is live and can be viewed here. I have also added my mirrors for the iso’s and they can be accessed here. If you give it a go please do give feedback.
Sn0wL1nux
After much thought I have decided to move away from #! Crunchbang Linux. The operating system (for me) was perfect. Everything just worked and I loved it. It was also really light on resources, which I have a lot of respect for. So why have I moved away from it? I guess I have two reasons.
- I had got to the stage where I was no looking at other operating systems. I had come to be satisfied with how it behaved and lost a lot of interest in other operating systems floating around at the minute. I did not see this as a good thing. I need to remain open and willing to try new things.
- I wanted to return to something based on Ubuntu (not the operating system itself, I have my reasons which I will not go into in this post). I have seen a lot in my time away from the operating system and learned, I think, a lot about the gnu / linux scene in general. Staying with one operating system was (in a way) limiting my knowledge. I thought it would be a good idea to return to something I had not used for sometime and see how it has come along.
So, which operating system have I switched to? I have decided to run a little known (I think) operating system known as sn0wl1nux. It is based on Ubuntu 11.04, codename Natty Narwhal. It has, however gone out of its way to look like Mac OSX. The project has a website, here, which includes this screenshots page. It is rather different to my normal choice of system in that it has a lot of eye candy going on. It is also very different with regards to system resource use, it is currently using 913 MiB of RAM with only Firefox and Xchat open. I use to sit at around 100 MiB of memory usage, so it is a little daunting.
First impressions are good, with only slight issue getting 64 bit flash working (I fixed it within 30 minutes, so not as bad as you might fear). I am not sure exactly how long I will stay with this operating system, but I would like to think a minimum of 2 months (unless I really fall out with it or see something more exciting going on elsewhere).
Summary
Anyway, enough rambling. In short everything is okay over here. No problems, issues or even concerns. My life has turned a corner and things have improved considerably. My stress levels are low and my happiness is up. Looking to the weekend, I don’t really have any plans but I would like to get around to watching a film I saved on my sky+ box: X-Men Origins Wolverine 
Anywho, suppose this is the end of the post.
Last weekend I had some “me time” and went out with my camera. Here is a shot I took while out, with a little bit of photo editing. I was happy with the result so I have uploaded it onto gnome-look as a wallpaper:)
Please click here for full size.
Matthew East is a name which often appears in my inbox every few days, I thought it a good idea to learn more about this Ubuntu Community Council member and his role in the community.
1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
My name is Matthew East. I’m a 29 year old man living in London, UK. I’m married without children. I work as a solicitor specialising in international trade at a medium size law firm in London.
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
I’ve always liked fiddling with computers but am not and have never been particularly knowledgeable about them – I haven’t studied computer science and don’t know any programming languages but I am always willing to fiddle around to find solutions to problems. I didn’t try Linux until after I finished university. I used Mandrake for a year or so and then started to experiment with Gentoo, which I enjoyed for a year or so while I practised breaking and fixing things. By that time I was hooked on Linux and free software generally.
During 2005 I had gradually less and less free time, and Gentoo was becoming too time consuming, so I tried Ubuntu, which was quite young at that stage but had already been fantastically successful. I quickly found that it was exactly what I had been looking for.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
I became involved in Ubuntu through visiting the Italian Ubuntu channel (#ubuntu-it) in 2005. I went to that channel as well as to the English language Ubuntu channel as I had spent two years in Italy, have an Italian wife and have a lot of affection for the country – I was curious to see whether Ubuntu was popular there.
At that time the Italian community was rather underdeveloped and fragmented and I became involved in mediating various discussions and eventually to establishing, with three other friends, a formal Italian community with website, forum, wiki documentation and planet. The Italian community has since developed into a flourishing community with hundreds of regular contributors. Between 2005 and 2010 I sat on the Italian Italian Locoteam Council and was team contact with responsibility for liaising with the international community. By 2010 my contributions to the team had
become minimal through having less free time and I stepped down, leaving the Council in very safe hands.
The other aspect of the community which I became involved in was the Ubuntu Documentation Team, which I also joined in 2005. Since then I have been involved in writing, but particularly in the administrative and team management side of the documentation team and have helped to develop the team’s processes, tools and websites. As with the Italian team my contributions have reduced in recent years as my free time has diminished but I still follow the team mailing list and contribute when I can.
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
Yes, I am an Ubuntu member. My main contributions are listed under question 3. My other involvement in the Ubuntu community is as member of the Community Council, which I have sat on since 2007. More details of my contributions are set out on my Ubuntu wiki page .
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
I use Ubuntu at home. I don’t use too many different pieces of software – the software I use the most is Firefox, and I also use Rhythmbox and Empathy. For working on Ubuntu documentation I use gnome-terminal and gedit. My Ubuntu desktop and software packages are pretty much as per the default.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
I think that my fondest memory from Ubuntu is being involved in helping create the Ubuntu Documentation website and wiki. I don’t really have a worst memory, although there have been plenty of difficult issues and passionate debates over the years.
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
I have a few family members using Ubuntu, with the occasional hiccup but a certain amount of success. Other than that I haven’t really done much advocacy for Ubuntu.
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
All those who contribute to Ubuntu would like to see it become market leader among operating systems. I would like to see Ubuntu achieve this while continuing to stay faithful to two key principles: freedom (software should be free and open source) and transparency (all work should be done transparently with volunteers welcome to contribute). I think a significant part of Ubuntu’s success is based upon its focus as a community product, with Canonical and other profit-driven companies fitting into that structure to complement community volunteer contributions. This balance isn’t easy to achieve. If Ubuntu gets it right, then it will continue to flourish from volunteer contributions which I believe have been the secret of its success to date.
For personal reasons I would also love to see Linux break into the legal market. Lawyers, particularly litigators, use a certain amount of specialised software and at present as far as I can see closed-source software completely dominates the market. It would be great to see open source software break into that market.
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
I would encourage every new Ubuntu user to read about the Ubuntu philosophy. Users of Ubuntu will always have the ability to experience Ubuntu’s features as a product but may not always necessarily be aware of the values which drive its development.
Our next interviewee comes in all the way from Canada. starcraft.man takes a moment out from zapping zerglings (whatever they are, sound dangerous 
), to tell us more about himself and his involvement with Ubuntu….
1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
I’m starcraft.man!
Oh, you want more than that. How about I’m a guy and I played quite a bit of starcraft growing up
More? Ok. Well my real name’s Jeremy Pallats and I’m a Canadian living in Quebec (Oui, je peux bien ecrire la langue!). I’m 23, doing a degree at Concordia University in Montreal for programming. Computer Science, real geeks know science is where it’s at! Main hobby over my life’s been computers, for a very, very long time. I enjoy programming quite a bit, I’d of course like to do that as my profession. I’m mainly interested in engineering fields like Aerospace and simulators. Web development also cool, though I only really enjoy the backend stuff on servers/controllers/db. I’m a COOP student so I get some work experience as I go.
Two things I’m most passionate about are Science and Philosophy. Been a science student since the early days, had a lot of fun teachers over the years. I always marvel at wonderful things you can learn about how the world functions just by observing and doing experiments. People think it’s all about chemistry when you say that but I think my fondest memories were of Biology (Human, Environmental and Animal), especially observing in the natural environment. Don’t think I mentioned that, I’m a former health sciences student. Anyway, I’ve just always been intrigued by the inner workings of things since I was small and had fun in the backyard. Philosophy is another of my favourite topics, only got into that at Cegep (College for others) when I was older but was quite interesting. I enjoy the debate, it’s a fresh break from formulas and facts. Nevertheless it requires a sharp mind and wit to win the argument. The best is when you need to defend points you aren’t comfortable with (playing Devil’s Advocate as it were). Not so much done nowadays. People seem to think philosophy is a topic that’s aloof or stuffy. A shame, it’s quite insightful letting you understand different views and theories on life/ethics and other topics.
On the topic of religion, I’d hope it was clear but I’m not. Between science and philosophy, I’ve found no need to put faith in other ideas. I suppose more to the point, my life’s taught me not to put faith in anything. Science teaches you to believe facts based on experimentation and philsophy teaches you to take a stand and defend it vigorously! I let those two principles guide my life, I help people too in between though I don’t wear any kind of funny looking cape/spandex.
You can find me in the #beginners-team lounge, when I’m around I like to chat Oh ya, I’m on that odd team called Beginners Team. 
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
I kinda think I was born wired for Computers. When I was small I played a lot on my dad’s DOS box which was a 386. Course most of the time I was just installing games like Commander Keen and Oil’s Well. Still, remember the black blinking prompt fondly. Transitioned quite naturally over the years from Win 95 all the way to currently using Windows 7. I’d say about half the reason I had it over the years was gaming, the other half is productivity I now usually handle on Linux. Linux is a programmers paradise.
Got into Ubuntu some time during XP’s awfully long and atrocious shelf life as an OS. At that point I was just tired of Windows, too much maintenance and I felt in general it didn’t “DO” anything for me, except gaming which, has kinda lost it’s appeal over years. I felt I spent too much time worrying when the next problem popped up. I think one of the things really rubbed me the wrong way was WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage), I don’t like reactivating my product ever 6 weeks. Nor the implication that I’m a pirate until proven innocent. So Ubuntu 6.06 was the strange thing I just happened upon, I forget exactly why. I think a friend of mine suggested it. Haven’t looked back since, was my first linux box and still run Ubuntu on my main machines. I’ve tried other distros but for now I’m content with Kubuntu on my main machines and an older version of GNOME Ubuntu on a server round house.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
Started some time in 2006, was a natural fit for me. I’m sadly a little inactive at this time, my programming degree at University takes quite some time, in addition to other regular obligations. After discovering and installing 6.06, I used the good old Google to answer some questions I had and needed a bit of support for a few things. Posted some questions on the forum and found it to be quite friendly. So I decided to stay, few thousands posts later and I can say I learned a lot. I think my main motivation was my background as an IT person fixing windows boxes. Answering linux questions was natural for me, it also provided an excellent learning sequence. People ask so many good questions that when I didn’t know answer to something I would go and find the answer. Then post back for them too of course .
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
Yup. My main contributions have been to support on the forums/IRC (via Beginners team) as well as documentation via the Documentation team/wiki FG on beginners team. I like writing, though not all the time, it comes and goes in passion so when I get the urge I churn out quite a few pages. Continue supporting regularly on beginners team when I can as well as mentoring. I’m hopeful that I’ll put my programming to use in an open source project some time when I’m a little more free.
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
Kubuntu runs on my main workstation, also my portable notebook from System76 (nice UltraThin Lemur, good battery life/size). Ubuntu (older version) runs on my server for sharing files around the house (local network sharing in house). My favorite software is a few things. I program C++ on Eclipse (Geany is also cool and light for variety). I often do quick fixing for programs on Kate, great editor. Yakuake is my trusty best friend for console commands. Songbird’s my favourite music player, it’s easy and simple and it sorts stuff the way I like. Least favourite software at this point is amarok 2. Never got past the 2.0 transition, some might say I just don’t get “it” (the new paradigm) but it seems like it’s trying to be overly sophisticated for no reason. For browsers, I still use Firefox, I <3 my addons.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
First thank you on the forums was pretty good. There’s a few questions I still remember where I put quite a bit into it and the people were very happy to get the solution. Overall, that’s more or less the best. Day I found Beginners team was quite cool as well, had plenty of good memories on the team. I guess the “worst” would be a handful of trolls that were unfortunately not a figment of my imagination… I of course fondly remember all the nice people I’ve gotten to talk with .
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
Gotten a few in my computer science department at University. My mom runs and uses Ubuntu now too, started using it and was a pro in a day or two at what she needed. I think that’s a strong testimony for Ubuntu, my mom doesn’t like computers much. I recommend when I think it fit’s the person’s need, I wouldn’t say I’m evangelical though about converting people. I still use Windows after all.
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
I’d like Linux to maintain it’s community driven feel, Windows and OSX just never feel so comfy being driven by large companies that frankly aren’t very nice to consumers (see support, restrictions, licensing, WGA, etc…). I’d like to see more focus on stability/UI over innovation and new developments. Many applications seem to have plenty of features, it’s just they don’t have the intuitive layout/UI of other applications. To many users I’ve talked to it’s not just about being able to do x macro in excel, it’s about being able to conveniently do x macro in excel. I don’t think this is unreasonable, I hope as I become a developer I can pitch in on the things I criticize. UI isn’t easy and requires lots of effort from what I’ve seen. As for Ubuntu, I’d like my close, min and maximize buttons on the right again by default. Apart from that, how about a job at Canonical in Montreal? Oh, your not a secret Canonical recruiter? Doh.
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to experiment, it’s the cornerstone of science and there’s a good reason for that. Dive in and mess things up, then fix it, then rinse and repeat. Hopefully you’ll have lots of fun and learn too.
I’d also as a corollary mention helping others can never be understated in this “fast lane” world. Too often I feel like people just do for themselves first, always. I refuse to live like that. I like that about Linux.
En Taro Tassadar good Linux community.
It has been sometime since I last posted a song / video. Time to fix. I spent quite a bit of time earlier trying to recall the name of this song / singer. I hope you enjoy, it is a little different to my normal musical tastes.
The next interviewee threatened to eat me if I didn’t give him the chance to set the record straight. Resident Troll is friends with over 20 of the forum staff, so I eagerly await to learn a little more about the person behind the name.
1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
I live under a bridge, generally being unpleasant and disrupting threads on the Ubuntu forums. I also like burritos made from what some might consider “exotic” meats. Profession? I am a troll, geez what a stupid question…
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
I got interested in computers when I discovered I could troll moar people than ever before from my own home. It is so convenient not having to wait out in the cold and wet for people to come walking over my bridge.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
I have been on the Ubuntu Forums for quite a while now. Matthew won’t let me go home. :’( He is really mean, especially to me. I don’t get why all the staff infract me so much. I never did anything wrong!!! It was my little brother on my computer when I was out !! My job on the forum is to keep the new staff in check, making sure that they know that I am l337 and that they should stay away from me and threads I post in.
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
They never let me become an Ubuntu Member…I’m too amazing for things like that. One time I tried they said I had been banned countless times on the ubuntu forums. LIES! Well maybe once or twice but I always come back. I said it showed my commitment! Nobody believed me, which is fine because I didn’t want it anyway. Plus I am going to start my own elite club anyway for other trolls. That’ll teach them to deny my application!
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
Trollbuntu is my favorite. You get to install packages with a hammer.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
Disrupting a thread that any staff member has posted in…plus my forum hack which means I have a 1337 post count, literally.
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
I score when I drive them away, you fool. Get some proper questions, plus wouldn’t it make a lot moar sense if I were interviewing you? Interviews by Resident Troll is way more cool than what this fox person gets up to. And besides why are you asking me all these questions? Is it because I am really awesome? I knew it!
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
Something involving lots of fire would be great! I could get some marshmallows…hmm I’m hungry. BBQ foxes might be nice… hmm…
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
Where is my 2¢ ? I want it NOW. I am going to so get rich. Bwahahaha
The Ubuntu Beginners Team has recently had an election for new council members. I was very surprised to find that I have been awarded one of the seats on the council. Thank you to all that voted for me
Congratulations must also go to DarkwingDuck for securing the other seat on the council.
I also wish to thank paultag and nhandler for doing an excellent job in taking the team forwards and also their commitment to the team over the years. You both should be very proud of your contributions.