Re: Introductions
Hi,
On Wed, 23 Jun 2010, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> I'm not sure who's on this list, as it's just getting started, so maybe
> folks could introduce themselves?
I'm Raphaël Hertzog, working on Debian as DD since 1998 (one year after I
discovered the free software world). You can learn more about what I did
for Debian in the platforms I wrote when I candidated as leader:
http://www.debian.org/vote/2007/platforms/hertzog
http://www.debian.org/vote/2008/platforms/hertzog
I have been following Ubuntu from the start (I remember a discussion with
Sébastien Bacher when it was no-name-yet) and I always tried to bring both
projects to closer cooperation. One of the first initiative unfortunately
lead to a big flamewar
(http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/01/msg00008.html) but
since then the situation has evolved quite a bit.
I worked with Ubuntu (and lucas) on providing Ubuntu-specific information
in the PTS (Package Tracking System, http://packages.qa.debian.org) both
in the mail part (derivatives and recently derivatives-bugs keywords) and
in the web part.
I integrated Ubuntu's acpi-support into Debian to make my laptop of the
time suspend correctly and I had there some first-hand experience on how
to maintain in Debian a package where Ubuntu is upstream. On several
occasions I posted to debian-devel to find maintainers for software that
Ubuntu has developed (desktopcouch, indicators-*). This recently lead
to a constructive discussion on ubuntu-devel@ (I'm subscribed to it and
try to give feedback from the Debian perspective) on how to manage such
packages:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-April/030716.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-May/030717.html
(unfortunately the thread is broken in multiple parts in the archive)
On the Debian side, it also lead to the creation of
http://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-ayatana I hope we will have some
Ubuntu developers joining so that a majority of the uploads flow from
Debian to Ubuntu (or at least flow to both in a somewhat synchronized
manner). We're using bzr in the hope to make it easier for you. BTW, I
would be glad if it could be advertised a bit on the Ubuntu side, I lack
time for this and it's not a project where I have much time to commit to.
I still feel it's important though.
I have also been working on improving our core packaging tools (read:
dpkg-dev) to allow for better cooperation between multiple distributions
with the introduction of dpkg-vendor and other important features (like
the new source formats that hopefully will bring some more consistency
in the way source package patching is done). dpkg in Debian and in Ubuntu
are now almost the same, we managed to reduce the diff to a minimum (thanks
to Colin Watson who has been very cooperative) and we even hope to bring
it completly in sync at some point.
> I lurk on #debian-ubuntu on OFTC as mdz, and am happy to get involved in
I'm buxy on IRC.
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Like what I do? Sponsor me: http://ouaza.com/wp/2010/01/05/5-years-of-freexian/
My Debian goals: http://ouaza.com/wp/2010/01/09/debian-related-goals-for-2010/
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