Report for new developer applicant Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
1. Identification & Background
-------------------------------
Check with keyid 0x6AAAA569
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pub 1024D/6AAAA569 2005-07-12
Key fingerprint = BE1A BF20 6C3A F082 423D 4011 2404 ED3A 6AAA A569
uid Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
sig!2 0A0AC927 2005-11-07 LaMont Jones <lamont@ubuntu.com>
sig!2 20687895 2005-11-20 Daniel Silverstone (DOB: 1980-04-09)
<dsilvers@digital-scurf.org>
sig!3 5921B5D8 2005-11-04 Andrew Mitchell <ajmitch@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 945348A4 2005-11-04 Reinhard Tartler <siretart@debian.org>
sig!3 10FA4CD1 2005-11-06 Colin Watson <cjwatson@flatline.org.uk>
sig!3 6AAAA569 2005-09-10 Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 6AAAA569 2005-09-10 Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 6AAAA569 2007-09-25 Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 6AAAA569 2008-06-13 Martin Meredith <mez@ubuntu.com>
<snip other uids>
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Applicant writes:
My name (as you may have gathered) is Martin Meredith, although, I do
have a longer version - (Martin Leslie Henry Meredith) - I prefer not to
use the middle names, as my fingers start to ache when I have to type it
too much! Most people, however, call me Mez (which is my IRC nickname,
and also what most people call me in real life too (except the family!))
I was born in Birmingham in the UK, in 1985. I went to School, and
College there, and also university, though I dropped out of University
to work as I was snowballing in Student debt.
I first started programming when I was about 5 I think... around that
time anyway. I was, at the time, wheelchair bound due to childhood
issues with my legs, and my father was at a loss for how to keep me
entertained, and introduced me to his MSX MPC-100, on which he taught me
how to program in BASIC. Since then, I've been interested in computing,
and the way things work, so this has travelled with me.
I first discovered the internet in around about 1998 I think (though I
may have been introduced to it previously by my father - I'm not too
clear on that!) and started emailing, and creating my own websites.
Before this, I'd been working on standalone PCs, happily coding away in
Visual Basic.
Anyway, after a while, I had my own website (good old tripod), having
taught myself HTML, and had discovered a few websites that I enjoyed
visiting regularly. One of these websites had an interesting feature,
and I wanted to replicate this feature for my own website. Thus I
discovered Perl.
From there, I started, with some regulars off of a website I visited, to
run a programming website and forum, working my way through different
forum software, making modifications to them, and all the while,
increasing my knowledge of web-based programming. Eventualy, I became an
administrator for a resource site for Invision Power Board (which was
then free software) and moved on to work as a sub-contractor for the
company themselves, creating the MSSQL database abstraction layer for
them.
Having learnt PHP, I went on to do other work with it, finally landing
myself a job with Jelsoft Enterprises, who I currently work for, as a
PHP developer. I'm quite proud of that, as up until that point, my work
in the IT industry had been minimal, and as I enjoy programming, it had
been one of my lifelong goals.
Anyway, that was my web development experience. But doesn't tell you
anything about my interest in Linux, (but at least sets the scene)
I can't remember when I first discovered Linux, but I remember that it
was around the time Redhat 4/5 was out, as those were the first distros
I tried. I can't remember how I discovered it either, I just remember
playing with them. Anyway, my interest was there because of the command
line. You can probably tell from the above that I was a bit of a geek,
and I loved the fact that the command line was so powerful. However,
after a while, my interest waned for some reason, and I went back to
Windows (though I kept a linux box around to play with now and then!)
After a while, my curiosity peaked again, and I started playing with
Linux again, working with Gentoo at first, and then when someone
mentioned it, Ubuntu. This was around 2003 (though I had had a linux box
setup at my workplace at the time which I used for running random
internal websites) Anyway, at the time I was dual booting, and I started
to find that I was more at ease in Linux than I was in Windows. Firefox
ran a lot faster, I remember that! and I had the shell there to work
with. After a while, something happened, and Windows decided to mess
itself up pretty bad. And it was at that point that I started running
Linux only. I enjoyed the freedom it gave me.
Now, the thing about Linux to me that is most important is the fact that
it's open source. I as a programmer, had no reason to bitch and moan
(apologies for my language) about something not working when I had the
ability to go fix it myself. It was a very much "scratch your own itch"
thing for me, which I guess is why I liked PHP so much. I could go in
and I could fix things.
The thing that got me interested in packaging however, was Ubuntu's 6
monthly release cycle. I wanted the latest and greatest there and then.
To this end, I started working with the Ubuntu Backports project. And,
learning of all the packaging, etc, it excited me, it was a new toy to
play with, and something that I enjoyed doing. Being a fan of KDE, I
worked with the Kubuntu Team to learn packaging, and started work on a
few packages there. I think my first package that I worked on properly
was k3b - an interesting place to start, but the work was there for me
to start with, so it was an easy place to start.
I worked through with more and more packages, and eventually became an
ubuntu MOTU, and started working on packages for that. At the same time,
I started working on katapult, as this was a project that Kubuntu
wanted, but the maintainer had given up on it. So I took over.
Anyway, I learnt more and more about Ubuntu, and packaging, and found
that I was turning more and more to debian as a resource for everything.
After all, Ubuntu is based on debian, and I found that things in debian
were a lot easier to work with (working from the debian upstreams
updates to base the work in ubuntu from). I then found that it was MUCH
easier for me to create packages that worked in Ubuntu AND Debian, and
have them synced from there. So this is what I started doing with
katapult, after finding a willing sponsor. I did however, sometimes find
it hard to get in contact with my sponsor (he being a busy man!), so
work was done in both Ubuntu and Debian.
Eager to get my teeth into more, I adopted rar and unrar-nonfree as the
Maintainer at the time was having trouble keeping with the maintenance
of it, and for some reason (I can't remember why) I needed a new version
of them.
I recently also wanted xdebug (after having talked with the Upstream) to
be in Debian for my own reasons (use at work) and, having started
working with PHP more because of my new job, started working on this
with another person, under the eye of one of the current DDs who was
interested in doing this also.
I've also filed a couple of ITPs for the reason of wanting to use them
for my own projects (well, ezcomponents - symfony is simply a package I
saw related to PHP that I thought would be useful in debian!)
So, that's my interest in debian, thats how I got to where I am now.
The reason I filed the ITP is because that I believe that working on
packaging in Debian rather than in Ubuntu is better than simply working
on it in Ubuntu. There are a few reasons why, my main ones being that it
contributes back to Debian, and the fact that it makes the delta between
ubuntu and Debian less. While I agree that there needs to be a delta in
some cases, for things that I'm working on (rar, etc) and for the things
that I am upstream for (Katapult) there doesn't need to be any delta,
and there shouldn't be. Debian is where the roots of Ubuntu came from.
If it wasn't for Debian, then Ubuntu wouldn't have come into being, I
wouldn't have learnt to package, and I probably wouldn't be using Linux
as I am today. Put simply, Debian has indirectly given me a lot. I want
to be able to give back. Plus, being a DD makes life a lot easier than
having to chase round after sponsors, and as a DD I'll be able to help
more people contribute to Debian.
As you can probably tell, my interests are far and wide, and I'm very
much a "scratch your own itches" kinda guy. I do however, have an
affinity for both KDE and PHP, and intend to focus my DDship in these
areas.
I'm quite happy for these emails to be "published" (as you put it).
2. Account Data
---------------
Account: mez
Forward-Email: mez.debian@googlemail.com
3. Philosophy and Procedures
-----------------------------
Martin has a good knowledge of Debian's philosophy and procedures
and answered all my questions about the social contract,
DFSG, BTS, etc. in a satisfying way. Martin committed to uphold the SC and
DFSG
in his Debian work and accepts the DMUP.
4. Tasks and Skills
-------------------
Martin has a good understanding of the technical side of Debian.
He is maintainer of the katapult, symfony and xdebug packages.
He also answered my other questions regarding T&S without any problems
worth mentioning and provided patches for RC bugs.
His social skills are great and it is a pleasure to communicate with him.
5. Recommendation
-----------------
I recommend to accept Martin as a Debian Developer.
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