Re: Hello all ..

[Kevin Mark <kevin.mark@verizon.net>]

On Sun, Sep 30, 2007 at 12:32:50AM +0100, Sarah Connor wrote:
> I'm a newcomer to the list, and just deciding whether I'm capable of giving
> something back to the Debian community which has offered me so much.
Hi and Welcome,

Every little bit helps!

> 
> I wasn't going to post an introduction, but given the recent trolling I thought
> it might be timely!

HeHe.

> 
> I'm a 23 year old Debian user based in Edinburgh.

Did you attend Debconf 7, the yearly gathering of all things debian
which was in that part of the world? There was even some kilt-wearing
members!

>   I've been using Debian as my
> operating system of choice since approximately 2003.  I'm comfortable with
> creating and making packages as I do so for work.  (We're a perl shop in
> Edinburgh, Scotland.)

Cool.

> 
> Right now I'm seriously considering applying to join the project as a Debian
> Developer - the only downside right now is finding a package or two to work on
> specifically .. I work with Perl professionally, but mostly the Debian Perl
> Team seem pretty tight and on top of things...
> 

There are many ways to start contributing like: creating bug reports,
sending patches to bugreports, doing translations (the SMITH project),
artwork,  & sounds.  As you suggest, there are teams setup to do ´group
maintainance' of certain types of packages: perl modules, ruby modules,
games, etc. But folks go on vacation and other FLOSS distractions...

One of the first things that is checked when someone applied for NM (new
maintainer status) is what they have done before they applied. So just
helping as a user is a great start. Also, you do not have to be a Debian
developer to help with offcial package maintance. If you fix a bug in a
current package, you can co-ordinate with the current maintainer and
have them check your work and then upload the result into debian. This
is sponsorship as mentioned on mentors.debian.net. You can also help by
looking at the weekly 'orphaned/needs help' reports(WNPP) and work on
anything there:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2007/09/msg00985.html
If you are not an expert on some language, you can ask for help, and as long
as you are willing to google first, RTFM and ask smart questions(ESR),
someone will surely help you with the harder bits. Besides, once you can
read PERL code, you can pretty much handle anything?!

Hope this explains and welcome aboard!
Kev
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