James Williams' Blog

I’ve decided to take the plunge and begin the process of a becoming MOTU. For those not familiar with Ubuntu, a MOTU (or Master of the Universe) is someone who is helps make sure the components and packages of the Universe and Multiverse(basically everything that is not officially supported by the core Ubuntu developers) are as bug-free and up-to-date as possible.

MOTUs also work in collaboration with Debian maintainers to forward Ubuntu fixes and merges upstream to Debian and vice versa.

Your progress is determined by your participation and cred. It’s kinda like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart was in that advanced class that had no grades or set lesson plans. You evolve at your own pace. Once your build enough cred and the MOTU council accepts your application, you can create new packages for immediate inclusion in Ubuntu. Before that time, I’ll be able to submit packages but they will need to reviewed and approved by 2 MOTU’s before making it into the Universe repositories.

Why?

• At last count, there are about 4 different packaging efforts for Groovy targeting Debian and Ubuntu. There should be at most 2(Ubuntu and upstream).
• Better collaboration is needed moving forward.
• I’ve been using Ubuntu since Breezy and want a cool Ubuntu.com email addy.
• Changes in Groovy won’t be constrained to any OS’s release schedule.
• I’ve already been preparing Debian packages for the last couple releases. Now that I have the hang of it, it’s about time to make it official.

That’s my Chrismakwanzakah gift to the Groovy community. What’s yours?

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