Thoughts of a Traveling Geek
Fedora
Posts about Fedora Linux and the Fedora community
Impromptu Fedora 15 Release Party, a Retrospective, and Other Fedora 15 Musings
0Wow! I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the response I’ve seen from the Fedora 15 release. Once again, Fedora has shown that it can continue lead in features and freedom and still make a very functional distribution in a six-month time frame. Kudos to everyone in Fedora for your hard work and dedication. From the packagers to the designers, documentation team, translation team, QA, release engineering, marketing, spins, and everything in between, we’ve built something we should be proud of. Of course, not all of the response to Fedora 15 has been positive (and I’ll address that below), but I feel very good about the impact of this release on the future of Linux distributions.
This week I’m in Panama City for the annual Latin American version of our FUDCon conference, and since Fedora 15 was released yesterday, we decided to throw a little impromptu release party last night. It was quite entertaining to watch the planning happen, and to see how the little microcosm of the release party reflected the Fedora way:
A plan was made, packages (of food) were obtained, a “build system” was acquired (and yes, there’s a story about how many contributors it takes to put together a BBQ grill — but that’s a story for another day), an “alpha” was put out there for test consumption, and so on. We even had a couple of unfortunate schedule slips, too. Along the way, the people involved crossed political, social, and language barriers to unite for a common cause. And at the end of the party, everyone left not only satisfied with the food, but happier because of the interactions along the way. In short, it was the open source way at work on a very small scale.
Now that Fedora 15 is out the door, you might think it’s time to relax a bit — but no, it’s time to get back to work. Our six-month release cycle doesn’t really give us time to stop. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll working with Robyn Bergeron (the Fedora Program Manager) to set the schedule for the Fedora 16 release cycle — but in short, the feature freeze is going to be approximately July 26th. I’ll also be working with the Fedora Board to do a Fedora 15 retrospective. If you have items you’d like to add to the retrospective, please check it out on the wiki. As always, I value your feedback in helping us make each Fedora release better than the previous ones.
One day remaining for Fedora 16 name suggestions!
1One of the most light-hearted parts of the Fedora release process (and the one that often gets complaints) is picking the release name for the next version of Fedora. For example, Fedora 14 had a release name of “Laughlin” and Fedora 15 has a release name of “Lovelock”. I need your help coming up with plenty of suggestions so that we have an adequate pool to vote from after the names have been vetted.
You have until the end of the day tomorrow (March 10th) to submit your most creative entries for the release name. Please follow the instructions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Name_suggestions_for_Fedora_16 to ensure that you follow the naming guidelines. The name cannot be picked at random, but must follow a simple set of rules.
For example, Laughlin is the name of a city in Nevada, USA, and so is Lovelock. Lovelock is also a [new link here], and <your name suggestion here> is also a [new link here]. The new link should be original, and not something already used (cities in Nevada, physicists, kings, names of ships, etc.). You can find the entire set of rules on the wiki page linked above, and the history of Fedora release names at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Names.
Please take a moment and post your most creative suggestion on the wiki at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Name_suggestions_for_Fedora_16. We’ll open up voting on the release names from March 23th through March 29th.
[update]
I updated the links to actually work — sorry about the links not working last time.
Best FUDCon Experience Ever!
2I’m hoping to find time over the next few days to do a more complete blog post relating all my recent travels, but for now I wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone who was able to attend FUDCon Tempe and make it the best North American FUDCon I’ve seen. I was impressed by so many things but here are a few that stick out in my mind today:
- I was impressed with the number of people who were at FUDCon for the first time. I tried to talk to as many people as I could, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. If I didn’t stop and introduce myself and say hi, I’m sorry
- I was impressed with the conference venue. Everything was within walking distance, and the facilities at Arizona State University were top-notch. And, believe it or not, we had no major problems with internet access! Thanks to Robyn Bergeron and all the folks at ASU that put time and effort into the logistics behind the conference.
- I was impressed with the number of people who pitched talks in the BarCamp session. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge and talent in our community, and the BarCamp sessions really highlighted that. I also felt that going to fewer tracks (only four simultaneous sessions) made the scheduling easier.
- I continue to be impressed by how much easier it is to communicate when you’re face to face with a person, especially when the people communicating don’t speak the same native language. Several of us had a great conversation about that over dinner last night (as we had native English, Spanish, Dutch, German, and French-Canadian speakers in the group). Sometimes it’s even just cultural differences — one participant mentioned that in his cultural, having walking into a store and having someone ask “How are you today?” would be considered a little bit confrontational, while I wouldn’t think anything of it. For me, that highlighted the need to get people face to face from time to time.
- I was impressed by the number of people with nice Canon cameras. A number of cool people let me borrow their cameras and let me go with them to the camera store, and I have to admit the budding photo geek in me was seriously craving a camera upgrade. Hopefully we can get community members to share their photos online.
I’m exhausted beyond belief, but I’m very happy about the entire FUDCon experience, and am extremely grateful to play a part in such an awesome community.
Where is Jared headed next?
1An important (and rewarding, even if it is tiring) part of my job as the Fedora Project Leader is to help spread the word about Fedora in various parts of the world. The most visible part of this is speaking at conferences and meeting with our ambassadors and contributors. Over the next three weeks I’ll be on a jet-lag-inducing marathon of travel, and I thought it would be helpful to let people know where I’ll be over the next few weeks.
LinuxConf Australia
On Friday, I’ll be flying to Brisbane for the LCA conference. This is my first time to attend LCA, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting many of our contributors in the Asia-Pacific region while I’m there. I’m also glad that the flood waters are receding in Brisbane, and that the conference attendees can do their small part to help in the recovery by showing up for the conference, eating in restaurants, staying in hotels, and otherwise helping the local economy. I’ll be giving a presentation on Thursday the 27th explaining what Fedora is and the unique relationship between Fedora and Red Hat, and how to work effectively with upstream projects.
FUDCon Tempe
After LCA, I’ll be flying from Brisbane to Tempe, Arizona for the North American iteration of our annual Fedora Users and Developers conference, affectionately known as FUDCon. I always look forward to the FUDCon conferences around the world, as they’re the best opportunity to meet with and work with other Fedora enthusiasts in a fun atmosphere. I’ll be giving the traditional “State of Fedora” address on Saturday, leading the Board meeting on Monday, and generally doing my best to ensure that the conference runs smoothly. I’ll also pitch a BarCamp session or two. As always, FUDCon is a free event and we encourage all Linux enthusiasts to attend regardless of their experience level.
FOSDEM
After FUDCon I’ll be traveling to Belgium for FOSDEM, which is one of the premier free/open source software conferences in Europe. In particular, I’ll be doing a couple of presentations in the Distributions room, talking about cross-distro collaboration, as well as the roles that distributions play in the free/open source ecosystem. In addition, I will also be helping out at the Fedora booth. I’m also hoping to pop over to the Open Telephony room to say hi to some of my telephone-loving friends there as well, if time permits.
If you’re at any of these three conferences, I encourage you to stop by and introduce yourself. I look forward to meeting with you!
Stop doodling — I mean, start doodling!
1I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase “Stop doodling and get to work!” when I was a child. My teachers were constantly telling me to stop drawing pictures and to focus on the class material. Now that I have two children who would rather doodle than do their homework, I get to see the perspective that my teachers had.
Today, however, I’m actually going to ask you to get out your favorite pen or pencil or tablet, and start doodling — all for a good cause! The Fedora Design team is looking for concept ideas for Fedora 15 artwork, and the submission deadline is quickly approaching. At this point in the Fedora 15 schedule, they’re just looking for basic concepts and ideas, not finished products. So get to work — you’re doodling might just be the foundation for the Fedora 15 artwork.
(Ok, I know what you may be thinking… you’re wondering about the “default wallpaper” decision that the Fedora Design team is discussing. Whether or not Fedora decides to use the Gnome wallpaper as the Fedora 15 default wallpaper for the Gnome desktop, Fedora 15 still needs artwork for other desktop environments, Anaconda splash screens, website banners, media sleeves, and things like that. Please help us come up with the best possible artwork ideas for Fedora 15!)
Please step away from the computer!
1It’s getting closer to the end of the year, and that little voice in the back of my brain is telling me that I need to step away from the computer and try to fit in a little rest and relaxation. I’m not sure about the rest and relaxation part, but I’m am going to take a break from the computer by going on a vacation to Ireland and England with my family over the holidays. I’ll most likely be away from email and the internet most of the time from tomorrow until January 1st. If and when I do find internet access, I’m most likely to check a dedicated email address (vacation (at) jaredsmith (d0t) net) first.
I’ll also point out that the end of the year adds an interesting dynamic to open source communities. For some, the holiday season gives them extra time to work on their favorite projects and try new things, while for others the holidays mean taking a break from working on their projects. Please keep that in mind over the next couple of weeks. (As an example, almost all of Red Hat is off work the week of December 27th.)
If you need to contact me while I’m away, I’ve left a UK cell phone number with each member of the Fedora Board, which should be able to reach me while I’m on my adventure.
I wish each and every one of you a happy holiday season, however you choose to celebrate the season.
Changing of the seasons
1
Image by Lee Cannon / Licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA
One of the things I absolutely love about my neighborhood is being able to watch the seasons change. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, autumn is in full swing. The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting colder. A couple of weeks ago I took my family for a drive to see the leaves changing colors — it’s something we look forward to every fall. For my friends in the Southern Hemisphere, winter is giving way to spring. Either way, the changes in the seasons remind me that nothing in nature is static, and that changes and cycles are a part of life.
Just as with nature, we have cyclical changes within the Fedora Project as well. I think it’s both useful and healthy to point out a few of those changes, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want to point out that every person in the Fedora community is a potential leader. Our policies of rotating leadership help ensure that everyone who is so inclined has a chance to lead and serve. Second, I’d like to personally thank those people who have diligently served the Fedora community, and wish them success as they move on to other endeavors.
As was previously noted, Jesse Keating has been hard at work in Fedora’s release engineering team for the past several years. He’s done such a spectacular job that his skills are in high demand, and he’ll be stepping back from Fedora for the next year or so to focus on some release engineering tasks inside of Red Hat. In the meantime, the release engineering baton has been passed on to Dennis Gilmore, who is proven himself in the Fedora community as well. I look forward to working more closely with Dennis as we get into the Fedora 15 cycle and beyond.
The next change involves the Fedora Program Manager. This is another Red Hat paid position that helps coordinate the Fedora schedule, acts as the Feature Wrangler, and helps out with coordination of other meetings, such as the blocker bug meetings around the time of releases. John Poelstra has served very well in that position for the past few years, and I’m happy to announce that community superstar Robyn Bergeron has accepted a job at Red Hat to take on that role. John Poelstra is leaving some awfully big shoes to fill, but I’m sure Robyn will also do an excellent job in that capacity.
Last but not least, I’ll point out that we’re still actively looking for a highly skilled systems administrator to serve on the Fedora Infrastructure team. This is an interesting and critical job as well, as it requires not only the technical skills of actively managing the Fedora services and infrastructure, but also requires effective soft skills to deal with the community at large. If you’re interested in applying for this position, please don’t hesitate to contact either myself or Tom “spot” Callaway, or follow this link.
Where is Jared this week?
0I’ve had a bit more travel than is usual this month, which means I’m writing this blog post from a hotel room outside of Boston. Boston, you ask? What am I doing in Boston? I’m here for the rest of the week having some meetings at the Red Hat offices here in Westford, MA this week. I came up here in June when I was interviewing for the FPL job, but hadn’t been back since, and I thought it was about time to hop back up and spend some time in some meetings with some of my friends and co-workers here.
Today, I caught up with Paul Frields and Kara (from Red Hat’s press team) to talk about press blog entries and video highlights for the Fedora 14 release. I also talked with John Poelstra and Paul and Spot (via phone — poor guy is recovering from a nasty case of the flu) about the hiring process for the Fedora Program Manager job. (If you’re interested in the job, send either John or me your résumé now, before it’s too late!) I also had the chance to have some very informal meetings in the hallway with folks like Dan Walsh, Luke Macken, and Dave Malcolm. Since I’m a remote employee, I don’t get the chance to rub shoulders with these folks often enough, so I enjoyed chatting with them.
Tomorrow, I’ve got a higher-level meeting with several Red Hat managers to get some feedback from them on how they think Fedora is working as an upstream for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as how I’m doing as the new FPL. My primary role in the meetings is to listen, and to gather feedback as we near the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, while the experience is fresh in everyone’s minds.
This meeting is a mechanism to gather ideas and comments from folks in Red Hat who aren’t necessarily engaged in Fedora on a day-to-day basis. In a way, Red Hat is not just an active participant and heavy contributor in Fedora, but is also somewhat of a customer, in that Fedora is an upstream from which Red Hat Enterprise Linux draws. It’s a helpful learning experience to hear firsthand accounts from a customer, and I hope this meeting will be no exception.
That feedback becomes part of the larger fabric of possibilities that can inform our future strategies. If there are opportunities for improvement that might interest the community, the entire Fedora team will collaborate to address those items, just as we would on any feedback. For example, FUDCon Tempe in January will be a great opportunity to discuss ideas for improvement in Fedora in a high-bandwidth fashion, and I’m looking forward to the ideas that come out of the time there. Another key goal for my meeting tomorrow is to give some of my thoughts and ideas back to Red Hat about the things I’ve seen during my first few months on the job. I’m a big fan of continual improvement, and I think these feedback sessions are one healthy and important way to make sure we’re making progress.
On Thursday, I’m doing a quick (15 minutes or less, I promise!) presentation to the Desktop team inside Red Hat, to let them ask some questions and get to know me a bit better. Should be pretty informal, but it’s a chance for me to get to know them better and vice versa. I’m also hoping to track down a few minutes to chat w/ Mo Duffy to tell her what an awesome job the design and website teams are doing on the new design of the Fedora website. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the way it’s shaping up.)
On Friday, I’m doing a podcast with Paul Frields for “This Week in Fedora” from Frostbite Media. I did an interview with them a few weeks ago, but they invited me back, and I’m sure Paul and I will have an enjoyable time talking about our favorite subject. I’m also hoping to squeeze in time to shoot a bit of video for one of the Fedora 14 release videos. (Not that I really want to appear on video, but I do enjoy talking about the upcoming Fedora 14 release…)
Between all the meetings, I’ll be catching up on email, participating in IRC meetings, and helping coordinate all the moving parts of the release so that we can hopefully ship Fedora 14 according to our schedule. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a busy week here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
UTOSC 2010, Day 1
0This morning came too early today, as my body clock hadn’t adjusted to Mountain time yet. I was wide awake at 4:30, and couldn’t convince my brain to shut down for an extra hour of needed sleep. (I really shouldn’t complain… Several of the other Fedora folks at the conference arrived at about the same time this morning.) I checked email, caught up on a few RSS feeds, then got ready and headed to the hotel breakfast with Ryan Rix, Karsten Wade, Larry Cafiero. We had a very enjoyable discussion over breakfast.
After breakfast, Ryan Rix and I drove over to the conference. I promptly got pulled into a number of great hallway conversations with both old friends and new Linux users. At 8:30, I snuck over to the Utah CTO Breakfast. It’s a monthly gathering of tech-minded folks (you don’t have to be a CTO to show up!) that get together and chat about current tech topics over bagels and juice. Todays topics included long-term longevity of command-line interfaces, muscle memory, cost of context switching, and various strategies for improving signal to noise ratio in email and social networks. The question that stood out to me was “What if social networks gave people an way to respond anonymously to status updates and form a feedback loop, so that people would (hopefully) learn that they were wasting your time with their status updates?”
After the CTO breakfast, I spent a few minutes talking to some of the SuSE developers from Novell. I also spent some time catching up with a few of the organizers of the conference, and helping out with a few logistics. I also visited the various booths in the exhibit hall and had some great discussions about some of the new features coming in Fedora 14.
After lunch, I went to the presentation by Jake Edge (of LWN.net fame) on Free Software Project Promotion. He did a great job of enumerating the types of things that open source projects often forget to do when trying to promote themselves. I spent the rest of the afternoon popping in and out of several of the other presentations, and going over the slides for my keynote address.
At 4:30pm, I gave the keynote address entitled “Swimming Upstream: How Distributions Help Open Source Communities”. I felt at ease giving the presentation, and I think it was very well received. We had some really good questions during the Q&A sessions — I just wish I could remember them all now.
After my keynote, the conference had a presentation from LaunchUp.org, which is a way for entrepreneurs to get feedback on their ideas and find others interested in helping them move forward. It’s very much modeled after the open source way, and it was fun to watch the companies reach out and get some great feedback.
Now it’s time to grab some nachos and settle in for Ignite Salt Lake.
UTOSC 2010, Day 0
0On Wednesday I woke up entirely too early and headed to the airport for a nice five-hour flight from Dulles airport to Salt Lake City. (I use the word nice, as it was a direct flight and I didn’t run into any major annoyances.) It was good to see the Wasatch mountains again — I keep forgetting how much I miss mountains. It was raining when I landed, but traffic was very light and it didn’t take long to get to the hotel. After checking into the hotel, I headed over to the Larry H. Miller campus of Salt Lake Community College campus to meet up with Clint Savage and help haul some equipment and survey the meeting rooms. The location is great. (If would have been nice to have all the rooms in the same building, but it’s not that big of a deal.)
Things are really looking good for the Utah Open Source Conference! Clint, Jason, and the rest of the crew have really done a good job of getting things set up.