Ubuntu Wiki

Contact Info

• Email: "bryce at bryceharrington dot org"

• IRC: bryyce at irc.freenode.net

Contributions to Ubuntu

• installation testing & bug reporting for feisty/herd and gutsy/tribe ISOs

• Bug triaging in launchpad for xorg, xorg-server, xserver-xorg-*, linux-restricted-modules, etc.
• Drafted specifications for bulletproof-x and xorg-7.3

• Packaging:

  • Inkscape 0.45.1, worked on backport/SRU requests
  • xorg-server 1.3
  • xrandr-1.2
  • xserver-xorg-video-evdev 1.1.5
  • xserver-xorg-video-mga 1.4.6.1
  • xserver-xorg-video-nv 2.1.0
  • linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22 - fglrx driver 8.37.6
  • mesa 7.0.0
  • Various Xapps: appres, beforelight, bitmap, xorg-sgml-doctools, xorg-docs, editres, fonttosfnt, luit, sessreg, smproxy, xclock, xconsole, xpyinfo, xf86dga
  • Misc sync requests/merges for Gutsy from Debian

• Maintain http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X and [http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Xorg/versions_current.html X Merge Status page]

• Participated in June 12 Hug Day. Triaged a bunch of xorg and gnome-power-manager bugs

Goals

People judge books by their covers, and for Linux the book cover is drawn on X. Thus I feel that in order to make Linux successful as a desktop operating system, xorg must be improved. In particular:

1. Monitor detection. Everyone complains about this. it needs to "just work", including HD and multi-monitor. Bug #3731 is the oldest bug in launchpad; I want to get it fixed.

2. Xorg testing community. Tons of people love fiddling with xorg; if they can be organized into an effective analysis community, we could address a lot of xorg's hardware-specific troubles.

3. Graphics driver project relations. Whether it's open source reverse engineer communities or proprietary graphics driver vendors, we need to provide them good testing resources and gain rapid feedback for real issues.

4. Eye candy. From beryl/compiz to opengl and other powerful technologies, we have the tools to make Linux absolutely beautiful. We simply need to get organized about integrating these things and making their stability rock solid.

5. Cross-Application Consistency. From my time working on Inkscape I know there are many, many areas where [http://www.osnews.com/story.php/9658/Achieving-higher-consistency-between-OSS-graphics-applications/ apps on Linux are inconsistent], from cut-and-paste, to menus, and more. I'd like to help with this by working at the Xorg level to improve Linux-wide wm-independent consistency in these things.

I also plan to work towards becoming a Ubuntu Core Dev.

About Me

I've helped get a variety of open source projects off the ground, and especially enjoy building successful communities. Most recently I co-founded and help run a project called Inkscape. Professionally, I worked for the Open Source Development Labs building automated test harnesses, web app development, and NFSv4 testing from 2001-2007. Before that I designed spacecraft propulsion systems. Today I'm Ubuntu's Xorg maintainer.

I am passionate about open source and open content communities, and feel strongly that projects founded on a solid community are inherently better than any others. I've been involved in the early stages of a number of these sorts of projects - Mozilla, Wikipedia, OCAL, etc.