Contacts

Launchpad:https://launchpad.net/people/dfarning

IRC: dfarning

Email: dfarning AT gmail DOT com

Ubuntu Work

MozillaTeam

Started December of 2006.

Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/people/mozillateam

In the Fall of 2006, I lost a contract to convert a non-profit to Ubuntu because Firefox on Ubuntu was crashing. Like any naive user, I figured I'd fix it. After a few weeks, I realized that I wasn't going to get my head around the entire problem.

I set up the Mozilla Team to build some community interest in improving Firefox. Some community members joined. We started making noise but not much headway. In the beginning of February, Canonical hired Asac to work on developing Firefox and friends. Now we had an experienced developer and a bunch of smart but inexperienced hackers... and me.

Asac was getting the technical side of the team in good shape, but I felt our isolation was limiting our potential. I contacted other people about how to make the team more effective. Martin Pitt is extremely helpful in extending apport to meet our needs. The Bughelper guys are also been great. Things were looking good within Ubuntu.

I looked at various upstream organizations to determine how we could interact better. Responses were pretty negative, "your market share is not large enough for us to commit time and effort."

I looked downstream. My rational is that if Ubuntu and all of our derivatives ran very similar versions of Firefox, we would have enough market share for upstreams to be more responsive.

This lead to the Derivative Team.

DerivativeTeam

Started March of 2007.

Launchpad:https://launchpad.net/people/derivativeteam

I started the Derivative Team as a result of my experiences collaborating with Linspire on Firefox. Linspire and Ubuntu share many of the collaboration goals.

Current focuses are:

1. Establish standards of interaction for Ubuntu and its derivative communities.
2. Assess the needs of the derivative communities.
3. Make it easy and efficient for Loco teams to create and maintain Localized Ubuntu derivatives.

Future focuses will be:

1. Create a Derivative Distribution tool Kit.
2. Establish derivative technical standards for reference by OEMs and ISVs.
3. Encourage experimentation and idea development in the derivative community.

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