I, Дмитрий Ледков, apply for universe-contributor.

Who I am

I am a 3rd year Engineering Student studying Mobile Telecommunications Technology. I enjoy snowboarding, volleyball and computers =D. I play volleyball for my Uni and I'm also National Volleyball League referee.

hackerkey://v4sw5CLUYhw4ln6pr6FOck3ma9u7LMw2GWm7l6+8Ui6e6t4Xb7OPTen6s6MSr3g5AMZ

My Ubuntu story

From Apple to Latex, to Emacs, to Ubuntu.

History

In 2002 I've met Mac for the first time. I've used it for a year. Then I was dreaming about a MacBook for 3 years (we didn't have apple stores back then). After those three long years, I've entered University and got my MacBook. I needed something to give me nice formulas for assignments and I've discovered a "small" app LaTeXiT which converts Latex snippets to svg drag and dropable equations.

Quickly after that it become apparent to me that LaTeX is so much more and I've started to use it. I found it hard and confusing to install TexLive the way I needed it and good free Latex editors were missing. (TeXShop is great but was too strange for me at the time). So on the way to find good latex editor I found AucTeX (emacs mayor mode). I couldn't get the normal emacs (Not the Apple's crippled, and Carbon is ugly). So I somehow stumble upon articles saying that Ubuntu runs on Macs (I though "of course now that it is Intel-based") and it has emacs gtk which looked gorgeous! I've downloaded Feisty runned it first as live cd only, then had it in virtual machine, then installed it as 2nd operating system, then deleted, then reinstalled Gutsy. Since gutsy I've started to transition to Ubuntu as my main OS. Now I have Intrepid on my MacBook and Intrepid server on an old donated to me laptop =D

Now

I wanted to help develop, since I knew a bit of JavaScript, C, Matlab and tiny bits of python. But kind of was putting it as secondary to _real_ life. Now I've changed my priorities and actually read until the end the Packaging guide in November 2008. Since then I've managed to package a few local packages.

A few weeks a go there was an email posted to ubuntu-motu from Crosswire Developers saying that they are disappointed with state of their packages and want someone to start maintaining them better. It then has been crossposted by Ubuntu Developer to debian-devel. A DD in chanrge was found and he issued a call for a team to help manage these.

I was staring at that email seeing as an ideal opportunity to begin my Debian/Ubuntu packaging carrier. I didn't know what Crosswire software was. The tipping point was that there were already 3-4 people from Ubuntu side who have signed up to that new team on Alioth. And I thought there will be us ubunterros with DD on our side..... WHERE DO I SIGN UP????? Was the immediate thought.

Since that point we had some fun packaging libsword, GnomeSword and BibleTime (KDE4). Not the usual Debian way ("DO NOT TOUCH THE LIBRARIES") quite the contrary ("BASH THE UPSTREAM WITH LIBTOOL MANUAL!") /me joking. There have been a few flamewars already but we are steadily progressing to upload to Jaunty whole SWORD ecosystem.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Areas of work

Things I could do better

Plans for the future

General

What I like least in Ubuntu

Please describe what you like least in Ubuntu and what thoughts do you have about fixing it.

Comments

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Endorsements

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== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)

=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===