== Dev Week -- Q+A with Ubuntu Engineering Director -- rickspencer3 -- Thu, Mar 3rd, 2011 == {{{#!irc [18:01] hello all === Guest60040 is now known as KKmos [18:02] I guess there's no intro or such, just dive in? [18:02] so, I'm Rick Spencer [18:02] I'm currently the director of engineering for Ubuntnu Engineering [18:03] which basically means that I help the teams that create Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Arm editions, Ubuntu virtual images, etc... [18:04] I'm happy to take questions on any and all topics [18:04] please note that I don't typically have a lot of fine grained technical context on some things, so I may have to refer you to others for certain things [18:04] I guess I'll just hang out and see if I get any questions? [18:06] mhall119 asked: What do you do as Engineering director? [18:06] well, the Engineering Managers, and the our release manager and our technical architect all report to me [18:07] so, there is a lot of my job that is typical people management [18:07] making sure people have what they need to do their jobs [18:07] signing off on holiday requests and expense reports, that kind of stuff [18:08] also, the Engineering Managers (as well as Kate and Allison - release manager and technical architect) and I are all a management team [18:08] so I have some leadership roles on that team [18:08] for instance, I try to herd this particular herd of cats through planning UDS [18:08] another part of the role is around product management [18:09] this involves a lot of working with folks in the Ubuntu community, upstreams, Canonical, etc... to understand what they need or want to do with Ubuntu [18:09] and I try to get everyone aligned to make those things happen [18:12] Director of Engineering sounds like a role with a lot of Authority ... but it's not really that kind of job [18:12] I do try to use the position to influence the project though in ways that I think are important [18:15] for instance, in Natty I wanted to see more work to enable community contributions to land easily, so I worked with the community team and engineering managers to make sure that Canonical engineers could do that [18:15] hmm ClassBot stopped working for me :/ [18:15] I'll go copy and paste method [18:15] QUESTION: What challenges do you see in recruiting and keeping good people? [18:15] well, for Ubuntu Engineering, their are a couple of challenges [18:15] first, people do best when they are comforatable working in a transparent community minded manner [18:15] jsjgruber asked: What challenges do you see in recruiting and keeping good people? [18:15] hmmm, freenode seems to be acting a bit wonky, please try to bear with me here === daker is now known as angeldaker === tubadaz_ is now known as tubadaz [18:16] so, finding engineers and managers who *like* to work on a community project can be difficult at times [18:17] like, we may find someone who knows a technical space really well, but is not comforatable working in the open [18:17] another aspect is that Canonical folks who get paid to work on Ubuntu work at home [18:17] but then that is punctuated with travel [18:17] personally, I love the lifestyle, but it's not for everyone === JayFo is now known as JFo [18:18] also, for my part, I am very picky [18:18] I really look for people who are "awesome" in multiple ways, so it can take longer to fill some roles [18:19] finally, we work really hard, but have high standards in terms of being easy to work with [18:19] so that's recruiting [18:19] in terms of retaining, this has not been so challenging, we don't get too much turn over [18:19] but when people do leave, they seem to become more like alumni than "ex-Canonical" folks [18:19] so it seems that in general people depart on good terms [18:20] mhall119 asked: Do you have any specific goals for the Natty Cycle, and if so who are those going so far? [18:20] hey, classbot is working again! [18:20] anyway [18:20] YES! [18:20] hold on [18:20] so, there are goals that are project wide, then my personal goals [18:20] for the project wide goals, there was a lot of focus on the client [18:20] we had 5 primary areas for Canonical folks to focus on on the client [18:21] 1. Unity (natch) [18:21] 2. 2d experience [18:21] 3. software center [18:21] 4. contributors (as previously mentioned) [18:21] 5. testing [18:21] this last bit is new to us [18:21] for my perosnal goals, I wanted to see: [18:21] 1. more nurturing of new contributors [18:21] 2. more and better communication across the project [18:22] 3. more systematic release process with better quality [18:22] I think that #1 has gone pretty well thanks to the community team and the redoubled efforts of Canonical engineers AND Ubuntu engineers [18:22] for instance, the sponsorship queue hit a low of only 14 items earlier this week [18:23] #3 has gone well thanks to the efforts fo skaet and many others [18:23] #2, I'm not to sure we made much progress there, it's a hard problem [18:23] chadadavis asked: Is there are hard line between Canonical employees and others, or does Canonical sponsor / support some developers part time as well? [18:23] well ... === AndrewMC is now known as Guest30896 [18:24] to be a Canonical employee working in Ubuntu essential means that you get paid by Canonical to work in the Ubuntu community full time [18:25] so, the community of Ubuntu developers is a super set of the developers that Canonical pays [18:25] however, Canonical does, from time to time, outsource some development work on Ubuntu, but typically for projects for which Canonical is the usptream [18:25] for example, to finish off parts of Unity [18:25] normally, but not always, that will go through a company like Codethink, or Collabora [18:26] fisch246 asked: i realize this is really early... but has there been any talk on 11.10 yet? any ideas being passed around? care to share any? === Guest30896 is now known as AndrewMC [18:26] it is early, but not really really early [18:27] allison (wendar) the Technical Architect on our team ... is going to work on getting all the great ideas from users and developers organized 11.10 UDS, and I think she's going to start that soon [18:27] so at the product level, what will ubuntu *be*, nothing really specific comes to mind [18:27] however, in terms of the project, I would like to see more nurturing of new contributors, but also [18:28] revisit if existing core contributors are being sufficiently and properly supported [18:28] also, the whole project wide communication part, I'd like us to take another whack at that [18:29] one area that does occur to me for the project is how users actually get Ubuntu [18:29] I'm wondering if having basically a set of CD ISOs should be the only way to get Ubuntu, or if there should be others [18:29] like should we have a tool for creating a USB stick [18:30] or maybe you we could use a net-install kind of thing [18:30] mhall119 asked: Last I heard, Canonical doesn't run a private UEC cloud for their own websites (or community-run sites like loco-directory), why is that and is there any plans to change? [18:31] Canonical has an IS team that sets up all that infra structure and such [18:31] I very much trust that they make good decisions about how best to support Ubuntu, so I never really looked into this [18:31] so, I can't really answer your question [18:31] if you PM me, I can work to connect you with someone who could though [18:32] gaberlunzie asked: when is Libre.fm going to get some love to make it into Banshee or other? [18:32] sorry, I have no idea [18:32] I would follow up with jasonwarned, he hangs out in #ubuntu-desktop [18:32] darkdevil666 asked: Any thought of implementing gnome shell 3 in later versions? [18:32] sure [18:32] I look at it in 2 ways [18:33] first, Ubuntu should always offer the choices of the best in FOSS software [18:33] so, when we are able, it should be trivial to install a gnome-shell session on Ubuntu [18:33] secondly, if in the long run, gnome-shell turns out to be simply the best choice for users, we shouldn't hesitate to embrace it [18:34] currently, I think we are on a good path with Unity [18:34] but heck, who knows what things will be like a year from now, we shouldn't fear changing trajectory if it's the right thing for usres [18:35] fisch246 asked: do you know how canonical plans to implement Wayland, in the next several years? [18:35] slowly and carefully :) [18:35] seriously, between bryce, RAOF, tselliot, and others, Ubuntu has a lot of graphics stack expertise [18:36] then there is the whole xorg-edgers community as well [18:36] so, a really large group of engineers who know this stuff up and down, backward and forward [18:36] I would expect that the first implementations that use wayland would be hardware specific, but that's a guess on my part [18:37] sorry I don't have more specifics there, but Ubuntu xorg community is pretty easy to find and discuss with [18:37] mhall119 asked: Is Ubuntu going to target any other formfactors, tablets or phones or tabletop devices? [18:37] currently, I don't know of any specific plans for *Canonical* to do that [18:38] however, I understand that other companies are already doing this [18:38] I think that with Unity and the multitouch efforts, Ubuntu makes a good platform for this, though [18:38] I don't know of any community effort to make a derivative atm [18:39] I expect that some of the work that Linaro is doing in terms of supporting ARM architectures will really really help with this if someone wanted to go down that route [18:39] darkdevil666 asked: We already have Ubuntu for netbook, for Tablet PCs with touch interface. I'd really want to see Ubuntu being operated by voice commands. Are there any teams working on it. I'd like to be a part of it [18:39] hmmm, none that I know of [18:39] darkdevil666, this sounds like a great opportunity for you to provide some leadership in our community if this is an area that you are passionate about [18:40] I bet there is technology out there that could be leveraged for this [18:40] and maybe you could be the instrument to make this happen [18:40] if you PM me I can try to connnect you with resources to get you started [18:41] ok, there are no questions in the queue, but there was a follow up question about USB creator [18:42] so, we do have that, and it's good [18:42] but I was thinking, what if you were using a proprietary operating system, and there was some Free software that you could install ... [18:42] and this Free software would download Ubuntu and create a Ubuntu USB stick for you [18:42] also .. [18:42] and this is pie in the sky ... [18:43] what if you could go to a web site or run a program, and point and click at feautres that you want, and have it create a USB stick for you, like that [18:49] maybe even in the language(s) that you want [18:49] that kind of thing [18:49] abhinav asked: I don't know if it's stupid to ask. But I started with fixing bugs after the Ist day of UDW. Now, I am confused that if Feature Freeze has been called then will my patches be accepted or reviewed ? [18:49] they should all be reviewed [18:49] if they are bug fixes, well that's great! [18:50] if they are good fixes they will be accepted [18:50] however, if your patches add new features, they will not *automatically* be accepted [18:50] new features require a Feature Freeze Exception [18:50] so, the point of Feature Freeze is to say "from now on, focus 100% on fixing bugs" [18:50] so keep fixing those bugs, they will be most awesomely appreciated now [18:50] :) [18:50] hmm freenode seems to be lagging for me again [18:50] gaberlunzie asked: what is the current opinion and status among engineers on pulseaudio integration? [18:50] I can speak for myself here === cmagina is now known as cmagina-lunch [18:50] first, I know the road was a bit rocky [18:50] but pulseaudio was an awesome contribution to free software [18:51] I am very grateful to the pulseaudio upstream [18:51] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [18:51] in terms of integration, well I think it's going well now [18:51] pulse itself is stable and we've had several cycles to accumulate quirks and such [18:52] fwiw, it works well for me, and I definately field fewer complaints about it }}}