About Me
Hello, I'm Valorie Zimmerman, Kubuntu member. I'm active daily on both Linuxchix and Freenode IRC, nick valorie. My main interests in Kubuntu are documentation and community. I wrote the Handbook and Amarok Insider for Amarok, and am also active in Linuxchix, Seattle Linuxchix, Ubuntu Women, and the Washington Ubuntu LoCo (Local Community). I also write the "Linux Grandma" blog.
Other activities: My family, reading, art, music, photography, PFLAG (Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and genealogy, including Alsachat, an international genealogy project.
Contact Information
Launchpad |
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IRC |
valorie |
Telegram |
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valorie-zimmerman at kubuntu dot org |
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Website |
IRC Channels
You can find me in #kubuntu , #kubuntu-devel
, as well as #ubuntu-women
and #ubuntu-women-project
, #ubuntu-us-wa
, #amarok
, #kde-multimedia
, #kde
, #kde-soc
, #kde-women
, #kde-lgbt
, #kde-accessability
, and #kde-cwg
Contributions
As a new Kubuntu member, attended UDS which kicked my involvement into high gear
Member of the KDE Community Working Group and of the e.V. supporting KDE
Active member of Ubuntu-Women, providing support in IRC and the list
Active in the Washington Ubuntu LoCo
Provide support in the Amarok IRC channel, forum, and lists as well as Kubuntu and KDE support
- Blog to help other non-technical users of Linux, Kubuntu, and KDE. Over 70 posts tagged Kubuntu so far
Editor of the Amarok Insider (now defunct)
Headed up the writing team for the Amarok Handbook
Active in developing the Kubuntu Docs
Elected to the Kubuntu Council in 2013
Co-author of KDE Developers Guide
Editor of the Frameworks Cookbook
In 2010
Staffed a booth at both LinuxFestNorthWest and OSCON
Participated in the CLS
Organized Ubuntu Hour
Helped organize the Washington Loco Lucid Release Party in Seattle
Organized Ubuntu Global Jam locally
- Planned Software Freedom Day in September (canceled due to lack of participation)
Planned the 10.10 Release Party in October, which was great!
Requested and got sponsorship to UDS where I plan to get to know and plan the Natty release with the Kubuntu team
- Asked for and got Kubuntu membership 15 Oct 2010
Mentored 13 students in over 50 tasks for KDE Google Code-In
2011
Finished the Handbook
Co-Administrator for KDE Google Summer of Code, and Season of KDE
Member of the KDE Community Working Group
Staffed Washington State LoCo booth at LinuxFestNorthWest
Participated remotely in many sessions of UDS-O
Attended Community Leadership Summit
Staffed the Ubuntu booth at OSCON with the Oregon LoCo team
Attended the upstream Desktop Summit in Berlin, Germany and Randa sprint in Switzerland and Google Summit of Code Mentor Summit
2012
Attended part of the virtual UDS, and co-presented a session with the Xubuntu team, about Kubuntu's concerns in the change to rolling.
- Beta testing Raring on both an x86 netbook, and a 64-bit PC (AMD64) laptop
Staffed Washington State LoCo booth at LinuxFestNorthWest
Attended the upstream KDE Akademy in Tallinn, Estonia. Thanks to the KDE e.V for funding the travel and lodgings on this trip.
Co-administered GSoC and GCi for KDE, then attended the Mentor Summit at Google headquarters in California
Participated in a Book Sprint the preceeding week, and had our book published
Helped organize and fund the Randa Sprints 2012
2013
Worked on getting our docs finished and onto Kubuntu Docs
Staffed Washington State LoCo booth and KDE booth at LinuxFestNorthWest
Got permission to move our working docs to Userbase
Attended the upstream Akademy in Bilbao, in the Basque country of Spain. Thank you to the KDE e.V. for funding travel and lodging.
Elected to the Kubuntu Council
2014
- tested Trusty Alpha upgrade on a 32-bit laptop, tested the beta on two other laptops, and filed lots of bugs
- Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISOs during the entire year
Gave a Ubuntu User Days presentation about Kubuntu as an Ubuntu flavor
scheduled and staffed a table for Ubuntu Washington shared with Debian Seattle at LinuxFestNorthWest. We burned at least thirty liveDVDs for folks - not just Kubuntu and Ubuntu, but most of the flavors
Organized and edited the Frameworks Cookbook at the Randa Meetings. Thank you to the KDE e.V. for sending me to Switzerland!
Attended the Kubuntu Days as well as the rest of the upstream Akademy in Brno, Czech Republic. It was fantastic to tighten our bond with the Debian KDE team during that event, and agree to share packaging on Debian's git repository. Thank you to the Ubuntu Community Fund for sponsoring my travel.
Staffed a KDE booth at LISA/Usenix in Seattle, Washington. It was great to represent Kubuntu there. Thank you to my daughter Anne for letting me sleep on her couch during the conf!
Part of the organizing team of both Season of KDE and Google Code-in which featured Kubuntu students.
2015
- tested Plasma 5 using Project Neon, then Vivid alpha, filing lots of bugs along the way. Also tested the beta upgrade process on two other laptops.
Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISO torrents during the entire year, including all the supported betas.
Attended Akademy and the Kubuntu meeting in A Coruna. Thanks for funding me, Ubuntu Community!
Scheduled and staffed with Scarlett a SeaGL booth shared by KDE and Kubuntu. Unfortunately we had little to offer in the way of freebies. Thanks, Ubuntu Community for funding us anyway. We will prepare more carefully in the future.
- Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISOs during the entire year, including all the supported betas.
Scheduled and staffed a LFNW booth shared by KDE and Ubuntu Oregon LoCo. Again, we burned lots of DVDs and USB drives; mostly Unity, Kubuntu and Lubuntu. We had all supported ISOs available. Again, thanks, Ubuntu Community for buying us a hotel room.
2016
tested Plasma 5.6 and then 5.7 by upgrading to Yakkety the day it opened. Filed bugs reports as needed. Also tested in a VirtualBox VM.
Planned a Kubuntu BoF at Akademy, got funding and attended Qtcon and Akademy in Berlin. Thanks, Ubuntu Community!
Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISO torrents during the entire year, including all the supported betas.
Scheduled and staffed a SeaGL booth shared by KDE and Ubuntu along with Walter (wxl) and Aaron (ahoneybun) and had stickers to give away. Thanks, Ubuntu Community for supporting us with a hotel room and travel expenses.
Scheduled and staffed a LFNW booth shared by KDE and Ubuntu Oregon LoCo. Again, we burned lots of DVDs and USB drives; mostly Unity, Kubuntu and Lubuntu. We had all supported ISOs available -- and stickers!
Re-nominated myself to the Kubuntu Council and was re-elected.
Joined the [http://wiki.linuxpadawan.net/User:Valorie Linux Padawan] Project
Attend the https://sites.google.com/site/2016gsocmentorsummit/home Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit and GCi doc workshop the day before
2017
Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISO torrents during the entire year, including all the supported betas.
Keynoted and helped the students at KDE.conf.in in Guwahati, India. Amazing experience in every way! One of the results of this conference is the Assam government running Kubuntu in all government offices, via SuperX.
Scheduled and staffed a Linux Fest North West booth shared by KDE and the Ubuntu Washingon LoCo along with a special guest: Simon (tsimonq2) all the way from Wisconsin, and Aaron (ahoneybun) all the way from Florida!. Again, we burned lots of DVDs and USB drives; mostly Unity, Kubuntu and Lubuntu. We had all supported ISOs available -- and stickers!
Stepped up to become the Kubuntu Release Manager for Artful after assisting Walter with that for the Zesty cycle.
Attended Akademy in AlmerÃa, Spain and met with Gerry Boland, the Limux team (Jan-Marek Glogowski and Tobias Fishbach) and Franklin Weng from Taiwan with his EZgo project, based on Kubuntu, now used in the Taiwanese government to solve some common problems.
Scheduled and will staff a SeaGL booth shared by KDE and Ubuntu along with Jose. Thanks, Ubuntu Community for supporting us with hotel rooms and travel expense.
2018
Seeded all the supported Ubuntu ISO torrents during the entire year, including all the supported betas.
Scheduled and staffed a Linux Fest North West booth shared by KDE and the Ubuntu Washingon LoCo along with a special guest: Simon (tsimonq2) all the way from Wisconsin, and Walter (wxl) all the way from Salem, Oregon!. Again, we burned a few DVDs and USB drives; mostly Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Lubuntu. We had all supported ISOs available -- and stickers! Thank you to the Ubuntu Community Fund for their support for our hotel room.
Functioned as the Kubuntu Release Manager for Bionic.
Attended Akademy in Vienna, Austria. Planning more Kubuntu meetings there this summer. Blog about Akademy.
- As my Council term is up this year I have nominated myself for another term.
Scheduled and will staff a SeaGL booth shared by KDE and Ubuntu along with Jose. Thanks, Ubuntu Community for supporting us with hotel rooms and travel expense.
Future Goals
I plan to continue updating the Amarok Handbook, and find other tech writing and community building projects which need doing in Kubuntu and KDE. I'm continuing as a part of the KDE Community Working Group, and part of the administration of Google Summer of Code, and Google CodeIn. I want the Washington LoCo to grow, and become official, and continue to have fun. I plan to promote Kubuntu at LinuxFestNorthWest and https://seagl.org SeaGL again, and will continue on the Council. I'm also planning to attend Akademy again this year. The Kubuntu team plans a BoF at Akademy.
Testimonials
Valorie is a tremendous help with driving and planning activities for the Ubuntu Washington LoCo. Her cheerful personality makes her great company. We are very lucky to have her around. -- linda-halligan 2010-08-16 19:09:52
I've seen Valorie help out in the Kubuntu channels and the UW channel. She is awesome and I would truely +1 her for Kubuntu membership. -- nigelbabu 2010-10-14 02:57:33
Valorie was my first friend in the FOSS community, by which I mean: she introduced me to the FOSS community. She taught me to use IRC and introduced me to all the wonderful mentors and role models I've had through LinuxChix. Aside from being on the (figurative) Welcome Brigade in Ubuntu Women, she seems to do a good job of maintaining good relationships with upstream too, and that's always important work. -- maco.m 2010-10-14 03:18:24
Valorie is awesome: she is a very productive contributor, a great motivator and community builder and always has a helping hand. Without her the community would not be as strong and by far not as much fun. I fully support her application to be a Kubuntu member. -- myriam 2026-01-25 21:19:29
Valorie was a valuable contributor to the OSCON 2011 Ubuntu Booth, She advocates for women who use Ubuntu/Kubuntu which is an excellent initiative for the open source community. I look forward to collaborating with her on future Ubuntu LoCo stuff. -- bkerensa 2026-01-25 21:19:29