Another year has passed. Now that I’ve just finished a major exam and taken care of some school requirements, I can finally take a breather and look back at the past year, and hopefully learn and grow from it, too.

Disclaimer: What follows is a mix of personal reflections and FOSS/KDE-related topics and how those have affected me. If you’re looking for some analysis or review of KDE events and trends only, please feel free to ignore this. Otherwise, hold on to your seat (or bed) as this might take a while.

KDE. Of course it’s only proper that I start with the KDE stuff. What can I say? KDE continues to grow and rock! Sure, there are still KDE SC 4 naysayers. Those will always exist, and some of those we lost may never return. What’s important I think is that KDE unwaveringly pushed forward with their vision for KDE SC 4, of course with some adjustment along the way from listening to feedback. I believe that the hard investments in the “pillars” will pay off really soon now (if it hasn’t yet already). Plasma, one of the most hard hit, will truly shine as more and more people gravitate towards computers that are no longer your usual desktop or laptop forms. In the meantime, the rest of the KDE Software Compilation 4 continues to rock, as they have always been, even since 4.0.

In contrast, my contribution/presence in KDE, mostly focused on user support and, recently, through the Community Working Group and Userbase, went the way of the Dodo. Everyone who knows me personally can attest that I’m a slacker. But more than that, I kind of took a big hit from some burnout due to many factors. And I’m not even a full-pledged developer yet! I don’t want to point fingers or name names, so let’s just leave it at “I need to grow a thicker skin” (actually applies everywhere when dealing with people), which I’m constantly working on, now that I’m semi-back. Nevertheless, for the CWG, the only responsible thing to do was to open up the position for someone who deserves it more. I’m still hoping (and working towards) to pick up the pace this year, especially in programming.

Distro Odyssey. I have yet again switched to another distro. Source Mage GNU/Linux is a nice distro that gave me what I was looking for back then. It still is a nice distro, but my needs have changed. SMGL is really an advanced distro. Unfortunately, a bit too advanced for my current level of Linux knowledge. It was also taking up too much time to compile updates again and again on my turtle desktop. So I went looking again for a distro, this time a binary-based one that wouldn’t lose too much of what I learned to love in SMGL: control, vanilla-ness, relatively small community (compared at least to the “big ones”). I now have a new computer (which I forgot to/didn’t blog or dent/tweet about), which solves the compilation issues. But still, I’m not that confident at my Linux fu to dare dance at that level again.

My first stop was Arch Linux, a distro I’ve long been curious about but never really tried. It did have some of the qualities that I liked in SMGL (I might even dare say that their package management systems are somewhat similar, even in limitations ). Unfortunately, I was left between the devil and the deep blue sea. Perhaps I’ll blog (and be corrected) about my experiences some other time, but suffice it to say that Arch kind of left me dissatisfied as a KDE developer who wants a vanilla KDE experience that just works and almost always up-to-date. I don’t even want to start talking about Chakra (no offence meant).

After some … “convincing” from a dear friend who also just recently switched from his distro of 7(?) years, I tried the Fedora KDE spin (which, by the way, is the most downloaded Fedora spin). I was pleasantly surprised. My first ever Fedora experience was Fedora Core 5, and it was a bleeding edge mess (no RPM hell for me back then). This time, things just worked (except for a few NVIDIA driver-related hiccups). I can even run on their latest “testing” repo and not have any breakage (haven’t tested the kde-redhat repos yet). Even better than some distro’s “stable updates” repo. Their KDE community is not that large, very friendly (upstream-friendly as well), and helpful. And yes, no RPM hell so far. Again, maybe more on my distro choices some other blog post. I can’t really say if I’m going to stay in Fedora, but so far, inertia has taken over. I have very little reason to go looking for yet another distro for now, so I’m not gonna drag my butt yet.

Maemo, N810, and Mobile. Maemo and Nokia in 2009 was one media frenzy/controversy after another. Ever since Nokia acquired Trolltech, it was already presumed that Qt will eventually play a major role in Maemo’s future. That role was cemented when Nokia revealed that Maemo 6 (codename Harmattan) will be using Qt instead of GTK+. However, they announced this even before Maemo 5 (Fremantle) or even the device that it will be running on, the N900, were released, creating a spectre of uncertainty among the community and outsiders as well. Of course, for a KDE guy, that’s good news. But things haven’t been so rosy, at least from where I’m standing, with a N810 in my hand. I’ve always dreamed of getting KDE SC 4 on the N810. Not just a regular KDE workspace forcibly slapped on the small form factor, but a real and decent “port”, probably beginning with something like a plasma-netbook for tablets. While that might be technically possible, unfortunately for me it seems that any and all such future efforts will be poured on Maemo 5 or 6 and the N900 and later. While the N810 is a pretty decent mobile device, it has some limitations that might not be attractive to those doing a KDE SC port, such as no OpenGL ES drivers (although it seems that the Mer team has already received them, so that might change in the near future). Mer might be the future/last hope for my N810, but I’m not exactly sure it will be “port”-friendly. Everyone is all about Maemo 5/6 and N900, and I really can’t blame them. A fact of life I’ll just have to accept and watch from the sides. I definitely don’t have the skills to start things myself and by the time I do get to that level, I might already have my own Maemo 5/6 device to enjoy.

Personal. The last quarter of 2009 was a very trying time for me and my family. I almost lost a close friend to a vehicular accident. Typhoons that ravaged the country and severely affected people that we know. Deaths in the families of our friends. And probably the worst experience of all was having our house broken into while people were still in there, sleeping. I was staying with my aunts at a hotel when it happened, which they say is a good thing as we might have lost more than just material things. Though I still get nightmares even today, and the general feeling of helplessness and insecurity hasn’t completely vanished.

Still, things weren’t all that bad. We did remain unscathed by the typhoons that passed. And we also got to see our aunts from the U.S. again. I got a new decent computer, one that’s not almost obsolete even before the date of purchase (as my previous desktop was). And we’re still whole and alive as we entered the new year, with new hopes and dreams. So yeah, life isn’t all that bad.

So long 2009 and thanks for all the fish!

2008 was an exciting, if not turbulent, year, personally and FOSS-wise. It was a year of many changes. It started with a bang with the first release of the KDE 4 series on January 11. I’m not going to talk about whether 4.0 was a success or not. History will be the judge of that and, as far as I am concerned, it is already in the past, with KDE 4.2 just around the corner. Needless to say, those were trying times for the KDE community. Big, revolutionary changes, even if they are for the better, ruffles feathers. And some birds squawk louder than others, sometimes unnecessarily.

One good thing that came out of storm was the realization of a need to nurture the community and its members, whether they are developers, contributors, administrators, or end users. Thus, the KDE Community Working Group (of which I am a part of) as well as the KDE Code of Conduct were born. Later on, facilities such as UserBase and the new KDE Forums appeared to answer the growing needs of the community.

Last year also saw the rise of a new generation of mobile computing devices (netbooks, Internet tablets) and a renewed interest in smartphones. Nokia Internet Tablets, Asus Eee PC, HP Mini-note, MSI Wind, the iPhone, and Neo FreeRunner, just to name the most popular ones. And there are a lot of less known but equally powerful and interesting devices out there (a lot coming from Asia). While some are debating whether this is just a passing trend, or whether so-called Linux netbooks actually do more harm than good to Linux and free software, it cannot be argued that these devices have shifted a lot of attention towards mobile software platforms (Maemo, Android, OpenMoko, LiMo, netbook distributions) and the usefulness of Linux on those platforms. It may have also influenced a new lifestyle. The road warrior’s life has just gotten more exciting.

On the personal side of things, 2008 was also a sea of changes. I was able to go back to school for my second degree (Diploma in Computer Science) through a home study/distance education program. It has its ups and (major) downs, but at least I get to study at home for a degree that I’m really interested in. I’ve also gained some more responsibilities in our parish community. This means more things to do, meetings to attend, and people to work with. That’s the easy part. The hardest part for me personally is that I will be dealing a lot with Microsoft Office software and documents. I’m not a purist, but I would rather be using native GNU/Linux free software apps than having to deal with these. Unfortunately, some of the layouting/numbering in MS Word documents makes using OpenOffice.org unreliable.

New roles, new responsibilities, poor time/goal management, and personal procrastination. This meant that a lot of my personal TODO stuff went the way of the tide. High tide or low tide? Depends on the moon. Some got done, other got half-cooked, and at least one got dropped. I was finally able to finish my own C++ studies and reading my Qt book (sadly for me, that same book is now available for free from Qt Software). But of course, reading and doing tutorials is one thing, actually coding is another. Then there are documentation projects that I’ve done for Source Mage GNU/Linux (enough to warrant initiation into their circle of mages) and UserBase, as well as a Yakuake website. Sadly, while those exist, I’ve left them in an unfinished state. Hopefully not for long.

But the greatest casualty for me this year was Kubuntu. Partly because of my schedule, partly because of personal reasons, but mostly because I haven’t really been using Kubuntu as my main distro for almost a year, my contribution and presence in Kubuntu declined severely, to the point that I felt that it was no longer reasonable for me to remain as a Kubuntu member. So I said my goodbyes as I wait for my membership to expire at the end of the month (which also means goodbye to Planet Ubuntu). That said, I promised my friend(s) that I’d still help with the local Ubuntu community whenever possible, to help promote FOSS in general and ensure a KDE presence in the Philippines.

Yes, a lot of changes in 2008. Some good, some bad. Some revolutionary, some evolutionary. Whatever they were, these changes paved the way and laid the foundations for even greater things. Onward to 2009!

And now off I go to take my midterm exam… binary system and assembly language :/

I was finally able to buy a router. I was so lucky to find, not only the most recommended router, but to have been able to find one, and only one, unit of the “version” that’s supposed to be the best among the series (at least for Linux-related hackery). I got myself a spanking Linksys WRT54GL! Of course, I haven’t had time to really tinker with it much, aside from just making it work. I’ll do that once I get back to my geek life.

My other great news is that I’m much closer to getting a real, dead tree copy of a Qt 4 book. I really have this desire to buy books. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to come by recent and relatively unknown titles here in the Philippines (online purchase is still out of the question). So imagine my surprise that there are two, not one, Qt 4 books available locally. I don’t know if I’ll be able to buy it this weekend, since I’ve sort of used up my money for the router.

I haven’t done anything Kubuntu-related, except for answering a few forum posts, monitoring the Planet, and reading news. Seeing the cool new features for Kubuntu Gutsy Tribe 3 has left me wanting to install it somewhere (Desktop or Laptop, but definitely not in VMWare) to test out all the new goodies. It’ll have to wait, though, because I know how terribly distracted I will be. But as Feature Freeze looms closer, I’m a bit anxious to get something(s) into Kubuntu in time. (I’m a bit uncomfortable with Dolphin/D3lphin being installed and set by default this early, but that’s just me.)

Anyway, time for me to go back into seclusion. Lots of things to think about, decide, and do. Life decisions that can’t be made overnight.

… and yes, I finished reading the last book of Harry Potter. Glad that’s finally over.

What this means is that I may have found an area of specialization or contribution that I want to focus on in my life as a (future) FOSS developer. Namely, I want to focus my attention towards Human Computer Interaction (HCI), specifically on GUI design. Of course, this would probably mean that I will delve on some aspects of Usability as well. I have noticed, at least from my end, that there are not so many usability experts who are programmers as well, or few programmers who are usability experts. I’ve been told that it’s hard to specialize on both areas, unless I become a sort of jack of all trades, master of none. I think I can handle that. Of course, I’m more inclined towards the programming aspects of GUI design. Actually, I have no idea if there’s a field of HCI study that relates to this area or what its name is. So far I’ve only come up with the term “HCI”, “interface design”, and “usability”. If anyone knows, please do inform me. I’m a bit clueless as of the moment, so any help is very much appreciated.

But more than just complying to standard usability “norms” and laws, I’m particularly interested in sort of pushing those norms to the limit. Trying to think of new, innovative, refreshing interfaces, without sacrificing usability too much. Of course, there will be need of theories/laws (Fitts’ anyone?) and probably surveys (I suck at statistics, though…), but the practical/technical side of the development. That’s why I’m interested in watching the development of GUI toolkits like Qt (of course) and wxWidgets, the development of desktop environments like KDE, Mezzo (of Symphony OS), and Enlightenment, and new ideas and implementations about the desktop like KDE 4’s Plasma. Of course, I’m also interested in seeing Kubuntu’s own homegrown apps (System Settings and Adept) grow with better usability.

I just can’t wait to finish my C++ book and get on with Qt!

P.S. Has anyone been able to access OpenUsability.org lately?

I just had to blog about these! Feast your eyes on the visual and technological marvel that is mul
ti-touch screens!

Jeff Han’s original version
Microsoft’s own take

While I’m not always a fan of Microsoft’s “innovations” (since the first functional multi-touch screen has preceded them for more than a year) I think they really outdid themselves here. Multi-touch screen, device interaction, etc. Although I still think that a slanted orientation would be much better for the neck and the wrists, but then it wouldn’t be a “table” would it?

Welcome to the future! (Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating too much, but you can imagine how much I’m drooling over this).

Now if only Kubuntu would run on this…

It was my first ever LCD monitor purchase, so I was quite anxious about it. Fortunately, everything went well, and got it working easily. Funny thing was that X on Kubuntu Feisty (through the Monitor & Display module) couldn’t detect the correct model. But then again, it didn’t detect my video card correctly, either. On Gentoo, I couldn’t get the correct Refresh rate, even after I manually entered the correct HorizSync and VertRefresh values (stuck at 50-54Hz). At least it works. I can troubleshoot later this week.

2. As I was cleaning my room earlier (to make way for the new monitor), I realized how much dust I acquired again, and after only almost 2 weeks. I’m caught in a difficult position. I have to leave my room’s windows and door open, otherwise it becomes a microwave. But doing so invites lots and lots of evil dust bunnies. Not only is it bad for my health (I’m asthmatic), it also exposes Suzaku to a lot of harm. Aside from air conditioning this small room, any bright ideas out there?

3. Christer Edward’s post got me thinking again about community. I am a firm believer in the importance of community, much more in FOSS projects than in any other software. The community, not just the users but the developers as well, is one of the glues that keeps a project together. Community begets (or should beget) communication, openness, and cooperation. Values that are essential in keeping Free and Open Source Software projects alive. One of the strongest points of Ubuntu has been its community. Now, I can’t really compare other distro communities, since it takes time to really get to know those communities. But it was the promise of a wonderful user community that help me make Kubuntu as my first distro. I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, no community is perfect. Like any other community, there are rifts and misunderstandings, mixed fruits of varying freshness or rottenness. There will always problems in the community. The more important thing is how the community responds to these problems. And even then, the responses may not always be perfect or ideal. It’s an ongoing process. I personally think what’s more interesting to watch is how different “sub” communities (like the user community, the developer community, the IRC coummunity, the forum community, etc.) interact with one another. Another area of personal interest would be resources (documentation, people, etc.) which seem to be a bit scattered, not only for Kubuntu, but for KDE as well. Maybe one of these days, when/if I have nothing to do, I’ll try to take a peek into these things. It’s quite interesting to work with communities, but equally difficult and tiring at times. I’ve had my own share of burnouts.

1. My workspace obsession has finally ended, resulting in a new room layout. Although a new LCD monitor would probably make me redo everything. But now I’m more “focused” on making/finding a laptop stand.

2. MOTU “project” put on hold: with a lot of stuff getting in the way, I have to temporarily put off studying packaging for Kubuntu. At least until the start of the academic year, when I hope to be a bit more free. I still help out in #kubuntu, of course

3. The Distro Tour project. Now that Byakko (the laptop) is here, time for doing something that I’ve always wanted to do. First to be tested: openSUSE 10.2. What happens to Kubuntu? In the end, Kubuntu will always be here. I will continue to help with Kubuntu, I will learn to package for Kubuntu, and hopefully even develop for Kubuntu. Kubuntu is a very special distro and it always has a place in my life.

4. C++ programming is progressing slowly, but at least it’s progressing. I’ve committed myself to one or two chapters a week. However, with the extensive note taking, summarizing, and exercise answering, I don’t think two chapters a week would be realistic. Still, I’m quite excited to get to the GUI part, and of course, to the KDE programming parts.

5. Feisty has been released last month, the Ubuntu Developers Summit has just finished, and development on Gutsy Gibbon has started. Time to think of some improvements for our beloved Kubuntu. I’m particularly interested in System Settings, specially regarding modules that, IMHO, should be there. Unfortunately, coder I am not, so I end up poking Tonio instead. My other areas of interest would be the GUI Upgrader and a Restricted Manager for Kubuntu.

6. Still waiting for the laptop’s wireless card to get fixed (or actually, waiting for the day that I can bring it to the store). Until then, I have to settle for disconnect/connecting whenever I need to switch machines.

7. On the negative side, I observed that my IRC support activities has somewhat lessened for the past 2 months. I’m not sure if it’s just the summer vacation atmosphere, or a case of burnout. I guess it’s really true, that too much of something is bad. I also feel that I have to cut down on IRC a bit in order to really focus on studying, if I want to reach my October deadline (to enroll in a distance/home education program). Of course, it doesn’t mean I’ll be abandoning my beloved fans.

… and then there’s my fever…