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 :/

“Paalam” means “goodbye” in Filipino (or at least one of its meanings). This is basically my farewell speech as I leave Kubuntu, at least the organization/community. My Ubuntu membership expires next month, and I’ve decided not to ask for renewal. I don’t really have a position of great importance in the community/development, so this might seem excessive. But I think it’s polite to “step down considerately” instead of just disappearing without a word. (Although I have actually been MIA from Kubuntu for the past months already. I’m just making it formal and final).

Kubuntu was my first ever GNU/Linux distribution, and I have no regrets whatsoever that I chose it over dozens of other “KDE-friendly” distributions. Over time, I have grown to love some parts of Kubuntu and dislike other parts (I won’t dwell on those in this post). But what has drawn me the most was the awesome community. I don’t think I would have ever survived my first days in GNU/Linux without their support. The spirit of community was just so great that I couldn’t help but be drawn in and “pay it forward.” And that is how I got started with helping out in the community and eventually earning my membership badge (oooh shiny!!!). I started out with community support and usually relaying messages/information between users and developers. I did set my sights higher though, but, alas, those never came to pass (aside from a few brief stints at packaging and coding). I apologize to my fellow (soon to be “former”) Kolleagues for not being able to deliver what I sought to do. I haven’t been using Kubuntu on my main (desktop) computer for more than a year now. And although Hardy is still installed on my laptop, that rarely sees the light of day (I mostly boot into *cough* Windows). So I could no longer do decent user support, since I’m no longer that familiar with the system. Major Major Edit: For some reason (that still escapes me), at least 3 people have (mis)interpreted this as saying that I’m leaving GNU/Linux for Windows. I would just like to note that the laptop has the Windows (as well as Kubuntu, Gentoo, and Source Mage) just for gaming and the occasional stubborn MS Office work. The desktop, my main baby and workhorse, is still fully GNU/Linux.

And so I take my leave. The thing I’m going to miss the most is really the community, both international and local. There isn’t really a strong KDE presence here in the country, and very few (I think only one other) KDE developers. So I’m really going to miss community activities that I’ve been used to seeing and experiencing in Kubuntu.

Anyway, let me end with an exhortation to the Kubuntu community (mostly the non-developers). Kubuntu is a fully community- and volunteer-driven distribution. It is the product of the selfless hard work of (a relatively few number of) Kubuntu ninjas who are dedicated to delivering the best of Debian, Ubuntu, and, of course, KDE in a shiny package, all in their spare time (they have families and day jobs like any normal person). And they need all the helping hands they can get (there are a lot of ways to contribute). Good intentions and constructive criticisms are just not enough. You want to make Kubuntu shine and be the best? Help make it happen!

To the Kubuntu developers: farewell and thank you for the cookies, the long pointy stick, and the pink ponies! See you on the wider KDE land!

1. KDE UserBase: Together with other members of the CWG, I almost spent a whole week working on the wiki. It was a sort of rush work since we wanted to have a “launching” Friday last week. So far, everything’s looking good. It’s far from complete, of course, specially since it is something that the KDE community would need to build up. I’ll blog about it in more detail next time.

2. UPOU: School’s over!! We finally had our final examinations for the first semester last Saturday. So I spent the whole week before that reviewing. Actually I was practically reviewing only one subject. But I’m tired of whining about the deficiencies of that one subject, so I’ll just be glad that it’s over. Now I can read the supplementary book that I read without pressure of deadlines. I’m looking forward to more interesting subjects next semester (“Computer Organization” and “Data Structures & Algorithms”) and hopefully better teachers.

3. KDE, Source Mage: I got too new e-mail redirects! One from kdemail and one from Source Mage, the latter basically meaning I’m a developer now, much like an ubuntu.com or kubuntu.org email redirect. I guess I have another set of stuff to keep me busy the coming days.

4. Software Freedom Day 2008: Last September 20, , some of my friends from Ubuntu-PH attended one of the SFD celebrations held in Metro Manila (there were other simultaneous gatherings), though not really representing Ubuntu Philippines (I wore my KDE shirt, again ). Two of the SFD celebrations on that day catered to IT students as their primary audiences. IMHO, it was wise to target this sector because these students would be the ones populating the IT industry soon. So it’s best to start them early with Free Software. Here are some pics from the event. Again my apologies for the quality. I am definitely not a photographer. On an unfortunate note, I think there is still some need for more education about free software, even (and probably especially) among those tasked to spread it. One speaker practically labeled “Yahoo! Messenger” as “Free Software”, equating “free software” with “freeware”. I’m just hoping the speaker meant otherwise (they were going back and forth between two groups of people).

5. N810 and Maemo 5: I finally found (thanks to jsgotangco) a local store that sells the device that I’ve been dying to have since last year (wow! it’s almost been a year now). Lo and behold, it costs Php 24,000!! That’s US$ 533, more or less. That is practically the price of a high-end Eee PC or an HP Mininote, basically a Netbook price. And then another blow came to my plans: Maemo 5. All the talk of Maemo 5 goodness and future Qt integration with it makes me want to think twice about getting a N810 now. Not that I have the money to buy one anyway. I still have to figure out a way to raise Php 24,000, hopefully within this lifetime… My sister recommended oDesk.com, but that brings in whole lot of different personal issues.

Long story short: Great past 2 weeks. Busy as hell, but was well worth it. Going to have another busy week or even month ahead. I’m Looking forward to it.

It was a great experience. Seeing old friends, meeting new people, getting to know the people involved in different free software endeavors throughout the city. It was also an exciting event for me personally because it was the first time I would be speaking in public about KDE and Kubuntu. I don’t know if it’s the start of a new career for me (wishful thinking?), but it was a still a great first attempt.

Here’s a bit of a rundown of what happened. The day started with a very entertaining 45-minute walk to the venue (I’ll spare you the details of our ignorance). We arrived, sweaty and panting, just in time for Jerome’s opening remarks. The talks immediately followed, which were informative as well as entertaining, specially the video presented by the UnPLUG group on Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives. In between some of the talks, Myra hosted icebreaker trivia games, with Ubuntu merchandise as prizes. Later, Aileen Apollo from Google also held a game with a woman’s Google shirt for the grand prize and pressed Ubuntu CD’s for consolation prizes. I really can’t say who got the better deal.

Then came my talk, which was about experiences and challenges in contributing to big international free software projects like KDE and Kubuntu. Unfortunately, it happened around noon (lunchtime!), so I had to go over it quickly. I guess that affected my delivery a bit, not that my “rehearsed” presentation was actually that “entertaining” now that I think about it. I hope I do better next time, if there is a next time.

Here’s the PDF of my presentation, as well as the LaTeX source (Yes! I made the presentation using LaTeX Beamer! I feel so geeky!). Unfortunately, I don’t have videos with me, so I’m still waiting for them.

The good news is that, after my talk, there was a surprise for everyone. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but the people from Youth for I.T. and the University of the Philippines were generous enough to provide free lunch. So it was bon appetit! The Y4IT people also gave a short talk on their upcoming Philippine Youth Congress on Information Technology.

It was an “action-packed” morning and truly an event to remember. There are a lot of people to thank and acknowledge for making the event not only a possibility but also a success. So to everyone who prepared and organized this love(ly) day, kudos and gracias!!

Here are articles, slides, and pictures:

• Official event announcement
• Writeup from Jerome Gotangco
• Some of the slides
• Video clips taken from the streaming video
• Pictures:
  • Courtesy of Ruben Canlas
  • Courtesy of Troy Lim
  • Jucato
  • From nhatz69

P.S. Sorry for the low-quality pictures from me. I was still adjusting to the new digital camera.

P.P.S. Sorry for the super late posting.

Ubuntu Love Day Manila

Finally I was able to connect to the net. Probably the first geek gathering I’ve been to that I was able to have a connection. My talk about Kubuntu & KDE will be up soon. I think it’s being streamed live.

I’ll upload the slides after my talk.

*feeling really, really nervous*

• School: The past 2 weeks have been stressful. First preparing for an exam and then cramming for an assignment in discrete math. My fault entirely though. Procrastination rears its ugly head again.
• Discrete structures/math: Except for the cramming I did last week, I think I’m doing ok with this subject. But I’m just not happy with our textbook’s presentation and content. I could buy another recommend book, but is this subject worth investing that much in? So far no one I asked has been able to give me a straight answer to the question “What are the practical applications of discrete math in actual software development?”. Any ideas, LazyWeb?
• KDE Talk: I’m giving a talk on the 23rd about “Kubuntu & KDE: Contributing to an International Software Project” at a gathering of the local Ubuntu community. It’s my first public speaking engagement as a FOSS and KDE advocate, and probably the first (and most probably not the last) time I’ll be using TeX (courtesy of KDE presentations templates). Hope everything goes well.
• CWG: So it’s official. The KDE e.V. has approved the Community Working Group of which I am a part of. To put it simply, its mission is to take care of the community and communication aspects of KDE. As almost everyone is still at Brussels, we haven’t put up anything official yet. Hopefully we can do that in the coming days. But one of the current projects of the group is the End User FAQ and KDE Glossary. This FAQ is by no means comprehensive nor finished. It’s mostly taken from FAQ’s I’ve encountered in #kde. I have plans to improve it, so stay tuned.
• Updating guides: After doing the FAQ and mirroring it on my site, I realized that I have quite a number of KDE/Kubuntu guides. I have to update them for KDE 4, specially the theming and autostart guides, since there are major changes for KDE 4. And there are some that I probably no longer need (or want) to update. Hopefully I can whip myself into action ASAP.
• My Non-KDE/Kubuntu/FOSS on Planets? I’m still quite undecided on this. I have a few posts in mind that I’d probably want to share with others and ask people’s opinions. However, they’re not exactly KDE/Kubuntu/FOSS related (at least some of them). So I’m kinda hesistant whether I should let them be aggregated here. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

For something that’s supposed to be short, I have again successfully made it long.

OK, it didn’t really start out fun. I had to wake up around 04:30 to leave the house at around 06:00 to take a 1-2 hour trip to the city to take my midterm exams at 09:00. Fortunately for me, it was on a topic in programming (in C) that I already semi-mastered when I was studying it by myself in high school. But besides taking the exam, it was also one out of only two opportunities to meet my classmates, since we only meet for exams. It was a mixed feeling though. I’m surrounded by people taking up the same degree (Diploma in Computer Science), but with almost very little interest in the subject. Most of them are just taking it because their work or boss requires it. Kind of a big shift after being around so many people (online) whose passion for (free) software is quite contagious.

After the exams, I went to a nearby mall, first to eat lunch of course, but also to finally do a special project I had in mind for months now. More on that later. Meanwhile, while waiting for that project to be finished, I came across a book. I picked it up and couldn’t stop smiling or giggling.

It’s probably a predecessor of Caturday and Lolcats. I wish I could post a scanned image or two, but dunno if that would be violating copyright or something.

But the crowning glory of the day is this:

and the back view:

By the way, “Atin ito” means “This is ours” in Filipino/Tagalog. I’ve been wanting to have a custom made KDE shirt for quite some time now, but I couldn’t get around to finding a shop that does this kind of thing for a single shirt (there are those that do custom designs but for mass production). Find the right kind and color of shirt was an altogether different story. Anyway, it’s finally here, though I’m not exactly 100% happy with the quality of the work (it’s airbrushed). But given the situation, it’s as good as it gets. I’m definitely going to wear it on my talk about Kubuntu and KDE on the 23rd.