Just a few minutes ago, I finally became a MOTU! MOTU is short for Masters of The Universe (which is also the name for the old He-man comics and TV series, if you can remember that) and it’s the team that maintains the universe component packages in Ubuntu.

At the Ubuntu Developer Summit for Karmic I got renewed energy to persue my dreams to become a MOTU and had lots of encouragement. I spent some time with Stéphane Graber who showed me LTSP Cluster. It’s an impressive set of tools that he’s been working on that the company he works for develops. He said that I could maintain the LTSP Cluster tools in Ubuntu which should help a good deal towards me becoming a MOTU, I was thrilled and made it my goal to become a MOTU before Karmic was released. Little did I know that I would become a MOTU on the actual day that Karmic is released. At least I won’t forget when I became a MOTU

Thanks to all the MOTUs who have been helping me along the way, Stéphane and also for Jordan who taught me plenty of acronyms (not only for MOTU but also for Debian) and all the people who would answer my questions on #ubuntu-motu (especially ScottK, persia, RainCT, Soren, Hobbsee, \sh, sorry if I left someone out) and also Oli and Daniel who helped me a lot as I got started.

I’ve always had lots of plans for ‘one day’ when I become a MOTU. The timing is quite good so I hope to deliver a number of nice things in universe for Ubuntu 10.04!

The Return of Edubuntu

Edubuntu 9.10 has landed! For the past few releases, it has been an add-on CD to Ubuntu. Our users have have made overwhelming requests for a full-blown installation CD again and we have listened. Edubuntu 9.10 is now a DVD that contains a full Ubuntu installation plus the Edubuntu packages and the LTSP Server packages. Read the Release Announcement to find out how you can get Edubuntu!

The move to a DVD also forms part of larger plans so that we can fit more content and software on the system, and looking forward to Lucid (10.04) we may also be shipping a Live LTSP system which has been in high demand recently.

A Big Thank You to Jordan Mantha (LaserJock)

Without Jordan, the past few releases wouldn’t have been possible. He has resigned from Edubuntu recently effective as todays release. He has been involved in every aspect of Edubuntu and has done great mentoring work to many people that has been involved (including me).  Jordan has resigned to pursue his career that has been demanding more attention recently. We’ll be having Edubuntu Council elections soon, we’ll announce the details through the usual channels (The Fridge, UWN, etc) so please stay tuned as Edubuntu Project 2.0 continues to evolve. We’re always looking for new contributors and growing our community will be a focus over the next 6 months. Feel free to join in and get involved!