How To Help Ubuntu Studio

Hopefully you're enjoying the wonderful world of producing multimedia on an Ubuntu system. Maybe you've stopped to think 'I wonder how all these wonderful tools came to be... ...who packaged them... ...why these ones... ...what makes ubuntu such a success?' well, the answer to all these questions is the same: the development community. Having a large group of individuals to help build Ubuntu creates a network of checks and balances, not to mention lighter work for everyone.

GNU/Linux is a community effort, and because of this, we all hope that you too will get involved. Who me? - Yes, You. You may hold the common misconception that because you don't know how to program, you're no good to the development community, but nothing could be further from the truth. No matter what your level of expertise with Ubuntu you can lend a hand. Furthermore, in the field of Multimedia Production on Ubuntu, we NEED your help. A small and overworked team of individuals create Ubuntu Studio, and both they, and the larger Ubuntu multimedia community need all the help they can get.

Every level of Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio user can help the community in some way. Here's a few examples (please don't feel limited to these suggestions) just to get you started:

The Absolute Beginner

(you're just finding your way around, learning, and noticing the layout):

• Head to the Multimedia Production section of Ubuntu Forums and answer any questions you can (just reading the posts will help educate yourself and others)

• If you encounter something that's designed poorly you might want to suggest it be changed, the best place for these ideas is at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com

• Even absolute beginners can help edit the community documentation. Many of the directions here suffer from a lack of eyes, leading to unclear instructions - if you find some, please tell someone, or even edit it yourself:

  • Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ Ubuntu Studio: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio

The Novice User

(this isn't the first version of Ubuntu you've used, you're able to get most work done that you need to):

• Document, document, document; head on over to the community docs and start editing for the better (many sections of these documents need substantial work and we'd love all the help you can offer)

  • Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ Ubuntu Studio: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio

• Report bugs you find (actual bugs, not your configuration issues) at http://launchpad.net (this is the official bug tracker and development portal for Ubuntu). Check out the Reporting Bugs Guide.

The Advanced User

(given any howto and a terminal you can fix almost anything)

• Install a copy of the development release on another partition or in a virtual machine and report bugs/issues etc...
• Join a dev mailing list and introduce yourself

  • Ubuntu Studio has a single concise mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel Debian Multimedia team is a good place to join in too (as Ubuntu builds off Debian): http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia

• Regularly test ISO builds from http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/ by following the test case's instructions (virtual machines work well for this)

• Document, document, document!

The Hacker

(you've compiled a kernel for yourself, don't need any directions for most system modifications, and generally prefer to use the terminal)

• Log into irc.freenode.net and join some development channels. #ubuntustudio-devel is a good place to start #ubuntu-motu is also good.
• Install a copy of the development release on another partition or in a virtual machine and report bugs/issues etc...
• Join a dev mailing list and introduce yourself

  • Ubuntu Studio has a single concise mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel Debian Multimedia team is a good place to join in too (as Ubuntu builds off Debian): http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia

• Regularly test ISO builds from http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/ by following the testcase's instructions (virtual machines work well for this)

• Help package software for inclusion into Ubuntu's repositories https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide

• Fix, triage, and comment on bugs at http://launchpad.net