Application - Ubuntu Contributing Developer - Mitchell Augustin

Community Membership
1

Application - Ubuntu Contributing Developer - Mitchell Augustin

I, Mitchell Augustin, apply for Ubuntu Contributing Developer. I am applying because:

  • I’d like to formally certify my membership and involvement in the Ubuntu community
  • I’d like to denote my progress incrementally as I work towards Ubuntu upload rights
  • Name: Mitchell Augustin
  • Launchpad Page: https://launchpad.net/~mitchellaugustin/

Who I am

I am a software engineer based in St. Louis, Missouri with a focus on operating system development. Computers and technology have been my passion for as long as I can remember. I began learning about web design and scripting when I was seven, and I quickly moved on to writing desktop software with Java around age ten. During my teenage years and into adulthood, I created and maintained a plethora of different applications for various platforms, which collectively acquired several thousand users, and allowed me to gain some experience as the leader of my own app/project communities. Many of these applications were developed or hosted on Ubuntu systems. Prior to joining Canonical, I was a student at Purdue University, where I received my B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science in '22 and '23 (also focused mainly on operating system development and research).

Outside of technology, I am also an avid rock climber. :man_climbing:

My Ubuntu story

I’ve been an Ubuntu user since around 2014, when I first installed Trusty on an old computer that I wanted to repurpose into a server. From around 2014-2019, I continued to daily drive Ubuntu as my server operating system of choice, and from 2019 onward, I became a more active user of various Linux desktops, eventually resulting in all of my devices running Ubuntu as their primary OS after a bit of distro-hopping.

In 2024, I joined Canonical as a software engineer on our Nvidia DGX squad in Partner Engineering, where I am now the technical lead.

Community-wise, I am also a member of ubuntu-bugcontrol.

Examples of my work / Things I’m most proud of

Areas of work

Working on the DGX PE squad, most of my work is focused on fixing bugs and implementing enhancements that impact users of Nvidia’s DGX server hardware (and more recently, the DGX Spark).

Individually, I am also deeply interested in improving the state of the Ubuntu desktop and gaming stories, which has aligned well with our priorities of improving the Ubuntu desktop experience on DGX Spark.

Things I could do better

Sometimes, I’ll forget to update the version code correctly on a development release upload that has just recently become a stable release.
I think I can continue to work on double- and triple-checking the version codes for my PRs for cases like this.

Every once in a while, I’ll also run into some edge case with the SRU process that I didn’t realize was documented somewhere - so I’m always making sure to add that to my personal knowledge doc to create less unnecessary back-and-forth.

Plans for the future

General

  • I’m working heavily with other arm64 developers in Canonical to improve arm64 game/application compatibility in the distro
  • I plan to continue implementing my remaining plans for ubuntu-drivers over the coming cycle:
    • Specific driver version selection should be adjusted so the format matches the apt package format.
    • Integrate unit tests into GitHub Actions
    • Enable mypy lint checking / static typing
    • Driver selection ability
  • I’d like to get back to fixing the version of asusctl that I packaged originally for Oracular, since the end goal was for this to be part of a larger effort to improve accessibility of hardware control applications for various OEMs. (However, this has taken a backseat to my other priorities, since it requires some significant reworks that weren’t present when were initially building in a PPA).

What I like least in Ubuntu

As a developer: I don’t like that, while Launchpad is meant to be our central source of truth for the source in Ubuntu, there is no clear indication on Launchpad itself for some major subsystems whose maintainers have different source management preferences. (ex: some maintainers prefer individual bug fixes per upload, some prefer multiple, some have source trees / patch ingress in different locations than LP itself). It would be good if LP had a place on the main landing page for a project (ex: Ubuntu in Launchpad) where maintainers could put their maintenance instructions, and if there was a widespread directive for that to actually be documented there.

Endorsements and Comments

Ask your sponsors and people that closely worked with you to use the template below, and reply to your application with their packaging endorsement (sponsors) or comments (anyone including sponsors).

## Sponsoring feedback

* Please fill us in on your shared experience.
  * How many packages did you sponsor? A list of sponsored packages can generated [via UDD here](https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi)
  * How would you judge the quality?
  * How would you describe the improvements?
  * Do you trust the applicant?

## Specific experiences of working together

*Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.*

## Areas of improvement and next steps

What is the journey you see ahead of the applicant, the next steps they should take, the next things they likely have to learn and the next mountains to climb?

Finally - Application Announcement

Once ready:

  • Check the agenda
  • Select a meeting date and add your name, what you apply for and a link to the page you created from this template
  • Announce your application and selected meeting date by writing an email to the devel-permissions@ list.
3 Likes
2

I endorse Mitchell for Ubuntu Contributing Developer.

Sponsoring feedback

I sponsored 15 uploads for 4 different packages, including ipmitool, edk2, screen-resolution-extra, and wpa. edk2 specifically was a substantial SRU, and required a patch that Mitchell created and got merged into upstream. The other package changes were more trivial, but showed technical knowledge and were good exercises in packaging for SRUs.

Specific experiences of working together

My work with Mitchell mostly comes from being a patch pilot/package sponsor. Though from Canonical events and through sponsoring I’ve seen his enthusiasm and am excited to see his future contributions to Ubuntu.

Areas of improvement and next steps

When it comes to getting additional package sponsorships in the future, I recommend reaching out more on matrix through ubuntu-devel. It would be good to interact more with the full Ubuntu community on the way to future upload rights.

Overall I think Mitchell very much deserves Contributing Developer status and is well on his way to getting package upload rights.

1 Like
3

I believe Mitchell easily clears the bar of " significant and sustained contributions to Ubuntu Development", had has continuously demonstrated a degree of thoroughness and determination that exceed his experience level in the time I have known him.

Sponsoring feedback

Slightly surprisingly to me, I have not sponsored any packages for Mitchell.

Specific experiences of working together

Much of my direct interaction with Mitchell has been around his work doing archive rebuilds and benchmarks of Ubuntu on arm64. He quickly absorbed the large amount of information required to do this and demonstrated patience and determination in getting through them all. Although this work has not yet resulted in any changes to Ubuntu, I am confident it will in the next year or two.

I have also discussed the work he has been leading in improving the ubuntu-drivers too. Here too, Mitchell has demonstrated good sense and determination, and again is doing work that will improve the lives of many users of Ubuntu.

Areas of improvement and next steps

As I just commented for Antoine, if the goal is upload rights then some more general ubuntu work like merges or ftbfs fixes would be a good idea.

1 Like