Wimpy has a new job

[Wimpy]

Hi all,

As the people who make up the heart of the Ubuntu MATE community I thought it was important to let you all know that I will be starting a new job on Monday 26th September 2016

My new employer is Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. I am joining the Ubuntu Desktop Team. This is a dream job for me and I can’t express just how excited I am about my new role!

Now, you might be wondering how this affects Ubuntu MATE? So let’s get this clear. In my new role I will be working on Unity 7 and Unity 8 as my day job. Ubuntu MATE has always been, and will continue to be, a project I work on in my spare time. So in that regard nothing changes. I am still as committed and passionate about Ubuntu MATE today, as I was when I first started the project.

As a member of the Ubuntu Desktop Team I’ll have sight of the complete Ubuntu technology road-map. This will put me in excellent position to make great platform decisions for Ubuntu MATE and ensure that our “retrospective future” continues to be delivered on. I will also remain a member of the core MATE Desktop team. Again, something I’ve be doing in my spare time for over 4 years now.

The Ubuntu MATE crowd funding will naturally continue to be used to fund Ubuntu MATE and MATE Desktop development projects. As I mentioned in my recent announcement about our Bytemark sponsorship, far more of the Ubuntu MATE crowd funding can now be channelled into development projects rather than project hosting/bandwidth. The future for Ubuntu MATE is looking very bright indeed

If you have any questions about my new role just post them in the comments and I’ll answer them as best I can.

[Sevada]

Congrats on your new job and best of luck to you

[Etamuk]

I congratulate you on your new job. As you already said it could be helpful to work for Canonical. But i hope that Ubuntu MATE will stay in your heard as number one.
I wish you much success.

[stevecook172001]

Congratulations Martin. Now you are our man on the inside, perhaps you could push for UM’s Mutiny to be seriously beefed up such that, in effect, a fully functional alternative Unity shell is built on UM instead of Gnome Three. Thus, Unity could just be one more desktop layout inside UM.

At which point Canonical might be persuaded to make UM the main Ubuntu flavor and the “Gnome-2” counter-revolution will be complete…

Only daydreaming…I think

[pfeiffep]

Congrats, this puts you in a great position for both your endeavors

[omgubuntu]

Congrats!

[wizd3m]

Congrats @wimpy this can make UM only better than it allready is. But most importantly, it will even make unity better. I’ve got some ideas to improve it:

Unity already has a bar on top, move the sidebar to the bottom. Add a menu to the top and well, talking about that, let’s put the notification area there too. When that’s done, port the system to GTK3 and implement metacity in stead of compiz. We could than use a different theme and move the buttons from the left to the right. Let’s move from overall orange as a base color to… oh wait… that’s all Mate…

[ouroumov]

Congratulations @Wimpy !
This is excellent news indeed.
I guess there's only one T-Shirt you can wear next time you go to a conference to represent Ubuntu MATE:

[alpinejohn]

Congratulations Mr. W!

I wish you success and less commuting, or whatever it is that people wish each other these days. Live your dream...

[marfig]

Congratulations @Wimpy. From your own words, this is clearly something you wished and as such it has to be a good thing. So, it’s always fantastic to see someone see a portion of their wishes coming true.

I’m critic of many canonical engineering decisions, concerning the direction of their flagship product, so forgive me if I am am not so excited about the ability you perceive you will have of bringing into MATE any added value from your experience on Unity. I think that as the development of Unity continues on the direction it seems to be taking, MATE and Unity will become more and more separated. And I believe that at some point you will have trouble finding enough anchoring points to bridge the vastly different workflow between both DEs that can somehow benefit MATE. To me, it seems inevitable that at some point any attempts in that direction will only compromise the ideals behind MATE.

I do believe however that your professional experience on Canonical will make you an even better programmer and project manager, which is what will impact us most if you stay true to MATE ideals, which I trust you will always stay. After all Arch and Ubuntu support are your brainchilds and as a core member of the MATE team no one can deny your commitment.

But if I am a heavy critic of Canonical engineering decisions (and also of a subset of their business decisions), I am not of the company as a representative of good will and as an inspiring and healthy place to work at. The company principles are embodied in Mike Shuttleworth own personality I think. Did you know Mike’s almost single-handedly is saving S. Tome and Principe economy? He has invested on this tiny insular nation a large deal of money on a risky adventure to revitalize this Atlantic paradise, through the tourism sector. However, he’s doing that not just with an eye on personal profit, but by actually supporting the creation of sustainable growth in all associated areas. Because of his investments and the company he put there to manage them, the country was able to for the first time since its independence to salvage its farmland and culture, giving jobs to tens of thousands of farmers, traditional workers and help create an exportable national identity in local products, cuisine and so forth. Perhaps there’s nothing more telling about how the locals acknowledge him, when you learn that they call him “papa” (dad) and “our space man”.

So, you are most definitely right that Canonical has to be a dream job, when its leadership is so well represented in terms of human and humanistic value. Although I retain my skepticism in your ability to bring any immediate material worth to the MATE project, for the reasons noted above.

[CrazyDesi]

Congratulations on the new job. Hope it brings you happiness and success!

[Wimpy]

@marfig I’m not thinking that MATE and Unity can (or should) be brought in closer alignment. I’m referring to making sure Ubuntu MATE remains relevant while staying based on the fundamental Ubuntu underpinnings

[jay]

Congratulations, Wimpy. That’s awesome. If you don’t mind my asking, is your role a work from home role, or do you commute? I ask only because I know several Red Hat employees personally, and each of them work remote with a Red Hat provided laptop. I’ve considered working for a Linux vendor for some time, and am currently weighing my options.

As far as Unity is concerned, I actually like it quite a bit. But the only reason I don’t use it, is because I’m limited to four workspaces. It’s my wish for more than four workspaces to be an option. I hope that happens. I also hope Unity sees some performance improvements, as it seems to be a hog on older machines (which is probably why I love Ubuntu MATE so much).

Good luck! They’re lucky to have you.

[JaSauders]

Congratulations, Wimpy! I couldn’t help but to feel a huge sense of excitement upon reading this news. Seeing what you’ve accomplished with the Ubuntu Mate project is a solid testament to your capability. While I have no doubt that Ubuntu Mate will continue to evolve with your direction, I am wildly anxious to see what you bring to the Unity table. Unity is a great environment, albeit with a few quirks. Unity 7 could benefit massively with some additional maintenance and some actual refinement given Unity 8’s current absence, of which you said you’d be involved in as well – good stuff!

Congrats sir. Looking forward to seeing your newfound undertaking heading onward!

[Wimpy]

I will be working from home

[CMKiraly]

Congratulations Martin!!! I hope it’s everything and more that you want it to be!

[jay]

I will be working from home

Awesome. I hope to follow in your footsteps.

[marfig]

Awesome. I hope to follow in your footsteps.

Careful!
I have around 8 years of experience working from home and I can tell you it took me the best part of the first 2 years to make it work as intended. I even lost a great job because of my inexperience with it.

The real challenge is creating a work discipline in the comfort of your home where it is so much easier to become distracted and where no one is checking on you, except when the time comes to show results. Particularly difficult if you have wife and kids who need to be debriefed on what it means to “be at home, but not being at home at the same time” and who not always fully understand the concept, bless them. The whole idea of you being present, but having to ignore them, usually rubs on them the wrong way initially. And it takes patience and understanding also on your side.

It’s great because it will teach you all about self-imposed discipline and help you also develop great time management abilities; both skills that aren’t common among the white-collar workers these days. But it may take a while. And it may come with some bumps in the way as was my case. And although it is initially great, I do miss today the office space and the daily human contact of co-workers and whatnot. It also made me gain weight. So, you will need to intensify your exercise regime.

[nakanut]

Congrats Wimpy,

The future (now) is orange.

They’ll no doubt give you a great ‘Welcome’ package in exchange for another

Hope it all works out OK. Have fun!

[mrtribute]

Congratulations to the new job. You have certainly earned it.

That being said I am not a believer in convergence and one device. I believe in many devices and powerful sync. I wish I had more faith in Canonical and modern software trends. Well, as long as MATE stays true to its origins there is hope for a sane desktop experience.