How Ubuntu Gets Made: A Look Inside

With Ubuntu 10.10 — codenamed “Maverick Meerkat” — close to making its debut, now seems like a fine time to check in on the distribution’s core development team.

Ubuntu, like most popular open source projects, relies on a heavily dispersed set of developers. But at the heart of the effort is always a close group that helps to shape the project’s direction and to coordinate the activities of everyone else. Leading that group in Ubuntu’s case is Matt Zimmerman, CTO at Ubuntu’s chief backer, Canonical.

Recent years have seen the Ubuntu Linux distribution, led by Canonical, experiencing rapid growth in both users and features. With the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat release, set for October, Ubuntu developers will continue to push the boundaries further of both server and desktop Linux. Sitting at the upper rung of Ubuntu’s engineering efforts is Matt Zimmerman, Canonical’s CTO, who helps to lead Ubuntu’s technical direction.

That’s no small feat: Keeping the project and its developers organized is a mammoth undertaking, requiring the daily coordination of activities across the globe. But as Zimmerman describes it, he has the tools and processes in place to keep the Ubuntu project running strong.

Read the full story at LinuxPlanet:


Inside Ubuntu’s Engineering Organization