Bi-Weekly Community Update – 2024 Week 47-48

[dviererbe]

🎉 Welcome to the first bi-weekly community update for the Ubuntu Packaging Guide! 👋🏻

At Canonical, we used to have a bi-weekly update format for internal coordination. Over time, this practice fell out of use, and with it, development slowed. Now, we’re excited to bring it back—and make it public! This will give you insight into what’s happening behind the scenes, and even an opportunity to get involved.

In the coming weeks, stay tuned for progress updates, highlights, and news! 🚀

Setting Expectations

To keep things manageable, these updates will be low-effort. As maintainers, we’re often busy and may not have time to polish every post. That said, we’re committed to keeping you informed.

For this first post, I’ll share a summary of what’s been happening. Starting with the next update, each contributor will provide their own updates.

What’s Happening?

Here’s a quick overview of the latest activity:

• @dviererbe is working on collecting policies and best practices for Debian packaging across various Ubuntu toolchains (e.g., Python, Perl, Java, Go, Rust, etc.) to write packaging tutorials for each toolchain.
• @waveform80 discussed the idea of creating an explainer for transitioning from .deb to Snap packages, similar to what has been done with Firefox.
• @rkratky discussed strategies for better integrating and referencing other Ubuntu packaging formats (e.g., Snaps, Charms, Rocks, LXD, etc.).
• Canonical has officially switched the default documentation language from UK English to US English. While there’s no requirement to convert existing documentation, it would probably be best as part of the ongoing renovation effort to do so. Publishing half of the 2.0 version in UK English and the other half in US English would be inconsistent and confusing.

Let us know your thoughts or ideas in the comments, and we’ll see you in two weeks for more updates! 👏

[dviererbe]

Addendum

The Ubuntu Packaging Guide is gradually expanding to include documentation related to processes beyond the core topic of packaging software for Ubuntu.

During the Canonical Engineering Sprint in The Hague, I had a conversation with @rkratky about the possibility of moving some of this content to a new guide. This could take the form of an "Ubuntu Contributors Guide"—a resource focused on how to contribute to Ubuntu, including documentation of relevant processes. The Packaging Guide could then link to this new guide for cross-referencing.

Please note that this is still in the discussion phase, and no final decision has been made yet.