Projects
Few years ago I decided to switch into Free and Open Source Software world. Not only to get system, applications, games etc for free but also to get possibilities to alter them in any way. I chosen Debian and still use it — one of reasons is that if something is in ‘main’ section then it means that anyone can tweak, hack package and it will be 100% legal. Patches can be sent back to authors and be added in next versions or you can get suggestions what needs improvements — try that with closed source applications…
I do most of work on Free/Open Source projects in my spare time. Sometimes it conflicts with other things to do, sometimes it need to be delayed because there are more important tasks. I like to be a part of community which develop software and if I work on project that is relevant to you, or if you just want to support these kind of activities, then donating is a good way to say “Thanks!”.
OpenEmbedded
OpenEmbedded is an award-winning set of recipes and metadata to build Linux distributions for embedded devices from scratch. It uses the BitBake build system which is a highly configurable, flexible dependency parser, and task execution tool.
I am one of core developers. My first big contribution was work on creating bootable rootfs for Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 (collie). Some recipes had me listed as MAINTAINER but there are many other which I take care from time to time (for example vim which I updated from 6.2 -> 6.4 -> 7.0).
I created org.openembedded.oz354x branch to have stable set of metadata which I used to build software for OpenZaurus (all versions starting from 3.5.4 were built from it).
Poky Linux
Poky is an embedded Linux build system, distribution and developer environment which builds upon OpenEmbedded technologies. Poky’s focus is purely on building stable optimised GNOME Embedded type platforms (X11/Matchbox/GTK+) together with a streamlined system layer and cross development environment.
Since February 2007 I am one of Poky developers.
OpenZaurus
OpenZaurus is an award-winning alternative Linux Distribution for the Sharp Zaurus PDA family. It is built from the ground and contains only free software. OZ incorporates a modern Linux 2.6 kernel and is built with modern compilers as opposed to the proprietary Sharp Embedix based on Linux 2.4 kernel and gcc 2.95.3. Distribution offers a variety of console tools and GUI environments, e.g. GPE, Opie, Enlightenment, and XFCE.
My experience with OZ started in 2004 when I bought SL-5500 and found that original system does not fit my needs. First attempts to build extra software resulted in trying to get builtroot working. Few days later I found OpenEmbedded and started to use it. Two months later I became official developer and maintainer of SL-5500 support. I also took care about OpenZaurus website.
From December 2005 I am Release Manager of this distribution. During that time I did 2 releases (each one with few Release Candidates which were tested by over one hundred of testers on all supported models).
Since April 2007 OpenZaurus project is halted — Ångström is new future.
Ångström
Ångström is a new Linux Distribution for embedded devices. First version was released in December 2007 for many devices. It is used also by few companies as a base of their own work.
If you need working distribution for your device (ARM, PowerPC, x86 based) then it is worth to try.
OpenMoko
OpenMoko is opensource framework for mobile phones. First phone with it will be FIC Neo1973 which had to be available for mass market in September 2007.
I have two Neo1973 phones which I got as one of members of “Phase0″ developers program.
OPIE
The Open Palmtop Integrated Environment is a framework and a collection of applications for Embedded Linux devices. OPIE started out as a fork of the TrollTech Qtopia environment.
I started to use OPIE when first time installed OpenZaurus as it was default environment in 3.3.5 version. Later I did some usability patches, added new functionality etc. Situation was changed when I got Zaurus c760. It has VGA screen so I started to work on making OPIE looks better on high resolutions (many apps was written for QVGA resolution). Results can be seen in 1.2.1 version which was used in OpenZaurus 3.5.4 (with many backported patches from CVS HEAD).
Since June 2007 I am no longer OPIE developer.
Debian
My favourite Operating System ;) I use it since 1999 — first on my m68k powered Amiga, then on my x86 PCs. Usually I use so called ‘unstable’ version but I think that this name is not correct. I prefer ’sid’ name which can be read as Still In Development but also as name of bad kid in “ToyStory” movie.
I was planning to became Debian developer, but then I found OpenEmbedded environment and this took most of my developing time. Anyway official repository contain few packages which I maintained before they were added into Debian. From time to time I create packages for my own usage.