Open Season : Maverick

It’s back and it’s bigger than ever! It’s that time of the year again, time to start hunting down those nasty trivial Papercut bugs.

Huh? Papercuts?

To refresh your memory, a Paper cut is “a bug that will improve user experience if fixed, is small enough for users to become habituated to it, and is trivial to fix.”

Papercuts Project has been around for the past 2 releases and 178 bugs have been fixed under the hood.

We’re doing it again for Maverick with a goal to fix another 100 Papercuts. As usual we have 10 milestones focussed around applications, have a look at the tentative list of Papercuts scheduled for Maverick. The milestones are nearly similar to Lucid cycle. Last cycle , we’ve done a good job at improving Empathy , Gwibber and notifications but we still have a few papercuts to knock off there.

A few changes during the Maverick cycle:

During the Maverick cycle there is a lot of focus on Nautilus. Redesigning Nautilus has become everyone’s favorite pass-time and Nautilus Upstream is making great progress , this is the perfect time to knock out those Papercuts and make Nautilus perfect!

Shotwell is replacing F-Spot as the default photo-manager in Maverick. Let’s help it make a great first impression.

Improving Software Center Experience: Software Center is doing an amazingly job in making it easier to install new packages and manage software. However, it’s one of the show-stoppers for a new Ubuntu user. The description of the packages listed within Software Center are often too technical and users fail to understand what it means, or the packages are listed in the wrong category making it difficult for a user to find them. Improving such package description or metadata is a fairly simple task. Lets fix that! Check Software Center for any sub-optimal descriptions[including non-default ,universe and multiverse, packages], file a bug and let’s fix as many as possible for Maverick . [Note: While filing a bug , file a bug in the package and add a Papercuts task to the bug. The bug is in the package which provides the description and not in Software Center]

Getting Involved

Have a look at the list of triaged Papercut bugs. Find any bug you feel like fixing ? Assign it to yourself , submit a patch and help make Ubuntu better. As is tradition in a hunt to showcase your trophy kill, we’d like you to showcase the Papercut bugs you’ve squashed. If you have a blog, blog about what inspired you to fix the Papercut, and mention the blog link on the bug report.

What’s bigger about it this time?

We’ve noticed that a lot of the Papercut patches are being submitted by new community members! The bugs are trivially fixable and all it takes is for one person to show interest and fix the bug. We’re getting new members involved and willing to help Ubuntu. We were wondering , how can we keep up this energy and momentum?

Enter : Fearless leader Jono Bacon and Ever-energetic Jorge Castro.

Impressed by these new contributors, they want to appreciate , encourage them and join in on the party. Every bug fixed is an inspiring story waiting to be heard. Jono and Jorge want to hear that story , spread the message on how easy it is to contribute to Ubuntu and make a difference. Every Papercut fixed is going to be celebrated , they are going to be re-blogging your success stories , tweeting and cheering us along the way.

Sounds amazing, right?

So, what are you waiting for?

Grab your Papercut today! Subscribe to Jono & Jorge , and watch yourself rise to fame with every Papercut you fix!

For more detailed information about Papercuts and getting involved , read the new-n-improved wiki.