I'm told the MX Packaging group is open for applications, so while I wait for the people responsible to review my application, I've come to introduce myself and ask for some advice on how to do this right.
I've been using Linux MX for a few years now. I love the privacy, I love that it runs light, I love that its parameters are decently customizable without being inaccessible to newbs, and I've invested so much time trying to get software that wasn't in the stable repos to work that I've got attached to this thing and to learning how it works and what's behind it.
Also, recently, I've been going all in on Python, Python is my thing now, Python is a dream and a nightmare and managing packages and installations and dependency trees and requirements is just *chef's kiss* of sadomasochism.
Like, the last couple of days consisted in me fighting to install ProtonVPN client with GUI. Dear God, that was fun.
So I thought, hey, since I'm just climbing these learning cliffs on my own for my own reasons, I might as well do it in a way that helps the community, you know, like in Death Stranding, where you can leave ropes and ladders and all that good stuff for your fellow players to have an easier time getting wherever they got to go.
So I said to myself, "Why don't you go look up MX's community and see if you can learn to take the product of your pain and package it so that other people can just install it with a couple clicks from the Package Installer?"
And my self said "No, I love it, do for others what you hope they'd do for you if you were them, and they were you! That's the Golden Rule right there!"
"But what if I'm short on time, though."
"You save people time, they save you time, everyone ends up saving time overall, just do it, man!"
"And if I ever develop something worth sharing, it'll be good to have the skill set!"
"Helping by learning and learning by helping is tight!"
"Yeah yeah yeah!"
Yeah, so here I am, kinda nervous, excited... nervouscited? What do I need to brush up on and practice with in order to be able to help? Should I look at:
- Debian Simple Backport Creation
- Formal Backport Creatiom
- Debian's Rules for the former
- Debian Package Creation From PPA
- Avoid Common Synaptic Errors
Anyway, thanks for slogging through this. If you haven't, TLDR, I'm kind of a newb but I'm keen to learn and would love the chance to help build packages, and would appreciate being pointed in the direction of what I should read up on and practice with in order to be fully respectful and compliant of the community's standards and best practices.
Thank you all for your time, and I hope we see more of each other as we move forward, and that I get to give forward a little bit of what was given to me and that I benefited from. Let's jam!
