Abraham Raji

The beginning

I came across free software and GNU/Linux accidentally during my school years. At the time I had a laptop that had a Pentium processor with 2GB RAM and 128 GB hard drive and I came across this piece of information on the internet that an operating system called Linux worked well with old machines. I decided to give it a shot and after a bit more digging found an online tutorial to install Ubuntu on my machine. Once installed, my experience with GNU/Linux was so much better than what I had with windows that I switched to it full-time and since then I've never looked back. This is not to say that I did not spend an odd number of hours figuring out WiFi and audio but the overall experience was so satisfying and empowering that I didn't wanna go back to windows. Years later, today even though I have a significantly more powerful machine I still stick with Tux.

I was primarily an Archlinux user up until the second year of college. At this point, I got in contact with the Debian Community in India and got to know more about Debian the GNU/Linux operating system and the project. I like the way Debian did things. I liked how open they were, how the project was not afraid to take a stance when necessary and their commitment to free software. I started using Debian as my daily driver after this and started actively getting involved in the community. It's been 4 years since then and I still use Debian as my daily driver and I would gladly recommend it to anyone who can appreciate the distribution's maturity.

Contributions to the Debian Project

Here is a list of my contributions to the Debian Project over the past 4 years:

• Helped organize multiple Debian Events, Debian booths, and release parties across India, including MiniDebConf 2021 and DebUtsav 2018.

• Designed posters and relevant graphics for every Debian event in India during the last four years.

• Built and maintains the Debian India website.

• I have maintained several packages for Debian Ruby and Debian JS teams. (https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=avronr%40tuta.io)

• Took a packaging workshop alongside Pirate Praveen a DD, for DebConf20.

• I have written comprehensive documentation for folks who are new to packaging.

• I am currently working on the DebConf23 website.

Areas of Interest

From my contributions, it is clear that my areas of interest are packaging, building and maintaining websites, creating artwork, and organizing free software events.

Goals going forward

Some of my goals going forward are:

• I hope to write more documentation and tools to help newcomers to Debian

• Improve the user experience of Debian websites.

• Work to bring together a community of artists who use Debian.

Random facts about me (bonus)

• I love Emacs and use it to write code, prepare presentations, read and write blogs and a lot more.

• I write software for a living.

• I am what recruiters call "a full-stack web developer". (Ruby on Rails + React)

• I like programming language and operating system trivia.

• I like lisps and schemes!