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  1. Blog
  2. Bill Wear
Bill Wear

Bill Wear

34 posts

MAAS Developer Advocate

Stormrider is a tech enthusiast whose passion for computer programming and the UNIX system led to a lifelong exploration of technology. Starting with early experiences in a college computer lab, Stormrider became captivated by the simplicity and power of UNIX, which eventually led to the discovery of org-mode. Embracing org-mode and its versatile capabilities, Stormrider found a perfect match for their organizational and productivity needs. With a love for abstraction and a desire to simplify complex tasks, org-mode became an integral part of their life and work, allowing them to thrive in various endeavors. Today, Stormrider continues to embrace the power of org-mode and shares their journey of leveraging technology and language to optimize efficiency and creativity.

Bill Wear
23 January 2024

The kernel of open source: community

Community Article

It’s easy to see commits as the be-all and end-all of open source. They aren’t. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill post. I’ll come right to the point. It’s time to chmod some perspectives about life, the universe, and everything, at least in the realm of open source. The thesis? Viewing your fellow devs as comrades isn’t ...

Bill Wear
3 January 2024

MOTL: N33 NUC, Part 2

Cloud and server Article

Accessing the BIOS; making a plan My next step is to confirm whether or not the N33 NUC will PXE boot. A moderate Google search didn’t turn up any active documentation that confirmed this. There were feature listings on Amazon for similar NUCS, but who knows if those are reality or marketing? The obvious thing ...

Bill Wear
30 November 2023

MOTL: Minis Forum N33 NUC

Cloud and server Article

Part 1: The hardware setup As a first attempt at trying MAAS outside the lines (MOTL), let’s pick a random, inexpensive Next Unit of Computing (NUC). Indeed, let’s start with a Minis Forum N33, which is older and “out of print.” The relevant forum is offline, and manuals are hard to Google up. Nice challenge. ...

Bill Wear
18 October 2023

The soul of open source

People and culture Article

The power of community-backed open source: a Canonical perspective The open-source advantage Open-source software offers unparalleled freedom to use, modify, and distribute code. But freedom comes with responsibilities, often making it challenging for businesses and organisations to manage and support these applications. Canonical stands ...

Bill Wear
16 October 2023

A call for community

Cloud and server Article

Introduction Open source projects are a testament to the possibilities of collective action. From small libraries to large-scale systems, these projects rely on the volunteer efforts of communities to evolve, improve, and sustain. The principles behind successful open source projects resonate deeply with the divide-and-conquer strategy, a ...

Bill Wear
10 October 2023

MAAS Outside the Lines

Cloud and server Article

Far from the humdrum of server setups, this is about unusual deployments – Raspberry Pis, loose laptops, cheap NUCs, home appliances, and more. What the heck is stormrider deploying this week? ...

Bill Wear
26 April 2023

No more DHCP(d)

Cloud and server Article

“He’s dead, Jim.”  Dr. McCoy DHCP is dead; long live DHCP. Yes, the end-of-life announcement for ISC DHCP means that the ISC will no longer provide official support or updates for the software. Our ever-faithful, omnipresent friend — the familiar dhcpd daemon — is retiring, albeit over a really long walk to that cabin in the ...

Bill Wear
17 March 2023

Help us build better doc

Canonical announcements Article

We want you to join our Ubuntu circle, and help us document MAAS. More minds, more eyes, more hands make better doc. ...

Bill Wear
20 October 2022

Join our Ubuntu circle

Canonical announcements Article

The Ubuntu circle: We are because you are The MAAS 3.3 Beta 1 release is out.  You should take a look. Normally, a blog like this would wait for the final release.  And that blog will still happen, later, but this feels like a watershed moment: There are some significant new features, including better search ...

Bill Wear
28 July 2022

Compassionate doc

People and culture Article

Being the best open-source company in the world means building the best open-source documentation. That’s means giving appropriate respect for ownership and prior art. We crave your feedback about how to best make that happen. ...

Bill Wear
10 March 2022

Deep work in interesting times

Cloud and server Article

Prologue As programmers and tech writers, we are creators, and we are knowledge workers. We strive to do rare and valuable work, regardless of the circumstances, what Dartmouth professor Cal Newport calls deep work. Deep work is hard and difficult. At Canonical, we are specifically committed to doing things that are simultaneously hard an ...

Bill Wear
13 December 2021

Linux deployment tools: MAAS 3.1 for hot metal

Cloud and server Article

Back a few months ago, we did a feature poll on our MAAS forum, and the most-requested new feature turned out to be “Recommission/rescan a machine after it has been deployed“. With the release of MAAS 3.1, we’ve added that feature, making MAAS an even better choice for linux deployment tools. Here’s a sample of ...

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