Candidacy, Federico Mena-Quintero

[Federico Mena Quintero <federico ximian com>]

Name: Federico Mena-Quintero
Email: federico gnu org
Affiliation: Ximian, Inc.

75-word summary
---------------

I'd like to see the GNOME hackers focus more on the desktop and user
issues now that the GNOME 2.0 platform is almost complete.  We have to
make the GNOME desktop the one that offers the best experience to
users.

I am a co-founder of the GNOME project, and prior to that I was the
maintainer of the GIMP.  I worked at Red Hat Advanced Development Labs
(RHAD Labs) for a year and a half, and have been working for Ximian
since January 2000 on the Evolution Calendar.

[OK, so it's more than 75 words.]

Whither GNOME?
--------------

The software produced by the GNOME project is about to hit its second
major version, which involves a change of development platform.  It is
very important to ensure that the applications that rest upon that
platform are at least as good as the ones we have right now.  People
should not have to decide which of the GNOME platforms they will use
based on which applications are available for them; they should just
be able to install the newest and latest, and have it all work
smoothly --- from the user's viewpoint, the transtion from GNOME 1.4
to GNOME 2.0 should be transparent and painless.

A great deal effort has gone into producing the GNOME 2.0 platform,
and I regret not having part of that effort (I have been busy with
Evolution).  However, being away from the core libraries has let me
work more as a final user of the GNOME desktop --- hey, it's what I
use on my box --- and to notice many of the little details that need
fixing.  Some of these are just minor issues that would take a few
hours to fix, and some of them are larger design problems that
permeate the whole desktop.  My wife also uses GNOME at home, and not
being a computer person, she has found many little flaws that make the
GNOME experience less than pleasant.

One of the things with which I would like to help in GNOME 2.0 is
transitioning the existing applications to the new platform, and
making sure that they integrate well together.  We have accumulated a
number of hacks and partial solutions over time, and the 2.0 platform
provides good ways to fix them.

Who am I?
---------

I am a co-founder of GNOME; Miguel has been the main leader.  I wrote
the original GNOME panel and one or two of the original configuration
programs that later became control center capplets.  I developed the
GNOME canvas partially while (not attending classes) in college, and
then finished it while I worked at RHAD Labs.  There I was responsible
for making the Midnight Commander be fully usable as a graphical file
manager.  After my period at RHAD Labs was over I started working for
Ximian, where I have since been one of the hackers of the Evolution
Calendar.  For the previous year I have been one of the members of the
GNOME Foundation board of directors.

Before GNOME began, I was the maintainer of the GIMP for some time.  I
think I can claim to be the first person who wrote a third-party
plug-in for the GIMP that got included with the distribution.  Before
that I was writing little image processing filters for my own
amusement, and you really don't want to know about that.

  Federico