People behind ubuntu quality: Carla

This post is part of a series on the people behind the ubuntu quality team. Below you'll hear from Carla Sella, who has been a wonderful spirit of can-do attitude on the team. Carla hails from Italy and enjoys being the guinea pig for new ideas and kickstarting new projects and efforts on the team. She's been a wonderful contributor to our ubuntu autopilot tests project, happily helping lead the charge towards automating our favorite desktop applications.

1) Could you provide a bit of background about yourself?

My name is Carla Sella (Letozaf_), I am Italian and I was born in South Africa. I work as a System Administrator in an Italian firm. I always loved having Linux installed on my PC's as I believe that "the only limiting factor of the Linux operating system is it's user". The thing I like most about Linux is the chance to hack and learn things.
I have tried various Linux distributions in the past, both at work and at home (maybe even Ubuntu), but it was only when a friend of mine told me about Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Community that I decided to give Ubuntu a better try and installed it on my PC, and now it's on my notebook, my husbands PC, my son's notebook and as soon as I will be able to, it will be installed on my Asus Eee Pad and my phone :D.
What I like about Ubuntu is the way Canonical and the Community are trying to make Ubuntu  an operating system for everyone, easy to use and not only for a restricted number of geeks. I think this is the best way to fix bug #1. Even if Ubuntu is "easy" to use this doesn't mean you cannot open a terminal and do some hacking too. With Ubuntu you can be a "normal user" or a hacker :).

2) How did you become invovled with the Ubuntu community?

I got involved in Ubuntu when a friend of mine, that is in the Italian Ubuntu Community, told me about the Ubuntu Community and how to contribute to Ubuntu.

3) What attracted you to the quality team?

The fact that I love Linux as you can learn a lot using it, joining the quality team is really cool and gives you the chance not only to learn a lot about Ubuntu and Linux, but also to try all the new features and "play" with them helping test Ubuntu before it's released.
You can do a lot of things from writing test cases to automatic testing, you just have to choose what you prefer doing best. Helping developers fix bugs you find is really cool as it makes you feel part of the Ubuntu world. And best of all you get to know a lot of interesting people from all over the world and you can exchange knowledge and improve your skills while helping test the latest Ubuntu release.

4) What would you say to folks new to ubuntu and/or testing?

Come and join the fun!
If you are a sort of a hacker and like to play around with Linux, you are in the right place. You can learn a lot and help Ubuntu while having fun.If you are not a hacker but a "normal" user, come an join too, you can also help by carrying out the easiest tests. There is place for everyone wanting to help Ubuntu work better and have less bugs. So stop complaining about the bugs and start helping to fix them :p.

Testing ubuntu on ARM with a pandaboard

5) How would you describe the community and the experience of using ubuntu?

The community is friendly, collaborating, fun, looking forward to the future and gives you the chance to improve yourself.
When I went to UDS-R back in October/November 2012 I got to know a lot of fantastic persons I had just known on IRC or by mail, they were all very kind and couldn't believe the warm welcome I received from everyone. Using Ubuntu is both user-friendly and hacky. I have been using Ubuntu for quite a long time now and  the improvements that have been made since then are incredible. It has changed a lot and is, to my opinion, the easiest and the most user-friendly  Linux distribution around.

6) What would you like to see in the future for ubuntu?

I wish Ubuntu will have the majority market share :p.

7) Do you have a favorite experience to share from being a part of ubuntu?

I have a lot of nice experiences, but maybe the favorite ones are testing Ubuntu 12.10 kernel on 12.04 userspace, hacking Autopilot with Nicholas, and trying out Umockdev with my camera on Shotwell with Martin.

8) What is your favorite activity or interest outside of computing (including ubuntu!)?

I love traveling, I like visiting places and seeing different cultures, how they live and how the places look like.
Most of all I like staying with my 7 year Son.