My name is Alberto Milone, software engineer and grammar enthusiast, born in Turin in 1983, raised in Lecce (Italy), and world citizen. Here are some details you might want to know about me.

Education

• BA in English and Spanish (2005) at Università degli Studi di Lecce.
• MA in English and Spanish (2008) at Università del Salento.

Interests

The English language, Grammar, Free Software Development on GNU/Linux, Music (acoustic guitar), not necessarily in this order.

Job

I have worked as a software engineer for Canonical since March 2009. I mainly deal with hardware enablement in Ubuntu, an amazing operating system that we develop and ship on laptops, desktops and soon also on phones and tablets.

Give Ubuntu a try when you have the chance, you will be pleasantly surprised:

Areas of expertise

• Hardware enablement (kernel/X.Org hacking)
• General software hacking (I love fixing bugs and adding new features in programs)
• Debian/Ubuntu packaging (I am an Ubuntu Core Developer)
• Smooth user experience with non-free graphics drivers

How I got involved in software development

After deciding never to deal with Windows again, I struggled with some rather nasty hardware problems on Linux. Needing a computer that worked properly, I ended up learning much more than I apparently needed, teaching myself how to program, so as to be able to automate all the things that I had learnt.

The first program – and probably the most popular program of mine to date – that I wrote for Ubuntu is “Envy” (later to be known as “EnvyNG“). It solved a simple problem: downloading, properly installing, and configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver. A rather daunting task back in 2005. The program became so popular that it was adopted by Linux Mint (codename “Bea”) in 2006 and by Ubuntu (“Hardy”) in 2008.

Needless to say, that was just the beginning of my amazing journey in the world of software development. Funny how computer issues can change your life for the better.