Back in May, the Ubuntu Manual project asked for people to submit bug reports to help improve the second edition, and, as an incentive, entry into a prize draw for a printed copy of the manual was offered to anyone submitting ten or more confirmed bugs. I’d already wanted to get involved but hadn’t been sure what to do, and, being predisposed to spotting writing errors, this kind of proof-reading task seemed like a good way for me to help out. So I downloaded the manual and went to work.
The manual is largely well written, but, as a collaborative project, style inconsistencies and little errors are inevitable. Consequently, seven people (including me) became eligible for the prize draw, although I was motivated more by the opportunity to make the Ubuntu world just a little bit better, and duly pointed out every problem I found until work on Create Background Slideshow began to dominate my free time.
Fast forward to this afternoon when I checked my e-mail and Congratulations!
from Benjamin Humphrey popped out. I assumed it was about getting so many new translations for Create Background Slideshow by that day’s fellow OMG! Ubuntu! readers, so news that I’d also been picked to receive the printed manual took me even further aback.
A shiny new copy of Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 should make its way to me in the coming weeks, and, when it does, it’ll start work helping me to explain Ubuntu to my parents, which I imagine will suddenly become a lot easier. Thanks, Ubuntu Manual team!