02 Mar 2026

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Isoken Ibizugbe: Wrapping Up My Outreachy Internship at Debian

Twelve weeks ago, I stepped into the Debian ecosystem as an Outreachy intern with a curiosity for Quality Assurance. It feels like just yesterday, and time has flown by so fast! Now, I am wrapping up that journey, not just with a completed project, but with improved technical reasoning.

I have learned how to use documentation to understand a complex project, how to be a good collaborator, and that learning is a continuous process. These experiences have helped me grow much more confident in my skills as an engineer.

My Achievements

As I close this chapter, I am leaving a permanent "Proof-of-Work" in the Debian repositories:

Final Month: Wrap Up

In this final month, things became easier as my understanding of the project grew. I focused on stability and finishing my remaining tasks:

What's Next?

I don't want my journey with Debian to end here. I plan to stay involved in the community and extend these same tests to the LXDE desktop to complete the coverage for all major Debian desktop environments. I am excited to keep exploring and learning more about the Debian ecosystem.

Thank You

This journey wouldn't have been possible without the steady guidance of my mentors: Tassia Camoes Araujo, Roland Clobus, and Philip Hands. Thank you for teaching me that in the world of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), your voice and your code are equally important.

To my fellow intern Hellen and the entire Outreachy community, thank you for the shared learning and support. It has been an incredible 12 weeks.

02 Mar 2026 8:51pm GMT

Hellen Chemtai: The Last Week of My Journey as an Outreachy Intern at Debian OpenQA

Hello world 😀. I'm Hellen Chemtai, an intern at Outreachy working with the Debian OpenQA team on Images Testing. This is the final week of the internship. This is just a start for me as I will continue contributing to the community .I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the Debian OpenQA team as an Outreachy intern. I have had the best welcoming team to Open Source.

My tasks and contributions

I have been working on network install and live images tasks :

  1. Install live Installers ( Ventoy , Rufus and Balenaetcher) and test the live USBs made by these live installers. - These tasks were completed and is running on the server.
  2. Use different file systems (btrfs , jfs , xfs) for installation and then test. - This task was completed and running on the server. It still needs some changes to ensure automation for each file system
  3. Use speech synthesis to capture all audio. - This task is almost complete. We are testing to ensure no errors will occur in the server.
  4. Publish temporary assets. - This task is not a priority and will be worked on once we've wrapped up the other tasks.

I have enjoyed working on testing both live images and net install images. This was one of the goals that I had highlighted in my application. I have also been working with fellow contributors in this project.

My team

As I had stated , I have had the best welcoming team to Open Source . They have been working with me and ensuring I have the proper resources for contributions. I am grateful to my three mentors and the work they have done.

  1. Roland Clobus is a project maintainer. He is in charge of code review , pointing out what we need to learn and works on technical issues. He considers every solution we contributors think of and will go into detailed explanations for any issue we have.
  2. Tassia Camoes is a community coordinator. She is in charge of communication, co-ordination between contributors and networking within the community. She on-boarded us and introduced us to the community.
  3. Philip Hands is also a project maintainer. He is in charge of technical code , ensuring sources work and also working on server and its issues. He also gives detailed explanations for any issue we have.

I wish to learn more with the team. On my to do list, I would like to gain more skills on ports and packages so to contribute more technically. I have enjoyed working on the tasks and learning

The impact of this project

The automated tests done by the team help the community in some of the following examples:

  1. Check the installation and system behavior of the Operating System images versions
  2. Help developers and users of Operating Systems know which versions of applications e.g live installers run well on system
  3. Check for any issues during installation and running of Operating Systems and their flavors

I have also networked with the greater community and other contributors. During the contribution phase, I found many friends who were learning together with me . I hope to continue networking with the community and continue learning.

02 Mar 2026 5:23pm GMT

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in February 2026

02 Mar 2026 4:28pm GMT