Nearly thirteen years ago, on 11th March 2008, a few members of the Ubuntu UK Local Community Team released S01E01 of the Ubuntu UK Podcast. Ciemon Dunville, Dave Walker, Tony Whitmore and I had recorded it on the previous Saturday in my cramped, messy home office.
In the following seven years we recorded 187 episodes as “Ubuntu UK Podcast” - affectionately known as “uupc”. A re-brand in season eight to just “Ubuntu Podcast” led to another six years comprising another 251 episodes.
The most recent epsiode, S13E40 was recorded on 15th December 2020, and released on Christmas Eve 2020. The line-up changed a little in the 13 seasons, now with Mark Johnson and Martin Wimpress accompanying me behind the microphones. The idea remained consistent though. A regular, family-friendly podcast about Ubuntu, the community around it and the wider open source and tech world.
We’ve recorded those hundreds of episodes, in person, on stage, in a pub, in a field and of course remotely too. It’s been tremendous fun to make over this time. Each season is finished at the end of the year with a look back over the last twelve months, maybe predictions for the next, a quiz or maybe even a pantomime. Yeah, listen back to the last episodes of the early seasons. My voice acting in particular is worth of some kind of award!
We have a break, then get together, traditionally over curry, to decide whether and how we’ll come back with a new season. We honestly never know if we’re going to do another season until we have that curry. We usually don’t even talk to eachother about the podcast for a couple of months, at all. The break lets us decompress, think about things and decide if it’s time to move on or carry on.
Sometimes jobs change, home circumstances are different, or maybe someone has just had enough. Well, it’s that time to have a think again, and this evening we had our annual curry, remotely over Jitsi.
A virtual curry 🍛 with a couple of friends. What could this mean 🤔💭 pic.twitter.com/xng5vIolE6
— Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱🇬🇧🇪🇺 (@popey) February 19, 2021
.@m_wimpress Om nom nom. pic.twitter.com/HAxUjSQNSY
— Mark Johnson (@marxjohnson) February 19, 2021
After the curry and catch-up we had a long chat. The outcome is that yes we’re coming back for Season Fourteen of the Ubuntu Podcast, next month! 🎉
We’re going to put some polls up over the coming couple of weeks to ask important questions from our audience. Here’s the first!
Curry consumed! We're coming back for season 14!
— Ubuntu Podcast (@ubuntupodcast) February 19, 2021
What should we do with the theme tune? 🤔
More to come, follow us over on the @ubuntupodcast account, and make sure the RSS feed for the show is in your podcatcher. We’ll see you there soon.