--- title: Reasons to celebrate 29th April 2010 description: One of the first things I did when I joined Canonical just over a year ago was conduct some user research. The idea was to identify some broad areas that needed to be addressed and so I devised sessions that included topics like dealing with music and photos, browsing the Internet, chatting with friends, etc. […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/reasons-to-celebrate-29th-april-2010 --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") 29 April 2010 # Reasons to celebrate 29th April 2010 [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) [papercuts](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/papercuts) --- Share the article One of the first things I did when I joined Canonical just over a year ago was conduct some user research. The idea was to identify some broad areas that needed to be addressed and so I devised sessions that included topics like dealing with music and photos, browsing the Internet, chatting with friends, etc. This initial set of participants had never used Ubuntu nor were they familiar with open-source. One thing that became apparent very quickly is that it is the little things that get neglected in many open-source applications and in Ubuntu itself. It seems that often, the easiest things to fix go neglected for the longest time. I chatted about this to people like [Rick Spencer](http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/) and so the [Hundred Paper cuts](https://launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts) project was born. Today, as Ubuntu 10.04 LTS goes out the door, I would like to celebrate the fact that the [papercutters](https://launchpad.net/~papercutters) succeeded in healing 102 paper cuts! The project has been running for two release cycles. The first time we ran it [David Siegel](http://davidsiegel.org/), on my team, put a huge amount of effort and energy into getting things running. The second cycle was able to build on the momentum of the first; processes were refined and the understanding of what a papercut is had already entered our collective vocabularies. We came out of the gate faster! In this second cycle, I would like to thank all the papercutters and especially [Vish](https://launchpad.net/~vish...), [Sense](https://launchpad.net/~qense) and [om26er](https://launchpad.net/~om26er) who have contributed an enormous amount of work into this splendid result. This project doesn’t restrict itself to addressing bugs in Ubuntu. The perspective is the users’ so many upstream applications are included. For this last cycle a special thanks to [Gwibber](https://launchpad.net/gwibber) and [Empathy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy_%28software%29)! Hip hip hooray! [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. In submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Notice](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy/contact) and [Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Template: Streamlining open source design contributions](https://canonical.com/blog/template-streamlining-open-source-design-contributions) As designers working at Canonical, we’re always thinking about open source. We believe that encouraging more designers to contribute to open source benefits everyone, from the... [Nina Rojc](https://canonical.com/blog/author/ninarojc) 16 June 2026 [### Decoding design: How design and engineering thrive together in open source](https://canonical.com/blog/decoding-design-how-design-and-engineering-thrive-together-in-open-source) Open source thrives on engineering-driven processes. Fast feedback loops, terminal tools, Git workflows: they’re the lifeblood of how we build software in the open. But for... [Miguel Divo](https://canonical.com/blog/author/mdivo) 22 May 2026 [### Why web engineering is great](https://canonical.com/blog/why-web-engineering-is-great) Hi, I’m Johann! I’m an engineering manager in Canonical’s web team. For the larger part of my 15 years of work experience as engineer, I’ve been working in web development.... [Johann Wolf](https://canonical.com/blog/author/johannwolf) 27 April 2026