Canonical started today a brand new software collaboration service for Ubuntu Linux developers, called Launchpad Personal Package Archive, or PPA.

PPA is being added to Canonical's Launchpad development web site to allow groups to collaborate on packages, as well to allow individual developers to post their own versions of open source software.

Thanks to PPA, developers can upload software packages to an account and other persons can collaborate on it. For every user, a maximum of 1 GB file storage is offered, but it must be used only for free software projects.

Christian Robottom Reis, the person who led the Personal Package Archive effort within Launchpad, said:"Many developers want to modify existing packages, or create new packages of their software. The PPA service allows anyone to publish a package without having to ask permission or join the Ubuntu project as a developer. This is a tremendous innovation in the free software community. We hope that PPA will make it easier for developers and development teams who have excellent ideas to get their work into the hands of users for testing and feedback."

He also added :"They also get to mix with experienced packagers to improve their skills. PPA is a build system, a publishing system and a community experience. We are also really excited to add the ability to create packages aimed at the mobile environment from launch."

The PPA offers to its users - apart from the 1 gigabyte APT repository - binary packages built for x86 and AMD64 architectures against Ubuntu and a web-based front-end where they can browse and search for their packages.

Before one can create a PPA, that person has to sign the Ubuntu Community Code of Conduct and to import his/her GPG key to their Launchpad account. Also, you should know that, at this moment, only .deb packages are supported, but in the future things might change.