Kwort, David B. Cortarello interview

24. 6. 2009 | Luboš Doležel, Robert Krátký | Rozhovory | 3480×

1. Why did you start to use Linux? Did you use other operating systems before choosing Linux?

I started using Linux in 1998, before I used Windows and DOS, it's been so long that I can't even remember well how to use those. I actually switched to Linux because I was kind of boring and wanted to learn something new… There were some magazines around touching the subject a little bit, so I though it was the time.

When I started to use it I couldn't install it at home, my family was kind of freaked out about Linux (I don't know why did they freaked out so much about a black screen, they were actually pretty used to get a blue one :-P), so I asked the sysadmin at my high school if I could get an account to start playing around.

By the end of 1999 my family bought a new computer, then I made a partition so I could install Linux in it. Since then, I'm a pure Linux user/developer :-)

2. What made you consider starting/joining the development of an 'alternative' distribution?

I started Linux trying some distributions: Slackware, Red Hat (2 weeks), Debian (3 days), even Corel Linux (less than an hour?). But after all I got always back to Slackware.

When starting 2000 I though it was great if I could really learn "how to fix a broken system", simple as that; if something went wrong, I wanted to be able to fix it. So that's why I really wanted to learn more, not to earn money (by that time it wasn't an issue :-P), but as a hobby. By that time I had free time, and I thought that the best way to invest it was in learning something that I really liked.

By the beginning of 2002, after really digging into Slackware I though that what I had learned was really nice but I stopped to a wall where I couldn't go further, and if I wanted to go further I had to build the bases it by myself.

So basically I started Kwort as a hobby to satisfy my hunger of knowledge, I wanted to know how the system really works so I though that the best way to do it was to create one myself.

So after hitting myself enough with Linux From Scratch, Kwort saw the light by the end of 2002.

Since then, Kwort has faced 6 version and huge changes with all of them. Bringing always new features with every version.

3. What did the 'big' distributions lack (or had too much of)?

Well, I really like to have the system clean, and the big distributions have forgotten that simple is always better. I am not to criticizing or something, don't misunderstand me, but I think that distributions must be pointed to a certain public. It's is great that some distributions or versions of Unix works even on a toaster, but as the saying says "which covers much, just squeezed". And supporting each and every weird thing out there really keeps them out of focus making always the system bloated.

Other interesting point is that several distributions just look ugly and disordered. The first one is just something with the desktop, termcap and shell profile and could be fixed very simple. The second one, to me is like a must have, you can't use a system that looks disordered; computers were created to make our lives organized and simple, having a system that looks like a mess under the hood really doesn't help me.

4. What do you say to those who think the Linux world should be more united and focus on co-operation rather then resolve problems by forking projects?

It will always depend on the reason of the fork. For example: Some months ago I wrote some code providing some features for MPD, the people really liked the code and the feature itself, but main developers said that this kind of feature does not belong to MPD. So, other developers and users started with the idea of forking MPD. That's a bad idea to create a fork, the fact that your patch doesn't get into mainstream doesn't mean that you have to fork, I actually see that like a child behavior.

Forking because you think that the solution to a BIG issue comes from the root is a very different thing.

Nowadays Kwort is based on Slackware, and Slackware is focused to a certain public, and the way it is for that public is just fine. Kwort in the other hand is just focused in a different public.

5. Is Kwort your primary operating system? How many other distros have you used so far? Which ones?

As I said before when I started using Linux, I used Slackware, Red Hat, Debian and Corel Linux and back to Slackware. But I have tried other distributions since then, I tried Sourcemage, Gentoo and (X)Ubuntu. But since 2002 Kwort is my primary operating system. Even at work, in my desktop I have Kwort installed, but the other computers at work have Gentoo and one OpenBSD. So, it often happens that I ssh to a Gentoo machine.

Some clients of the company I work for have Kwort installed in slower machines. And there are enterprises out there using Kwort in small devices, like Aircable using it in their Server XR.

6. What is Kwort's killer feature(s)?

I really like to note kpkg , the Kwort package manager. Kpkg 2.7172 worked very nice, but kpkg 3.14 is actually even better because it was improved based on the feedback of the users, but you'll have to wait until Kwort 2.4.1 to see it unless you have one of those Aircable Server XR that use Kwort with latest kpkg from my darcs devel branch. (Note: Current version of Kwort is already 2.4.1.1.)

Other nice feature is that every configuration tool is centralized in the xfce-mcs-manager (Xfce Settings Manager). So if you want to setup your users or your network, it is just there. Even when those configuration tools are not related to Xfce, but stills the configuration is centralized by that control panel.

Some other things that comes to my mind is the network configuration which is very easy to do with some menu systems.

And finally but not less important is ktsuss, which is a graphical version of su that I wrote in C like gksu, but not bloated like this last one. So every configuration tool that requires root access can use it.

Also the inclusion of MPD as media player was a very good idea since it forces the user to be organized with their multimedia files :-). There are some more, for example I really like the way the desktop looks and the base system itself is very organized.

7. What do you plan to implement/improve? What can we look forward to in Kwort's next release?

Well, now that kpkg 3.14 is in beta stage I would like to work in the network manager to improve its interface a little bit, maybe gtkdialog would help on this.

Also I would like to improve (rewrite) the installation system, since the one used now comes from Slackware with some modifications and it is really bloated right now.

There are also some improvements to be done in the desktop, but those belong to the respective developments, so for this I can only push some features request at their bugzilla.

8. What do you consider the largest obstacle for mass deployment of Linux on the desktop?

Well, an important part of this is because of tabu. People still think that they will have to face a black console instead of a graphical environment. But Ubuntu is doing very well with this. Also, the user is very lazy to change from an operating system to another, since they don't want to learn how to use a new set of applications, for example they know how to use the media player in windows and they don't want to learn how to use the gmplayer, totem, xine or whatever.

Also, there are some commercial issues, alliances. See for example Dell, they made a nice move supporting and selling their machines with Linux, but the fact that you have to pay more to get it even with a smaller machine shows that there is a commercial alliance with "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" :-P

Other important thing is that there are some tools that we lack in Linux, the CADs is a very good example of this.

Another one is the lack of drivers for some hardware, the Linux Foundation is actually working on this offering developers to program free/open source drivers, but hardware sellers don't want to release specifications for this, so they just look to the other side.

And finally, and one of the most important issues are games. I really think that the computer is not a toy and should not be used to play games, but there are millions of people out there that use the PC to play some games and the Linux community is a community based on developers and sysadmins which don't use the computer to play. So, this leads that a very important setback is the lack of games.

       

Komentáře

[Jan]

"A konečně jedním z největších probémů jsou hry."

Tak nevím, ale vetsinu toho co chci si zahraju pod wine... Pravda, sice jiz tolik nehraju, ale jednie co mi vadi je serie NHL, kterou nemam ani na playstation (1).

[Fluttershy, yay!]

Starší NHL fungují v emulátorech (NHL '93 a NHL '99 určitě).

[brum]

ja som sa stretol s problemami, ktore brania ludom s okolia pouzivat akukolvek distro, predovsetkym s CAD systemami. tie ktore su aj pod UNIXami su neskutocne drahe, a bohuzial dnes to uz bez 3D navrhu nejde.

[Jan Včelák]

Praštila mě do očí tahle věta v anglické verzi článku: Why did you start to use Linux?

Gramaticky je to správně, ale myslím, že významově ne. Mělo by tam být start using Linux. Je to jako rozdíl mezi stop smoking (přestat kouřit) a stop to smoke (zastavit, aby si zakouřil). Pokud se pletu, prosím, vyveďte mě z omylu.

[BrainLess]

Nejvetsi slabinou linuxu je jeho roztristenost a tiisice distribuci snazicich se ukojit ego jejich autoru ..

[lmanik]

a vo tom to je omg...

[BrainLess]

No mozna kdyby si moulove jako ty uvedomili ze to "tristeni sil" je proste kontraproduktivni, tak jsme dneska o kus dal.

[lmanik]

Moulove co te zere? Vyber si to co ti vyhovuje a zdokonaluj nebo pouzivej, je to o svobode volby, nikdo ti nic necpe.

[unknown_]

priznam se, ze sem nepochytil rozdil mezi timhle a zenwalkem. neni jednodussi pomoct s jednim takovymhle distrem (zvlast, kdyz sou oba na slackwaru a imho se stejnym nebo podobnym zamerenim).

[progdan]

kpkg ma velmi zajimave verzovani - 2.7172, 3.14...

[petr_p]

Já jsem nepochopil třetí verzi.

[Nicky726]

+1

[Jiří Svoboda]

Já myslím, že tam o žádné třetí verzi nic není. Verze 2.7172 a 3.14 se vztahují ke kpkg a verze 2.4.1 a 2.4.1.1 se vztahují k samotnému Kwortu...