Interview: NimbleX, Bogdan Rădulescu

30. 12. 2008 | Luboš Doležel, Robert Krátký | Rozhovory | 4242×

1. Why have you started to use Linux? Did you use other operating systems before choosing Linux?

He he. I'll start by answering the second question. Most of us used Windows first because Windows was the available OS a decade ago. So yes, I used Windows before using Linux and I even experimented a bit with Visual C a long time ago. When I first started with Linux I did it out of curiosity, then I used it because it was COOL and now I only use it because I believe it's really good. There are a lot more to say about why I use Linux but I don't want to be boring with my arguments.

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

I started NimbleX because I felt that no other distro at that moment was fulfilling my needs.

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

Most of the 'big' distros are kinda' slow, have a lot of crap that almost nobody needs and I also believe many things are left unpolished. They also have some very good advantages but when balanced with the disadvantages they don't worth the effort, if you ask me. For example, in Fedora last time I installed mplayer from the repository it asked for more than a screen of dependencies from which maybe more than half of them don't make sense. SuSe seemed to be very slow and Ubuntu probably thinks users are stupid. Anyway, as I said, they also have plenty advantages.

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?

I'm pretty sure that most of the people that say that are not contributors to a project. What do you think? I don't see what's the problem with small distros and I don't think I owe anyone my development time, except to the NimbleX users :). That's how I see it when I relate to NimbleX because I believe NimbleX is quite different than other distros and I think other small distros are different one from another and I hope I'm not wrong. If we're talking about other OpenSource projects my opinion might change from one project to another. For example forking Joomla from Mambo was an excellent thing that happened and I have more of these examples but there are also some forks that are not necessary the best thing that happened.

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

Of course NimbleX is my main OS. The reason NimbleX started it was to fulfill my own needs, the reason it exists now is to make people happy :). I used MANY distros. I really don't know how many. The top 3 I admired the most at some point are Redhat/Fedora, Slax and Slackware. From what I mentioned Fedora is the one that disappointed me.

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

• Probably most important it's the fact that after it boots things usually work.
• I think that users like the software that's in NimbleX by default (A lot of software in 200MB).
• Another feature that's pretty cool it's Custom NimbleX (http://custom.nimblex.net) where you can generate your custom Linux from a web page with just a couple of clicks.
• A feature that I was happy to add in NimbleX 2007 was network boot with one click.
• I also think that adding compiz-fusion in a 200MB it's pretty cool but nothing more than that.
• NimbleX sub100 it's also nice. It's the only sub100 MB distro with KDE.

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

The list is long but most interesting are probably the following: I'm working to implement another optional way of booting NimbleX from a remote location (the data will be loaded using HTTP only when required). I'm improving the Safe Install to allow users that already have an OS (like XP or another Linux but unfortunately not Vista) to install NimbleX without repartitioning in any way and without touching the MBR. Also will be available a basic kiosk functionality.

8. What do you consider the biggest setback of mass deployment of Linux on the desktop?

Hmmm... Isn't that a good thing? If you are referring to the thing that more and more nontechnical people (who don't know how to use a CD) are using Linux ... what can I say?! Linux is not everything in life and they could enjoy too a good, safe and Open OS if they're open minded.

As a last thing I'd like to thank very much everyone that contributed to OpenSource because every small contribution matters and every small software bug-fix, good idea and everything pushes things forword even though not always notable.

Thank you for your questions,
Bogdan

       

Komentáře

[fff]

neumi to cesky, software je z praveku a ani gui si nelze vybrat

[Robert Krátký]

Že se někdo nesnaží cpát lokalizační balíčky do 200 MB mi připadá pochopitelné. Nelze si vybrat GUI? E16, E17, KDE, EDE, Fluxbox, IceWM, OpenBox a TWM nestačí?

[vojtam]

Jsem asi fakt slepej, ale prošel jsem průvodce (všechny 3) co na stránkách je ale nikde jsem tam nenašel kde si vybrat prostředí (myslím jako třeba E17, které bych upřednostnil před KDE).. :(

[Robert Krátký]

Co třeba mrknout na screenshoty v článku? Nejenže je tam obrázek, na kterém je ukázané menu KDM se všemi desktopy/okenními manažery, které můžeš vybrat, ale dokonce je tam i přímo screenshot z E17. A hned na prvním screenshotu je vidět bootovací volba "other desktops"...

[fff]

a opravte si web, na n810 sem nelze psat komentare, textarea zmizi

[Robert Krátký]

A co na tom je za prohlížeč?

[Kill_Bill]

Bylo by to netaktni, ale meli jste se Bohouse Radulesca zeptat v cem je NimbleX lepsi nez SLAX...

[Darth Phantom]

No já bych řekl, že pro českého uživatele není Nimblex lepší téměř v ničem. Filosofie Nimblexu je stejná. Jako Slax se snaží vměstnat základní distribuci pod 200 MB (aby se vešla na mini CD). Vychází také ze Slackware a software je distribuován v lzm modulech, které jsou dokonce ve většině případů se Slaxem kompatibilní.

Mě Nimblex moc nenadchnul. Zdá se mi, že to je jen trochu pozměněný Slax. Ta myšlenka si vytvořit vlastní "custom" distribuci je sice možná dobrá, ale toho lze dosáhnout celkem jednoduše i po instalaci přidáním dodatečných modulů. Tomáš Matějíček taky myslím něco podobného chystá. Jediné, co je možná lepší, je přehledné seřazení modulů do sekcí. Na stránkách http://www.nimblex.net lze poměrně jednoduše vyhledat moduly. Já jsem dokonce jeden takový použil i pro Slax. Je to modul openoffice.org-3.0.0-mini.lzm, což je modul osekaný o nápovědu a jiné drobnosti, což se pro potřeby mini distribucí hodí. Oficiálních modulů pro Slax je málo, ostatní moduly si musí uživatel dost krkolomně a nepřehledně vyhledávat ve fóru na slax.org, a nebo hledat v jiných zdrojích.

[tomolc]

Zdravím

Možno by Vás oslovil tento repozitár pre Slax a LDT: www.ldt.linuxos.sk

tomolc

[Fluttershy, yay!]

Myslím, že uživatelé mají rádi software, které je ve výchozím systému (spousta softwaru v 200 MB).

Není tam software v divném rodu? Jako to software?

[mobo]

Dobré je taky Puppe Linux,je to maličká věc vejde se na klíčenku,má vše co je třeba k práci a je rychlá.Prostředí je příjemné a že nemá češtinu mne netrápí,při prvním spuštění nastavíte czkverz a je to pak píše i česky.Má vše co člověk potřebuje hry nehraju tak co víc si přát.

[Honza]

Mohl by jsi na to prosimte poslat link? Na googlu to nejak nemuzu najit..

Dik

[Darth Phantom]

No to bude tím, že to není Puppe, ale Puppy Linux http://www.puppylinux.org/. Puppy je docela fajn, je malý a rychlý. Ale i tak používám Slax.