In the past, OSAlert’ interview volume was quite a bit higher than it has been lately. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Eugenia and her husband last week, and she mentioned that we haven’t done as many interviews, and that in the past they were always very popular. So I decided that I’m going to make it a personal priority to publish more interviews. I’d like to crowdsource the idea, and ask the OSAlert community who they’d like to see us interview. Please let us know in the comments of this story who you’d like us to talk to, and what specific questions you’d like us to ask. Shoot for the moon. It’s not as hard to get an email-based interview as you might think. Obviously OS-world luminaries will always be a priority, but feel free to recommend people from the larger tech community, or even geek-oriented popular culture.
When we do an interview, we like to keep them to 10-12 questions or so, with some questions about the subject’s main area of expertise mixed in with a few off-the-wall ones that help us get a sense of that person’s personality. People who are in the process of launching some kind of new initiative are the ones that are the most eager to be interviewed, and obviously someone who’s working on a hot project is generally going to make for a more newsworthy interview. Keep in mind that as interesting as an interview with a well-known person might be, sometimes it’s even more interesting to talk to someone who’s virtually unknown but is a driving force behind a very interesting piece of technology, so I’d appreciate readers giving us the heads-up on people like that.
If you’d like to suggest an interview subject or recommend interview questions, here are a few good ways of doing it: put those suggestions into a comment on this story, contact us via email, or start a conversation with a suggestion.
If you’d like to take it one step further and conduct the interview yourself, please let us know. We can make the initial contact with the interviewee, and let you take it from there. If you’d like to do an audio (telephone) or video (video chat or in-person) interview, and your interviewee would be interested in that, then so would we.
Take a look at some of our past interviews for inspiration.
There are some people out there who read/comment on OSAlert who I am sure are involved in many open source projects… it would be nice to hear about what they do and why.
Some of the commenters may also be the creators of non-open source software…
I am sure you editors know some of them?
I think that would be kind of interesting. it would help users get to know peopl ein the community better and I think thats pretty important.
Also would be fun to interview some of the people over at QNX’s Foundry27. Now that it’s a community effort and a lot of cool OSS stuff is going into QNX it might be interesting.
Would be interesting.
So, I’m not allowed to edit the comment title? I meant Ballmer, with two l’s.
Edited 2009-10-15 18:37 UTC
Why?
Do you think that Microsoft’s products need more exposure?
Of course not. I’m interested in his perspective, not his products.
I’m not interrested in Ballmer, but I am interrested in something Ballmer ones said: developers, developers, developers.
I would like to see more interviews with developers.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/the-engadget-show-with-steve-bal…
I’d also suggest Steve Jobs.
But I’ve a feeling that OSAlert isn’t large enough to land either of those interviews.
I also thought of Simon Peyton Jones and Miguel De Icaza.
Edited 2009-10-16 01:16 UTC
Bill Gates – I’d actually like a more “human” piece on Bill Gates; his retirement, his current activities, but also his view on the current OS market and the role of Microsoft in it (and indirectly, his ability to steer Microsoft within this area).
Steve Wozniak – how has he been doing?
A Qt developer – on C++ and the role of Qt in the changing OS demands.
An Internet Explorer developer – on HTML5, IE8 and the need to catch up.
A securemac.com representative – on Mac OS X security, the need for spyware and virus scanners.
I’d also like:
Former Be-engineers (preferably several simultaneously) – on their time at Be, Inc., their endeavours ever since, whether they have been able to find a working environment like the one at Be (it is said to be legendary, correct?), what their view is on BeOS and how they look back on it, what BeOS-inspired changes they have suggested for the projects they are working on (Spaces in OSX; PalmSource software shortly after the takeover; &c), what they think of Haiku now (do they like/dislike it, what are its chances/pitfalls) and what future they envision for BeOS/Haiku/legacy.
He must be a hero of yours too?
Loads of questions you could ask him
– WNT and VMS (ROT1 encryption!) was that deliberate?
– How much of the internal of VMS and NT are the same?
– How difficult would it be to add a new CPU architecture again to NT, as it used to support MIPS and Dec Alfa in the past too.
– Is it true that you coded a major OS extension over the weekend while other people thought it would take a year? (can’t find the quote unfortunately)
– Differences in coding then and now.
I would prefer a general chat about the software discipline, not that interested in Azure (he is working on that now), but i guess that would be a very long interview, maybe an idea for the podcast to interview people ‘from the field’ in the podcast?
I would like to see one with Aaron Griffin, he currently runs Arch Linux.
Interview the Overlord
1. On a scale of 10 to 10, just how awesome are you?
2. Settle a bet: Was it you or Al Gore that invented the Internet?
3. Who cries more – Sasha or Glenn Beck?
4. How many trillion are in a gazillion?
5. Is it true that Hawaii is actually part of the United States?
6. You, Hillary Clinton and Rush Limbaugh are in a life boat…
Microsoft Windows NT v3.5 sp3 running on certain Hardware with no network connection or floppy (let alone a CDROM or such)… getting it Orange Book C2 Rating certified.
Oh, wait… no. Never-mind.
Maybe an interview with the group that wrote a kernel that was mathematically proven to work would be interesting on several levels: engineering dealing with the knitty-gritty details of reality, and the mathematics that operates in the clouds. This project is deeply rooted in the direct interaction between these two fields. The mathematics area is not dealth with much in operating systems, since they are so close to the hardware. This project is unique in that it is so heavily grounded in Platonic mathematics. Unfortunately their website doesn’t provide much information, nor did articles about their work. Here are some questions I think would be interesting:
– What motived them to write a mathematically proven kernel?
– How do they address issues with drivers, which are most often the source of crashes, not the kernel itself?
– The project aimed to reach a Platonic mathematical ideal in code, but what sort of engineering challenges did they face?
– Why did they choose Haskell and not some other functional programming language?
– How did they convert Haskell to C?
– What does the group think about the situation of operating systems today?
– Do they think their approach will have an impact on computer science? Why?
– How do they feel about their project being open source?
.. you left out the project name, and the url ?
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312631/Safer+software.htm
I can’t get enough info about hobby OSes, mostly because this is one of the only sources for information about them.
Higepon from Mona OS.
Durrand Miller from Spoon Micro Kernel (SMK).
Wim from (the no-longer-under-development) Triangle OS.
Vanders, Kaj or others from Syllable.
Aleksey Bragin from ReactOS.
Anyone from Haiku (are there people associated with Haiku or is it an amalgamated super-person? I haven’t followed the mailing lists lately).
Many have been interviewed before, some more or less recently, and they are always a different kind of insightful!
I second this list!
A very good selection of developers from some very cool projects!
(Edit) – I see that MonaOS has just had a major new release, so that’s even more of a reason to interview Higepon…
http://www.osnews.com/comments/22343
Edited 2009-10-15 20:51 UTC
you should add Robert Szeleney of skyos to that list.
I second you on Robert!
Ack, how do I edit my post to add Robert to the list?
Travis Geiselbrecht of NewOS
Definitely! I spoke with him a few times a few years ago. A very genuine guy. The NewOS website still says copyright 2005 and the last mailing list activity was June 1st, 2008, and even by that point it had been a handful of messages every year for a while.
Isn’t NewOS the kernel for Haiku?
How about talking to the people trying to.. not sure what to call it.. they’re for more surveillance, for more police cooperation, for more police powers etc..
and their opponents, and people with different technologies to counter the above? (oneswarm, etc)
Interview the FreeSWITCH developers, they have been working on FreeSWITCH, which is a new open source soft-switch and a better alternative to Asterisk PBX.
“How does FreeSWITCH compare to Asterisk?”
http://www.freeswitch.org/node/117
A nice FreeSWITCH interview.
http://digg.com/tech_news/Flipping_the_FreeSwitch_JSOnline
http://www.jsonline.com/business/64684137.html
I would like to know what JBQ thinks of Haiku as an ex BE engineer. I would also love to know what his opinion of the Android Cyanogen situation (although I highly doubt he would be legally able to comment on that).
Excellent idea!
Would be nice to get two part interviews.
Interview someone from Google’s App Engine, then someone from Amazon’s EC2.
Interview a ZFS developer, then a BTRFS developer.
Interview a QT dev, then a GTK or WX dev.
Interview a Linux kernel dev, then a Solaris kernel dev.
Someone from Google’s Android team or Cyanogenmod’s Steve Kondik, then someone from Apple’s iPhone team.
In each interview, ask about the other project, if they’ve used it, what they think.
It would be interesting to hear 2 biased comparisons rather than a single neutral comparison.
At the end of each interview make them say something nice about the other project.
I like this style! Good idea.
I like that. Good idea if you can get them both within the same week.
Yes very good idea. Also cool if you could let them join within the same interview, to get some reactions and counterreactions between them. Not in a fighting manner of course, bur rather to highlight the points of difference, or the learning points for either or both.
Ok, he’s been interviewed a few times, but he always has some interesting comments (and a great sense of humour too!)
The FreeBSD devs would be good to interview too. Always some interesting stuff happening there.
Like being an asshole, insulting people and getting pissed all the time?
Edited 2009-10-15 21:09 UTC
And almost always being right.
Actually , I am all for interviewing Theo de Raadt,
he is like the sbergman27, Glenn Beck and Rush limbaugh of the world, the more you get them to talk the more there true insanity and nonsense get to shine, you also get to identify there sheep follower who all follow in tow.
Security ? Why do no BSD are used in security or armed forces ?
Kernel ? Why is it that most device don’t work with it or have people trying to support it.
Finance ? Why is it that he need to work for a company who’s main goal is not his project, if he his always right ?
Man power ? Why is it that most people that use to work with him are almost on the verge of getting restraining order to not have to deal with him …
Distribution ? Why is it that even do BSD is older by 2 decade, you felt the need to do worst then your predecesor in term of distribution ?
License: Why if BSD protection clause is so good is he using something else lately for is own project and code ?
Is own people : Why are all the moron who do nothing , contribute nothing, pay for nothing and are afraid to use there real name supporting BSD in writting but not in actions ?
Free Driver ? Why does he use BSD the known worst maker of Free Driver ( almost all of them are closed and proprietary ), why can’t he put project togheter and pay for it or lea dthe roject himself.
Linus Thorvald was right in saying his kernel would not amount to much if he was the one to work on it alone so he got others to help and switched license to the GPL …
Bill Gates was right in saying paying developer is going to accelerate development.
Steve Jobs was right in saying if you give people what they want now you will always be behind the curves.
Theo de Raadt … Was right … In your fantasy and sci-fi bubble world sure …
That’s why I can’t find NEtBSD or OpenBSD computer in any store Locally, provincially, fedrally, OEM and on the internet they are a pain to locate as the store close faster then they open.
Sure let’s interview him only question about BSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
Edited 2009-10-15 23:57 UTC
It’s also easy to identify you among other people as you are always posting in a very negative way.
Doesn’t NSA use OpenBSD?
You mean a secure server OS needs support for fancy webcams?
Through history there were many who were right about some subject and failed to convince others that they were wrong. Still they had to eat and care of their families, so it’s not a big deal if the man does what it does to provide. Time will tell who’s right.
Because he’s an ass? That doesn’t prove him wrong.
There are many BSDs, all of which are distributed in different ways, as they devs see fit. How is Windows distributed?
BSD protection clause? What are you smoking?
For the same reason that there are morons in Linux, Windows, OS X, etc. There are morons everywhere. You are a living proof.
He also said that he wouldn’t have started Linux if he knew about FreeBSD existence.
Accelerating development at the cost of bad code isn’t a good idea. Usually the best teams are more compact.
I don’t understand this…
The world is bigger than that of what companies provide and market to you. If you are too stupid to look around, well…
Oh, I understand you. I also have trouble finding quality printed good books, as publishers seem to print shit these days, like those Best Sellers only very uninformed people read.
Edited 2009-10-16 01:21 UTC
I use my real name, so it’s not like I am the one hidding here, you don’t see 0.00000001% of what I post and I am amongst the top thousand contributor of news story on OsNews,
http://www.osnews.com/user/Moulinneuf/
http://www.osnews.com/user/uid:266/comments
http://www.osnews.com/user/uid:266/submissions
BTW submnission is what got published , not what I submited.
No , they review it.
No I mean an insecure OS nobody in the security industry use and no secure hardware maker support by default. The fact you constrain it to server only is showing of the real problem.
Sure, but it as nothing to do with BSD and their finance …
Actually, we can draw a direct paralel with linus Torvald who worked at a company who was not directly related to GNU/Linux , but using the Linux Kernel and GNU/Linux and himself to a certain degree where right, the GNU/Linux industry grew.
Time already proved he was wrong.
No Because he is wrong and that is what make him an Ass to other who are right and disagree with him. Being an ass don’t prove him as right the state of BSD does prove him as wrong.
Actually if the dev are in charge of distribution that is a big problem in itself …
Every single possible way.
Yes, no one can put a license on someone else code.
Absolutly nothing.
Your talking about the three mainstream OS and there paid working people and corporation and industry as if any BSD had anything close or resembling it.
I am not a moron. You should look up the definition, it does not mean someone more inteligent then you , that you disagree with.
No , he never did. He said had BSD been legal and not in court for stealing UNIX at the tme, he would have chosend BSD over the GPL. But hey you must have a link to back up your quote, I could be wrong about that and you could show me soemthing real for a change.
BSD make bad code, everyone else innovate over time.
Don’t try and suggest you understand something.
Not discussing the world, just “Theo de Raadt”.
No , I keep searching and there is nothing Theo De Raadt proved or that was right. He adopted others theory after bashing them at first …
Nope …
Too poor , too stupid , too incompetent and too clueless … Or you believe yourself to be able to judge all book on it’s merit, without having read most of them.
That’s another thing, BSD distribution was done with books, most of them are not carried anywhere, even in specialised vendor catalog or they have very old copies.
Edited 2009-10-16 01:59 UTC
Now I guess you enjoy rhetoric, except you are not good at it because you can’t persuade anyone. I also know you are not good with actual argumentation. You remind me much of Thrasymachus.
I don’t enjoy writting or discussing. I much prefer listening to inteligent discourse and read good people.
I don’t need to persuade anyone nor do I try.
It’s another way to mean you are a troll. If you don’t enjoy writting or discussing, then don’t. You can just put an end to this thread right now, as you aren’t enjoying it. Doing otherwise would make no sense and further imply you are for the chit-chat.
No, it indicate that I prefer the opposite, a Troll is someon who don’t use there real name and change the subject of a discussion to something else.
Actually, that’s what I am doing, but that don’t mean I cant reply to your nonsense from time to time, there are many article I read and many discussion I did not join at all.
The thread ended when you had nothing to say and started discussing me …
Since you asked me not to reply to you anymore in this thread, that’s what I will do. Have a nice day.
No. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
It has nothing to do with using your real name or not, it doesn’t matter how much you try to twist it, you won’t change the meaning.
You are entitled to join any discussion of course, even if you don’t enjoy it. The fact that you keep posting speaks for itself.
I had nothing to say about all your nonsense, that’s for sure.
Ok, then. But I still wanted to reply about your misunderstanding of the word troll. Perhaps you now are aware of what it means and how you have to use it. There are many trolls out there, some use their names and some post as anonymous coward. Many even post with false names. That you call yourself Moulinneuf doesn’t really mean anything unless you can prove your identity.
a Troll is someon who don’t use there real name
I really have to say that using one’s real name or an alias does in no way change the meaning or truthfulness of anything say. Truth, facts, opinions, even lies, are all distinct from the name of the person telling them.
You using your “real” name — we have no way of knowing if it indeed is your real name — does not bear any relevance to anything.
Only in his mind and possibly irrelevant fanboys like you.
Wow, talking about relevancy. Now I will grant you that. But fanboy, be sure I’m not. I don’t care about de Raadt, nor Torvalds, nor Stallman. But he was usually right on the spot on his comments.
Of course, a Linux fanboy like you doesn’t like him for his attacks on the quality of the linux kernel, quality that even Linus said it’s decreasing. Now, was TDR so wrong?
Edited 2009-10-16 05:16 UTC
I don’t agree. For example, Theo is against heavy WLAN encryption (WPA, etc). He recommends the use of VPNs instead, because WLAN encryption gives a false sense of security.
People like Theo are controversial, but in a very positive way: They make us think.
Yes, Ulrich Drepper would make an interesting interview subject.
It would be funny!!
Theo is a genius and has a clever point of view… but a really really bad temper.
I’d like to know his opinion on software development and operating systems obviusly, but I’m curious about his political opinions too (I hope he isn’t a neocon like Eric Raymond!! xD).
Yeah. I was just thinking to myself earlier that it would be really cool to have an OSAlert interview where the answer to every question, no matter what the topic, is a long tirade about how Linux is crap.
As a Linux advocate, I spend a fair number of words criticizing those with irrational *BSD hatred. This is a chance for me to point out that the hatred does sometimes come from the other camp.
On a different note… why not get RMS and Theo together and let them interview each other?
sbergman27 is a thing ( that’s not his real name ) who think of himself as Linux advocate ( when clearly he is not ) and speaking for a group of non existing people. Most real Linux advocate , of witch I am not BTW, don’t know who he is or what he is speaking for ( I asked just to be sure it was not some new guy having fun at my expense or with a real point ).
You spend a fair number of words bashing and insulting those who you disagree with but don’t understand there point at all.
with missundertsood BSD real point.
There is no hatred or camp, GNU/Linux and BSD developer get to work toghether everyday, the real problem is Thing like you who create camp and hatred out of there false view of the world. Who refuse to face reality that in both camp some problem exist and that you refuse everyone discuss them , because somehow , in your mind of singleton and moron, you got put in charge of who get to say what and when.
Me I am for getting an interview about who the real sbergman27 is.
Well, moul. (No ‘y’, you see.) Your post probably violates the OSAlert terms of service. (And reminds me a bit of the stunt that cost Maureen O’Gara her career.) And I probably shouldn’t even bother responding. But… as has been pointed out by others, I include my name, of which my user name is a contraction, in my profile. But if you really want to know who I am, in the context of the topics relevant to this forum… read my posts. I make plenty of them. And with a few exceptions (regarding issues on which I have turned out to be wrong or mistaken) I stand behind what I say.
By the way… I notice that you do not provide a full name anywhere. Not in your profile. And not in your posts. The ambiguous and impossible to verify ‘Moulinneuf’ is all you have ever provided. You *do* have first and last names up there in Canada, don’t you? Sadly, however, we do know you through your posts here.
Edited 2009-10-16 03:16 UTC
Your actions and presence do … I don’t recall you being a moderator and having the right in your own word to insult , bash and attack other user here. YOU certainly have not earned that right.
That’s the kind of crazy stuff I refer too, you think of yourself as someone else and devilisize other and paint them in a false image ( me as only a GNU/Linux user ) … Keep talking.
Your not responding to me … Your making another of your poor victimized speech.
So your real name is sbergman27 ? Why should I trust you to complete a profile with your real name then ? And your other fake accounts that agree with you …
No , I want your Real full name , not your fake identity here , I want your medical and mental history and the one of your entire familly and there name and adress too ( well your certainly allowed to lie about the one of others ).
I want the name of your current employer, I want the name of all your former employer, where you studied and what kindergarden you went to.
BTW, That’s just the kind of insult you usally trow at others here that break the TOS …
I do provide a full and real name : Moulinneuf is the name on my driving license , on my NAS on my voting card, on my gun license , on my birth certificate.
Is sbergman27 your’s ? Why should I trust someone who disrespect is own name and familly ?
Right, have you read my contribution too ?
http://www.osnews.com/user/Moulinneuf/submissions
What is the current OS, I am using right now ? Since you know me perfectly tru my post, that by your own admission you usually ignore ?
Personally, I would rather read sbergman27’s comments without knowing his identity than read the poorly presented, insulting and logically unsound drivel that you too frequently are inclined to drool forth onto the pages of this website.
I don’t comment here often; I don’t contribute articles. In fact, one of the few times that I felt compelled to comment was on an occasion that I disagreed with sbergman27. However, having had the opportunity to gauge the comments of both you and him, I would say that he must have to stoop rather low to reply to you.
Whatever issuing authority granted you a gun license should have their collective heads examined. Your apparent zealotry seems to seriously interfere with your ability to think rationally.
If you’re not comfortable with aliases, then the internet is not the place for you. Considering that Steve gives his full name, and you do not, I am left wondering how many holes your glass house must have in it by now. You seem to throw a lot of stones.
A person’s identity has no bearing on the legitimacy and correctness of comments they may make on the internet. Either they are right, they are wrong, or they have an opinion on a subjective matter that is neither right or wrong. Evaluating which of these is the case does not require an identity.
Quite frankly, I don’t blame anyone that does not want to use their real identity on the internet. Any lunatic that can work a computer can access the internet, and some of these lunatics would gladly stalk or attack someone because of things that they have said. It has happened, and will happen again. Personally I’d rather not look over my shoulder every day wondering if I’m being pursued by some lowlife that disagrees with me.
Finally…
You really should settle down. Life is too short to waste away on zealotry over an operating system. Give it a rest before you blow an O-ring. Enjoy yourself.
“sbergman27 is a thing ( that’s not his real name ) ”
you are so….not cool for playing that game. People shouldn’t be pressured to give up their privacy on the internet just to make you happy.
I just let the anonymous coward insult my name, because that seem to be the cool thing to do for him and yourself ?
And what’s your real name? For what we know Moulineuf could be a fake name no different than anonymous coward. The fact that you put some concatenation of chars in a text field and claim it’s your real name doesn’t make it so. You really are too dumb to understand, what a waste…
Moulinneuf, friend. Please. End this madness! Right when we (as in the OSAlert staff) change our commenting rules to the Implicit Trust thing with a great reminder of “How to Be Nice While Commenting,” you go and break this trust. I know it’s been a day or so since you last replied to this, but in case you come back, I suggest you stop replying and causing just a big flame war about who is an idiot and who should use their real names. If you click on my pseudonym, weildish, and see my real name on my profile as other people have suggested, you’ll recognize me as one of the editors and one with the power to moderate and delete comments. I have no interest in deleting your last dozen or two comments and the comments from the others that were spurred from yours, and I have no interest in issuing out any more warnings. You need to stop insulting others and keep to the topic. Please. I beg of you. For my sake and for the sake of all of the readers– when you start flaming other users, it completely detracts from the conversation. Again, I don’t want to do this, so don’t give me reason to.
This goes to the other commenters: as provocative as a person’s comment may be to you as Moulinneuf’s comment obviously was to those who replied to it, if you simply ignore it and go on your merry way, the person doesn’t have reason to reply, and his initial comment will get voted down or even removed in the end. It’s simple yet hard to resist the temptation of contributing to a flame war. Let’s be nice now, eh? Nobody needs to hold hands– just be civil, for heaven’s sake.
Edited 2009-10-17 23:29 UTC
What is happening to you “molino nuevo”?
I saw you in other thread attacking *BSD in general and sbergman27 in particular… did he take your girlfriend? did he owe you money? are you in love of him and do you want him to pay attention on you?
why don’t you let him in peace (in particular) and all of us (in general)? do you know to do something different to bash everything and troll it?
No it’s still Moulinneuf … My name is a no name coward magnet it seem.
Yes, me wanting more BSD computer in store and that it be more distributed is an attack on BSD …
Who ? particular is for real people with real name.
It dates woman ? It is asecual robot/device ?
Don’t know , who it is, you seem to know , does he ?
That’s a him ? He is capable of loving himself ?
Poor victim …
Your the one insulting my name and I am the one attacking you here …
Yes … That’s why I am still here, for now.
Are you sure its not Robert Moulinnuef?
If not, I’d suspect you’re related.
He doesn’t really do that all that much.
He’s actually turned it down quite a bit in later years compared to the mid 90’s.
It does come from all camps really but Theo isn’t a good example of hatred.
I know it’s not strictly OS related but how about Chuck Peddle who helped start the personal computer industry with the 6502 ? Plenty of people have heard of Woz but he was a bit part player compared to Chuck who never seems to get the acknowledgment he deserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Peddle
An interview with one of the developers of Sourcemage GNU Linux would be nice. Be able to see what is the difference between SMGL & Gentoo.
Chuck Peddle would be a great interview, and there’s an OS/software angle that could be pursued: he not only built hardware but assisted John Feagans in writing the PET’s Kernel and screen editor. Besides, the man is brilliant and has his tentacles in all aspects of the computer industry.
I’d say Steve Ballmer… just to ask him how he felt when he realized that Microsoft had been caught with the pants down in a GPL Violation given that he has bad-mouthed us so much as GNU/Linux users for “owning Microsoft” for their “intellectual property” (for whatever that means).
I’ve actually started liking him after seeing “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. The recent interviews I saw with him still show some of that rash, outgoing personality. Of course a business like Microsoft forces you to become quite serious, but still…
not about mono, gpl and foss. about himself and his position in the community. the direction he prefers to see for foss, etc.
Simon Peyton Jones on the future of Haskell and what it brings.
Hey yes – now this *would* be an interesting interview! Good call!
Having worked for/with Simon on Haskell back in 1995 I’d be interested in this – particularly since I haven’t done much with Haskell since.
Id be interested to hear Matz’ views on what will be different in Ruby 2.0 (and also approximately when it will be released).
My suggestion:
http://madebysofa.com
They’re a small Amsterdam based company, focussing on good interface design for their own and (as consultants) for many other party products.
Checkout, their point of sale solution for the Mac was runner up for an Apple design award in 2008. Their other main title ‘Versions’ got first place in this year’s competition in the main category (Mac OS X user experience).
Check out (no pun intended) their software and (very nice) website, as well as the product sites (checkoutapp.com and versionsapp.com), read the blog and decide if you agree with my suggestion.
Just send them an e-mail if you’re interested, or – alternatively – feel free to ask me to do that for you, they might be busy
What makes them interesting for OS news?
– They focus on good interfaces (not just pretty icons, but interaction design).
– They have purposely chosen to focus on one operating system (why)?
– They’ve obviously drawn the attention of a main OS vendor.
– They probably have some insightful opinion on their preference for BSD-type licensing of open source components.
– They make very interesting choices in web hosting.
– They have just unveiled and released a very user friendly platform for everyone using their app checkout to open and maintain a web store.
– Even the web based webstore manager app has an amazingling well done and thought through interface.
Edited 2009-10-15 22:48 UTC
Since we’re talking Dutch Mac OS companies, how about following it up by an interview with the boys at mekentosj.com .
I’m very fond of their “Papers” app which allows you to manage scientific papers. I think it rightfully got the Apple Design Award for Best Scientific Computer Solution (2007).
They also have several apps on DNA/RNA sequencing, analysis, &c, but that isn’t my field of expertise (though it is one of my fields of interest).
Since this has got all the hints of a shameless plug; I am in no way attached to this company, other than a customer who paid for his Papers licence.
-Robert Love
-Miguel De Icaza
-Jono Bacon
-Aaron Seigo
-Haavard Nord or Eirik Chambe-Eng
-Ansgar Bernardi
-Andrew Morton
-Steve Wozniak
-Mark Shuttleworth
I’d add
* Matt Dillon (DragonFly BSD leader)
* Bjarne Stroustrup (C++ designer)
* Theo de Raadt
* Aaron Seigo (KDE)
I want OSAlert to interview to someone who (or his project) deserves attention (very small group/project; generally getting less media attention).
My vote goes to Haiku. I tried the alpha release and was blown away.
The creators of UNIX were Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. I believe that both of them are still alive, and I would find it very interesting if OSAlert would interview them.
GCC is the one development tool that (I think) nearly every non-Microsoft OS depends on. Interview whoever’s in charge of that!
The person in charge of that would be Richard Stallman. That would be a nice interview
Unless he is letting the steering committee run it, in which case grab someone from that
I’m not up on names, but here are some interviews I’d like to read:
Someone from Haiku
GoboLinux
Psystar
And any number of small OS project developers.
… REBOL 3 is afer few years very close to beta.
Then I am also interested in interviews of:
– Haiku
– Syllable
– MorphOS
– AmigaOS
– QNX
… authors, knowing their motivation, plans, their point of view about the recent/upcoming developments in the computing world …
I’d like to read that, and I’m pretty sure that it would be interesting.
cheers
anyweb
Ask them about the tools they use and the equipment they have.
Ask about other OSs and what they think about them.
Don’t ask about the history or other lame shit that is in every interview/wikipedia.
Ask questions nobody has asked before. I know it is hard, but otherwise it is not worth doing.
Maybe have a Digg dialogue like question post where people vote question up and down with their comment votes.
Interview people that are central to each OS (Theo, Linus, Haiku devs etc) and also people who are just interesting like Valerie Aurora.
Matt Tucker or Bill Lynch of Jive SOftware. They are the co founders of that company which produced Openfire, the Opensource Jabber/XMPP server that’s undoubtedly the best in the business.
Would like to read an OSAlert interview with Gerard Beekmans, the Linux From Scratch initiator and project maintainer.
Interview the leaders of the ten most popular distros and place the same questions to each of them. Don’t print any interview before the last is done. Don’t forget to focus on what they think about joining efforts and placing agreements among them all, to achieve certain targets.