[dot] PC-BSD Interview

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1157420736/

From: Henrik Nordin <>
Dept: desktop-bsd-for-everyone
Date: Monday 04/Sep/2006, @18:45

PC-BSD Interview
================

   PC-BSD is one of the newest additions to the BSD family. The focus
for this project is to create a user-friendly desktop experience based
on FreeBSD and it has quickly garnered attention from media and the
community. Kris Moore founder and lead developer of PC-BSD took some
time off to answer a few questions about the past and current state of
the project in general and its relation to KDE in particular.



                                  PAST


  I. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE HISTORY OF YOUR DISTRIBUTION?

     PC-BSD was initially released as 0.5 Beta about a year ago, April
2005. I chose to begin development with the goal of making a
FreeBSD-based desktop OS, with a custom software installation method
called PBI or PC-BSD Installer. Instead of a true "distro" with numerous
ports or programs being apart of the base system, PC-BSD is by default a
Operating System only. Software packages live independent of the
operating system, self-contained in their own directories, where they do
no harm or cause dependency issues.


 II. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE KDE AND WHICH VERSION OF KDE DID YOU FIRST
IMPLEMENT?

     The first Beta release of PC-BSD used KDE 3.4, and since then we
have been patching the system, bringing us now up to the latest 3.5.3.


III. HOW DID YOU FIND INITIAL SUPPORT FOR A NEW DISTRO?

     The support from the community was awesome! As one of the first
real Desktop oriented FreeBSD systems on the market, there was a ton of
interest.


 IV. WHAT COULD KDE HAVE DONE BETTER TO HELP NEW DISTROS USE KDE?

     Probably by providing more information about the text file
configurations of KDE, and where and what is in each of the files. A lot
of time was spent trying to figure out everything in the
.kde/share/config directories, and figuring out how to manipulate them
to suit our needs.


  V. WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS ABOUT KDE'S DOCUMENTATION AND
COMMUNITY?

     Fixing some specific bugs/tasks were often made easy by searching
the docs to see if others had run into those particular problems.
Community support has also been good, with lots of KDE fans pleased to
see a FreeBSD/KDE based Operating System.



                                PRESENT


  I. HOW CLOSELY DO YOUR RELEASES DEPEND ON KDE RELEASES?

     Not too closely at the moment. Typically there is enough stuff for
us to work on release-wise to keep up busy, regardless what KDE version
is available at the moment. However, when a new KDE version makes it
out, I put it on the list to be checked, and included with the next
revision/online update for PC-BSD.


 II. DO YOU HAVE A CLEAR TARGET AUDIENCE FOR YOUR DISTRO?

     Yes, our Operating System is targeted at folks who like the
stability/security that Unix and Open Source has to offer, but don't
wish to learn new methods of software installation or system management
from their traditional OS. By developing the PBI system, which keeps
software programs separate from the core OS, we have been able to
fulfill this important need. Now a user no longer has to worry about
dependency issues, or waste the time compiling software from source, or
troubleshooting it when things go wrong.


III. DO YOU HAVE ANY USER FEEDBACK MECHANISM?  IF SO, WHAT FEEDBACK DO
THEY HAVE ABOUT KDE?

     Our PC-BSD forums are very popular, and we get a fair amount of
feedback. For the most part, KDE is working fine, and meets the needs of
the operating system as a whole. Often problems reported are simply
configuration issues that we are working out here with the latest
patches. (Except for issues with screensavers not launching properly
under 3.5.3 of KDE :)


 IV. IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU CUSTOMISE THE VERSION OF KDE THAT SHIPS WITH
YOUR DISTRO?

     We make it a point not to do any code customisation of KDE, to make
it as easy to maintain, and keep up to date as possible. All of the
customisation we perform are simply configuration tricks and scripts to
make KDE perform the functions we need it to. For example, getting KDE
to popup with notifications when a CD has been inserted into the drive,
etc.


  V. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST STRENGTHS OF KDE FOR YOUR DISTRO?

     Consistency. KDE across the board, has the feel of a polished and
consistent user experience. The wealth of programs included offer a nice
starting point for a minimal "OS" only type distro, such as PC-BSD.
Having KDE based on Qt is also a huge plus, since that is what we use
for our custom tool development.


 VI. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST WEAKNESSES?

     It seems the memory usage is a tad much at times, and optimisation
is also necessary for some older systems. Probably also trying to make
sure that programs run under "root" with kdesu appear the same visually
as regular user processes.