Interview with Robert Shingledecker in Distrowatch 23 march 09

[Onyarian]

In the last Distrowatch Issue:


http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090323#feature


Interesting!

[fos]

It was an exceptional interview. It answers a lot of questions.

I didn't know that Robert was such a key developer during the early days of linux. That explains the excellence of his code to this very day.

Jeff

[tobiaus]

wow, as surely as dsl is one of the best known distros (i don't know any linux users that haven't heard of it, it's the first thing people mention when you talk about a "lightweight" distro) this is going to become one of the best known interviews on distrowatch. actually my favorite interview on dw has always been the one about dsl.

given john's already reclusive nature, it makes me wonder if we'll ever see a new version of dsl. i don't know if he'll give up or insist on a next move now, but i do know he lost (or rather gave up) the most valuable ally that anyone could have in making a small distro.

one point of confusion that is likely to persist after this article is more familar, is the thread where robert says goodbye to the community, that's why it looks like he left the community instead of being locked out.

naturally i don't doubt there's an explanation, and i don't admire or respect the decision to lock roberts out. if anything it makes me wonder what i'm doing there. i've always thought dsl was an important project and i'd rather see two tiny distros on the net than one, (i've seen others,) but sometimes when i'm in the middle of posting a reply to someone looking for help with dsl, i start wondering if i'm wasting their time, or if it's better to just let them find tc. that's all up to john now.

[roberts]

The answer to my "Logout/Goodbye" post is explained on my personal website.
It is not my nature to say much. I was taking the "high road" in regard to John's actions.
After I had posted the that, I posted here on this site with the news of what had just happened.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=132.0

Several users emailed me about this and I emailed back that I don't want to look back; look only forward.

You will note the date on my "Logout/Goodbye" there and the date of the post here predates the attack post.

I really did try to take the "high road" with John, I wasn't going to even bother to look back. But...

When DW announced Tiny Core as added to the database they linked to John's post.
That action stirred thing up, and ended up with DW offering me the opportunity to give my side of the story.

To me it is more of a distraction as one should always be looking forward.

There are so many positive things yet to be accomplished.

[tobiaus]

one should always be looking forward.

There are so many positive things yet to be accomplished.

amen to that, and that's going to resonate with everyone at distrowatch when they realize that's the aspect of tc and linux that's most important to you.

to the person who already cares a lot about tc (with or without the personal aspects,) it's much more obvious that "the distro is the thing."

[mikshaw]

Seems to have added some interest in Tiny Core from the distrowatch visitors.....there have ben at least a few new forum members that have joined after reading the interview and TC is now on the 6-month hit ranking thanks to recent hits.

[jpeters]

That pretty impressive.....time for a goggle ad  (using flash10, so regulars don't have to see it)

[jls]

maybe I don't remember well, but it the interview robert u should have pointed more the fact, that this is a nomad system