Marcelo Tosatti on UnitedLinux (And More)

PDAJames writes "There's a new interview with Marcelo Tosatti online. He talks about what it's like to be kernel maintainer after nine months on the job and identifies the biggest problems with the kernel now. He also defends UnitedLinux against Mandrake's criticism. He would, since he works for Conectiva..."

Comments

Heh

[GigsVT]

There are some simple problems that non-technical users might have with Linux, such as installing new software, or finding certain files that they need in the system. What's the solution to that?

Why do people keep insisting on asking kernel maintainers questions that only related to user level apps? What's the point? That's like asking the Gaim team about the newest block device code.

Re:Heh

[GoRK]

Well you are wrong about one thing: "100% IDE"

Burners are ATAPI devices - Calling them "IDE" is sort of like saying "Ethernet" when you mean "http" or something else like that. ATAPI was invented to bring SCSI devices into the consumer market with minimum cost to hardware manufacturers (ie no change of command api's in the devices firmware). As far as the command set goes, they are actually almost 100% SCSI. Ditto with ATAPI zip drives and tape drives. Heck, even the parallel port zip drives are SCSI (with a built in ppa SCSI controller). USB mass storage uses the SCSI command set also -- and I think Firewire does too (I may be wrong about firewire). ide-scsi is *not* a SCSI emulator. It is a transport, the same as the USB mass storage transport.

IMO, the mistake was to write a seperate driver for ATAPI in the beginning that did NOT tie to the SCSI system - we might have a mature ATAPI/SCSI interface by now that did not have the problems that we see today.

And why do you mention only CD burners? I use ide-scsi for regular CDROMS, zip drives, and tape drives. The application support is much better (ie i can do cd to cd copies, use all backup software, etc)

~GoRK

Wise words from a young man

[red_dragon]

This bit really stood up, IMO:

It's just technology, so why do these clashes come up, do you think?
Because people are there. Egos show up.

And it could not be explained any more simply than that.

Marcelo

[MrHat]

I just try to be as technical as possible. It is very important to me... People do not use the right words some of the time. Starting a fight is really easy. But instead of saying, for example, "You are full of shit," you can just say, "I don't think you are really right." You have to use the right words.

Slashdot could learn a lot from this guy.

Re:Not allowed in the US?

[sofar]

Damn, I wish this would happen to Bill Gates, or maybe George Bush, or how about...

Linus

[bgarcia]

But instead of saying, for example, "You are full of shit," you can just say, "I don't think you are really right." You have to use the right words.

Slashdot could learn a lot from this guy.

Hell, Linus Torvalds could learn a lot from this guy.

Re:Can't go to the U.S.?

[4of12]

He said he got turned back at the border once for having a B1 visa when he needed a B2, and now he can't go back. What's the deal here?

Uhm, you haven't been following the earlier posts which clearly explained how Marcelo was much wiser for his years in terms of dealing with people and personalities as well as being a technically adept kernel hacker and having the ability to think about a huge number of diverse kernel patches being applied to a production system used by millions worldwide.

Shoot, if the United States were to start letting people like Marcelo into the country there's no telling what kind of mess we'd be in!

Now, if he were slyly willing to work off the books in a meat packing plant or a demolition site for forty dollars a day he might have a better chance...