Thanks, brokenman!

[fulalas]

I would like to thank brokenman for his effort on this amazing distro.

I've been using Windows since the beginning of 90's, when I started using PC. This month Porteus changed a bit of my life to the point I have to confess that I'm not using Windows anymore. And know what? I'm pretty happy using Linux even though there are somethings that you have to invest a lot of time to understand/solve. But having a full system with all my stuff using less than 800mb, inside a USB stick that I can take anywhere and booting almost freshly in less than 30s (USB 2.0 still!) is simply priceless. It's really surprising for me that Linux now can be a serious daily desktop system.

I have few questions if you don't mind

1- Have you been doing this basically all alone?
2- How much working time you have to spend in order to release a new version?
3- From where did come the idea of creating a portable distro?
4- I see that you have plans of moving from Slack base and you already have an Arch prototype. What's the good and bad things about these two distros?
5- Why do you think almost all famous distros (specially Ubuntu based) comes as bloatwared as Windows, with ISOs around 1GB or even more? Is it really the best solution for the majority of people? I'm asking this because I see that Porteus comes in a really small package (just 250mb with XFCE!) and is capable of doing almost all basic things a common user needs (internet browser, IM and torrent, office suite, audio and video players, image viewing, etc).
6- Do you think that after Snowden's leaks people are more concerned about their privacy and are looking for a better OS/apps? Or they simply don't care and will use closed systems forever?
7- What you think is lacking on Linux in order to make it really popular among common users?
Bonus: I see that you're Brazilian like me. I'm curious: do you live here or abroad?

Thanks once more and keep going!
As long as I can help, I'm here

[brokenman]

Thanks fulalas.

1- Have you been doing this basically all alone?
Only for the last year. Before that there were two of us.

2- How much working time you have to spend in order to release a new version?
It would be impossible to count. Many many hours.

3- From where did come the idea of creating a portable distro?
I think they have been around for many years. Porteus was born of slax. I am not an innovator here. I am just carrying on what the innovators started.

4- I see that you have plans of moving from Slack base and you already have an Arch prototype. What's the good and bad things about these two distros?
I think slackware is a good, solid and stable base. It doesn't update a lot which is a good point for me. Arch is a little easier to build and has a much larger pasture of available programs.

5- Why do you think almost all famous distros (specially Ubuntu based) comes as bloatwared as Windows, with ISOs around 1GB or even more? Is it really the best solution for the majority of people? I'm asking this because I see that Porteus comes in a really small package (just 250mb with XFCE!) and is capable of doing almost all basic things a common user needs (internet browser, IM and torrent, office suite, audio and video players, image viewing, etc).
Maybe because storage is cheap and processors are fast. Maybe because people want everything included. I don't really know. I just know that I prefer to know exactly what's going on under the hood, and

6- Do you think that after Snowden's leaks people are more concerned about their privacy and are looking for a better OS/apps? Or they simply don't care and will use closed systems forever?
In general I think people aren't really worried about their privacy. They sold that long ago when they bought an android or windows phone. Closed source privately owned systems have the money to research, develop and ultimately deliver a better product. They are much further ahead of the game than unix like operating systems when it comes to desktop systems.

7- What you think is lacking on Linux in order to make it really popular among common users?
Many things. Graphics card support for one. Open source drivers can't compete. The games market (and now VR) drives innovation and pushes hardware to develop faster. The other thing is diversity. There are so many variations in the linux world. For a common user, I don't think is such a good thing in terms of gaining popularity. Ubuntu is trying to unify things and they seem to be doing the best out of all the different options.

Bonus: I see that you're Brazilian like me. I'm curious: do you live here or abroad?
Actually I am Australian, but I live in São Paulo.

I'm glad you stumbled across Porteus and enjoy it so much, Thanks for the interest. For a Brazilian, your English is impeccable!

[Bogomips]

@ fulalas slax
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=655

[fulalas]

Thanks for your reply, brokenman. You seem to be very down to Earth for a Linux developer, hahaha! I agree with you in all your answers. And, yes, I also like to know what's under the hood. Optimizing (i.e. not spending what's not necessary) is kind of a philosophy of life, I think.

Regarding the graphics drivers, maybe we have here a kind of paradox: companies usually don't make good games/drivers for Linux because few people use Linux, and few people use Linux because there're few/poor games/drivers available. Of course, there're many other troubles when it comes to bring Linux to common users, but you got the point.

So you're Australian! Cool. I'm from Rio, but I moving to New Zealand next month (it's sad what I heard about the recent earthquake there). Like if we're almost swapping our locations

Bogomips, thanks for sharing this information. Nice to hear that Slax has this minimalist philosophy.