ALL INTERVIEWS

People of openSUSE: Alexander Naumov

Alexander Naumov

Please introduce yourself!

I grew up in a small military town of Mirnij in the northwestern part of Russia.

After school I went to study “Security of the telecommunications systems” in Saint Petersburg,

but I’ve never been a diligent student and left the University after 3 courses.

After some time, life brought me to Germany, where I found a job in SUSE/Novell, and where I work and to this day.

I play the violin, love European literature and classical music. I’m married to a wonderful woman in world and I have a very smart and sweet son Alex :)

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

The first computer, which was in my family, was ZX Spectrum. I will never forget the sound of loaded games (software was distributed on audio cassette tapes and loading into memory was a sound (perceived by the human ear), interpreted as a sequence of bytes).

When I was about 8-9, my father bought PC. This PC I used mostly for gaming.

The first programm I wrote in VisualBasic in 15. At the same time, I participated in competitions in programming (mostly pascal).

On the first course at University I started to learn C/C++ and GNU/Linux. It was a great time.

I associate this time not only with the most beautiful city in the world, but also with the start of using the best operating system and such books like

“Just for fun” by Linus Torvalds and “Understanding UNIX/Linux Programming” by Bruce Molay ;)

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I think it was 2006, SUSE Linux 10.0. Before that, I used Mandrake, RedHat and FreeBSD.

Why? It’s always interesting to try something new.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

Around the same time I started work for SUSE/Novell.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

Well, mainly my contribute focuses on the development and support of the Russian openSUSE community.

I learn a lot in SUSE/Novell and I want to share this.

I’m autor of many different Russian articles about openSUSE project. I wrote (or just translated) many howtos/manuals about, for example,

how to use BuildService, or send bugreport (or why it’s so important), how to help and contribute to openSUSE project.

In Russia we have a lot of SUSE users, but not so many contributers.

I think it’s very important to explain that this is really not so hard to contribute, and everybody can do it.

And of course, as SUSE/Novell employee I work on internal SUSE infrastructure, it’s also testing and a bit packaging.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

I just love it :)

It’s great to be part of openSUSE community and I’m proud that I work for SUSE Linux.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

Hm.. good question.

I was initiator the creation of:

A lot of people meet there every day. They help each other and discuss how to make openSUSE (GNU/Linux) even better.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

Most of the time at work and every evenings, I think. Sometimes also on weekends.

For me it’s more than project, it’s more like style of life ;)

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Open, Community, Fun

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

  1. Documentation. I miss developers documentation. Many projects do not have this, and you should ask every time maintainers/developers or read the code yourself.

It’s not a big problem, but with good documentation will be easier to start to hack and oS project will get more from the community back, I guess.

  1. Multimedia support.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

If activity of contributers will stay like today, then… world domination :)

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

Hm, actually it’s depend on situation. There are different arguments for developers and users.

For example, it is difficult to explain to users such things like Free Software and Open Source philosophy, or that he/she can also develop a system that he/she use.

Usually I use such arguments:

For non GNU/Linux users:

For non openSUSE, but GNU/Linux users:

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Most of the SUSE/Novell employees and various community members during FOSDEM2010, Tokamak4, every openSUSE release pary (in Nürnberg) and of course openSUSE Conference 2009/2010.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

In KDE: 5 (include Kickoff) + 7 system tray icons.

In Fluxbox: zero

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Bash? :)

Without vi, osc, rpm, zypper, git, mutt, ssh, tar, cmake… will be really complicated, I guess :)

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

Hmm … what’s about the Open Source Linux Driver Generator (LDG) for all types of devices and with 100% support for their functionality? :)

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

vi

Just because it’s faster, easy to use and always available.

But of course it’s also question of habits and personal preference.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Neo.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

The first and most important is – better and quickly to understand stranger’s code.

Also:

The Internet crashes for a whole week. How would you feel, what would you do?

Just relaxing.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Blade Runner (by Ridley Scott)

“…I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Attack ships on fire on the shoulders of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.

All those moments…

will be lost in time…

like tears…

in rain…

Time to die.”

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Wars. Harrison Ford is super!

What is your favorite food and drink?

I like italian kitchen, but my favorite food is… all what are on mother’s kitchen :)

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

childhood:

nowadays:

Which city would you like to visit?

Saint Petersburg, Russia

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

With my family visit friends in other cities/countries.

Someone gives you $1.000.000. What would you do with the money?

Buy a house

If traveling through time was possible, when would we be most likely to meet you?

60s-70s, USA

There’s a thunderstorm outside. Do you turn off your computer?

Nah. It’s more interesting to wait and see what will happen :)

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Ou yeah :)

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

See my blog or picasaweb gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/posix.ru/

You couldn’t live without…

Faith in God and love of my family

Which question was the hardest to answer?

About application. It’s really not easy to find just one application.

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

I think I had enough. Thank you :)

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