FEB
17
2002

Dwayne Bailey

A Short Intro

  • Age: 20 August 1971, Windhoek, Namibia
  • Located in: Cape Town, South Africa
  • Occupation: Full-time Open source advocate. Part time manager of the Cape Town branch of my company Obsidian Systems
  • Nickname on IRC: I've never actually used IRC :)
  • Claim to Fame: Once programmed another helpdesk system in VB. Did the same before that in PowerBuilder. Once I realised I wasn't a very good programmer I started the effort to translate KDE into the 11 official languages of South Africa
  • Hardware: Diskless workstation. Can't have those largo people being the only ones having all the fun

The Interview

Is there a certain application/set of applications in KDE you are responsible for?

Not an application really. But I'm the team leader for Xhosa GUI and documentation translation.

What else do you do for KDE?

British English translation. And I like submitting bug reports. I'm an upgrade cycle freak so I'll be dabbling in KDE3 shortly.

Is there any unreleased stuff in your pipe?

Well my aim for this year is to add the remaining South African languages to KDE - that's another 8 languages.

How much time do you usually spend on KDE?

1-2 hours a day.

When did you hear of KDE first?

Mmm. Probably around 1997/8.

How and when did you get involved in KDE?

May/June 2001 just started compiling KDE from sources and started experimenting with translation.

When did you start to use KDE on a daily basis?

May 2000 - when I started working for a Linux company.

Do you always use leading edge KDE? If so, how did it make you bleed?

Not always but I'm just behind the lip of the bleeding edge. I haven't bled yet but then I usually only join on cvs when the betas start appearing. I've got good access so if something in CVS breaks I can update in a day or two.

What is your favorite editor?

vim - there isn't another choice is there?

How do you find out what a certain string really means and what it should be translated to?

Strange words we usually just Xhosasise but because we have translators who's first language is not English we found that some of them didn't realize that color = color (because color should be spelt color obviously, en_GB team alliances surface). That was a little bit of a laugh but a pain when we had to go and correct them.

What is your favorite tool?

KBabel of course. With further refinement this is going to be the best PO editor around.

What is your favorite KDE application?

I could not live without Konqueror. Now if my bank could only stop doing stupid browser functionality testing it would work like a dream.

What is missing badly in KDE?

More application developers. I look forward to more structure in KDE3 to allow for better control of diskless workstation users. Eg hiding some control center functionality, desktop merging, reboot diskless machine from kdm, etc. Integration of workgroup apps into something similar to Evolution. Educational games (coming soon I know).

What do you think, when will "The Tea Cooker" actually be able to make tea?

I hate tea.

What was the worst thing KDE did to you?

Started knawing into my free time with my wife.

Imagine yourself designing a style or theme for KDE. How would it look like?

Boring I like the default. But liquid looks amazing. I have to ask this :) tell me is Daniel a boy or a girl?

Which section of KDE is underrated and could get more publicity?

KOffice. I get tired of the people giving MS Word filter advice but I'd love to see more developers in that area. I think publicity could help attract them.

I think the aspects of the desktop that are concerns for corporate need to be addressed fully and marketed to death. This in my mind includes: web browsers, mail applications, MS Word reading and writing, fine grained desktop configuration and management. So I'd like to see us being the best in those areas and telling everybody.

Translation of course. I think language is an area that gives Open Source the edge. I'd love to see other people doing what I'm doing for the languages in their countries. Although I think it will get scary trying to administer 100+ languages. But I'd love it to be scary.

Are you being paid to work on KDE?

Yes and no. The translation project will be/is getting funding but that won't be for me. My company gives me enough leeway to do translation related work in my bust day.

Where and when should the next KDE meeting be held? Will you attend?

South Africa of course - I believe their's a KDE developer in Namibia but I'm not sure how many are in South Africa. I'll attend if its in South Africa. If its anywhere else probably not, the rand dollar exchange rate doesn't help traveling costs I'm afraid. I'd love to attend one of the German ones - any sponsors?

Where will KDE be in 2 year's time? Will you still be involved? How?

It will have all the South African translations in it. Hopefully it will be used by many South African school children.... I'm not sure actually. I see GNOME as a threat (in a nice kind of way) and want to see what happens once they hit 2.0. I'm always amazed at how Gnome seems to attract more developers (I may be wrong) when I feel KDE is a much richer desktop.

You are hired to write the script for a commercial for KDE (like "The Heist" by IBM). What would be the plot?

I've always liked the idea of a WindowsXP Ostrich being sucked into a jet liners engine then Tux coming to the rescue like Superman.

Someone sends you an email about KDE in a language you do not understand at all. What do you do?

Delete :). Well that actually happened to me. I received an email about our project in French. I went to altavista and translated it. Wrote my reply and then used altavista to translate my reply into French. Never heard from the man again. So maybe Altavista isn't that good at translation ;). But it would be a nice feature to add to KMail.

What do you think is KDE 2.2 greatest feature except from being a great desktop?

All the integration. I like io_slaves, kparts and such because they offer such rich possibilities. I like the fact that things get lumped together like kdenetworks etc. Sure you get loads of software you didn't exactly want but it gives us translators a platform in which we know that many users may use an application.

In these hectic times, where does KDE stands for, for you personally?

Linux's future on the desktop.

What was your first computer?

ZX Spectrum 48k. Convinced my dad that I needed the extra memory - this made game playing much easier as well. Commodore 64 was just too expensive.


Personal Questions

First things first. Are you married/do you have a partner? Or are you up for adoption?

Married.

If you have a partner, how does your mate cope with a KDE addict?

My wife is very supportive. As language is a big issue in my country it means that KDE takes up less of my time then other advocacy issues...

Do you have children?

Yes and no. One in the oven - 6 months to go. Then we'll see how much time I have for KDE

If you have got children, how do they cope with a KDE addict?

They'll soon become Open Source geeks if I have my way.

How many siblings do you have?

2.

How was it like to grow up where you grew up?

Pretty exciting in retrospect. I grew up in the time of apartheid, racial classification, mixed marriages act, separate compartments in trains, political violence, big armored police cars, detention without trial - scary stuff. The exciting part was knowing you were part of history. I'm often saddened by how quickly people forget these things.

Rumour has it geeks thrive on pizza and coke. What's your fuel?

Actually I often forget to eat.

You are visiting a foreign country and the menu in the restaurant you are having dinner in is just gibberish to you. What do you do?

Go to McDonalds. To me that is the most exciting part about traveling. Through strange arm movements and demonstrations I can usually find out if the meal include dog or not. After that my adventurous side usually points me in the direction of dog.

Do you cook yourself? If so, what?

No.

Who does the dish washing at your home?

Me.

Do you remember what was on screen when you visited a cinema last time?

Molon Rouge - great fun movie.

Apart from books about programming, do you own any other stuff than your passport?

A car.

Assuming you do read fiction, what's your favorite quote by your favorite author?

I love SF but can never remember any quotes - sorry.

Would you use software to organize your books/CDs? Why?

Never. Who would want to boot up a computer just to get a track. Far more exciting to just spread out your CDs and listen.

What do you sing when nobody is listening and what when people are listening?

I hum because that way I don't get caught singing.

If you are a smoker, does it ever happen to you that your cigarette sets your ashtray on fire? How often?

What a strange question. I become more and more convinced that smokers are really not that bright.