Interview with Patrick Volkerding
 

I'm happy to announce that Patrick Volkerding has agreed to be next in the LQ Interview Series. Let me know what questions you'd like me to ask in this thread. I'll pick some of the best ones and add them to the questions I already have and then them to Patrick some time next week.

--jeremy

when you were ill, what would happen to slackware ? Updates etc...

Why do you don't want to make a slackware team which will work with you ?

How do you arrive to view current version of each package and update them ? Do you have anything else except slackware?

What's your job ?

Do you know to program in C/C++ ? :D

If any child asked you "Hi. I am developer and i want to help you with slackware development" what was your answer ?

Ok, I might not be PatV but a couple of those are easy. :)

There is a Slackware team, look at the Slackware 13.37 release notes.

Maintaining Slackware is his job. To quote Alien Bob (one of the team),

"The Store" being the Slackware store.

Simply ... when next release of Slackware?

I can answer that: When it's ready.

I would suggest that people actually come up with good questions, not those that are answered in the FAQ already. (In case of the when ready .. General FAQ, #5 if I am not mistaken.)

Maybe I should rewrite the question, because of not everybody can read between lines ...

"Due it's almost a year since last Slackware release, do you have any estimation of when the next release will be ready?"

Thanks

which release to date has been the most hard/demanding/difficult to put together?

1) slackware.com contains a good amount of deprecated information. Have you considered updating the site or nominating a site maintainer or making it into a wiki where others can keep it up-to-date ? (or at least nominating a site like slackwiki.com to be the official wiki).

2) Every time slackware.com goes down, people panic, and sometimes this can hurt slackware's reputation and prevent it from reaching its full potential. Have you considered alternative hosting options or converting it to a wiki ? (or at least posting what's going on somewhere to stop wild speculation of impending doom and apocalypse)

3) As the sole slackware maintainer and BDFL have you ever considered a more interactive approach to distro development and maintenance ? For example, using git to maintain the slackbuilds, and maybe let others contribute ? This may lighten the load on you and the other non-official maintainers.

4) How are things going in general ? (hopefully well) Is there anything slackware fans can do to help with any inconveniences ?

5) Have you considered ways to better communicate with slackware users, like a blog ?

yes, when its ready.

Please, no more "when is the next release", it is in the FAQ:

No, it is not on the FAQ. The FAQ talks about an roadmap of releases, not about a discrete release. Every developer has an estimation of the next one. Always. At least an approximate one.

I know Pat doesn't want to schedulle the releases, but please, don't be more catholic than the Pope. Asking for next release after a whole year is not a sin!!

Slackware it's a great distro. Is the one I use since 1994, but it also has a bunch of extremists as fans.

EDIT: changed a word taken as offensive.

Ok, well you have asked twice now, so ask something else or leave it.

P.S. I would be seriously surprised if you got a different answer from Pat.

Yes, the next version of Slackware will be released when it's ready.

The question I've had is how does Pat determine that the next version is ready? Is it just a whim? Is there stress and stability testing involved? If so, what kind? Is there some sort of goal that has to be achieved for a release? What is the process by which a Slackware release is deemed ready?