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QWhat is your background? How did you get started in this field? Any suggestions to others who want to follow your path?
AMy background is actually in the physical sciences (Nuclear astrophysics, in particular), but found myself constantly doing computer programming as part of my day-to-day activities. When I was in graduate school, I took a part-time job working with the PC-BSD project to perform testing and fixing of their application bundles. This transitioned into a full-time position with iXsystems doing computer programming after I finished my graduate studies. This type of change is actually quite common, as computer programming does not “require” any specific background or training but rather is a field that anybody can get involved in at any phase of their life.
QWhat led you to BSD? Why not another operating system platform?
AI started using PC-BSD as my laptop operating system when I started graduate school because the Linux desktops that the school provided were an absolute mess. Not only did the desktops not work properly, but the system packages kept breaking, and basic functionality kept getting “lost” between updates, resulting in old systems which were not compatible with newer standards because the sysadmins were terrified of ever updating them. By using PC-BSD/FreeBSD, I had a system that was reliable, got updates, and allowed me to do my work without the hassle of maintaining the OS itself.
QWhom do you see as a common user of BSD?
AMost of the users I interact with are what I classify as “tinkerers”. These are people who don't just want to use a system: they want to take it apart, learn how it operates, or reconfigure it into something new. Are these the only users of BSD systems? Absolutely not! These are just the vocal minority who get on the chat systems and talk to us. I think there is a large “quiet majority” of users who run BSD systems just to have a rock-solid and reliable system where they can get stuff done.
QWhat are the best resources for a new BSD user?
AIf the system “just works”, then you really don't need to look up external resources. If you do have an issue with something, and need to look up information, then I typically send people to a few different places: • If you are curious about what has changed between updates, Project Trident posts regular update changelogs to our website (https://project-trident.org/). • For command-line tools, manual pages (`man <command>`) are the quickest and fastest way to look up how to use them. • For port/package information, I recommend “freshports” (https://www.freshports.org/). That will let you search the FreeBSD ports collection really easily.
QEditing configuration files is daunting for new users. Do you see this issue preventing new user adoption?
ANot for Project Trident. One of our primary goals is that a standard user should not need to even open up a system terminal - everything the user needs for day-to-day operation of the system has an easy-to-use graphical interface for changing configurations. If you start “tinkering” with the underlying OS, or try to reconfigure Project Trident (such as trying to switch to an alternate desktop environment), then that breaks down and you will have to manually change config files. I think that is an understood/acceptable responsibility for tinkerers though.
QYou created Project Trident. How difficult was it to develop the platform?
ANot too difficult. Since we are building off of the TrueOS operating system with a fully-automated build framework, most of the build integrations are just a single JSON configuration file. We have developed our own graphical system-setup infrastructure, and graphical utilities as well, but those are things I have been developing in my years of using FreeBSD for day-to-day operations.
QWhere do you see Project Trident in the next 5 years? 10 years?
AIn computing time-frames, 5-10 years is an eternity where things can change anytime. The goal of Project Trident – to provide a stable and reliable end-user experience – will not change however, even as technologies and even operating systems come and go in the next decade.
QWhy create the Lumina DE? Why did you use the QT toolkit? Where do you see Lumina in 5 and 10 years?
ALumina was initially created to fill the need for a reliable desktop environment on FreeBSD, and has grown to be available on most BSD and Linux operating systems. The Qt toolkit was something I was already using for various graphical utilities on PC-BSD at the time, and it is much more reliable and robust than a lot of the other options that were available when I started developing Lumina. There have been lots of developments within Lumina, specifically regarding cross-OS functionality and splitting out the various self-developed utilities into stand-alone packages with their own source repositories and version numbers. I see that trend continuing and the “desktop” component of Lumina splitting off from the rest of the companion utilities and developing independently.
QWhat is the most common use for Project Trident? What hardware do you recommend for a simple install?
AI would say that Project Trident is mostly used for light-office or development work. By that I mean you typically use email, web browser(s), some office applications, text editors, virtual machines, and compilers. There are a whole lot of other types of development tools available (graphics editors, game development tools, etc), but, at the present time, I am not seeing a lot of people coming to Project Trident specifically for that functionality. Regarding hardware, I always recommend UEFI boot systems, with an NVIDIA graphics card for desktop/workstation systems, and Intel graphics for laptops (not the dual Intel+NVIDIA “optimus” laptops). The AMD graphics support is getting better, but typically still requires a lot of manual tweaks and customizations to even get working.
QKen how can people help out Project Trident?
A11) There are quite a few ways! • Submit patches or file bug reports on our github repositories: https://github.com/project-trident • Participate in our telegram community channel: https://t.me/ProjectTrident • Write up documentation or guides on how to accomplish specific tasks: https://github.com/project-trident/guides • Become a sponsor! https://project-trident.org/sponsors/
Ken Moore: General Manager of Project Trident - https://project-trident.org