Linux and Main: Interview: Bart Decrem — Leveraging Desktop Linux

“LaM: So what’s going on with you and
Hancom?

“Decrem: I’ve been in Korea for about eight
months. I came out here after Eazel shut down. I wanted to travel,
and my wife is Korean-American and I wanted to learn Korean, learn
another language, and ride out the stormy weather in Silicon
Valley. So I ended up working for a company called Linux One, not
the U.S.-based Linux One that everybody has talked about, just a
company that happens to have the same name, which is kind of poor
marketing. It’s a Linux-based system vendor in Korea. I worked
there for about six months, helped them with strategic planning and
stuff like that. Thre wasn’t so much for me to do there because
it’s really a Korean company with Korean customers. So I moved over
to Hancom about one month ago, and here there’s lots of stuff for
me to do.

“LaM: Hancom is known and successful throughout
the Far East because of its handling of two-byte character sets.
Are there plans for a broader U.S. and European presence?

“Decrem: Let me give you my view on the world
on that issue. This is my view and not company policy at this
point. The way I describe the company is that we’re a provider of
Linux-based productivity solutions. I’m not saying that to talk
fancy, I’m saying that because we’re not necessarily just a Linux
desktop company, because what we’re doing with Sharp and the Zaurus
is really important to us. It’s not really a Linux computer — it’s
a handheld device that happens to run the Linux operating
system…”

Complete
Story