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Interview to Ikey Doherty

burjans: Hi Ikey, I would like to know more about SolusOS, ??can you answer
some questions for me?

Ikey: Yep no problem

burjans: What is the diference between Debian Stable and SolusOS?

Ikey: SolusOS is based on Debian Stable, but includes its own software repository as well as Debian backports. This gives it access
to some very new applications (i.e. VLC2, LibreOffice 3.5.3.2, Firefox 12.0, etc) whilst being as stable as possible. We saw no
need in having to chase a moving target with testing (rolling release), but rather supplement our own repositories to make the
best combination possible.

burjans: How long you will support this release? The question is very
important because Red Hat will support Gnome 2 until 2010 but is not
the same in Debian.

Ikey: We will support SolusOS 1 until Squeeze is no longer supported. However long before then we will have released SolusOS 2, Wheezy
based, containing our modified Gnome 3. This will enhance fallback mode, with a patched gnome-session and gnome-panel, allowing
traditional Gnome 2 behaviour in Gnome 2. We’ve also had huge success in porting the old applet and panel bindings (i.e. python)
to the new GTK3 and D-BUS API’s, meaning for our users Gnome 3 will in every way act and look the same as Gnome 2, meaning we have
absolutely no need to rely on forks, maintaining 100% compatability.

burjans: Do you work still on LMDE ?? I mean … do you belong of the Linux Mint team or not? (if you said NO then) Why? (disagreements?)

Ikey: As much as others have said different, I left LM quite some time ago due to a couple of reasons. Some of them being my own personal
reasons but I just didn’t like the direction LMDE went. It was something I’d put a lot of effort in, and in my opinion the promises
we had made weren’t being delivered, hence SolusOS.

burjans: Rapha??l Hertzog built Debian including firmware .. what is the
diference with SolusOS?

http://raphaelhertzog.com/products/debian-cd-dvd/

Ikey: There’s quite a big difference between the linked ISO and our project. We include many recent applications, which are not found in
stable, or backports. We provide a lot of the firmare, however we have custom utilities to make life that bit easier. For example
the FirstRunWizard will automatically install proprietary graphics drivers for you. We’ve got a lot of multimedia codecs provided
too and we ship with a custom built 3.0 kernel that is highly optimized for desktop use. There are many base system customisations
and special-builds of core packages, resulting in the very responsive and lightweight OS you see today

burjans: A last question .. Have you think to include another desktop on SolusOS? … maybe Xfce, LXDE or Openbox

Ikey: Sure! We’re talking to guys from the community to do community editions. For instance we already have Openbox 3.5.0-3 in our repositories and we’re looking to build XFCE 4.10 the first instance we can.

They will have to meet the standards of the main edition obviously, but
it allows the community to further involve themselves in the project, and
this way we don’t have the worry of fragmentation of the project.

Any other questions I would be happy to answer

burjans: Thanks for your time and your kindness to answer my questions

Best Regards
Burjans

Ikey: No problem mate. Any more questions let me know.

Thank you very much for taking the time and consideration
for our project!

Kind Regards,
Ikey Doherty

Link in Spanish

http://www.com-sl.org/entrevista-a-ikey-doherty.html

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