Klaus Knopper Interview

Also, another DVD version is planned for the next LinuxTag 2005.

Will newer versions of Knoppix ever come with a bt client, firewall and anti virus software??

BitTorrent is already part of the standard Knoppix edition, also the most popular server and client software is present.

For virus checkers and firewall/fileserver-on-CD, there are already Knoppix derivates around for this purpose: Knoppixcillin (made for the c't magazine), the PC Welt professional edition (with a firewall/gateway-on-cd), and MXNFS made for the Mobotix company, which contains a complete camera-, file- and webserver solution on CD.

Why did you come up with Knoppix in the first place and why a live cd.????

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Why doesn't Knoppix come with Nvidia or ATI drivers????

License problems.

Because I cannot accept NVidias and ATIs proprietary, binary-only redistribution conditions, I am not legally entitled to redistribute this software.

I'm not a GPL hardliner, but for some security-critical drivers that run in privileged (root/kernel) mode, I just have to be sure that there are no (accidantial) backdoors or security flaws inside that could be fixed otherwise.

This is also true for binary-only "winmodem" drivers with unclear license state.

There are some derivates with less legal cautiousness, but I'm just a (maybe too) nervous person in this case and want to make sure that Knoppix can be legally copied and distributed by all recipients of the software without legal problems, as far as I can avoid them from ms side.

The newly released "games Knoppix" edition made by Martin Öhler contains some proprietary accellerated graphics drivers with permission of the specific vendors, you may want to check this out if you really need accellerated graphics support.

With all that you put into a Knoppix distro does anyone ask for more????

Yes. Constantly.

Some wishes are not easy to fulfill, due to space (CD/DVD) reasons or legal problems (non-distributable licenses, software patents etc.).

I always have to check individually if a request is possible or makes sense to implement.

But since the distribution itself is put under the GPL, everyone can create his/her own derivate of Knoppix to add the wished for features that I cannot add for various reasons.

What do you want to see happen with Linux as a whole???

GNU/Linux is already a mainstream operating system with all applications you need for everyday use.

I wish, though, that people would care more about what the Free Software license really means and allows them to do, rather than just asking about features.

With a Free Software license, you are the legal owner of the software, that's why you can copy, modify and (re-)sell the software legally.

Plus, it is an important feature to have the source code available for security checks and fixes, even if you have no intention of modifying the software by yourself.

What would you like to see in Knoppix???

Better support/drivers for still closed/proprietary hardware devices that you currently only can use with "cheats" like ndiswrapper for loading proprietary windows drivers.

But that is a problem that only hardware vendors can solve by opening their specifications or providing source code to kernel developers, like Intel recently did with their ipw2100 (Centrino) drivers.

Also, I'm eager to try out a lot new and exciting software from the gigantic free software pool on Knoppix, but there is only so much that can fit on a single CD.

I seen the site and now there is a games edition of Knoppix is this a combined effort on your part and another company????

It is a Knoppix derivate made by my collegue Martin Öhler, see your question about ATI and NVidia drivers above.

Martin plans to release the "games" edition on a regular base, every time with different games included, to check out what's new and exciting in the Linux gaming world.

Do you use other version of Knoppix or linux as a whole???

Mostly my own version, but also the small USB versions or security toolbox editions come in handy from time to time.

I'm having a look on what other developers did in their derivates frequently, in order to enhance the mainstream edition with new features that look useful to me, if license or patent issues allow it.

What would you like to see the big hardware makers do in order to help you and other Linux distro makers etc???

See question "What would you like to see in Knoppix?".

Especially a truly Open Source NTFS driver with write-support would be great, but it does not look like the vendor of this filesystem is going to share his "secrets" of "what is written where, how and why" anytime soon without the developers signing an NDA and paying license fees, which is of course unacceptable for a Free Software project.

Whats next for Knoppix????

We'll see. ;-)

Will you make your own versions of special distros like Knoppixmyth,etc???

Depends; if a company asks us to create a Knoppix derivate for their product, they can sell or distribute it at their conditions.

We usually make derivates if there are special interest groups or other deveolpers we can work with, and who can continue support for the product beyond the first beta.

How could knoppix users help you with Knoppix???

Reporting non-functioning hardware, and possibly their "workaround" for making it work.

For example, if you know that your graphics card works with a special XFree86 driver module, and you can tell the PCI/AGP ID of that card, we can add autodetection support for that card in the next release, rather than cheatcodes you have to type like "knoppix xmodule=radeon" and alike.

Will there be a 64bit version of Knoppix???

Still too special, I think, for the few 64bit systems around in 2004.

So far, not many people asked for this, since the 32bit version seems to run very well on 64 bit systems, and there are no CPU-critical programs included that would profit in speed from a 64bit recompilation. Maybe a ClusterKnoppix derivate in 64bit would be a nice thing for compute farms.

The modifications for this would not be very voluminous, but the result would probably not run on 32bit platforms anymore.

Will there be a version that lets you install from cd (ie full out distro some call it)???

Actually, you can already do this with the standard download edition using Fabian Franz' "knoppix-installer", though Knoppix is still designed to run best when started from CD.

What companies would you like to see help out Knoppix or the linux community in general???

Actually, I would like to see "proprietary" companies ceasing to attempt wiping out all "concurrents" by lobbying politics for the so-called "software patents".

Keeping Europe software-patent-free would let innovation stay on the high level we have now, and keep software developers safe from getting sued by someone who just patented the "progress bar", "mouse clicks" or "running a program on a computer" (all existing patents, but yet without a legal base, btw!).

Where can users that have problems with knoppix get help in their own language???

As with all software, best place is a local user group to exchange experiences, ask questions and get answers.

For almost every language there is a special Knoppix user/developer group available,

most of then you can find at :http://www.knoppix.net/which is very fine contribution

site that I use by myself, too, if I need an answer for a problem I have not thought of before. ;-)