Interview With Overclockix Development

First off could you tell us your name and
what you do on the Overclockix distro???

My name is Troy Winter.

I suppose the best term for what I do to create the Overclockix distribution is to "remaster" Knoppix Linux.

This procedure can be simple or complex depending on the sort of changes one wishes to make.

Essentially I start with either the most current or (more often) an experimental non-mainstream Knoppix iso file.

I unpack its contents to the hard drive of a dual Athlon MP server and begin making changes to its appearance, its scripts, and its included software.

I also maintain the main page for Overclockix and provide as much support as I can in its official forum and wherever else I stumble onto Overclockix users.

There is another developer involved in Overclockix, and he built the specialized LTSP version.

Why was Overclockix made???

I originally started on the project as an escape from boredom.

I'd also just left a position as an administrator of a corporate network and wanted to keep my *nix skills sharp.

The work began in July of 2003 and after about 200 hours of work I'd managed to create two different iso's.

My goals were to modify Knoppix to run distributed computing clients and other stress-testers as well as customize the look of the GUI's and change package selection.

I made two releases initally because one was aimed ordinary users, while the other was aimed at more advanced users and included a lot of network security/forensics/intrusion detection type of applications, a lot like Knoppix STD.

What features do you feel that Overclockix;
has that aren't in Knoppix which is the base of your distro isn't it???

Correct, Overclockix starts off as Knoppix.

A fresh release of Overclockix has newer software than Knoppix however.

Most of the packages I use come from Debian's "Sid" or unstable release, whereas Knoppix uses a mix of Debian stable and testing packages.

When I first built Overclockix, Knoppix did not include memtest, but now it does.

I guess Knoppix's developers may also have seen the usefulness of being able to stress a system without an OS installed.

Overclockix's package selection is a mix of some of my own preferences and user requests.

For instance I include firefox instead of mozilla (and you'll find flash, java, and mplayer plugins all work).

I ditch some of the extra text editors and language support, add superkaramba, smb4k, and also some P2P clients.

When requested, I add drivers to support more hardware.

The actual removing and adding and upgrading of packages takes a lot of time and there are always compromises that must be made in order to stay within the size constriants.

Why do you include seti and the like in the distro???

What can I say? I'm addicted to distributed computing.

It seems like a worthwhile endeavor- harnessing unused cpu cycles for scientific research, its philanthropic even.

Originally, Overclockix was just a fun project which I shared with some online buddies who are also into distributed computing.

Since then its grown, although into what I'm still not quite sure.

Why does your distro support motherboards sound that other;
debian based distros like Xandros that you pay for don't support??

Its hard to say why Overclockix might support some hardware that other similar distros do not.

It may be that Knoppix's hardware support is just a bit better, or it might be that I have been known to sneak a few proprietary drivers in from time to time.

Why do you use the latest kernel in your distro;
when others don't for safety sake???

Well, I generally stick to what kernels Knoppix uses.

Recently that means both a 2.4 and 2.6 kernel, and you get the choice of which one to boot with.

I alter the default boot options a little and select 2.6 as the default kernel instead of 2.4. It seems that 2.6 has matured enough to me.

Overclockix seems to strike the fancy of people who enjoy the bleeding edge of Linux in any case.

What would you like to see happen in the Linux Operating system;
as a whole???

I love to see Linux grow.

Believe it or not I've only been using non-M$ OS's for 2 years.

I'd like to see a push for more user-friendliness and more standardization.

Its great that Linux is growing in a million directions at once, but a little more focus and cooperation between disparate developers, and a bit more attention to doing things to cater to making things easier on new Linux users would surely help Linux as a whole.

What features can we expect to see in the future
that you can tell us about(or suggest)???

BOINC, a combination of several popular distributed computing clients will go into the next release.

2.6.9 kernel and probably squashfs compression instead of cloop compression.

That should give a little better performance when running from CD.

I'm starting to believe that I should expand the included language support at least to include French and German.

A little bird told me Overclockix will have direct http downloads for the iso's again soon.

And whatever users request on Overclockix's support forum surely has a chance to make it into the next release.

Would you ever be willing to Aid a pay for Linux distro
with features from Overclockix that they don't have in their distro???

I already have.

The developer of Yoper Linux approached me in the summer of 2004 and I have built some packages for that distro.

None of the work I've done is included in yoper's default install, the packages are optional add-ons in their apt repository.

Yoper's defintiely more of a commercial distro than Overclockix (i.e they have a business model whereas I do not), but their iso's can still be downloaded for free.

What killer apps would you like to see in Overclockix???

Well, it'd sure be nice to toss in automatic setup for nvidia and ati 3d drivers, and non-free stuff like vmware and cedega...

I guess I should give skype a shot, its GPL.

What got you started making Overclockix???

I downloaded Knoppix and was impressed.

I thought it'd be fun to make a "cool' version that catered to hardware enthusiasts and desktop tweakers, but I didn't lose sight of the fact that a live CD is a really excellent demo and introduction for new Linux users in general.

Will you make a dvd version ???

If donations ever pay enough for me to buy a DVD burner, sure I could make a DVD.

I could make bloated iso's now to be burned to DVD, but it'd be a little more difficult for me to test them.

How does your distro work with other Linux apps
(that you have been told of by other users)???

As far as I know its very friendly with any software packaged for Debian or built from source.

I've even converted and used another distro's kernel source rpm using alien and that worked fine.

Overclockix works well with other distributions and even with M$ Windows, *BSD's, and MacOS....

I think of Linux itself is sort of a swiss army knife among operating systems, and being able to boot into a fully functioning system from a CD-rom gives you even more usefullness for repair/recovery type operations.

Would you like to see a standard as far as a light weight,
windows system for Linux and Overclockix as a whole??

I prefer KDE personally, and I think that about 70% of Linux users do as well.

I wish it was more repsonsive sometimes, but that's the price for all the fancy features and robustness.

While I'm on the subject, I can operate very well in just the CLI and prefer to boot to a command prompt rather than a desktop manager.

I frequently use XFCE, fluxbox, and icewm, but none of them quite give me what I'm looking for to be worthy of use all the time.

I've played a little bit with XPDE, which is an attempt to mimic windows XP's desktop.,/p>

In the area of graphical desktops, I'm neutral.

I think Linux needs both KDE and Gnome to keep driving each other forward as the standard interfaces.

But it also needs the lighter, snappier window managers.

The real beauty is in variety.

Who do you feel will use your distro???

Anyone who stumbles upon it.

The hits from distrowatch and slashdot sure have helped diversify the users I come into contact with in the forum.

I have not chosen to track useage statsics or demographics, but I hope that many new linux users will give it a shot as a one CD download, no commitment demo.

And of those, that a few will try installing it as their first step into Linux.

Overclockix may not be a major distribution on its won, but it is very closely related to one of the most popluar distros out there.

What would you say to someone who wants to try out Linux;
for the first time ???

Don't get discouraged.

Linux is very different and that can make it tough to get used to, but that's also why its so great.

There are plenty of friendly Linux users who are willing to help you.

Do you feel your distro is right for the average user??

Sure.

Its at least 90% Knoppix, and Knoppix is highly acclaimed and recommended to new users, isn't it?

Its got all the typical applications as well as many of the popluar ones that are not standard issue, and there's a huge repository of packages to draw on.

It's maybe not the best choice for installing to hard drive since its first and foremost a live CD, but then again, new users will often appreciate some of the lax security and excellent hardware detection, which are virtues of its Knoppix heritage.

Where can a Overclockix user get help from???

There are some other forums where I frequently can be found answering questions about Overclockix, and a couple of irc channels too.

These are listed on Overclockix's main page.

And for a lot of things, a user could probably pretend to be using Knoppix and ask questions at http://www.knoppix.net

What would you like to see as far as games for Linux and
support for your distro???

I'd love to see game makers and video card manufacturers do more to support the growing Linux community.

As far as Overclockix is concerened, there's not much I can legally do to make gaming easier for my users.

Including proprietary drivers and non-free software like cedega is not something I can do in good conscience.

I could however do my own testing and write either instructions or scripts to guide a user to set these things up easily.

And there's always the Knoppix gamers edition which can install proprietary video drivers into a large ramdisk (requires 400mb ram), which I could remaster into a specialized Overclockix release.

What do you feel you can't do in Linux
that you still need windows for???

Gaming.

I don't game in Linux myself because I have Ati video cards.

If the drivers work, they often work poorly.

Too bad, maybe Ati will do better in the future.

What would you like to see as far as hardware support for Linux??

All the hardware I use is supported.

I often wind up answering questions from people who have the newest AM64 chipset motherboard or such and such gigabit or wireless network card, or even the dreaded SATA raid configuration...

If hardware makers include it on their boards, it needs to be adopted as quickly as possible for Linux.

Wireless is also a weak area.

And naturally I complain about Ati video drivers.

But all of this is up to the hardware manufacturers to support and there's not a lot Linux developers can do to fix it.

Does any of the hardware vendors approach
you to see if their hardware will work with your distro???

No.

How is usb and sata and firewire support in Overclockix and
Linux as a whole from your point of view????

I think that firewire and usb support is about as good as it gets out-of-the-box in Overclockix.

I have a firewire CD-burner, a logitech quickcam, and a couple of usb keys and all have worked just fine for me as long as they were plugged in when I installed Linux, or knew what was needed to configure them post-install.