Bernhard "Bero" Rosenkraenzer: Ark Linux includes some applications not commonly found in other distributions - but since we're all open source, that can easily change. ;)
Everyone is allowed and welcome to copy our changes and additions, as long as he complies with our license (GPL).
Aside from the installer, application choice, theme choice and menu layout, I believe the Ark Linux approach to local security is unique - we have written a new tool, "kapabilities", that allows to give users special privileges such as software installation. The typical scenario we're thinking of here is that user "littlekid" is allowed to install Software (games...), but not allowed to launch a file manager or shell in system administration mode. We're defaulting to autologin as the special user "arklinux", which is a normal user with all "kapabilites" privileges - so you aren't opening yourself to the dangers of running everything as root, but you can still install software without having to bother about remembering/entering passwords. The autologin can be disabled, of course, and the arklinux user can be deleted.
Another thing (so far) unique to Ark Linux is our add-on CD system - applications not needed by the typical home user (such as the development environment) are available through the addon CDs "Ark Development Suite" and "Ark Extra Software" - installing the CDs is as easy as inserting the CD and picking the parts you need.
We use the (not unique, but also not very common) combination of apt-get and rpm for package management/updating.
5. You once said that your current HTML-based preference wrapper application will be replaced by a "normal" compiled app. Any news on this, screenshots maybe?
Bernhard "Bero" Rosenkraenzer: Yes, the new application is finished. I'm attaching two screenshort of Ark Linux 1.0 alpha 7 (released today), one of them showing the new Mission Control.
6. How do you see the Linux 'landscape' today in comparison of the big-boom time of Linux in 1999? Have you witnessed Linux gaining ground in the desktop with the same pace as it does in the server space?
Bernhard "Bero" Rosenkraenzer: Linux is currently gaining ground in the server space much faster than on the desktop for various reasons. First of all, Linux has established itself as a server OS, so it's a low risk option there - it's widely known that many others have used it successfully before. Also, it has top name ISV and OEM buy-in and support, which many enterprises consider important. Linux on the desktop, especially the non-techie desktop, is sill a fairly new idea, and up until recently, hasn't had sufficient maturity - there's simply no really good distribution for desktop users without any experience ("What the **** is a partition, and why does this Linux installer want to write to it? Is my harddisk not good enough? I guess I'd better go to the computer store and buy a partition then..."). Ark Linux is all about solving this problem.
Another problem with Linux adoption on the desktop is a perceived lack of applications. At least in Europe, people walk into a computer store, see most of the boxes on the shelves are either Windows applications or Linux distributions, so they think Linux is an operating systems without applications - they don't know that Linux distributions include most software they'll need, and mostly everything else can be downloaded on the net - and our contributors are packaging more and more applications to make them available for easy to use installation via apt. This will take a bit of a publicity campaign to address - but that can't be started before a good desktop product is ready.
Editor's note: Thanks to Alien_II for his help on the mirrors, Bero for the interview and Pifio for his screenshots.
- "Part I of the Bero Interview"
- "Part II of the Bero Interview"
