This week Linux Online interviews Joseph Spainhour. He's just created a new Linux distribution called "Spinix". When he's not working in his full time job as lead systems administrator for the FAATSAT project, that is, making sure all of the air traffic control towers can talk to each other, he works on his fledgling distribution. Linux Online has asked him about the motivations behind creating a Linux distribution and what he went through to do it.

Linux Online: When did you first start using Linux and what got you started with it.

Joseph Spainhour: About 7 years ago I bought an old Compaq portable III from a friend of mine and wanted to use it for something. I was trying out different OS's at the time and thought that I would give Minix a shot. This was my first stint with a unix varient and it proved to be a daunting one. The portable was only a 286 with one meg of memory and a 20meg hard drive. But sure enough, after a few days, I got minix up and running on the thing and could even bypass the bios and outfit it with a 500meg hard drive. Off course, it would take a week to compile the kernel and the one meg of ram would crap out every once and a while and halt the machine, but this got me hooked.

Minix was ok, but it was not really maintained and I wanted something more up to date. This was when a friend of mine introduced me to Slackware. At the time HURD was unheard of so the 286 was out and my 486sx25 got a Linux face lift. Things were great and an admin was born.

Linux Online: Then you got to the point where you wanted to create your own distribution. What was the motivation behind that?

Joseph Spainhour: I found that after installation of another distribution, I was removing unwanted software and installing things in other locations. I thought to myself that this is a waste of time, so I started planning a distribution of my own.

Linux Online: Some distributions are based on others. Is this the case with yours?

Joseph Spainhour: No. Spinix is of my own design. My whole problem was the way that other distributions were put together. If I had to choose a distribution that it resembles, I would have to say Slackware.

Linux Online: How much time to you set aside to work on this project?

Joseph Spainhour: I don't really set time aside. Whenever I have a moment I just start working. The bad thing about this is that you get caught up in it and the time slips by. Start working at 1 pm and then look up and it is 4 in the morning.

Linux Online: Are you getting a lot of help with it? How many people right now are working on it with you?

Joseph Spainhour: So far it has been me and my wife, but anyone who wants to help out is more than welcome!

Linux Online: What type of technical problems are involved in doing something like this?

Joseph Spainhour: Surprisingly very little. I mean, you need to know how systems boot and how init and getty function, but all in all it was pretty straight forward. Some programs needed a bit of help to compile, but nothing overly difficult. This is just a sign of how great the GNU community does their job.

Keep in mind though that I have been a sys admin of some level or another for 5 or 6 years. Scripting and building programs from source is second nature by now.

Linux Online: Are there any non-technical problems, for example lack of time or maybe even lack of funding?

Joseph Spainhour: Lack of time is a big problem. Putting a system together takes a lot of it. Mental fatigue and relationship difficulties also arise.

Funding has never really been a problem. Another fine example of the GNU community. Everything is free. Although I know my wife is tired of the five machines I have running, and I seem to keep acquiring more.

Linux Online: Who is your distribution aimed at - what type of user?

Joseph Spainhour: This is kind of tough to answer. When I set out to build Spinix I had the corporate world in mind. I wanted to give them something small and simple to install, without a lot of fluff. Then they could add whatever tools that they need to make their system perform its desired function. This is why the Spinix base is relatively small, but still complete.

Once I talked to other Linux users, I found that they desired the same thing. Something small and simple.

Linux Online: I imagine that making one's own distribution must not be for the faint at heart. To preface my question a bit- surgeons go through a lot of training before they go into the operating room. What did you have to do before you started developing Spinix and then offering it to people?

Joseph Spainhour: Lots and lots of time spent on the computer. Writing scripts, writing programs, learning how the system works, etc . . . etc . . .

Linux Online: Some distributions have gone on to become Red Hat or SuSE, the base of multi-million Dollar (or Deutsch-mark) enterprises. What kind of success are you looking for or would hope for with Spinix?

Joseph Spainhour: To be honest, lots, but I'm not expecting too much. Just knowing that people use it is a great success in itself.

Linux Online: We're all used to hearing mainly good things about Linux in general, but like anything on this Earth, it's not perfect. In your work have you found anything that you'd like to improve on or are actually improving on?

Joseph Spainhour: Standards. The FHS is a really good start. To my knowledge, Spinix is fully compliant with the filesystem hierarchy standard. I only wish that other distributions could claim the same thing, then they could all act as one.

Linux Online: The press has praised the Open Source development model as "revolutionary". How does it feel to be working in the 'new frontier' of computers, so to speak?

Joseph Spainhour: Great! It's wonderful when so many thoughts and ideas can come together and function as a whole. This says a lot about our society and the direction in which we are moving.

Linux Online: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

Joseph Spainhour: No problem. It was a privilege! Anytime.

You can find out more about Spinix at its official website: http://www.ibiblio.org/spinix