<quiliro> Thank you gnufs for having this inerview with us for all Latin America. Many young women and men see you as an example.

<gnufs> I really hope they don't. :)

<quiliro> Will you please tell us a short description of what you have done these years in the software freedom movement?

<gnufs> I was a regular proprietary software user. Then, a few years ago, I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article about Richard Stallman and the idea of Free Software. After that point on, I started getting informed Free Software operating systems. I learned how to install and configure an OS. Though I was using semi-free GNU/Linux distros such as Debian and Ubuntu and wasn't minding installing proprietary applications on top of them and then, I found out about completely free distros and decided to see how far one can go with just free software and that's how I got involved first with gNewSense and, then, Linux-libre.

<quiliro> And how far could you go?

<gnufs> Suprisingly much. The main problem seemed to be lack of community support than the free software's capabilities. So, I did some documentation and user help for gNewSense, forked Unetbootin into FUSBi to have a usb installer that only suggested free distos (though FUSBi is now quite old and non-maintained). The biggest problem at the time was kernel support for network devices, though, there were new drivers coming that offered free solutions. But they were too new to be included in gNewSense at the time. So, I started learning about the internals of the kernel Linux a little and started building install binaries from Linux-libre sources. Occasionally also backported a free driver into those sources as well. My idea was to allow a GNU/Linux newcomer to easily get maximum hardware support in a free distro.

<quiliro> I meant that before you made the .deb's you had to compile to get a free kernel?

<gnufs> You can compile kernel directly into .deb files. You can have a look at http://aligunduz.org/articles/buildkernel.html to see what I did. So, this was my main involvement in free distro movement. However, my activity got slower in the last year or so due to a few reasons.

<quiliro> why do you publish the way to do things? your idea is that everybody can do it? will this benefit you directly?

<gnufs> I published them that way, so a newcomer could just install a .deb file, double-click on it and get the maximum hardware support free software had to offer at the time, though, I have to admit, the whole project arose for my own need rather than a big social idea. :) I needed to get my wi-fi card working. :)

<quiliro> but that doesn't mean a person will make his/her work public what is your motivation? maybe you just like to help people or maybe the idea that people will help you if you help them or maybe the idea of social construction towards a better society?

<gnufs> Aside from my own need to get my hardware working, one reason was to help friends from the community. The other reason was to be able prove how much a free distro could. At the time, free distros were generally accepted as incapable of being used on laptop.

<quiliro> or you got poid to do that or for a university ?

<gnufs> No, i wasn't getting paid. I was studying math and physics at the time, and was doing this as a hobby. I guess, being able to connect to Internet can be strong motivator for a university student. :)

<quiliro> so it is a matter of search for knowledge levaraged the desire to achieve, your own hardware needs and the joy of helping your friends?

<gnufs> Exactly. And, I want to emphasize that I didn't know much about computers before getting involved in Free Software. So, finding your way and even helping others in Free Software is possible for everybody given some time and motivation.

<quiliro> cool, many people will be motivated by this….. do you have any more projects going on right now or past?

<gnufs> I haven't been actively involved in free GNU/Linux movement for a year or so now, partly because gNewSense project got into a hiatus and the newer free distros such as Trisquel were so good at what they are doing I didn't need something like compiling kernels. :). I started studying software engineering a year ago (much thanks to getting involved in Free Software and fascinated by it) and learning new skills these days. But no big projects for now. I'm in an “incubation” period, you can say. :)

<quiliro> what initial abilities do you need to do what you did? this question is for people to know what is required (inside and outside) to become a hacker: the environment (outside) and the knowledge or spirit (inside)

<gnufs> I think there is one and only required skill for someone who wants to be a hacker (aside from curiosity and imagination.) And that is having the patience and will to RTFM. Feel free to try to translate RTFM to spanish :) Oh, and I'm 24.

<quiliro> i see more projects in your web page www.aligunduz.org/blog/fully_free_gnu_linux_presentation.html, like icecat. What have you done in icecat. Before that…one question: how does writing documentation benefit you hacking skills and how difficult is it?

<gnufs> Oh, those are links to project websites relevant to the talk I have given. I am not involved in all projects listed there. As for GNU IceCat, I have written some documentation and user support on gNewSense for it. Writing documentation certainly helps clearing your mind about the project. It's certainly a learning experience as much as a teaching experience. The main difficulty in writing documentation is (at least in my experience) in developing the necessary writing skills rather than the technical skills. I used to spend an unresonably long time to write the simplest documentation at first. Fortunately, it gets faster and easier as you do more of it.

<quiliro> and about the nanonote?

<gnufs> NanoNote is a free hardware project. It is a ultra-portable computer that looks like a laptop but is the size of a big cell phone. I own a NanoNote and was hoping to get involved in it, but haven't had the opportunity yet. I should definitely update my homepage more often. :) It comes with an openwrt-based distro and I know that it's possible to run Debian on it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you are at the very beginning of your hacking experience. You can get more stuff done more quikly on a conventional PC.

<quiliro> good …. as a last question …. how does does hacking and playing around with technology lead you to good work oportunities

<gnufs> Well, it gives you motivation and reason to learn more about software engineering and IT. So, it has good impact in pushing you to get real world experience in computer related areas that can be useful in finding and doing your job in the future.

<quiliro> can you tell us if free software is run in it and if it is a good way to learn to hack?

<quiliro> Why 100% libre software?

<gnufs> If you believe in Free Software, there's no reason not to maximize it in your personal use. Proprietary software, even when they're very small in the overall system, tend act unproportionally significant in defining your computer usage over the years. So, it's worth to pay the extra initial time/effort cost to get a clean start.

<quiliro> so even a smal proportion of non free software can have a lot of control over the computer?

<gnufs> If the proprietary piece of software uses an obscure and constantly changing file format, you have to make sure you have that software or its upgraded versions to open your own files.Or if you use a proprietary network client software and use it to communicate with your friends, you start depending on it. And it gets much harder to switch to an incompatible free solution years afterwards. You can take microsoft office and skype as examples for these two cases. For both, it may be inconvenient to choose the free alternatives at first, but it will be much harder to switch after years of using them. So, I think it is both ethically and economically sensible to always choose free software over proprietary even when the piece of software in question comparatively small. And 100% libre software solutions provide you exactly this without trying to lure you to non-free “traps”.

<quiliro> Thank you very much Ali. It has been very enlightening. We will publish the interview and send you the link. It will serve as motivation and guide for the careers and values of many many students. Sorry that we took more time than you initially accepted.

<gnufs> No problemo.