Is that a specialized implementation of Linux or is it going to be an

option?

It's probably going to be an option. It's actually a very well defined

specialized kind of interface. It's probably going to be part of the 2.5

series.

There's a cycle time between new kernel releases which is quite high.

Do you plan to do something to reduce that?

I try very hard and it's really hard to do. I was intentionally aiming to

be very aggressive with 2.4 because I knew that it was going to slip. But,

by being very aggressive, if it slipped then I would still be shorter than

if I were not. Now it's been close to a year and a half and it's going to

be another two months at least. Even if I'm really happy I just have to

release a final test and let it sit for a while. It's getting closer and

closer to two years and that's a long time. Realistically it's fairly hard

to do it in a much shorter time. I think a year is what you should aim for

but it's probably not going to be possible in practice.

Are you going to do anything to ensure that the Linux gets easier to

use?

I'm more into the hardcore kernel development. We do things like that

[plug and play]. To me it's very important to have easy to install

hardware so the kernel will just find it automatically and configure it so

you don't have to. That's important because especially PC's there's just

so much hardware that it's very hard to configure unless it's done

automatically for you. In the end most of these kind of end-user, easy to

use stuff on the desktop will be easy to do.

Are you taking any clues from FreeBSD/BSD?

There's been a lot of technology sharing. More than technology sharing,

there has been the same kind of competition, as between Linux companies. I

think it has been very important to have competition between Linux and

BSD, and Linux and NT too. Just the fact that Mindcraft numbers showed us

to be lacking in certain areas was very motivational. That's how a lot of

the 2.4 improvements came to be. The same is true of the BSD system. It's

been kind of a benchmark by which you judge yourself. That's something

that has been even more important than some of the technology sharing that

has been going on.

Is it only a benchmark issue or is there also a license issue?

I'm talking benchmark in a more wider sense. A number of issues, we always

want to be better than anyone else whether it's BSD or anyone else. It's