Interview with bigbearomaha
Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Well, I have no life. I work as a full time truck driver/dispatcher, I have a commercial cleaning business, I run a non-profit Linux/tech support community program for non-profit community programs that need help. Oh Yeah, I am part of the BEL (Business Edition Linux) Project team also.
I really must say though, none of the work that is going on now, that has brought BEL Project and the servers to even this point could have been done without donsanderson, our Server Team Lead. Don is an experienced network technician for around twenty years now and knows what a server should do and how it should just do it's job. We have had other members really pitch in and help with support and graphics and even providing us with new documentation, like eleduardok and weric. I want to say thank you to those folks so much. We have a lot of work ahead of us but we keep it fun and interesting.
Q: What propelled you to create this version?
Another fellow and myself got together one day , just over a year ago, that would be 'Merlin', and bought together two ideas to make one business project. I wanted to make a server based on PCLinuxOS, Merlin wanted to create a SOHO desktop that enabled very small business users to be productive with PCLinuxOS as well. Thus was born what has become the BEL Project.
Q: What were some of the hurdles that you had to get over in creating this version?
Getting other people involved is one of the biggest hurdles. It takes a lot to make (tweak) together a 'multi-server' from what is originally presented as a home user desktop. It is a testament to PCLinuxOS that it is as powerful and flexible enough to do so. It really is a 'niche' area to work with servers and getting just the right group of people together to put in the work to not just make it, but keep trying to make it better is a challenge.
Q: What do you see for the future of this version?
We are working to "own" the niche market for small to medium sized businesses running Linux servers/systems. One of my biggest pet peeves is people referring to PCLinuxOS as a "newbie" distro. PCLinuxOS, and BEL, by extension, are as capable as any other Linux distro currently available, and I would venture to say even better than most in it's offerings.
