A Short Intro

• Age: 31
• Located in: Istanbul, Turkey
• Occupation: Project manager
• Nickname on IRC: TarasBulba
• Homepage: http://www.gorkemcetin.com/
• Blog: http://www.gorkemcetin.com/

The Interview

In what ways do you make a contribution to KDE?

I lead KDE Turkey group, which is quite active, by means of local events and KDE promotion. I also work with the Uludag project to make people's life easier while they are running Pardus, the Linux distribution Tubitak/UEKAE works on. My main job is to build a QA model, leverage desktop ease of use and increase user experience, which are my doctorate subjects.

When did you first hear of KDE?

It was KDE 0.1, however I can't remember the exact time – but having a look at former KDE pages, it seems around 1997. I remember the first time I saw KDE and said "It'll surely beat fvwm with its integrated software". Ok, I don't claim that this is a big vision, but many UNIX/Linux users out there were using twm, fvwm and WindowMaker after all and had hardly any idea about having a consistent windowing interface.

How and when did you get involved in KDE?

I got my first KDE installation when it reached version 0.3. After doing some translation for KDE in 1998, I took over the Turkish translation team work and I have been the lead of this group for 7 years now. It was the time when Linux was referred as "multithreaded, multiplatform, ..." etc. Sounds funny now.

Are you being paid to work on KDE?

Nope. I do my job in my free time, usually when my wife permits (sounds familiar?)

How much time do you usually spend on KDE?

One or two hours a day, excluding weekends. Maybe more if I feel I'm comfortable and satisfied with my studies.

Do you have any specific goals for KDE 4?

To reach a 100% Turkish support, including thesaurus, help pages, syntax checking and specific issues like Turkish holiday calendars, etc. Nowadays KDE Turkish group is also working hard to solve Turkish specific locale issues.

What motivates/keeps you motivated to work on KDE?

The reality that majority of Turkish people use KDE! :-)

Which application in KDE do you think definitely needs some usability work?

I think kicker has too many extras and preferences. Apart from that, kcontrol needs a rework of its UI. There are lots of (somehow redundant) options spread around for a casual user.

What is your favourite widget style?

Lipstick. However, from time to time I install styles and themes I find in kde-look.org. Sometimes artists do very good jobs and create fantastic widgets.

Which text editor do you use? Why?

I use kate, but not very often. My preferred office application is OpenOffice.org 2.0.

Which distribution do you use? Why?

I use Pardus at home, at work and on my laptop. While it has just reached 1.0 release, Pardus has unique abilities such as YALI (installer), PiSi (package manager) and ÇOMAR, the configuration management framework. All of these new features make Pardus an unrivalled and innovative distribution and I'm proud to be a part of this process.

What is KDE's killer app? Why?

I don't see any killer application in KDE. Most –if not all– of the applications complement each other by means of functionality, feature, look and feel.

What does your desktop look like?

What type is your laptop/desktop? What is it named?

I have two computers at home, one is AMD 2000 512 MB of RAM and 60 GB disk, the other is AMD 2800 1024 GB RAM and 80 GB disk. They are connected to 512 Kbps cable. But most of the time I work with my laptop, which is a 1.7 Ghz Datron system.

If you were a KDE app, which one would you be? Why?

I'd be “Run command” application. It's simple, smart, short and effectively does the job.

If we were to start a TV campaign could you think of a nice slogan for KDE?

Stop using pirated software, jump into KDE ship!

Personal Questions

First things first. Married, partner or up for adoption?

I'm married with Filiz Çetin for two years now.

If someone visits your country, which spot is a must-see?

Almost everyone but Linus have visited Turkey. I wonder why he misses such a beautiful country. I'm just back from holiday in Simena, Fethiye and Dalyan. Go there and you'll live until 110.

Which book is on your bedside table?

A very interesting, yet entertaining book Free/Open Source Software Development, by Stefan Koch.

How would you describe yourself?

A Linux lover gourmet.

You're stuck on a train for 6 hours and are bored out of your skull. What do you do to amuse yourself?

I always carry a book with me.

What is your favourite t-shirt?

I got an Opera t-shirt with Che's photo at the back when I first translated Opera browser to Turkish in 2000. I wear it everywhere, thanks Opera!

What is your favourite place in the world?

Apart from the crazy traffic, I can say that Istanbul can be described as "the city of contrasts". Old monuments, palaces, mosques, dancing boats etc. It's a great, cosmopolitan city where Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Jews live together. I cannot think of any other city to live.

What's your favourite web site at the moment?

It's OpenOffice.org Turkey since we have buried a lot of time and effort. This site has quickly become the fundamental OpenOffice.org resource in Turkey. We're now planning to distribute 1000 OpenOffice.org CDs with a tutorial book to various public bodies, in coordination with Linux Users Association.