Name: David Kowis
Homepage: http://shlrm.org
IRC Nick(s): dkowis/Fleshreaper/SupremeCommander
Role in SMGL: User/Guru type guy
Age: 26
Location/Country: Texas, US
When did you first start using Linux and why? I tried Mandrake Linux back in 1996 or so on my K62-333. I don't really remember why, I think perhaps one of my friends told me about it and so I gave it a shot. It was painfully slow and difficult to setup compared to today. I then tried Red Hat in 2001, and I was disappointed in the feature bloat and that I have to install 5 million things.
How long have you been using the SMGL distribution? I, uh, wow, I don't really remember. I've been with it for almost 5 years now. Back when doing a sorcery update was the current sorcery system-update. I can remember the first time I installed it, but I don't remember when it was exactly. Source Mage has come a long way though. Gotta be about 5 years, since when I updated this page last I was 21, and now am 24.
What piqued your interest in SMGL initially? I was interested in the from-source build. I was fascinated with the fact that it could manage all the installed files. I also liked that I had much more control over what went on my box; that I could compile it specific to my Athlon-XP architecture, instead of a generic i686 architecture. Now I use it less for that, and more for the "sane" defaults. We don't really decide what is the sane default, which is nice. It's whatever the upstream provides. There's no fancy gui tools for fancy management of things. You're left to your own devices. Which makes it somewhat easier to find help. Also, it reduces the amount of work the SMGL developers have to do.
What future do you personally see for SMGL? One that is good, or something. I'm a pretty lousy fortune teller. But for $5USD I'll tell you everything will be fine 
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Education/Career/Skills? Education: Pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science Career: SysAdmin Pre-Linux - Played lots of video games, slacked off in high school, still graduated with 3.98 though so I must've done something right 
Then joined the USAF and became un-lazy. Now got out of the USAF. Post-Linux - SysAdmin for a small IT consulting company Skills: Pretty good understanding of electronics. I like to read, code, and play video games. I don't do nearly as much coding as I used to 
Supreme Commander is the best RTS evar!
Any personal messages for the Source Mage users out there? It's the best, you'll be hard pressed to find one that is a more powerful system but still easy to use. And, uh, once you get past the install, its good (trust me, you'll never have to reinstall Even then the install is much easier than it used to be.
vi or emacs? vi
KDE or GNOME? KDE
BSD or GPL? GPL
What other OS programs/software have you worked on? I've done some programming in Windows, but nothing amazing/productive. I know Java really well.
Do you have any family? Got married May 21, 2006. (now I have no excuse to forget my anniversary :|)
What kind of car do you drive? Or what is your dream car? Rolled the Truck over ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidkowis/sets/72157594454803154/ ) I now have a 2006 Pontiac Vibe GT.
Please attach a recent photograph of yourself - if you're brave enough ;=)