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Issue #4, November 2005

Persona Grata: Lew Pitcher

There is no need to introduce Lew Pitcher to regulars of alt.os.linux.slackware, comp.os.linux.security, and as you will soon get to know to readers of about 30(!) other computer-related newsgroups. To all others (are there any?), we just recommend to read on. For everybody, we also recommend to check Slack Essence-1 and Slack Essence-2 by Lew Pitcher in the current issue of The Slack World as well as his materials in the first and the second issues of our webzine.

Now you see, why Lew. We promise you will enjoy reading the interview kindly given to us by Lew Pitcher.


The Slack World: 0. Lew, could you please tell us and our readers a bit about yourself? As far as one can figure out from the signatures of your posts on AOLS, you are working as an "IT Specialist, Enterprise Data Systems, Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group." What do "Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training" in the signatures mean? Is this a kind of a degree in programming or what? (This is probably obvious for readers in Canada and the US but it isn't for us abroad, in particularly in view of the fact that The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary contains the "shipwright" but not a "codewright". :-)) And what is "The Pitcher Digital Freehold" that you are using as the name of the "Organization"?  :-)

Lew Pitcher: Yes, my various signatures and statuses can be a bit confusing. So, I'll try to organize this answer a bit for you.

I live in Canada, and work for one of the largest Canadian financial institutions we have. Over the years, I've had many jobs within Toronto Dominion Bank, varying from machine operator to systems programmer to application developer and more. My current job title is "IT Specialist", which just means that I know a lot about everything and am qualified to work on almost any aspect of an IT project. I've worked at Toronto Dominion Bank in the IT field for almost 30 years, so I have the experience and training to back that job title up.

As you might guess, computers are my hobby as well as my occupation. One way or another, I have developed for or worked on computers for over 35 years (starting in my teens, in school). And, as you can imagine, this history of computer use has left me knowledgable in almost every aspect of computer use. In my time, I've developed code for several types of mainframe, as well as minicomputers and microcomputers. I've installed, configured and administered Unix boxen and mainframe systems. I know databases, programming languages, operating systems, hardware, software, communications protocols, and a whole gamut of IT technologies that would take the whole interview to list. In other words, I've got the depth and breadth of experience of a lifetime of playing with every aspect of computers that I could.

"Codewright" is a term that (to my knowledge) I invented. A "wright" is a builder; a "wheelwright" builds wooden wheels, a "wainwright" builds carriages, and a "shipwright" builds ships; all exercise some specialized knowledge to build their particularly specialized constructions. In the construction industry, a "master" is one who has mastered the arts such that he is known as "the one who knows", so a "master wheelwright" would be the highest form of "wheelwright" you could find.

With my abilities for developing applications and over 30 years of experience in that form of construction, I felt that "Master Codewright" might suitably express both my history and my abilities. :-) I am considered (by my peers) to be one who has conquered the highest arts of writing programs, and I tried to capture that in my 'personal' signature.

"JOAT-in-training" reflects both my personal attitude towards my life, and the particular state of my career. You may have heard the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none"? Well, my goal in life is to become a "Jack Of All Trades" when it comes to computers (I intend to retain my "Master Codewright" status, thus belying the second half of that phrase :-) ). Since I'm not a "Jack Of All Trades" (J O A T) yet, I name myself a "JOAT-in-training".

Overall, I think you get to know me a bit better through my 'personal' signature than the 'official' signature that I use when I post from work.

Finally, "The Pitcher Digital Freehold" is my informal name for my home LAN and the organization I put around it. I have tried to maintain my home LAN using the model that large organizations use to control their computing environments. I have change control and backups, users and services, etc. but all in a much smaller scale, and with less rigour than a commercial enterprise would. Since I have a LAN, and various tools required some identifier of the "Organization", I named my LAN "The Pitcher Digital Freehold". A "freehold" is a real-estate term that denotes a piece of land that (outside of the governmental legal obligations) is owned by an individual. My LAN is a piece of digital "real-estate", with similar obligations and rights as a real freehold, so I thought the name apropos.


1. How did you get interested in computers and IT in general, and in Linux in particular? If your memory is not so foggy as mine, do you remember the first time you got to touch a computer? Which one was it? Tell us about it.

My interest in computers stems from high-school, about 35 years ago. One of my courses introduced computers (in the form of a desk-sized 'portable' that used mark-sense "bubble" cards for input) and I haven't looked back since. I've owned many computers in my time, from a Cromemco Z2 Z80 system (for which I wrote my own CP/M CBIOS) through to the 5 PCs I now have. I've used many operating systems, from CP/M to MSDOS to Minix to Microsoft Windows to OS/2 to Linux. As you know, my career is in computers as well, so I won't bore you with the extensive details. Suffice it to say, my job contributed to my interest as much as my interest contributed to my job.

As for Linux, my introduction was through Slackware (which we'll talk about next), as I finished up learning Minix [1]. My college education has been on the practical side of computing, not the theoretical, so I took the opportunity to learn how Unixish operating systems work by learning on Minix. OS code development in Minix is easy; it is intended to be an educational OS, so efficiency is secondary, and code clarity and principles of operation come first. I had learned a lot from Minix (and contributed a BSDish init process [2] back to the Minix 1.5 code tree), and I found a copy of "Slackware Linux 3.0" at a local bookstore. That CD set got me started in Linux and in Slackware, and I've never looked back.


2. We are not going to ask you "Why Slackware?" because, again, the answer is given in your signature: "Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing." Since you are an IT specialist, it's interesting to get to know though how did you come to choose Slackware among dozens and dozens of other Linux distributions? Did you try other distros before Slackware or any other open source UNIX clones?

As I said above, I found Slackware first, tried it, and liked it. My goals are twofold: first, to learn as much as I can about everything ("JOAT-in-training", remember :-) ), and second to run a professional environment. Slackware gave me the opportunity to do both.

I've tried other distros since I started with Slackware, but nothing has come close to Slackware's simplicity and professionalism. I installed SuSE for a friend's software business, Ubuntu on my nephew's desktop machine, and Knoppix on another machine. I have used RedHat and SuSE at work. None of the other distros even come close to letting me, as the sysadmin of my systems, do exactly what I want with my systems. Slackware lets me put together a system in exactly the configuration I need to accomplish the job I must (or choose to) do. No muss, no fuss, nothing in the way "for my own good".

Using Slackware was easy for me. It looked (mostly) like the AT&T System V Unix I sysadmined at work, but with some BSDish tools that I wished I had. It didn't look like a Mac or Windows "wannabe".


3. What is the way you are using Slackware? Is it mostly a server for you or a desktop or both? According to the Slack Essence-1, devoted to configuring a firewall/router, you are having a whole LAN of PCs (at home?) Is this a `mixed environment' or do you manage to perform all necessary tasks on Slackware Linux machines?

I use Slackware everywhere.

At home, I have it exclusively on my Toshiba laptop, and as a dual-boot option on my desktop system. I also have it on my firewall/server that our two laptops and two desktops plug into. Yes, my home LAN has 5 nodes (2 MSWindows, 1 dual-boot Slackware/MSWindows, and 2 Slackware-exclusive) at the moment :-)

My day-to-day at-home system is Slackware Linux 10.1 (soon to be 10.2), but I retain Microsoft Windows 98 for both my wife (she's not ready to try Linux yet) and for work. I telecommute to work often, and the VPN software that my employer uses does not work with Linux. Since I can't dictate my employers choice of software, I work within their requirements, and restrict myself to Win98 on those occasions. Otherwise, I would use Slackware exclusively. My "router/firewall" server also supports email (fetchmail and sendmail), web services (an intranet wiki, and an internet Drupal website), database services, distributed print services, and my intranet DNS and DHCP servers. My Slackware desktop and laptop are my primary home working environment, with GUI and multimedia support.

At work, I use Slackware as a server. It primarily hosts some tools that make development and quality tracking on our IBM host environment easier; a host "print-to-email" service [3], several production system quality tracking tools (written in Perl and PHP), and a web service to format host data for browser access. Our work environment consists of many different systems, including MSWindows, OS/2, SuSE Linux, AIX, OS400 and Z/OS, and my little Slackware box works with all of these systems.


4. Another question in connection with the previous one: there is an on-going debate on OSNews and other OS-related news sites, whether Linux is ready for desktop or not. In our opinion, this is similar to the question "Is a Formula-1 racing car ready for a casual driver?" What is your opinion on the subject?

I can't see what the debate is about. I've used Linux "on the desktop" for quite a while now, and so do a number of other people I know of. I don't really think that the debate is about whether or not Linux is "ready for the desktop"; I believe that the real debate is about whether or not Linux can be used by people who have absolutely no knowledge of computers. And that debate is one that even the current collection of "ready for the desktop" operating systems lose; there are no computer operating systems that make a computer as simple to use as a toaster or television. Heck, even the modern television isn't simple to use anymore—just ask my father-in-law (who's TV keeps turning itself on at 12:00 every day).

In general, computers (at least those machines that people think of when they talk about computers) are complex and complicated beasts. They are general purpose machines capable of "being" any number of complex tools at the same time. By their nature, they are not simple things and no interface (no matter how well advertised and sold) can simplify them down to the level that most commercial software claims to have.

Case in point: the benchmark (for better or worse) of "the desktop" is the Microsoft Windows platform. We all have our own opinions about the "ease of use" of that platform, but it is held as the standard to which Linux desktops must measure themselves against. I spent 6 hours cleansing my mother-in-law's Windows system of two nasty pieces of spyware that mysteriously got on to her system. Windows did it's best to hide everything from me so that I could not remove the spyware—this is Windows job: to hide complexity away from the user so that the user thinks that the system is simple. Unfortunately, it also hid all the tools away as well, so as to prevent me from fixing the system. The good news is that I prevailed, and dug past the layers of "helpfullness" that Microsoft placed between me and the OS, and I did finally cleanse the system of it's spyware.

On the other hand, with Linux systems, I have all the tools readily available. They are simple tools that will not get in my way, but complex enough to fix the problem without too much effort on my part. Linux hasn't hidden the complexity away; it points out where "this is complex—please be carefull" and where "this is easy—go at it".

Is Linux ready for the desktop? Yes, it is, and has been for all of this century. Is Linux simple? No, but neither is anything else (despite the lies that the marketing people would tell you).


5. Another on-going discussion in the web relates to security. Designers of OpenBSD argue (a link) their system having a much more secure architecture and much more clean code than Linux. Could you please comment on the subject? (Has any of your Linux machines ever been cracked?) To that end, what is your approach to security, as in securing your own boxes, production and development/testing alike?

While I'm certain that the designers of OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD argue that *BSD is more secure and 'cleaner' than Linux, I'll stick with Linux for now. To me, it is a pragmatic decision: Linux is secure enough and clean enough that I haven't had problems with it, and is supported in more environments and on and by more hardware than any of the *BSDs. The telling point is that the *BSDs have been around longer than Linux, but have not made nearly the same impact that Linux has. If they are so good, why is Linux the leader?

My own systems I secure as well as I can. I have some exposures to be certain, but I keep an eye on them and keep the systems up to date. As I write this, six slackware-security notices have arrived at my in-basket, and by the time you get this, the patches will be installed on all of my systems. As I mentioned before, I try to run my infrastructure in a professional manner. This takes a bit more effort than the casual user might want, but to me the effort is worth it.


6. What are your favourite programs not included in the Slackware distribution? Anything you especially prefer as `root'?

That's a tough question, partially because I don't use many programs outside of the standard Slackware distro, and partly because of the variety of programs that I do use.

How's this:

As root, I have all the tools I need with the native Slackware install. But, I use anacron to handle the startup 'cron' tasks on my laptop and desktop.


7. A personal question from Ayaz: A Windows user enquires, "Why should I use Linux? And specifically Slackware?" How would you tackle this question and how satisfactorily will you answer it so as to persuade her to some extent to actually consider using Linux, not necessarily Slackware?

Remember back around 1995, when Bill Gates said "If you don't know what you need Windows NT for, you don't need it"? (FWIW, there's some irony here—Windows XP is an enhanced NT, and most people still don't know why they need NT.) Despite my own preferences for Linux, my answer is similar to Bill's: If you don't know what you need Linux for, you don't need Linux.

To my defense, most Windows users regularly see why they need Linux, from the deficiencies and difficulties they have with Windows.

To our hypothetical Windows user, I would have to say

And then, I'd hand her a live CD and show her what Linux can do.


8. [I am going to let loose an old horse and beat it again with a stick] but in my experience with persuading people to move over to Slackware from RedHat and similar distributions, I have often always found myself stumped defending the argument that "Slackware's installer is really simple". How would you handle the situation if you were to explain to someone that Slackware's installer is really simple?

I guess that there are two situations implicit in this question. First, there's the situation where you are installing Slackware fresh on a machine, wiping it clean of anything previously resident on the system. The other situation is where you are upgrading an existing Slackware system, without impacting the stable, running setup.

I've never liked the overly-friendly "let me do it for you" installs of most of the other distributions. Too often, these sorts of installs make assumptions about what I want that are contrary to my wishes, and I'm stuck with having to undo the bad decisions of a program that had no business making the decision in the first place. That Slackware's install is done from the commandline and not from a GUI is inconsequential; the GUI is often harder to manipulate than the commandline, and it fails when used with unusual hardware ("I have no mouse and I must click"). The slackware install is both friendly and unassuming. Although it gives the user options to "install everything", it also gives the user the power to say "but not that one". It works on every system I've tried it on, where some GUI installers can't even get the display properties right and quit before they offer the first window.

My home server is in my basement and my den is on the second floor of my house. My workplace is about 20 km away from my home, and my Slackware server there is on a different floor from my desk. No matter where I am, I can upgrade Slackware software with a single ssh command. No GUI necessary, and I don't have to be in front of the machine to do it. Slackware's simple commandline tools work no matter what the circumstances. For what it's worth, although I keep my work server up-to-date, I haven't actually seen the system in about a year. All my administration is done through ssh using commandline tools. If I were running any other distro, I would have to sit in front of the machine and interact with the GUI in order to do simple administration tasks that I can do remotely without a GUI with Slackware.

Yes, Slackware install and upgrade scripts are simple to use. Yes, they work without the overhead that GUI tools require. And, yes, they can be used with a GUI. You can't say that about many of the other package management tools around.


9. Is there any LUG at the place you live? If yes, are you an active member of it? Which distribution do most of the members use?

I live in Brampton, Ontario, which is a suburb of Toronto. This is both a good thing and a bad thing; good because Toronto has a wide variety of services, including several Linux user groups and stores that cater to Linux users, bad because Brampton is just far enough away from Toronto to make it inconvenient to visit casually. There used to be a LUG in Brampton, but it disappeared well before I ever knew it existed.

But, I am not LUGless. I belong to a "virtual Linux User Group" run by a friend of mine. Marcel Gagne [4] (author of the LJ "Cooking with Linux" column and books like "Moving to Linux—Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye") runs an email/web Linux User Group called the WFTL-LUG [5]. There are a dozen or so regulars, including myself, but the group apparently spans hundreds of people in dozens of countries all over the world. From newbie to guru, all are welcome to the group; physical attendance is (of course) optional :-)

Since the LUG is such a widespread collection of people, there doesn't seem to be a distribution-of-choice. We have several Slackware users, but Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, and SuSE users also abound. Surprisingly (or not), discussions rarely centre around which distro is better. More often, we discuss the "how to" of Linux use. It is a wonderful group, and Marcel is a great host. We've even (inadvertently) contributed to Marcel's articles and books :-)


10. One can find literally hundreds of your superbly helpful posts on alt.os.linux.slackware and comp.os.linux.security. Are there any other "hobbies" of yours besides these two?

Well, it depends on what you mean by "hobby" :-)

I follow (and contribute to) about 30 computer-related newsgroups. I write technical reviews of books and book proposals for Addison Wesley Longman publishers. I've written articles for Linux Gazette [6], and for Tux Magazine [7]. Computers are one of my biggest hobbies.

I am a (very poor) amateur magician. I do carpentry in my spare time. I'm an amateur digital photographer. I love to travel (P'haps some day I'll get up to Barrow, Alaska, and visit with Floyd Davidson :-) )

I read everything. I just picked up "Nelson's Purse", which is historical fact about Lord Nelson, and I'm working through a series of humorous books about a small aircraft pilot's adventures in rural Ontario. I have a huge collection of Science Fiction (one wall in my den, and one in another room) which I read all the time. Recently, I was reminded of a passage from one of my favourite SF authors that sums up my attitude pretty well...

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. (Robert Anson Heinlein - "Time Enough for Love")

These are my hobbies, more or less.


11. Lew, could you please share your favourite one-liner or two with us?

Put me on the spot, why don't you :-)

How about these...

When the going gets tough, the tough get Slackware. <grin>

or, as I said in one WFTL-LUG chat

I've got a wit. Not quite a full wit, but better than a half-wit, to be sure.

or, finally, I'm playing with using DVD+RW disks to back up my systems, so my last one liner is

  tar -cj /etc /var /home /usr | growisofs -Z /dev/scd0=/dev/fd/0


Thanks a lot, Lew!!

You are quite welcome.


[1] "Operating Systems—Design and Implementation" by Andrew Tanenbaum and Albert Woodull is a pretty good book, and it comes with the source code and a bootable environment for Minix. Minix v3 is out now, and you can find it at http://www.minix3.org/

[2] September 6, 1995—my announcement post to comp.os.minix. Source now residing at ftp://ftp.funet.fi

[3] I wrote a short article for "The Linux Gazette" about this service FWIW, you can read it here.

[4] Marcel's website is http://www.marcelgagne.com/. You can find all sorts of things there, including some of his articles, podcasts, and (of course) the WFTL-LUG.

[5] Marcel hosts the WFTL-LUG site as well, at http://www.marcelgagne.com/wftl-lug.html You can subscribe to the WFTL-LUG mailing list from his site and join us in the WFTL-LUG IRC chat meeting every Tuesday @ ~ 7:30 Eastern time—check out #wftl-chat on chat.marcelgagne.com

[6] See [3] above, plus

[7] Issue #1 of Tux Magazine included my article about virtual desktops, and Issue #2 included my article about Xine. The Tux Magazine website includes an article introducing Slackware to the Tux readership.



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