MAR
23
2001

Linux.com interviews theKompany.com

Submitted by Jason Tackaberry

We've interviewed Shawn Gordon, President and CEO of theKompany.com, over at Linux.com. Among other things, in this lengthy interview we discuss theKompany's business model, a bit about Eazel and Ximian, their current software, and future plans for Rekall, Kivio, Kapital, and KODE.

Comments

Come on Shawn, progressive metal???
Real coders only listen to death metal! :-)

Anyway, great interview!

By Jacek at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

are you kidding?
Real coders listen to techno/trance
while coding. That's the only way to code
efficiently. Moreover there are no good Heavy/death metal internet radios.

By jesunix at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

SQUAREPUSHER!!!!!!!

- and that's all I have to say about that.

By Eron Lloyd at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

Personally, I prefer something trippy and slow, like Scorn.
When I'm under time pressure, I code listening to gabber.

By Jacek at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

I code listening to Polvo, Syd Barrett and other experimental bands. This makes my creativity go wild and come up with some weird coding ideas.

By Jesús A. Sánchez A. at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

Real coders don't give a damn about noises outside their heads. Not while they are really coding like real coders. Really!

By Roberto Alsina at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

Black Metal

By Mayhem at Fri, 2001/03/23 - 6:00am

Real Coders listen to early eighties british
post-new-wave such as Deep Freeze Mice and TV
Personaliies.

(Not really, but it would be nice).

P.S If you are wondering the following Shawn's
phrase:

"Honestly, we are totally different companies. Ximian's products are T-shirts and stuffed animals"

visit:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/helixcode.html

(I got the link from the official ximian site).

By Count Zero at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

No, no, no. You guys have it all wrong. REAL coders listen to Andrea Bocelli and Michael W. Smith.

By Timothy R. Butler at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Michael W. Smith?
I listen to dc Talk ALL THE TIME! They are my favorite group! Micheal W. Smith is really good too, but I like dc Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Project 86, Tourniquet, P.O.D., Earthsuit, and a few others while coding, driving, sleeping, eating... I guess I could just say "living" and that'd cover it!

CHRISTIAN MUSIC ROCKS!

By A. Cantrell at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Hi A. Cantrell,
Let me second that for Christian Music (for coding, eating, and driving - although I'm not sure about sleeping)! I must admit that I haven't had the opportunity to hear much dc Talk, but I need to put that on my "todo" list.
I guess while I'm at it, I might as well add in a few more good CCM'ers... Steven Curtis Chapman, Wes King, Chris Rice, Hillsongs Australia, and Sixpence None the Richer are good for CCM choices for coding (and eating, and driving, and who knows, maybe even sleeping) too. They all were helpful in getting a major coding project done.

I guess I'm not the only one who thinks Christian Music is idea for coding then, eh? :-)

-Tim

By Timothy R. Butler at Sun, 2001/03/25 - 6:00am

Have you ever checked out http://www.christiancoders.com it has a message board and some other stuff. It's not really Linux programming, most of the people seem to be into Windows programming, but there's hope for them, eh? =)

By A. Cantrell at Sun, 2001/03/25 - 6:00am

Hi A. Cantrell,
Hmm... no I hadn't. I'll have to go look at their site. Thanks!

-Tim

By Timothy R. Butler at Thu, 2001/03/29 - 6:00am

J.S Bach rocks!

By konqi at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Was that the lead singer from Skid Row? ;-)

http://forums.delphi.com/sebastianb/start/

By Roberto Alsina at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

> J.S Bach rocks!

Agreed - the Brandenburg Concertos are what I use when I'm doing high level design. After that, it's really doesn't matter; it all fades into the background when I code. Lately, I've been listening to rough, gritty stuff like Violent Femmes, Nick Cave, Black 47, Boiled in Lead... but ELO, Queen, Erasure, Oingo Boingo, Devo, Holst, 10k Maniacs, Dead Milkmen, Zeppelin, Lords of Acid... all have been good coding music. Sony's 400 disk CD changers are great.

I've very sensitive to sound and space when I code - I can't stand people behind me, and while I can do admin tasks in silence, I can't *really* get into code unless music is playing - in the 80's, I would just listen to Metallica's ...and Justice For All album on repeat for hours on end while I worked (prior to that, Pink Floyd's The Wall). Over and over and over... but I wasn't really listening.

About the only things I can't code to are songs by James Taylor, Zappa, Janis Joplin, late era Beatles, some soundtracks and a few others - it's not that the music isn't good... it just intrudes into my mental space, and I wind up listening rather than coding.

Right this moment, though, I'm listening to quite possibly the best title for something to listen to while coding: put out by Information Society, the title of the album (which uses things like a modem connect as the start of a song) is simply:

Hack

--
Evan

By Evan "JabberWok... at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Yes, the Brandenburg Concertos are great. I would also like to recommend the small pieces like the Goldberg Variations, partitas, suites and others. I think there's something in the polyphonic music that stimulates your mind.

P.S. Why is it that the world never remembered the name of Johann Gambolputty de von ausfern schplenden schlitter crassbenbon fried digger dingle dangle dongle dungle burstein von knacker thrasher apple banger horowitz ticolensic grander knotty spelltinkle grandlich grumblemeyer spelterwasser kurstlich himbleeisen bahnwagen gutenabend bitte ein nurnburger bratwustle gerspurten mitz weimache luber hundsfut gumberaber shonendanker kalbsfleisch mittler aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

By konqi at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Tomorrow we'll sing St. Johns Passion..
:-)

Tim

By Tim Gollnik at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

That part gave me a shock....heh...

'cause I'm also only programming till I 'Make it' as a musician....

and the progressive metal bit is even the same ;)

anyway...to pull this post somewhere vaguely on topic, I must say that as a lurker on koffice and koffice-devel and a regular reader of the dot that I have seen nothing but good things from Shawn and theKompany.com. I hope he keeps up the good work, and manages to make theKompany.com a success.

http://www.mp3.com/cumulonimbus

By Stuart Herring at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

I wrote and recorded a progressive hard rock "concept" album about 7 years ago on 8 track in my garage with my last band. I recently converted it to MP3's and I was thinking about putting it up somewhere. I wish the quality was better, but it's not too bad.

It seems like a lot of good programmers are also musicians, seems to have something to do with our superior brains and constant typing :).

I appreciate your kind words, and I know our hard working programmers do too.

By Shawn Gordon at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Not as MP3 - you should use Ogg Vorbis instead! Take a look at http://www.vorbis.com/ to get more info, if you haven't heard about it already...

By Joergen Ramskov at Mon, 2001/03/26 - 6:00am

Oh I love Ogg Vorbis, I just didn't have the tools to make it set up yet. I've got some interesting ideas of some things I would like to do with that technology. I'll have to try that new Konqueror plug in and pull them off the CD they are on, I think that will work.

By Shawn Gordon at Mon, 2001/03/26 - 6:00am

#define __REAL_CODERS_LISTEN_TO_GOA_TRANCE__

By 604 at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Filling gaps ? There is no good charting tool. KChart is just hopeless.

By Felek at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

You can do charting with VeePee, see http://www.thekompany.com/projects/vp/screenshots.php3 part of the reason for VeePee and charting was in support of Kapital, so we could do charts. For reporting, Kugar could use some charting controls.

I haven't looked at KChart at this stage, so I can't really comment, but perhaps VeePee can be used as a replacement.

By Shawn Gordon at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Hmm...strange. I thought I wasn't unique in
what I listen to while I code. I thought most
people listen to Britney Spears but I guess it
was just me. :)

By Anonymous at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

From the interview I got that KODE was an IDE for multipile languages. It would be great if there was a 'usable' IDE for UNIX, something with an editor like SlickEdit that does simple project management and can debug threads is all I realy want(Motif support would nice though, Qt cost too much). Can you give more info please!!!

By Lee at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

I don't want to get into a lot of details until things are closer to completion. I have a severe aversion to vaporware and I don't want to create false expectations, so try to hang tight and as the product continues to come together, we will let more details out.

By Shawn Gordon at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Maybe Shawn was a bit rough on Xamian. I hear that there's a huge market for stuffed monkey's out there. Maybe they can expand into beanie babys or those MCDolands toys that they give away in the happy meals.

Craig

By Craig Black at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

Ahhh I listen to metal when I code. Black, Death, Thrash, Progressive, Power - I love it all...well apart from nu-metal.

Anyway, I think this is defying the point. Real coders just listen to inspiration...and we all have that. :-)

By Jono Bacon at Sat, 2001/03/24 - 6:00am

It now appears that Xamian is an elaborate ploy to get linux users to purchase stuffed animals. I don't know if its true but i heard that Miguel came up with the idea will working as a carney at a circus in Mexico city. It may not be true but i heard hes the third los lobos brother.

Craig

By Craig Black at Sun, 2001/03/25 - 6:00am