Interview with BeBits.com's Sean Heber.
4 June 2002, 14:53gmt, by , Senior Journalist
From the like-a-rock department...

The BeOS Journal recently had time to speak with Sean Heber from BeBits.com about their operation.

T.B.J. : Hi Sean!

Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed. You guys have been like a rock the past few years. I don't know what the BeOS Community would have done without a BeBits.com to offer them countless downloads for free.

On behalf of everyone, in advance, I want to give you a warmfelt "thank you". You've done a super job.

Sean : Thanks. :-)

T.B.J. : Now, on with the interview, shall we? *grin*

Sean : Just to be clear, Greg is out of town so what follows here is my take on things.

T.B.J. : How did you start with BeOS? I know we ask this of -every- interviewee, but it has to be asked... *grin* It makes for interesting reading, to be sure.

Sean : Well, my first exposure was an article in Byte magazine about the BeBox. Eventually I came across some sample PPC Preview Release CDs and saw it in action on a friend's Mac. Since I only had an X86 machine, there wasn't much more I could do with BeOS except read about it and hope for a port. When that finally happened with R3 I was sadly disappointed with its refusal to run on my particular computer. Once R4 came, though, the driver situation had improved and I started messing with it from time to time.

T.B.J. : On your "about us" page(s), you've given a brief history of how BeBits.com came to be. Can you share with us any more interesting tidbits?

Sean : Sadly the tale of BeBits isn't a whole lot more exciting than that recorded on the history page. Sorry. :-/

T.B.J. : You've recently been adding new features to BeBits.com, in trying to stabilize some of the "bad link" errors with the many thousands of software you link to. What other features are in the works, and how would you like to see BeBits.com grow, if at all?

Sean : One of the things I've been wanting for ages is to be able to host files, so we're thinking about actually trying it out with some rate limits or something so we don't upset our ISP too much. That would go a long ways toward solving the broken link problems--but then we've been saying this now for a long time, so take that for what it is. :-)

We also have some other interesting ideas in mind for the manging of old application entries that seem to be dead or no longer maintained. Things like that. I can't be all that specific because most of the details haven't been worked out yet, but we do have some plans for more enhancements that may appear over the course of the summer and into fall.

T.B.J. : Who -is- BeBits.com, and what do they do in their spare time, when not at a job, or working on BeBits.com?

Sean : Well, I can't speak for Greg, but generally I spend what little free time I have hacking around with programming ideas, watching science fiction, and roller blading.

T.B.J. : What are your thoughts on openBeOS?

Sean : I think they have taken on a huge task--and will succeed. There are several amazingly talented people involved with the OpenBeOS project and things are moving very quickly. I'm very much looking forward to their first release.

T.B.J. : If you were an animal(s), what would you be, and why?

Sean : You know, this is the hardest question of the bunch... Hmmm..

I think maybe I'd be a cat. They have such an amazing amount of confidence in themselves, and yet find things like balls of string horribly entertaining.

T.B.J. : Can you tell us about the more technical side of BeBits.com, so as to make all the hardware geeks drool? We want to hear all about how much and what kind of geeky hardware you run behind the scenes... *grin* (Editor's note... I'm a self-confessed geek. ;)

Sean : Well, I hate to disappoint, but the hardware of BeBits is mostly unimpressive. The server is a dual 400Mhz PII with 512MB of RAM. We just recently switched the OS from FreeBSD 3.3 to Debian Linux kernel 2.4.18. Software is Apache, PHP, Perl, and MySQL.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that we have something close to 100GB of disk space. We use half of that capacity to operate and the other half as a mirror backup of the first. If we ever manage to start hosting files, we'll be ready with plenty of room. :-)

T.B.J. : Please explain "Wiki".

Sean : A Wiki is a space where anyone can add, edit, and remove content to any page. The idea behind wiki.bebits.com is to provide a place where the entire community can come together and archive information that is useful or important to each other. My hope is that it will evolve to include things like HOWTOs and programming information.

T.B.J. : Any final comments you'd like to share with the BeOS Community?

Sean : Just to hang in there and help out where you can. We've had our own doubts about the future of this great community, but progress is being made by the OpenBeOS crew and it sounds like good stuff is right around the corner.

Even if you are not a programmer there are plenty of ways you can contribute if you wish to do so. Joining the Glasselevator mailing list and tossing out your ideas for the OS of the future will help the developers build a plan for R2+ of OpenBeOS.

Spending some time editing and adding information in the BeBits Wiki will help out the new BeOS users that will come with therelease of R1 of OpenBeOS. Of course browsing BeBits for broken links, reporting bugs, and giving feedback to developers are things we can all do to help keep things progressing.

Sean : l8r

Sean Heber,
BeBits Admin

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