At the beginning, please introduce yourself and say a bit about yourself.

Pavel Fedin. I live in Moscow, work in a company which produces security systems as a programmer.

Among many other things you are the author of MOSNET - TCP/IP stack for MorphOS. What was the main reason of leaning towards creating this, particulary when the mythical MorphOS 1.5 should have been included with NetStack ie. native, integrated with the system TCP/IP stack?

There are several reasons. I wanted to write something valuable, i also wanted to have an open native TCP/IP stack, and i thought that bounty amount would be good to earn. A side effect is that now i know a lot about TCP networking in general and BSD kernel code. As to MorphOS 1.5, i would like to see it but i don't know when it is going to happen. I won't say "i believe" or "i don't believe", i will just say what i see. MorphOS development team obviously lacks some motivation. I understand them. In opensource world there are two models of development: 1. I write a software for myself and 2. I write software for someone in exchange for something. The community made a right step creating bounties, without them it's very difficult to solve large tasks like TCP, Webcore, etc. It requires much more than several patches, you start to spend all evenings in front of the display taking the time from your family, of course your family needs to gain something in exchange.

Were you proposed to join to MorphOS Team to work on the native TCP/IP stack (NetStack)? Would you agree if it was proposed to you?

No, i weren't but i would, of course. MorphOS team is closed organisation, they don't accept new members from the community. In the past i managed to push some patches from ixemul.library and unofficial CLI command updates to the mainstream MorphOS, but that's all.

Starting the project were you certain that you manage to finish it before the MorphOS 1.5 appears?

~70% sure. To tell the truth i didn't expect that AmiTCP 3.0b2 kernel is so much broken. Additional time was required to fix all this. Together with this i've changed my job and found some additional earnings, so my spare time amount decreased.

Is MOSNet based only upon AROS TCP/IP stack and AmiTCP or some of the very first ezTCP source codes (developed by Grzegorz "Krashan" Kraszewski) were also used?

I took his syslog viewer, very good one.

What is the future of MOSNet? What features can users expect?

T/TCP, graphical configuration editor - it's the nearest future. As to further, everything depends on you. There are large tasks like IPv6, IRdA, etc, this can be done but i need further support. This is not a month or two.

And what will happen with MOSNet if NetStack is going to be available (if so)? Will you be still working on this project?

At least MOSNet will be backported to AROS. I am interested also in this OS and i've installed it on my PC. Not now, however, since there are projects with higher importance (i need to add support for my S3 video card to AROS for PC and my final dream is to port AROS to my m68k Macintosh Powerbook-150. Probably this could be the first real laptop which would run Amiga software. Though I will be still working on MOSNet. Currently it's paused a bit due to MacOS X on Pegasos research, but it's not forever.

I'm glad that you mentioned subjects of AROS and MacOS X. Speaking of AROS, do you support or do you plan to support this OS in wider range, more actively (we know already about MOSNet being planned to be ported but what else)?

Yes, i plan to support it. First i need to set it up on my old Pentium-90 (don't laugh, this machine was rescued from scrap for free and now it serves as a debugging terminal and network peer for TCP development ;-)). It has old S3Vision864 vdeo card which is not supported by AROS at the moment. To get a complete development environment i need to complete the following steps:
1. Modify Linux kernel in order to be able to access AROS RDB subpartitions. It already knows some types of subpartitions (Solaris, BSD and something else), so it's relatively easy. This will allow me to install newly built components directly to my HDD.
2. Write S3 video driver to be able to work on a normal display instead of semi-functional emergency 16-colour VGA mode.

Do you think that AROS has a better chance for ongoing development than MorphOS (mostly because it is open-sourced)?

Currently i see it's developed. It's developed mostly for x86 architecture, however some PPC activity is also present.

And speaking of MacOS X. You mentioned that you are working on BootX loader. Could you introduce it a bit? What is it exactly, what features will it have? What will be the difference between BootX loader and already existing solutions like MacOnLinux, PegXMac or mini-Linux distribution of MOLK type?

BootX loader is nothing else than MacOS X/Darwin bootloader, the same as used on PowerMacs. It is part of Darwin core so its source code is open. I am currently adding Pegasos support to it. The goal is to boot MacOS X natively without need for any emulators. Currently i can't promise 100% of success, it's a research project, but i give ~70%, i'm sure it's possible. There is only one machine check in the kernel (its source code is also available) and it can be bypassed. After this in the worst case i'll need some own hardware drivers. In this case i'll end up in some Linux-hosted installer which creates a small bootstrap partition with custom drivers and BootX on it, like MacOS 9-hosted XPostFacto installer. Again, Linux will be needed only at install time then (to be able to create partitions and install files). Linux will not be required to run MacOS X then. A side effect of this work is porting OpenDarwin to the Pegasos. It's 99.9% the same task.

Can we expect full support of 3D drivers under MacOS X?

Yes, of course.

So if everything goes as you planned, it would not be hard to say that Pegasos might have become a potential platform for Mac users? Would you agree with that?

Yes, i would.

Changing the subject what is and what are the goals for Unmorphos project?

Bugfixes and implementing things that are left out by MorphOS development team. Currently, again, i have no time. But when i get it i'll proceed with floppy driver first. Maybe it's funny but i personally need it. I often take some small things to work and back and floppy disc is enough for that. Currently i have to reboot to Linux in order to read it (support for Pegasos in >=2.6.8 also done by me ;-)). In future maybe some new hardware drivers will also be there. I have some hardware at home which is currently disfunctional with MorphOS. Maybe some day i'll put my hands on it. Also potential place to work is HDToolBox from AROS (it's currently the same broken as SCSIConfig but at least opensource and looks better :-)) Yes, there are too many tasks and i'm just one poor man. And i have a family;-)) I would like to gather a team, but... Looks like we lack developers. Only a few of them are really active.

Yes, it is sad but true. Above you mentioned that bounties were a right step. Some people say that when there was no bounty there would not be any new, truly useful software. So, reading between the lines: money makes the world go round - no money on bounty, no really needed software made. Would you agree with that?

I agree that money are needed for *BIG* projects. Modern web browsers, protocol stacks, etc are not kind of tasks which can be quickly hacked up in 2 weeks taking 3-4 hours per day. They require significant amount of efforts. Quite not everyone of us is a student with heap of spare time.

So, do you think that money are the factor which is necessary for nowadays development of Amiga-like Operation Systems?

Money are the factor which is necessary for living. We want to eat, we need to dress up and pay for flat/house. We have wives and children. These are true factors, not "Amiga-like" or "non-Amiga-like". Even Linux and BSD are not fully developed on a volunteer basis, most of core work on any big project (like KDE, GNOME, kernel, Apache, etc) is sponsored by someone. 100% Free work is usually patching, bugfixing or adding some relatively small features (like my Linux patches, every of them in fact took ~5 evenings to develop, in addition there was my personal interest). An idea of opensource development is not what is best described by russian word "Halyava" (getting something completely without putting any efforts to it), but ability to freely share results of work and make projects growing instead of constant re-implementing the same things.

I assume that MorphOS gives you that ability but is it fulfilling it completly?

Yes, it is.

What do you lack in MorphOS software (maybe some developer's tools which could improve or speed-up the development process)?

Office suite. And, of course, we need lots of drivers for different hardware.

What aspects of Amiga-like Operation Systems do you like the most?

Responsiveness, simplicity, low system overhead.

Which one you dislike?

Hmmm... Even don't know. :)

What made you to choose Pegasos (MorphOS) instead of AmigaOne (AmigaOS 4.0)?

All my friends who own a new Amiga own a Pegasos, not A1. Pegasos was deployed earlier.

What do you think about nowadays situation which surrounds Amiga and its successors?

Nothing unusual. They are hobbyst systems, there is no strong commercial basis for their development. This is why we get what we get.

What are your hopes and maybe dreams for the future (concerning Amiga/Pegasos environment)?

Unfortunately this will not change. There is no OS capable of competing with Windows. Microsoft is always ahead of everyone, they define the standards and requirements. And Windows is the only OS for users. MorphOS has too little of end-user software, even less than Linux.

Thank you for your time and answering all the questions. Would you like to have a last word? ;)

No, it's too early for the last word. I'm still too young... ;-)

Interview for PPA conducted by Sebastian Rosa.