Adriaan de Groot

A Short Intro

The Interview

In what ways do you make a contribution to KDE?

Palm Pilot syncing, mostly. And portability, both to FreeBSD and to Solaris. I've mucked about all over the code base. I also spent some time as licence police. You know, basically doing jobs that need to be done.

Any exciting changes in your personal life since the last time we spoke?

That was when, 2000 or so. So "yes". The picture contains a hint as to what that is.

What about your professional life?

I've moved into the phase of "must write thesis ... must write thesis ..."

How did KDE progress in your opinion and for which part have you been responsible?

It's progressed quite well, although I think the applications haven't come along as well as the frameworks and libraries. That means that there's still a lot of application code that isn't as advanced or as integrated as it could be. I've been working on the Palm Pilot synchronization as much as I could.

What is still missing badly in KDE?

KolourPaint. Consensus on what the purpose of our packaging is.


It's a good thing. Not that I'd use Kontact, mind you, but the integration is a nice idea.


XFig; probably the better way to achieve that is to take a better look at the vector drawing apps KDE has and switch to them.



What are your future plans for KDE?

Keep slogging away at synchronization, and then merging into the larger sync framework once it becomes a little more stable.

What motivates/keeps you motivated to work on KDE?

Sheer bloody-mindedness. Basically, I've chosen to work on this, to improve it where I can, and so I do. Especially something basically frustrating like syncing would need a heck of a lot of motivating otherwise.

What is your favorite widget style?

I think it's Keramik. I despise eye-candy bla, and tend to use whatever is default or what takes the least amount of customization to make sane (like turning off Keramik's awful oversized window title bubbles).

What does your desktop look like?

KMail, two Konsoles, perhaps a Kate window if I'm working on code.


I would be KTeaTime, because it's filled with hot caffeinated beverage goodness.


Mira (that's the little girl), because she's enthusiastic about optical mice but doesn't really care what kind of effect they have.

What users do you have in mind when you're developing for KDE?

None, really. I have a technical problem - mapping databases between devices - that needs to be solved. There are users that want that, but since ideally the process involves no UI at all, I don't think about them much.

Do you socialize with any other KDE contributors?



Well it depends. Do you want the lascivious answer, or the regular one? I think Aaron is one or the other, because we've not met yet.

What was/is your most embarrassing KDE moment?

Search the list for "[ade] fucks up kdelibs" - and Dre telling me off for gratuitously using the word fuck on a family mailing list.

Personal Questions

Which book is on your bedside table?

"Behold the Power of Ignorance" - a goats.com comic book, "DSP First", and a history of physics.


My dad - since passed away - has left deep influences that I'm still only noticing now.

Who do you admire? Why?

My baby girl, because she learns something new every day.

How would you describe yourself?

Hardcore bèta, to put a dutch label on it. Liable to do mathematical calculations on a beer coaster in a bar.

What do you get passionate about?

Music; people behaving badly on IRC channels. The latter can send me into a quiet funk for weeks.

What are three positive things your friends would say about you?

Liable to do mathematical calculations on a beer coaster. Inveterately weird. Will quote comic books at you.

What does "success" mean to you?

Bazaar pronounced "success".


Am I allowed to point at the baby _again_? How unoriginal. Fixing kdesu might almost be a good second.



Which TV show world would you fit right into?

Given that I watch only the 6 o'clock news, I suppose the real one.

Which slogan T-shirt would you most likely wear - if you HAD to wear one that is?

I have a nice "Jesus helps me trick people" shirt a collegue got me, figuring I'd be the only one of his friends who'd wear a blasphemous T-shirt to a Catholic university. Most of my Ts are from comic websites or conventions, so I'm nearly always sloganed. Today's T is from a defunct Calgary band called the Parkades.


Gratuitously sloshing beer on Cees-Bart.


On board a small yacht.

Last week we had an interview with another Dutchman, Wilbert Berendsen, anything the 2 of you have in common ?

Well yes, funny you should ask ;-) Wilbert and I are both belong to the group of crazy Dutch guys with a low-racer or in Dutch called a 'ligfiets'! Click here to see a pic of the de Groot's low-racers, no it's not Adriaan in the pic but his lovely wife ;-)
(ed: for more info see also the IHPVA website).

What's your favorite web site at the moment?

I just waded through the entire archives of cigarro.ca and questionablecontent.net, so I'm a little off those. Maybe ars-technica.com, it's not got the retarded fanboy stuff /. has, while still being techy.

What is the most difficult question you could be asked?

Tell me all about yourself.

What's your signature at the moment?

It's stuck to the bottom of this message (Would you like a freem?), but I want to change the quote again to "half zat is weggesmette geld".