This is an interview with Michael Zanetta the writer of Pentoo.

In this short interview we got with Michael Zanetta, the writer of Pentoo. In the interview we delve down to get some more information behind the distribution and the writer. You can access more information by going directly to the pentoo site at www.pentoo.ch.

Who should use your distribution?

I guess anybody that has an interest in security and Linux. Even those who don’t know much, because almost all tools are working out of the box, except for wireless.

What is one thing you would like your distribution to have or do that no other distribution does?

As far as i know, my distro is the only one that allows you the level of customization. You can save the /etc, /root, nessus plugins and ExploitTree + the module customization. Since the /etc is loaded at the beginning of the init rc, you can customize whatever you want on it.

Why did you decide to make your own live security distribution?

Well, that started in October 2004. The live Cd’s that i tested where not providing me with what I wanted. At this time, I only knew and tested Knoppix and just saw Auditor running. I didn’t liked the UI so i decided to do something that pleased me to work with.

How many man hours go into each release?

Well, it’s very hard to tell. I have a girlfriend, some friends, a job and some other interests so i take all that is left to do it. I also take some rest between each release. Before releasing it, i usually spend 7 hours / 5 days to work on it. Sleepless, the co-developer, has joined lately so hopefully now the
releases will be more enhanced and come more often.

What is your favorite *nix distribution and why?

Gentoo, because it’s all about choices, easiness and every time, you know what you are doing and what you have to do. It’s complete control over your system. Also i think that Gentoo has the most complete
documentation and the best community.

How do you see live security distributions evolving over the next few years?

Well, i guess that most people will learn tools and environment to work with and finally install them themselves, but that’s just a theory…

What is the biggest upgrade/addition that is planned for your distribution?

I guess that Pentoo is offering really nice enhancements with this last release but the next step is to give a GUI installer to allow more people to install it without fearing to read the guide. It has already
been started.