Bill, I’m pleased to say that ClassLink and many of our clients are big fans of TuxPaint. It’s a great tool that does the job in many elementary classrooms. Thanks for taking a few minutes here to share your thoughts with the K12 community. Let’s get started.
Sure, thanks for the opportunity, Berj. I’m a fan of TuxPaint, too.

Were you determined to make the program open source, e.g. free, from the start?
Yes, open source is easier to develop.  There’s no tax, no problems getting it out there, easier support and expansion, and people are more willing to donate time to something that is free.
Besides, with a single person working on it, development couldn’t be funded in the way a full business would need to be.  Also, I guess the world is lucky that I’m poor because I’ve learned to write my own games in BASIC since I was a kid, mostly because I didn’t have any games.  So I had a lot of experience in writing software.

What caused you to develop a graphic editor?
One of the people in the Linux user group has two kids and said (other programs) didn’t work.

It looks like June 14, 2002, was the date of the first release………how long did version 0.1 take?
All of 2 days.

How has it evolved since 2002?
Our key goal is to keep it simple.

What was your ‘day-gig’ when you set out to write Tux Paint?
Working for WorldCom web development.  Currently, I’m doing mobile games and working on Tux Paint helped my resume for this role.  At the Vintage Computer Festival I met someone who was a fan of older computer games and I showed them what I had done on Atari 8 bit.

Let’s talk a bit more about Tux Paint and the Tux Paint movement.  How many downloads have occurred?
1.3 million at a minimum plus the distribution and reproduction of cd roms which are tough to count.

It looks like Tux Paint supports some 70-80 languages.  In how many countries has it been downloaded?
There are actually even more languages and countries than the 80. It’s another one of the great benefits of open source...co-developers around the world adding functionality and local language support.

Where is the strangest place your software has been deployed?
I heard designers at some large electronic game development companies have used it for mock-ups.  The neatest modification was a connection to a steering wheel and punch buttons for a children’s hospital so that disabled kids can still use the software.

In terms of the future, as graphics software tools continue to evolve into areas like animation, editing, etc., how do you see ‘image editing’ evolving in the future?
That’s not really a field I pay attention to. I’m more oriented around what kids would want in basic graphics editing tool. It seems they want more realism today, paint programs that react like true paint, where you paint with a brush and it may smudge and have texture.  A Tux animation tool could be cool. TP will have some support for vector through the new stamp tool.  An idea for the future is Illustrator for kids.  I get emails all the time with suggestions and tips.

How do you see the open source sector evolving in the future?  Do you believe there will be special types or areas of software where open source will totally take over?
I don’t think there will be a place where open source will be the only choice.  However, the education marketplace is a natural area for open source: embedded systems, pda’s, Tivo, NETGEAR.  Where there is a low cost appliance, it doesn’t make sense for an expensive software cost.  Other naturals are the public sector and government.

If you could embark on a new open source project, what would it be?
It would be nice to ‘finish’ Tux Paint but that will never happen. Printshop is still around... it’s an extension of TP with clip art. I think a word processor program that teaches you about writing would be neat.

Let’s talk about the Tux Paint site.  Why is the penguin whistling?
He is actually blowing a kiss…… ‘voila.’  We took the logo originally from a math game where if the player got the right answer, the penguin blew a kiss.  Also, the newer version supports some universal penguin sounds.

All this time and your readme says version 0.9.16… why?
In the beginning it was date based… 2002.16, 17, 18.  Then we decided that when the stamp collection is ready we can say it is 1.0.  I think versioning is annoying in the marketplace.  I like the Ubuntu model… 2 digit for the year and 2 digit for the month.

What is it like working with developers that are around the world?
For the most part they are boon, e.g. Japan version gets support for Japanese characters.  The bad side is that features get added with bad code.  Then you have to support and debug spaghetti code.  Volunteers are sometimes hard to find so you have to go begging.  You need to remain active to drive the project; no different really than a commercial development team.  Another benefit, open source development has no timelines. I never met anyone on the project other than the friends that helped.  There were well over a hundred in 5 years.

Our thanks to Bill Kendrick for his time with this interview and especially for providing such a great tool for kids and educators!  You can contact Bill at bill@newbreedsoftware.com.