Hi everyone, I’m Fabio T., I live in Udine, and I was born and raised in Friuli, Italy.
My digital life began with a PC bought for my brother back in 1994. At the time, an already old AMD 386SX at 40 MHz with 4 MB of RAM, an OAK video card with 1 MB of VRAM, and a Conner hard drive of around 200 MB served as my school.
Perhaps it was back then, just like for @clasqm, that my passion for everything alternative—everything considered second-choice by the masses and trends—was born. So, starting from DOS on that mediocre machine, one day I tried OS/2, and then Linux (I still cherish the box set of Linux CDs I bought for 50,000 lire in 1998). A few years later, I ended up trying both QNX and BeOS PE. But it was the latter that truly captivated me.
There’s no need to describe the disappointment I felt when Be Inc. went bankrupt.
In any case, I have always followed the evolution of Haiku, creating the software I was missing. In reality, I don't consider myself a developer; I don't have the style or elegance of writing that they do. Mine is more like code thrown together that simply does what I have in mind...
Actually, to make a living, I drive trains; it's a good job—a bit too solitary, boring (when everything goes well), stressful (when everything goes wrong), and demanding due to shift work, but it has its upsides.
Getting back to my digital life, over the years I’ve translated a lot of software into my native language (Friulian), including Haiku—projects that, on their own, would require a second lifetime or a clone of myself just to maintain.
Right now, I am dedicated to writing the tongue-in-cheek—yet serious enough—distro by the Pirati del Frico. It started as a proof of concept, but it's improving in several aspects long ignored by Haiku's core devs (far be it from me to put myself on their level).
In fact, it implements new APIs, drivers (cryptographic, video cards), hardware cursor fixes, video overlay, an encrypted keystore for passwords, an integrated AI subsystem in Haiku with its own programming APIs, and more...
My latest project: giving Intel ARC cards a video driver/accelerator.
On an ethical level, I believe that every human creation should be given to humanity without profit, precisely because every human creation depends on what humanity itself has produced up to that point. Profit and intellectual property block human development and derail it toward profit itself, completely missing the sincere goal of any artificial creation.
And with that, I think I've shared enough about myself... I hope I wasn't boring, and warm regards to everyone—may life smile upon you.
