Kovid Goyal: Linux, Window Managers, and GitHub Controversies

Kovid Goyal is the creator of the Kitty terminal and the Calibre e-book reader. We had an interview around 4 months ago. After that interview, I became a fan of the myth, the legend. So much so that I switched back from Ghostty to Kitty as my main terminal. Well, not just because, but because he implemented a feature I was missing in Ghostty: Sessions. So I was able to replace my beloved tmux with kitty and I've been running without tmux for a few months now, it's been good.Video:https://youtu.be/SY8L-cj4x6kWhat's the best way to support me?https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enoughTimeline:00:00:00 - Highlights00:02:31 - 2nd time00:03:24 - choose-files kitten image and video preview demo00:07:30 - Does it replace the open file dialogue on macOS or just Linux?00:09:13 - Why do you create all these protocols and tools?00:10:34 - The itch of improving your workflow. Do you over optimize?00:12:06 - What file manager do you use, yazi or something else?00:13:12 - How is Calibre pronounced?00:14:20 - The name Kitty00:15:36 - How and why did you get started with computers?00:16:07 - Mother PhD got ZX Spectrum00:16:58 - Book source code of various games00:19:15 - Sony and the PRS-500 reverse engineering00:22:05 - Wife thoughts on you leaving Caltech to work on Open Source00:23:37 - Are you happy going the Open Source route?00:24:48 - The misconception of the rude maintainer00:25:57 - 0 bugs philosophy00:27:15 - More issues, Calibre or Kitty?00:27:46 - Competition with other terminals, Ghostty, WezTerm00:28:44 - Kitty got started because terminal sucked back then00:30:40 - Why not use the computer like a normie?00:31:59 - Your wife and friends understand your passion for the terminal?00:33:16 - Kovid's browser Vise00:38:07 - Are kitty and calibre dead when you're gone?00:40:58 - Thoughts on 2,000 lines added generated PRs00:41:42 - Be succinct with your PRs, fight AI with AI00:44:00 - Finger emoji for PRs not being merged00:44:35 - Who started GPU accelerated terminals, alacritty or kitty?00:46:47 - How are kitty sessions going?00:48:41 - Kovid uses sessions in the window manager00:51:01 - Scrollback and cursor trail demo00:52:11 - trails come from neovide00:52:41 - Alacritty with tmux?00:54:12 - How would you manage remote persistent sessions without tmux?00:56:29 - Future kitty tool for remote session persistence00:57:33 - Kitty remote control via unix sockets00:59:54 - Why did you go with Neovim and not Emacs?01:01:05 - Thoughts on Emacs?01:01:37 - Thoughts on split keyboards01:04:11 - The OG chair and approvals01:05:19 - Swimming and stair climbing01:07:13 - Do you take notes?01:08:38 - Why linux?01:10:23 - From redhat to gentoo to arch01:11:24 - Thoughts on Debian01:12:23 - Why do you think people have issues with Arch?01:13:57 - Thoughts on NixOS01:14:58 - If you maintain 200 computers, nix makes sense?01:16:36 - Thoughts on macOS01:17:37 - Using macOS over SSH as a headless server01:19:49 - Marker 5901:20:43 - Thoughts on Windows. Mandatory file locking01:22:55 - Homelab. Keyboard layout qwerty?01:24:35 - Favorite movies01:25:09 - Frost nixon01:25:44 - Doctor Zhivago01:26:09 - Music?01:26:58 - multitasking?01:28:31 - Best way to support you?