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-cj4x6k

What's the best way to support me?

https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough

Timeline:

00:00:00 - Highlights

00:02:31 - 2nd time

00:03:24 - choose-files kitten image and video preview demo

00:07:30 - 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 Kitty

00:15:36 - How and why did you get started with computers?

00:16:07 - Mother PhD got ZX Spectrum

00:16:58 - Book source code of various games

00:19:15 - Sony and the PRS-500 reverse engineering

00:22:05 - Wife thoughts on you leaving Caltech to work on Open Source

00:23:37 - Are you happy going the Open Source route?

00:24:48 - The misconception of the rude maintainer

00:25:57 - 0 bugs philosophy

00:27:15 - More issues, Calibre or Kitty?

00:27:46 - Competition with other terminals, Ghostty, WezTerm

00:28:44 - Kitty got started because terminal sucked back then

00:30:40 - 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 Vise

00:38:07 - Are kitty and calibre dead when you're gone?

00:40:58 - Thoughts on 2,000 lines added generated PRs

00:41:42 - Be succinct with your PRs, fight AI with AI

00:44:00 - Finger emoji for PRs not being merged

00:44:35 - 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 manager

00:51:01 - Scrollback and cursor trail demo

00:52:11 - trails come from neovide

00:52:41 - Alacritty with tmux?

00:54:12 - How would you manage remote persistent sessions without tmux?

00:56:29 - Future kitty tool for remote session persistence

00:57:33 - Kitty remote control via unix sockets

00:59:54 - Why did you go with Neovim and not Emacs?

01:01:05 - Thoughts on Emacs?

01:01:37 - Thoughts on split keyboards

01:04:11 - The OG chair and approvals

01:05:19 - Swimming and stair climbing

01:07:13 - Do you take notes?

01:08:38 - Why linux?

01:10:23 - From redhat to gentoo to arch

01:11:24 - Thoughts on Debian

01:12:23 - Why do you think people have issues with Arch?

01:13:57 - Thoughts on NixOS

01:14:58 - If you maintain 200 computers, nix makes sense?

01:16:36 - Thoughts on macOS

01:17:37 - Using macOS over SSH as a headless server

01:19:49 - Marker 59

01:20:43 - Thoughts on Windows. Mandatory file locking

01:22:55 - Homelab. Keyboard layout qwerty?

01:24:35 - Favorite movies

01:25:09 - Frost nixon

01:25:44 - Doctor Zhivago

01:26:09 - Music?

01:26:58 - multitasking?

01:28:31 - Best way to support you?