looking east

Yesterday I met Basile, my master thesis supervisor, a very informative and productive meeting, indeed. Having a competent and motivated advisor is probably the most important thing when writing a thesis. So I guess I am lucky: Thank you, Basile!

After having spent the last few weeks combing through the literature and installing Linux distributions, I felt like I eventually needed some more information about what my thesis should be like. And yesterday, I finally learned what my thesis is going to be about. Being a computer scientist, working on a thesis at the faculty of “Lettres” is anything but easy. There is a completely different way of observing and seeing things awaiting me out there. Anyway, so what is my thesis going to be about? Here a (tentative) list:

• Introduction: General introduction into the topic, description of the methodology and related works, definition of the study area
• Linux and China:
  • History of Unix/Linux/Operating Systems/Computing/Open Source
  • History of Redflag Linux
  • Description of Redflag Linux (might be at least partly technical), Localisation techniques, special features, comparison to other Linux distributions
• Meeting a/several developer(s):
  • This is what probably scares me most: the “sociological” part of the thesis. It will mainly consist of an accurate (or even minute) description of how the developer works, where he (or she? well, I guess it will be a male, so let’s stick to “he”, if I’m lucky to find a “she” I’ll come back and update this post) works, how he communicates with the community, how he programs, which tools he employs etc.
• Analysis and Conclusion: depends on what I discover…