Charles Oertel

Charles Oertel is responsible for the revolutionary Freedom Toaster software that allows the Toaster to burn more than one CDs or DVDs concurrently. Oertel is an independent contractor and enjoys spending time on community-based computer projects when he is not maintaining and improving the Freedom Toaster software.

Where did you grow up?
In Port Elizabeth.

What did you study at university?
I did my BSC Honours in Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics.

What is your professional background?
I worked as a space physicist, then I became an IT Management Consultant with Andersen Consulting for ten years. I was also CIO for inthebag.co.za, an online grocery shopping service and founder of finebushpeople.co.za, A self-employed IT and web consultant and a Linux administrator.

How did you get involved in open source?
When I got retrenched from Inthebag, I lost all of my corporate Windows licensing privileges for my home office. I had just done a counter-hack course where we used linux as a tool to launch hacks on websites, and had seen that it was a usable system - so I converted my home office to linux and never looked back. I started with Redhat Linux (in a book), switched to Mandrake, then Slackware, then SuSe and finally settled on Ubuntu.

Through the Cape Linux Users Group I heard about the tuXlabs project and, being ever willing to pay back into poorer communities, I volunteered to help with the project on Saturdays. There I learnt more technical skills and met the Shuttleworth crowd, and they met me.

What attracted you to the Freedom Toaster project?
The technical challenge, and the principle of making software easily available to those without Internet access.

How are you involved in the project?

I am the developer and maintainer of the Freedom Toaster software. The original concept code that I inherited had solved most of the Toaster problem of burning more than one CD at the same time and was written in Perl (which is why I was asked to look at it), but it was not quite stable. I took what had been achieved and built upon it.

What is your portfolio at the Shuttleworth Foundation?
I am an independent contractor. I run Saturday-morning training courses teaching linux to tuXlabs volunteers, paid for by the Shuttleworth Foundation. I also develop enhancements to the Freedom Toaster for the foundation.

What do you do in your spare time?
When I get some spare time I spend it surfing with my sons, hiking and pottering about with computers.

What motivates you in your work, what do you love about your job?
I love solving difficult problems and building well-designed systems that are a pleasure to use. When that system also helps to bridge the digital divide and uplift others, then I am especially happy. I also love the variety and the continual learning.

Who are your role models?
I'm too old for that. When I think about what Mark Shuttleworth is doing, and the principles he follows, I get a warm feeling - but he isn't my role model because I am on a different path.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Living on my piece of mountain fynbos doing open source work remotely and supporting farmers with their IT problems.

What advice do you have for people who want to get involved in projects like yours?
Do what you love. Offer to help. The internet is full of help and advice, and the open source community is open in more ways than just software.