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RE: State of the distribution (edited)
Have you planned to announce this in freshmeat, slashdot, etc, or only
in the web page at the moment? Only asking, thanks.
- yiyus
>------- Start of forwarded message -------
>
>They were forgotten words in previous message so here it is a fixed
>version.
>
>
>At this point we cannot deploy a complete distrib due to lack of disk
>space. What we have is an upgrade kit allowing to go from RedHat 5.1
>to Independence 0.0.0.1. It allows testing, proof of concept, CD
>building but nothing more.
>
>What does Independence has Redhat does not have?
>
>1) ADEQUATE NETWORKING: People accessing the Internet with modems
have
> ever been treated as second class citizens in most distribs.
> Consider the fact that RedHat installation only provides for LANS,
> that in RedHat's manual the chapter about PPP configuration comes
> after the chapter about kernel compiling.
>
>For a home user networking is not just a nice thing. It can be his
> only source for help. Provding him with adequate tools for mail,
> news and IRC can make the diifference betwween success and failure.
> While curses based software can be necessary for emergencies (in
case
> X does not work) for day to day use it will give a bad impression to
> people used to GUIs. In addition we must not assume the user lives
> in a country where phone is cheap: connections must be made short.
> We get this by providing offline readers for mail and news and a
> cache ftp and http server (wwwoffle) who is in our opininion
superior
> to squid for home use and simpler to set up. Small companies could
> want servers intead of offline readers but for them software like
> sendmail or INN is an overkill. That is the reason we provided
qmail,
> leafnode and Newscache. I am not too happy about providing qmail
and
> I think in replacing it by Zmailer in future releases. As a news
> server leafnode is simple but far too rigid so we have to provide
> NewsCache in addition. This is still an area I am unhappy (that
> makes us three news servers if we count INN) I hope we will find one
> combining Leafnode and NewsCache qualities: could that be Leech?
>
> Shortcomings: We still don't have a half decent X-based Ftp client,
we
> still have not integrated PPP into the install, we still have not
> integrated notifying the servers when PPP is up in order they ship
> traffic: the cron based mail and news traffic does not work in
> dial-up sites. Of course we don't have our own manual. :-(
>
>
>2) GUIs: We have a plug and play KDE integrated to the distribution.
> If you uninstall KDE (it is pretty heavy) you find the classic
> FVWM/Afterstep user interface you had in RedHat 5.1. In addition
> we have Enlightenment although it is not really integrated (E
> cannot be made the default WM due to its weight). In addition
> installing fonts, font servers and toolkits needing resources like
> neXtAw is transparent in Independence.
>
> Shortcomings: The plug and play system is far too rigid. Only way
> to switch between KDE and Gnome is unistall one of them. That
> precluded putting both in the distrib. In addition the Gnome we
> have in the site is old (will try to replace it by the version
> shipped today. I want we keep neutrality on GNOME versus KDE and
> in addition I am disapointed by the fact X+KDE is nealy 32 Megs.
I
> hoped KDE would thin for 1.0 due to removal of debugging code and
> inted of this it fattened still more. Matt Ehrlich saying
> yesterday in linux-center that KDE is lean must have been joking.
> We haven't solved the problem of bad fonts making xdvi, gv and
xpdf
> providing nearly unreadable ouput.
>
>
>3) "REAL LIFE SOFTWARE": Normal people are not mad hackers whose life
> centers around their C compiler. They have non computer-related
> hobbies, pay taxes, have moms or children. They need different
> software. We tried to include a sample of sotware for real life:
a
> small and attractive database for managing collections or a wine
> cellar, an UI for elmectronic cameras, software for Astrology,
> personal finance, WYSYWYG word processing. Unfortunately we don't
> have a half decent Spreadsheet we can put on CD (there is WingZ in
> the NoCD section).
>
> Shortcomings: We need more of it.
>
>
>4) ARTISTIC SOFTWARE: Here is the software for fascinating people
> specially those with artistic tastes.
>
> We include a "Maximal" Gimp. One compiled with every option
turned
> on. We have a low quality RPM of experimental GIMP plugins. I
wanted
> to modernize and improve it but this week I learned a new GIMP is
> imminent so I am waiting. We also have a Modeller (moonlight),
and
> a ray tracer (povray). I have heard of other modellers we could
> use but could not review them. We also have some sound
> composition and playing software.
>
> Shortcomings: There is a site for 3D software for Linux and one
for
> sound. They have material but I cannot explore them and still
less
> try what they have.
>
>
>6) GAMES: What other use for a computer?
>
>Mirrormagic (small facinating Amiga game), xkobo, FlightGear (Flight
>simulator) but we need more of them.
>
>
>5) THINGS NEEDED:
>
>- -Doc. The best software in world is useless if the user is using
> other software. If we don't document then people will use the user
> hostile but traditional sofware they heard about in nesgroups.
>
>- -More Doc: It is diificult to find what you need in the general
Linux
> doc. Also at times people use other systems because they don't know
> Linux has software for the job. That is why I want to put Woven
> Goods in the dsitrib. It is more attractive than classic doc and it
> also includes a database of available software.
>
>- -Another attitude to the doc: RTFM is a brain damaged concept. It
> si based on the paradigma of the person having had Unix and system
> administration training before being shot in anger by the system.
> But for spreading Linux we must think in people who have to manage
> _all_ the box from minute one: they don't know where is the doc or
> how to look at it, perhaps have deadlines to meet and they have real
> problems to solve. In addition people whose interest in life is not
> computers. When there is a FAQ intead of flaming the poor newbies
we
> should realize that in fact there is a FEP (Frequently Encountered
> Problem). That means a problem to be solved or at the very least
> having the info popping under the user nose. Many persons ask why X
> works bad when the X config software could have flatly told them:
> "Your card is not supported. This server is old. Look for an
> upgrade".
>
>- -A manual: The RedHat one is not comprehensive enough and in
addition
> sometimes it is completely unadequate (see above for the PPP
example).
>
>- -A better install: The importance of installation is far too
> exagerated. Real problems begin after that. However I would like:
> the user being assisted for partitionning, sofware selction
according
> to use (home, server, hacker), PPP networking
>
>- -Different user interfaces for different users.
>
>- -Translations: Outside English speaking countries, most people are
> not fluent in English.
>
>- -Volunteers
>
>- --
> Jean Francois Martinez
>
>Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
>http://www.independence.seul.org
>------- End of forwarded message -------
>