Re: Current talk from gnomedesktop.org

["MArk Finlay" <sisob eircom net>]

Hey Daneil,

I was looking at the archives for this list and saw that the old
gnome-os was going to be based on debian and be targeted at
coprorate users.

I don't know about you but my personal interests would be to start
off designing towards home users and then maybe make a server
version too with stuff like NFS/NIS/NAT/Samba/X forwarding etc..

I still have to so some research but IMHO apt-rpm is probably the
best system to base a gnome os on atm. But I still want to check out
dropline and see if that could be made into a whole os. Also see what
redcarpet and Ximain2 is like.

Redhat has come on so much in the last while I think that a good formula
might be:
Redhat + Extras from ximian - kde - most servers + loads of multimedia
stuff + handpicked gtk2 applications- redhat artwork + a consistent gnome
theme for desktop/gdm/boot/grub/lilo

Unfortunately I'm in hospital atm and have exams in a month and so am in
no condition to start something like this. My plans mostly involved using
the new kernel with redhat 9.1 because that's when I envisage being able
to start something as big and exciting as this..

But our goals for a project like this seem very similar, i particularly like
your zeroconf ideas. I'd love to make gnomeos (or Gnome Linux Desktop
as I was calling it) as easy to use and configure as OsX.

I've already written some scripts that rebuild anaconda with some gnome
artwork, and update the hdlists with new rpms added to the iso. If you want
I could start up a sf project and commit the base layout to cvs. I also
have a small readme on how to use the scripts.  Might be a bit
premature yet. Have you got any strong opinons on how the whole thing
might work? love to hear them...

Also I was thinking that I'd use an apt-get repository, that way you could
cut a new iso, say every month or two, but in the meantime the users
could still get the latest STABLE* software from the repository.
Also the repository should always be kept fully compatible with the latest
redhat release so that people can just upgrade from that if they don't want
to bother doing a full os install, and it would aslo mean that we would be
providing the much saught after rpms for redhat..

MArk

* some of the users of gnomesupport.org have already stepped up to run
the unstable repository.

----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Farrell <daniel farrells org>
To: <gnome-os gnome org>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 11:35 PM
Subject: Current talk from gnomedesktop.org


> Here are recent posts by a couple of us on gnomedesktop.org about a
> gnomeos...
>
> Mine:
>
> Man, tons of exciting things happening in Gnomeworld...
>
> The desktop is getting to be world class and the apps are moving along
> great... once we get stable G2 releases of the basic software there
> isn't any reason an average joe couldn't live nicely in Gnomeworld...
>
> I do think we need a community Gnome distribution though... one aimed at
> the home user. Debian is the closest we have, but doesn't hit my
> personal goals, which are as follows:
>
>       * Gnome philosophy(make the right choice, not offer it as one of
>         30 choices) from top to bottom and follows Gnome releases.
>       * Integration(Gnome System Tools), integration(Red-carpet or
>         workalike), INTEGRATION(Rendezvous compatible Zeroconf/mDNS)!!!!
>       * Simple... only G2 software
>       * It just works
> Anyone else interested?
>
> And a couple from Mark:
>
> "Would you mind sharing your ideas about it? Anyone else can feel to
> share what they have been thinking about this too."
>
> Well most of my ideas are on http://www.advogato.org/person/sisob/
> and http://gnomesupport.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2339
>
> The general idea would be to fully integrate gnome with a dsitribution
> in such a way that the user would never have to be faced with linux
> internals if they don't want to. I want the operating system to fell
> fast and integrated.
>
> One of the most important part of my idea is that it be a task based os.
> Instead of saying "this app is cool lets include it" i'd say "we need
> the os to do X so lets look at all the apps that do X, pick the best
> one, include it and them out if they need it".
>
> Right now I'm thinking redhat 9.1 with gnome 2.4 and some Ximian mixed
> in of possible debian or slackware/dropline. Yeah I know, none of that
> is out but It'll be summer at least by the time I get to it.
>
> I've aready looked into how i could do it with readhat. It's quite easy
> to customise the installer with new artwork, and remove packages that
> aren't needed.
>
> There is a gnome-os list here
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-os/index.html - it looks totally
> dead, so we could take that over.
>
> The biggest point of my plan is to extend the "just works" philosophy
> from the desktop to the whole OS.
>
> MArk (sisob eircom net)
>
> If you have an more questions feel free to ask.
>
> Post 2:
>
> Also it would need to use apt/urpmi/up3date/redcarpet or the dropline
> update system ideally with a notification area applet telling you of
> updates.
>
> I've been planning my own distro for years,
> but I'm too much a perfectionist to do it
> until gnome2 has matured a wee bit.
> eg. Rhythmbox and coaster need improvment.
>
> Also the new linux kernel should hold some
> great desktop related features and hopefully
> X development should take off soon.
>
> Also I think that we should not fork from the
> distro we choose to use. So if we start with
> redhat 9 and redhat 9.1 come out we
> upgrade our base distro to 9.1 to take
> advantage of new features and minimise
> our overhead.
>
> If anyone wants to discuss this in detail
> i suggest you join http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-os and
> also read the archives.
>
> This needs to be done and it needs to be
> done well and as close to gnome.org as possible.
>
> MArk
>
> Let's start the talk...  what do you guys think?
>
> Dan
>
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