28 Jan
2006
28 Jan
'06
16:27
Thanks Thomas, See below for my comments On 1/28/06, email.listen@googlemail.com <email.listen@googlemail.com> wrote: > > Am Sat, 28. January 2006 16:01 schrieb Maged Hussein: > > Hi list, > > > > I'm currently thinking of a way to make OpenSUSE available to much more > > audience (specially windows users). > > My target is to attract more users and developers to Linux platform > (making > > it easy for them to make the switch). > > Upon testing many distros, I found that SUSE has the most windows like > > experience to Windows users PLUS a very intuitive admin interface for > linux > > power users. > > > > The easiest way is to distribute it within a Computer magazine that all > PC > > users can access. > > > > I thought of three approached to accompish this tasks (given that I have > > only one CD to include): > > > > 1- One CD with just necessary packages to start with (SLICK does a good > job > > in this) > > [This way will bring many hassles to windows user [installation with > > windows- hardware not detected - modems support,...etc] > > > > 2- Make a live CD for OpenSUSE > > [I found only a DVD version of it + I Found that you can use it as a > READ > > ONLY [not like debizn based Live CDs]] > You may know that from time to time most every Linux publication offers > live > cd's as install cd's. So did German Linux Magazin, e.g. 2/06 OpenSchool > Server (based on NOvell Enterprise Server9) and Linux Magazin Special > Edition, 01/2006, Novell Enterprise Server 9. > So often this is done py a publisher not by the distributions itself. And > I > would bet that they will do so for openSESE 10.1. Do you have links to these publications ? Do I need Novell approval (tademarks,logos ...etc) for building such a cd? I have already done the same with Red Hat 2 years ago and I have to cahnge alot of packages to aviod violations with Red Hat EULA. A question also came to mind is updates , Does the above publications fit well with YOU or you have to maintain it yourself ( a lot of pain here). > 3- Make a vmware image of OpenSUSE with packages relevant to audience. > > [This approach will eliminate HW support, modem support [vmware can use > > NATing to hadle this], installation support] > > There is some packages that essential to Windows user but I don't know > what > > is the obligation if I included them within the vmware image namely: > > - RealPlayer > > - Acrobat Reader > > - Flash > > - Java > > - All dependednt parts on them. > > Of course one can update from yast repositories once installed but > Internet > > Connectivity will not be available to some users. > - Using VMWare will bring a lot more problems you might expect. It is > _very_ > tricky to offer VMWare images for all kinds of Hardware combinations which > could be found out there in the wild. From a technical point of view I > would > rate this as a unresolvable problem. > > - Last but most, I would assume that using VMWare images will bring a > bunch of > legal problems according to the use of VMWare. (If not I would expect that > there should still be a lot of those 'official' images.) We have to compromise here, If we go to linux native installations , alot of support needed to sustain such traffic. Think of a windows user who needs a win app, he will have to restart to go back to windows to access it and probably will never go back to Linux (Vmware helps make switching between linux and windows very easy). You are right that VMWARE player might have issues with some hardware but helping this category would be easy (LUG, VMWARE Knowledgebase) even providing a native SUSE Cds will be valuable to them. Regarding legalities of vmware images, I don't know about distributing the images itself but for the player check http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/player_distribution.html > > > I am looking for your help to make the right path. > > Hhm, may be there is another solution which might be discussed: > > FreeNX / NoMachine Account(s) > > Like http://cosmopod.com/ it might be an idea to offer FreeNX Accounts on > an > openSUSE machine (mostly for Windows Users who don't want or fear an > installation or live system). So you 'only' need to have a FreeNX Client > for > Windows for this. > I haven't seen any distribution yet which offers this service. It is a great idea to consider , we need to see its prerequists. I said 'Only' (quoted for beeing a bit ironicall) because it will need a > real > big iron server for this but on the long run it might be cheaper than > producing Live CD's again and again for every new openSUSE Version. > > But contrary to cosmopod.com it should only offer temporary accounts no > long > time accounts. This because limitating the number of accounts to handle > and > to lower the needed hardware recources. > > Bye, > Thomas > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-unsubscribe@opensuse.org > For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-help@opensuse.org > > -- Regards, Maged Hussein