Re: Arabbix's which distro to work with

[Alaa Abd El Fattah <alaa at eglug dot org>]

Hi all.

sorry for attaching this to an arbitrary place in the thread.

finally managed to find enough free time to evaluate the different
distros we can build arabbix on.

Uniball suggested using Morphix, Ubuntu or Gnoppix, the main advantage
in them was the morphix module system which will make it very easy to
generate differentiated versions of arabbix (gnome based, kde based, LUG
branded edition, edition with or without religious software etc.).

but it turns out that future versions of Ubunto and Gnoppix will not be
based on Morphix, they're moving to a platform that revolves around the
debian installer.

what this means is that the only modular solution left is Morphix
(unless there is one we don't know of).

the trouble with morphix is lack of activity in the project, nothing was
released on 2004 for instance.

this means if we use morphix we'll have to build major modules like
Gnome from scratch (not a big deal).

the big deal is that the livecd core (mainly the hardware detection
stuff) is likely to move too slowly.


the way I see it this leaves us three directions to follow.

1- stick to the goal of modularity 
** use morphix
** build our own major modules 
** just accept a slow core release cycle
** in case cycle is too slow, try and find ways to get involved in core
morphix development

2- forget about modularity and build on a live cd distro
** will probably be knoppix in that case (more inertia)
** customization involves remastering
** adding software involves installing packages (debs in the case of
knoppix)

3- forget about modularity and build on a mainstream distro
** there are scripts that turn an install base into a livecd
** exactly the same as the say using knoppix, just involves a different
distro


----
1 has the downside of more work and a not so sure future but fulfils our
goals

2's main strong point is the fast hardware detection release cycle in
case of choosing something like Knoppix

3 would probably offer the most flexibility but since there is no
obvious candidate agreeing on a distro might be a painful process
----

our original vision was of a single base for an Arabic live cd,
something that involved minimal work (let upstream do the real thing)
and allows different groups to quickly customize their own edition and
contribute core work to the common base (and maybe from time to time
contribute upstream).

choices 2 and 3 destroy this vision, groups can choose to remaster
arabbix instead of remastering upstream but I doubt there will be strong
incentive for it (speaking of EGLUG for instance whats best for us if
we don't have a modular base is to build on Mandrake since we got more
collective Mandrake expertise).

what do you guys think, 1, 2 or 3? and if 2 or 3 which distro?

to me 2 is not attractive at all, my personal choice would be 3 with a
mandrake base but thats EGLUG's agenda not arabeyes.

cheers,
Alaa
-- 
http://www.manalaa.net

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