LDS Linux

[marianomarini]

In my point of view LDS Linux must be a "secure OS" or "an OS you can rely on".
I think that WofW speak of food but its principles apply also to other fields.
I ask nyself: Will be IT safe forever?
Ms, Mc are manages by good mans (I hope), can Church assure that this will be now along? Same said to Mc.
Even Linux can be changed. It's more difficult because it's mantained by a community and, we hope, there will be at least one good man among manies to inform us if something is going bad.
LDS Linux could be a warranty that good man are work in, now forever!

[steph.younger]

If I may, I'd like to chime in with my excitement that such a project is being considered by this community (almost as excited as I was when our "new" computers came into the genealogy library with OpenOffice on them). I miss Linux dearly, and think that this kind of distribution might even convert my family - especially if we can set it up "out of the box" with the kind of applications dkjorgi outlined.

Perhaps if a packaged distro doesn't become a viable option though, something akin to Michael's suggestion could be a nice alternative and TheLDSLinuxProject.org could become a site for information and articles on high-quality applications and how to set them up in Linux. An index based on distro and app would be a great place to go rather than hunting all over the internet and getting advice you may not want to trust.

I vote yea! And you can sign me up for testing ... my laptop sits ready at your disposal.

- Stephen

[kennethjorgensen]

I miss Linux dearly, and think that this kind of distribution might even convert my family - especially if we can set it up "out of the box" with the kind of applications dkjorgi outlined.

Perhaps if a packaged distro doesn't become a viable option though, something akin to Michael's suggestion could be a nice alternative and TheLDSLinuxProject.org could become a site for information and articles on high-quality applications and how to set them up in Linux. An index based on distro and app would be a great place to go rather than hunting all over the internet and getting advice you may not want to trust.

Yes good point. It can be either or both.

I guess we are now just waiting to see what direction Todd (who started all this) will take on this (hint hint Todd).

If he doesnt for whatever reason then anyone else can proactively spearheaded it all (gather people, write up purpose/aim, tasks, who to do what etc) but lets give Tood a change to respond first.

[bobtheubuntuuser-p40]

It would be so awesome to have an LDSlinux distro. Hey, I'd even be able to get my Grandparents to go for that. I've almost convinced them to go for linux but i don't want them to have to mess with an emulator for paf. I'm not a geek, just a geek wannabe.
Wouldn't it also save some money that would've been spent on Windows software?

[rmrichesjr]

It would be so awesome to have an LDSlinux distro. Hey, I'd even be able to get my Grandparents to go for that. I've almost convinced them to go for linux but i don't want them to have to mess with an emulator for paf. I'm not a geek, just a geek wannabe.
Wouldn't it also save some money that would've been spent on Windows software?

New genealogy applications based on the New FamilySearch API will largely replace PAF. I would hope at least a couple of them would be written in a system-independent manner and would be released for other OSes. In the mean time, PAF works quite well in Wine. At the risk of posting the URL too many times, here's the AppDB page with how-to info on using PAF with Wine:

http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=1706

[marianomarini]

Maybe around here there is also some graphical expert. The logo of LDSLinux could be a pinguin with an LDS reference (trumphet, JS dress, ecc.).

[richardsontb]

I have been working on compiling the kernel. At first I was following the instructions on http://www.slitaz.org/en/doc/scratchbook/, but they didn't work. I am going to try BuildRoot (http://buildroot.uclibc.org/), and if that doesn't work, Scratchbox (http://www.scratchbox.org/).

Todd

[rmrichesjr]

I have been working on compiling the kernel. At first I was following the instructions on http://www.slitaz.org/en/doc/scratchbook/, but they didn't work. I am going to try BuildRoot (http://buildroot.uclibc.org/), and if that doesn't work, Scratchbox (http://www.scratchbox.org/).

Todd

I'm puzzled. I thought there was general agreement to base LDS Linux on an existing distribution. Otherwise, the maintenance burden will be far too large. Also, some users will need additional packages (music notation editor, for one) not in the set of packages in LDS Linux itself. Basing on an existing distribution will allow those users to import packages from the existing distribution.

Those URLs appeared to me to be more about cross-compilation than just compiling the kernel. It has been several years since I last compiled a kernel, but my notes indicate it was pretty simple:

make distclean (or make clean, or make mrproper, or ...)
make config (or make menuconfig, or make xconfig, or ...)
make dep
make modules
make modules_install
make boot

Other sequences for X86 are

make config (or ...)
make dep
make modules
make bzImage

Some people recommend 'make boot' or 'make bzImage' before 'make modules'.

[kennethjorgensen]

I'm puzzled. I thought there was general agreement to base LDS Linux on an existing distribution. Otherwise, the maintenance burden will be far too large. Also, some users will need additional packages (music notation editor, for one) not in the set of packages in LDS Linux itself. Basing on an existing distribution will allow those users to import packages from the existing distribution.

Todd, I have to agree with rmrichesjr here. What are the benefits you see in compiling the kernel rather than using an existing distro with the added application needed by LDS families?

[richardsontb]

marianomarini_vi wrote:

In my point of view LDS Linux must be a "secure OS" or "an OS you can rely on".
I think that WofW speak of food but its principles apply also to other fields.
I ask nyself: Will be IT safe forever?
Ms, Mc are manages by good mans (I hope), can Church assure that this will be now along? Same said to Mc.
Even Linux can be changed. It's more difficult because it's mantained by a community and, we hope, there will be at least one good man among manies to inform us if something is going bad.
LDS Linux could be a warranty that good man are work in, now forever!

I was kind of working off what "marianomarini_vi" wrote. However, if a remaster is preferred, I would have to choose Ubuntu.

In regards to the cosmetics of the re-master, I think use of the shade of teal that the Church uses on most of it's websites would help identify the re-master as Church related. I was playing around with a simple background. I made it black with a mind to change it to the Church's teal when I can figure out the RGB code. http://www.toddrichardson.com/ldsl/wallpaper.bmp

Todd