TheOpenCD Launches First Edition

Emil fra Loeneberg writes with welcome news from TheOpenCD. "This article on NewsForge describes a project which plans to distribute Open Source Software (OSS) widely to Windows users. You can download a CD image from a mirror site and start spreading the OSS message. It's basically an OSS distro for Windows. This project was also mentioned on Slashdot back in April and now they are ready with a first release. Any first reviews?"

Comments

Re:KNOPPIX

[Russellkhan]

Well, If you'd read the first couple of paragraphs of the article, you would have seen this:

The idea was to make a compilation of mature open source software (OSS) for windows users as an easy introduction to OSS. The project was inspired by a question which is frequently asked in Linux forums: "Given that we now have this fast, secure, desktop-ready, free OS, why doesn't everyone switch?"

Well, the answer is complex, but includes elements like:

1. It is a major hurdle for an intermediate user to scrap their entire OS to try an unknown system, filled with strangely named applications like "grep."
2. Most people do not care which OS they use, but rather what their programs can do, and there is a perception that Linux apps are not as capable as those in Windows.
3. Microsoft's OS bundling has been extremely successful encourages people to regard their current OS as free (as in beer).
4. Software piracy, while apparently depriving proprietary software makers of profits, in fact simply serves to cement the commercial products as "the standard," by making home users familiar with these packages, and by locking everyone into proprietary file formats.

These cover the largest and most commonly cited reasons. The first two of these points are the most serious: the perception of Linux applications as difficult to use, hard to learn, and inadequate to their tasks encourages people to continue buying (or pirating) Microsoft products, not just Windows, but also Office.

And there's lots more good stuff that directly answers your question. If you ever get ten minutes or so to spare, I recommend giving the article a read.

Re:NT, as in Not Today

[Anonymous Coward]

But openoffice already HAS Access functionality, and it's relatively painless to setup.

it requires an external database, anything that can be used via odbc, basically. unfortunately, i don't think it handles access files themselves *yet*.
see here: on linuxmafia for more information on this topic.

ashridah

Re:Beonex

[5lash]

ARGH! Mozilla is included! Why dont people properly read the web pages?

Re:How About The Games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it does include quite a few games, including FreeCIV and TuxRacer. Sadly, ClanBomber is not included.

How about GNUWin???

[Artemis3]

This looks like yet another GNUWin...

They really have to catch up :) Go GNUWin team go!

Re:nozilla!

[Monoman]

Read their FAQ ... or just the appropriate text pasted below.

Q. Why didn't you include Mozilla?
A. We were contacted by a developer in the Mozilla project, who asked us not to include Mozilla. The Mozilla.org project provides binaries for testing purposes only, as anyone who has read this page knows -- scroll down to the very bottom, and you will find a notice to that effect. In short, they do not want to wind up providing end-user support to people, and so they ask people not to re-distribute Mozilla unless it has been customized to make it clear that Mozilla.org did not provide the binary and will not support it.

Unfortunately, it is not at all clear what requirements we need to meet in order to be able to re-distribute Mozilla, or what level of customization would be needed to do so. Also, we didn't have anybody willing to take on that task. If you want to help us out with this, get in touch! Beonex is a fine product, but we tend to think that Mozilla is better, especially since it is updated much more often.

what the heck is knoppix?

[Anonymous Coward]

KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.

From someone in the trenches

[Anonymous Coward]

Could they please be asked to remove Amaya. It's for testing web concepts, not browsing...
The Windows port of Amaya is sub-alpha quality and horrendiously unstable. It has a nasty tendency to frequently lock the computer up hard... I wouldn't even consider recommending someone to install it on a Windows box. It will not leave a good impression.
If you think this is a troll, then try it for yourself from w3.org

Biznet begs to differ

[SoSueMe]

CBCran a little feature on OpenOffice.org on Thursday in which columnist Jim Brey discissed, briefly, Open Source generally and Open Office specifically. You can listen to it here.
Given that this is MainStream media, this is a solid endorsement for Open Office.

In a ZDNet interview Microsoft's Jeff Raikes stated"We can say there's only about 10 percent or 20 percent of the features that we'll use, but your 10 percent is going to be different from my 10 percent."

With the majority of the "Real Work" being done with 10 percent (+/-) of the features, I'd say OOo has a good chance to make serious inroads into the market. I still use Star Office on one of my laptops but will be looking at Open Office very soon.

Re:How About The Games?

[bryanp]

Look around on the web page. At the page where you can see a list of what programs are on the CD -

http://www.theopencd.org/programs/index.html

You'll see a link to the right called "More Programs"

http://www.theopencd.org/programs/MorePrograms.h tm l

Lots 'o games shown there.

(sorry, I'm feeling too lazy to make real links today, cut & paste)

But it is on the CD

[vondo]

Beonex communicator is on the CD, which is a rebranded mozilla. I've never used it, but it looks pretty much the same as stock mozilla 1.0.1, but rebranded and maybe missing the debuggers, and chatzilla. It has mail, news, composer, and of course, the browser parts of mozilla.

Re:How About The Games?

[dzym]

Just making a CD with Doom, Quake, or Quake 2 executables isn't going to work. You still need to distribute the data files--and the shareware or demo versions of each won't cut it because they're released under a proprietary license.

You may contribute to a project such as Freedoom, however. I'm fairly certain there's an analog for Freedoom for each of the currently big-name open-sourced id software games.

Re:Beonex

[Aanallein]

Can someone fill me in what (if anything) makes Beonex a better choice?

Although like any other distribution based on Mozilla (like Netscape), Beonex is running behind in features on the regular Mozilla releases, it does actually have a few things that it does better than Mozilla.
If I'm not mistaken (*actually bothers to check the website - ...I'm not) Beonex 0.8.1 is still based on Mozilla 1.0.1, so it's got all that stability, yet it does offer a few features from the trunk, such as the option to view HTML mail as plain text.
Another feature from Beonex which isn't found in Mozilla at all (yet?) are options to set the HTTP_REFERER; I think you can opt to never send it, to only send it within the same domain, to always fake it to somethign else (not sure about this one), or to just send it always.
Where Mozilla preferences are set in such a way that they don't provide optimal security and/or privacy, Beonex has changed those defaults so they do. (Improved privacy & security are the main focus of Beonex as I see it.)
Beonex also comes with a spell checker by default, something which the latest version of Mozilla is still lacking. (Yes, the Netscape 7 spellchecker is currently once more working on linux builds, but not on windows.)

Of course, now I'm comparing Beonex with Mozilla, while what I should do is compare Beonex with Netscape 7. There you trade in integrated AIM/ICQ for popup blocking (though that's finally coming in Netscape 7.01 - even with whitelisting options), image blocking, better default preferences, and general lack of AOL clutter.

Basically, Beonex would be the ideal distribution for any geek if it wasn't for Mozilla itself appealing more.

Re:The installer

[ctid]

One of the criteria they have is that each application should have a professional-looking install process. Some applications have been rejected on the grounds that their installation processes weren't up to scratch. From what I read, it seems that the programs are installed individually, not as a group.

Re:Open source philosophy?!

[Emil fra Loeneberg]

You'er right, "Open Source Philosophy" is an oxymoron; "Open Source Ideas" or "Open Source Thinking" might be better. The two books you mention are quite good, and are both included on the CD in full (plus some essays).

Re: And to think it almost didn't make it!

[Darnit]

Sorry about that. All the main hubbub happened during the summer when people weren't as busy with school. Selanit busted some major ass to get this out before finals came up and bit him.

Progress was very slow though at the start of the fall semester of school.

But we are still here.