You could ask Ian, but I suspect the code is dead. They released a little layered-filesystem piece that I don't think has been kept up. I have not seen other code from that project released.
I may be able to go to South Africa in late November, in which case I'll try to talk with Mark and his folks more.
Please don't take this to be me just mindlessly trolling, as I do in fact respect what you are doing. However, I just can't see too many businesses latching onto something so new, untested and with such a *dumb* name.
Dear AC,
Consider that in 1998 they were asking the exact same questions. About Linux.
Either the UL project or any concerned individual will go to Debian to change stuff. We have a number of people in the UL project who have gone through the Debian developer process, and I can mentor others.
Well, actually that was "my" booth, I am still executive director of the Desktop Linux Consortium. Everybody had the same sort of cube. Yes, the sign was cheap. And how much audience did you expect for a system that hadn't released its first beta? That was sort of a "show the flag" exercise.
There are a number of businesses listed here that you can call for support. They want money. Another alternative is to take the questions up on the mailing list and hope for free peer support.
We have to approach them with existing customers. They don't care to certify anything until there is customer demand. Which is why we are not approaching them yet. We intend to operate a certification lab with a small share of the revenue from our support providers userlinux business - that is part of what they trade for being certified as support providers.
Well, we need to certify to LSB, which we have not done yet. Then, we will pursue certification from proprietary application vendors and hardware manufacturers, because business people want that. We hope that people port their applications to LSB, not to UserLinux. The whole Linux world would be better for that.
It's really just another version of the Debian installer. We don't even change any of Debian's installer packages, we just add a few installer pacakges of our own and they are inserted in the menu.
e will put our packages into Debian's repository once they are stable, as Skolelinux has already done. Adding the selection to pkgsel or tasksel is possible, but we ask the question much earlier, right after the language and keyboard questions in the first-stage installer, so that we can do some additional configuration during the install process and save the user some questions. If we went in the tasksel menu, we would not get to do anything for the user until the second-stage install.
If you want to be a support company, you can list yourself as an uncertified one on the wiki (nobody is certified, we haven't opened that yet). Once we get certification going, we will expect certified support providers to contribute a portion of their revenues on userlinux support business to operate the userlinux vendor certification and marketing efforts.
Ian's main business at the moment is generating customized distributions for the "large-system" embedded industry. But Ian has been extremely helpful in creating the first LSB-certified version of Debian, work that we intend to piggyback upon.
I am told that I am #2 stockholder in Ian's company, although I am not currently part of its management.
Yes. We are adding a commercial veneer to the Debian project. The UserLinux distribution is a configuration on top of Debian, just a list of packages that we consider important for servers or workstations, and that we will support. The actual software, except for the configuration packages, gets downloaded directly from Debian's mirrors.
All of our packages will install on PowerPC, because we don't have any architecture-specific packages, those are all in Debian. You have to install Debian "sarge" first, and then add the userlinux.com repository to sources.list.
When will we support PowerPC? Hopefully soon. If someone wants to pay, even faster.
We could include that stuff that red hat refuses to include only at the cost of potentially having to pay a patent license for every copy of the system or deal with a horribly expensive lawsuit. We'd rather push open formats.
We don't want to split software development away from Debian. It's so much more work that way.
I do have some marketing experience. Hey, my name is a trademark for a successful series of books. I am attempting to appeal to the people who sit behind the computer. They do have some influence upon their management.
I spoke with Mark about it a while ago, before it had a name. It is much closer to my original business plan for Progeny as a Debian support company, than UserLinux as a non-profit core with an organization of multiple competing support companies around it. Progeny didn't implement my plan, by the way. Then wanted to be a shared filesystem developer, and that didn't work out.
Well, first look at the advantages of Debian over other distributions.
15,000 packages in one repository with no cross-dependency issues. 3 times Red Hat, 5 times SuSE.
11 architectures (12 if you count AMD64, which will not be "official" for this release but exists and runs fine).
Open to participation by all. If you want something in the system and it's free software, you can be a Debian developer and get what you want done.
Over 1000 active developers. One of the largest Open Source projects.
More than 10 years of successful history. It's older than RH or SuSE.
Now, add what Debian hasn't been able to do: Commercial support, application vendor certification.
Regarding your installation issues. Please try the UL installer, which is based on the new Debian installer. It has a "go back" feature and asks for a proxy URL.Bruce
For those who worry about karma whoring: There is a karma cap of 50. I have made 48 moderation points in one day, commenting on one story that concerned me. So, there would be no point in my doing anything for karma. I have more of it than I can use.
IMO, fedora is way too Red Hat Corporation centric. RH management sets its governance. Any other partner is always going to be a second-class citizen. We can do better than that. Focusing development in a legal non-profit, Debian, with 10 years of history of successful work is better.
Slashdot Mirror
If Mark is typing while in orbit, he is obviously going much faster than me :-)
I may be able to go to South Africa in late November, in which case I'll try to talk with Mark and his folks more.
Bruce
Dear AC,
Consider that in 1998 they were asking the exact same questions. About Linux.
Thanks
Bruce
Well, actually that was "my" booth, I am still executive director of the Desktop Linux Consortium. Everybody had the same sort of cube. Yes, the sign was cheap. And how much audience did you expect for a system that hadn't released its first beta? That was sort of a "show the flag" exercise.
Bruce
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
You will get a few "userlinux-" packages, they are just dependency lists for all the packages we believe belong in a desktop or server. Thanks
Bruce
This is LSB's job. We have to follow them.
Bruce
e will put our packages into Debian's repository once they are stable, as Skolelinux has already done. Adding the selection to pkgsel or tasksel is possible, but we ask the question much earlier, right after the language and keyboard questions in the first-stage installer, so that we can do some additional configuration during the install process and save the user some questions. If we went in the tasksel menu, we would not get to do anything for the user until the second-stage install.
Bruce
Bruce
If you want to be a support company, you can list yourself as an uncertified one on the wiki (nobody is certified, we haven't opened that yet). Once we get certification going, we will expect certified support providers to contribute a portion of their revenues on userlinux support business to operate the userlinux vendor certification and marketing efforts.
Thanks
Bruce
I am told that I am #2 stockholder in Ian's company, although I am not currently part of its management.
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
When will we support PowerPC? Hopefully soon. If someone wants to pay, even faster.
Bruce
Bruce
We don't want to split software development away from Debian. It's so much more work that way.
Bruce
Slashdot imposes a 2-minute posting limit. That works out to 30 per hour if I try really hard.
Bruce
Bruce
- 15,000 packages in one repository with no cross-dependency issues. 3 times Red Hat, 5 times SuSE.
- 11 architectures (12 if you count AMD64, which will not be "official" for this release but exists and runs fine).
- Open to participation by all. If you want something in the system and it's free software, you can be a Debian developer and get what you want done.
- Over 1000 active developers. One of the largest Open Source projects.
- More than 10 years of successful history. It's older than RH or SuSE.
Now, add what Debian hasn't been able to do: Commercial support, application vendor certification.Regarding your installation issues. Please try the UL installer, which is based on the new Debian installer. It has a "go back" feature and asks for a proxy URL.Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce