[SoaS] installation fear, was Re: [Marketing] Governance & Trademark in the Wiki

[Sebastian Dziallas]

Sean DALY wrote:
> Thanks for this Douglas

This is all great stuff! :) Thanks for drafting these ideas up...

> I believe virtualbox was chosen since free (beer) and multiplatform.

Well, it was, from what I recall, since VMware isn't free on Macs and 
generally not really open source (though they made some steps in that 
direction). However, the point that has been made on its portability is 
still valid - I'm not sure how portable it currently is.

So here's the thing. I think we might want to provide additional 
solutions with the Blueberry launch; however, I would prefer not to 
stretch the SoaS metaphor further than it has already been.

https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/soas/+spec/joint-soas-release

* VirtualBox might be a possibility. I see there's some portable version 
spreading around, but it seems to be somewhat hack-ish.

* QEMU doesn't require administrative rights and should work directly 
from USB keys - together with a nice autorun config, this might already 
fit our needs, though it probably doesn't perform as well as VirtualBox 
does (mind you, we're already composing virtual appliances at build time).

* Moka5 (www.mokafive.com) - that's an interesting possibility, too, but 
is only free for Windows, since it requires VMware Fusion on the Mac.

> Sebastian, what do you think about these ideas?

Well, I think we might want to figure a solution here. Something 
interesting would probably also be to have it working both on Windows 
and Macs. If I get a spare minute, I'll think about this and hack a bit 
into it... anybody up to jump in? ;)

--Sebastian

> thanks
>
> Sean
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 3:07 AM, Douglas McClendon
> <dmc.sugar at filteredperception.org>  wrote:
>> Sean DALY wrote:
>>
>>> You've mentioned how the website could be improved - the "fine print".
>>> When you look at the Sugar on a Stick page, what do you think it could
>>> express better to guide inexperienced users? The single biggest
>>> barrier we face is installation fear - this is how Windows keeps its
>>> marketshare (with help from proprietary file formats), and why
>>> GNU/Linux desktops have so much difficulty breaking out. Sugar on a
>>> Stick sidesteps the problem by not touching the hard disk, but does
>>> indeed require system-specific BIOS fiddling.
>>
>> In response to this, and DancesWithCars autorun html point, I can see
>> possible progress in this direction-
>>
>> a) autorun html.  Simple to add technically.  I'd opt for pure open source
>> but possibly less compatable simple autorun technique, as opposed to using
>> the various less-free and often closed source autorun helpers.
>>
>> b) the content of the html to be autoran- obviously the sky is the limit,
>> and something marketing is particularly suited for.  To the extent that
>> technical information should be contained, there is the LiveDistro wikipedia
>> page, which would be included, as well as a layer above it translated/shrunk
>> into a quickstart version targeted at average parents/teachers.
>>
>> c) other low hanging fruit windows FOSS.  Firefox seems worth it if you've
>> got the space.  But more importantly qemu, or whatever the best open source
>> windows virtualization solution is (qemu/virtualbox/?). I.e. the webpage
>> should include simple instructions for launching that virtualizaiton
>> targeted at the CD/USB that contains it.
>>
>> Now, these are all old ideas I brought up with Fedora years ago, but they
>> just aren't that interested, perhaps due to demographics.  I.e. sugarlabs
>> demographics would seem to benefit more from these things IMO.
>>
>> The reason in my own fedora derivative I haven't spent much time on (C) for
>> instance, is because I personally just really don't care that much about
>> windows.  One thing that scares me is how fragile qemu for win32 sounded.
>>   It looks like virtualbox is gpl and available for win32 but I haven't tried
>> it.  As such, I think it would be a good idea to do (C), but not really
>> advertise it as anything but experimental for at least a year.
>>
>> Also, since pygtk appears available for windows ala liveusb-creator, perhaps
>> the best in the long term would be an autorun program that is just a simple
>> pygtk app that can either launch information via a portable firefox install
>> pointed at the html on the stick/cd, or launch the cd/stick virtually under
>> qemu/virtualbox.  Or enter a chat session with sugarlabs techsupport.  Or
>> launch liveusb-creator (in a mode that pulls the data from the stick if that
>> isn't yet supported.  I.e. stick replication)
>>
>> Anyway, thats where I see the lowest hanging fruit for the longterm solution
>> to the problem end-users grokking the whole experience upon first
>> introduction to the product.
>>
>> $0.02...
>>
>> -dmc