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

[Wade Brainerd]

You need administrator rights to install the accelerator on Windows.   
This is pretty much requires on Windows for it to be usable.

On Oct 20, 2009, at 5:48 PM, Dave Bauer <dave.bauer at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 5:29 PM, Sebastian Dziallas <sebastian at when.com 
> > wrote:
>> 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).
>>
> Last I heard QEMU did not have acceleration on Mac OS X so it was
> pretty unusable. I haven't checked into it lately.
>
> Do these have the guest additions or whatever for VMWare and
> VirtualBox? For a good experience you want to have clipboard and mouse
> integration with the desktop as well as the video drivers for
> Virtualbox.
>
>
>> * 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? ;)
>
> I can help out with Virtualbox stuff.
>>
>> --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
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Dave Bauer
> dave at solutiongrove.com
> http://www.solutiongrove.com
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