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

[Wade Brainerd]

Darn, iPhone hair trigger!  :). These comments were about QEMU.

I feel like VirtualBox th the way to go.  I use it happily on my PCs  
and Macs.

On Oct 20, 2009, at 7:32 PM, Wade Brainerd <wadetb at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SoaS mailing list
>>> SoaS at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Dave Bauer
>> dave at solutiongrove.com
>> http://www.solutiongrove.com
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