<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> Wow! This is an offer I can't refuse.  I'll come up with a list for you in a few days.  One of my problems is that I am a Mac "person" and these would have to be made on a PC... right?  I may have to try to find an inexpensive old Windows machine to use for this... alas. Maybe I can find a small used notebook that will do the trick. Is there any way the sticks and CDs could be made on a Mac even if they won't run on it? Caryl > Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:35:24 +0100 > From: sebastian@when.com > To: cbigenho@hotmail.com > CC: mel@melchua.com; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org > Subject: Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction > > Caryl Bigenho wrote: > > Hi... > > > > This could result in having, at last, what I have been asking for for > > over a year now... a stable, easy to use version that I can encourage > > teachers and others to use. That would be wonderful! > > We think so too :-) > > > The ideal version would: > > > > Be easy to make either a usb or live cd version for Linux (both Fedora > > and Ubuntu), Mac, and Windows operating systems... hopefully without the > > need for a boot helper or virtual box... something the average teacher > > or parent could create without too much trouble. > > We're currently working on making the instructions generally easier for > v3 and are also trying to get the graphical LiveUSB Creator working on > other distributions, so that everybody could use the same interface - > without having trouble. > > Right now, the sticks should boot on most reasonably-modern computers > running Windows or any variant of Linux. We can make sticks that boot on > some Macs, but because of the different architecture, those sticks only > work on Macs (if they work at all). The creation process for sticks to > boot on Macs is also quite tricky and given the low success rate we've > had, it's probably not worth recommending, other than marking it as > "experimental". > > However, you can make the Windows/Linux sticks in any operating system - > so it's "just" Mac stuff that doesn't work. We'd like to figure this out > for future releases, but will need help from engineers who know about > this kind of thing (and have Macs at home - we don't) - if you know > anyone who'd like to help, that would be great. ;-) > > > On April 24 I will have another chance to distribute SoaS to a fairly > > large group of teachers and parents at the LAUSD InfoTech event at the > > LA Convention Center. Is there any possibility that this will be able to > > happen in time? > > We'd be happy to create a custom remix for you - just tell us what > Activities you'd like to have on it, and we can work on that together so > you have the image a few days (or a week, or however long you need to > burn media) in advance. > > In fact, we're happy to make a just-in-time custom demo remix (images > for liveusb and/or livecd) for anyone who wants - with the understanding > that these images are *demo* sticks, haven't been tested, and are *not* > suitable for deployment. This is how we'd like to support folks going > out to demo this at conferences and such - if you tell us the Activities > you want and the date you'd like the image on, we'll spin it up the day > before and you'll have the most recent code for all of the Activities on > your image, instead of having to use 6-month-old code. > > > Caryl > > > > P.S. A live cd would be great because we could afford to make some in > > advance and hand them out at our booth (CUELA). > > As Tim said, you can simply burn the .iso image onto a CD. So if we > created such a remix, you could just burn it in time for the conference. > Would that work for you? > > --Mel and Sebastian > > > > Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:19:00 +0100 > > > From: sebastian@when.com > > > To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org > > > Subject: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction > > > > > > Some of you may have overheard activity in #sugar-meeting today > > > discussing the upcoming beta freeze for SoaS, and the engineering > > > capacity we have to work on things for the upcoming release (in May, > > > since as a Fedora Spin we are tied to the Fedora release schedule). > > > > > > The short version is that we'd like to try something pretty drastic - > > > prior SoaS versions have included large numbers of Activities, which > > > weren't always maintained and didn't always work, so we propose shipping > > > a slimmed down version of SoaS with a small number of known-to-work > > > Activities with active upstream maintainers (that we'll have the > > > bandwidth to thoroughly test between now and May's release, and the > > > bandwidth to relay deployment feedback back up to) and creating > > > resources on how to find other excellent material at > > > http://activities.sugarlabs.org. > > > > > > Here's a draft kickstart file of what a slimmed-down SoaS release might > > > look like. It includes a few core Activities that will help you get, > > > debug, and ask questions about more Activities (Browse, Log, and IRC), > > > as well as a few well-tested Activities with active upstreams that we > > > think tend to "demo well" for a variety of audiences and contexts > > > (young/adult audience, large/small audience, dev/user/teacher audience, > > > hands-on-lab/demo-on-projector audience, etc). > > > > > > > > http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/soas/repos/mainline/blobs/master/fedora-livecd-soas.ks > > > > > > And here's the image it produces - we haven't had time to download and > > > test it yet, but are working on that right now, so you may beat us to > > > finding out whether it works or not. ;-) > > > > > > http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/3/soas-3-20100319.iso > > > > > > In comparison, here's the old kickstart file with a large number of > > > Activities, and the image it produced - if you try it out, you'll find > > > that many of the Activities don't work, the quality of experience is > > > inconsistent, and... well, we hope you'll see why we'd like to narrow > > > the scope of this release's features to the amount of work we can > > > comfortably maintain. > > > > > > > > http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/spin-kickstarts?p=spin-kickstarts.git;a=blob;f=fedora-livecd-soas.ks > > > > > http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/soas/soas-i386-20100318.17.iso > > > > > > The rationale behind this is as follows: > > > > > > 1. Our ultimate goal is to produce a rock-solid deployment image with a > > > wide variety of many Activities with active upstream maintainers, plus > > > resources to engage users with those upstream communities and with > > > communities of other learners. This was clarified in the earlier Sugar > > > on a Stick Mission Statement: > > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-September/008322.html > > > > > > 2. Since we don't currently have the resources to do this, we think a > > > good intermediate step is to produce a rock-solid deployment image with > > > a SMALL variety of many Activities with active upstream maintainers, > > > plus resources to engage users with those upstream communities and with > > > communities of other learners. This sets the bar for both the quality of > > > the Activity and maintenance, and the level of interaction that Activity > > > upstreams can expect from users. > > > > > > 3. Saving a good number of known-to-be-awesome Activities for > > > http://activities.sugarlabs.org and creating (kid-tested and > > > teacher-tested) resources on how to get stuff from ASLO sets a dynamic > > > of experimentation, trying-stuff-out, and user community engagement that > > > we want to see. > > > > > > We don't know if this is a good idea or not. We think so, and we don't > > > have much time to decide as Beta Freeze is this upcoming Tuesday, March > > > 23. Feedback? Questions? Comments? Firestorm? > > > > > > We'll be tinkering further on this over the weekend - we can do another > > > kickstart on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so we have 3 drafts left to > > > figure this out with. Please join us (sdziallas & mchua on #sugar) and > > > ask questions if you have any, or join in and help if you have ideas on > > > how to improve this. > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > --Mel and Sebastian > > > > > > PS: We're going to ask more specific questions on the marketing and > > > activities lists about this in a moment, for those of you following > > > those sections of SL as well - and send a general iaep notification that > > > these conversation threads are going on. One second... > > > _______________________________________________ > > > SoaS mailing list > > > SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org > > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas > > = > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > SoaS mailing list > > SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas > _______________________________________________ > SoaS mailing list > SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas </body> </html>