[Sugar-devel] [Marketing] Marketing to parents...

[Wade Brainerd]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 7:43 PM, Dave Bauer <dave.bauer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I'll be happy to repackage the binaries, but I'd rather not start until we
>> decide on a virtualization platform.
>>
>> It's very important to make these sort of decisions at the beginning,
>> because most of the work (IMHO) will be getting the VM software to configure
>> properly (as well as legal rights as with redistributing VMWare player if we
>> decide to go that route).
>>
>> Here's a breakdown of the different popular VM products as I understand:
>>
>> VMWare Player: Robust and popular, but good integration is not available
>> in the Free version unless one installs VMWare Server, which, while an
>> excellent product, is too complicated for the average user. Moreover, it
>> cannot be redistributed until one signs a legal agreement with VMWare and
>> waits for it to come back countersigned :(
>>
>> VirtualBox: Again, popular. As with above, for the functionality we'll
>> have to use the non-FLOSS edition, but Sun has very liberal use agreements
>> and the software can be configured with a great deal of simplicity. Has
>> proper desktop integration (resizable windows that auto-update the display,
>> pointer integration, USB support, etcetera)
>
> Virtualbox also runs on Windows and OS X. There is likely a signifigant user
> base among educators and parents that use OS X. This makes it a good choice
> because we can use the same platform on Windows and OS X. Of course, it also
> runs on Linux, but Linux users are more accepting or a slightly more
> complicated solution.
>
> They key to distributing this installer is to make the end result be an icon
> on the desktop or in a menu that starts sugar in a window on their desktop
> without an confusing extraneous information. I am not sure how realistic
> that goal is with current technology we have to work with.

I am fine (as I said in the ticket) with standardizing on VirtualBox
for the "one click" solution.  Maybe we can get Sun to offer us some
support on the installer issue.  Luke's suggestion of having the
script download and install VirtualBox is a good one.

If we can manage to automate their production, it would be great to
offer downloadable virtual disk files for VMware and Parallels as well
just to be complete.

One company currently working on this problem is JumpBox.  What you
download is a .zip file containing disk and configuration files for a
variety of VM products.  I wonder how they create the bundles.

http://www.jumpbox.com/product/FREE+Downloads
http://www.jumpbox.com/docs/v11/install

Best,
Wade