Next version out
Posted: Tue 14 Dec 2010, 20:09
Hi ICPUG,
In the meantime I have been busy and pulled together the next version of my sage live puppy. I have included Java, so even 3d Plotting should work out of the box.
sagelive-511-46.iso (normal iso file)
sagelive-511-46.exe (Windows exe installer)
sagelive-511-46.tar.gz (just vmlinu. initrd.gz and lupq-511.sfs for frugal inst)
I already uploaded them to
http://www.mydrive.ch
Username: download@sagelive
Password: mathematics
Beside that I had some other fixes:
added swapfilemanager (to autocreate swapspace)
added scratchfiletool (to give paranoid windows NTFS users a possibility for quarantine disk storage)
added Samba-TNG
fix for xgamma-gui (I didn't even knew that xgamma existet, but after my first sagelive version a year ago one of the first responses was that this in not working, so I feel responsible)
I will update also the top Post.
Regarding modularity:
Yes I think the SFS-TXZ linker seems a very interesting project. But I also had a look inside the initrd.gz, there seems a possibility that at least 1 sfs package is loaded "hard wired" by default. This would make production and maintainance of thematic live CD's much easier (Split of Base OS and Addons).
Regarding how to classify "beginner programs"
It all depends on the viewpoint and you are right, my intended target audience is not primarily on this forum, but outside - not even on the sage forum, because there it's rather about big workstations with 16+ cores, and how to compile on solaris etc... . As a fact I think it can be very useful to students of technical/scientific branches, who want to use a powerful software and who don't want to mess to much with the system behind it. Or for the math-prof who want to walk around with his sage puppy on usb stick, or want to install it quickly on some laptop. And personally I like the application mix of puppy very much. I have the feeling if taking them away and have just sage running on a barebone puppy would feel much too dry and no fun anymore.
About criteria
Other aspects, like being open source and free are secondary (thinking of the usual habbit of allowing those extra free copies of 1000$+ priced software to stay in business). In so far, userfriendly-wise we are doing good, especially I must say the windows exe installer makes it easier to install sagelive into a windows system, than any other variant (even easier than a frugal install on linux). With a decent download an inexperienced user can install and test the system in less then 15 minutes. Although it seems huge and bloated to puppy users it will seem lean for windows users and also regular sage users. Packages in the scope of sage usually take up far more than 1 GB of diskspace, so the 630 MB including OS (+Java..) will not scare them away.
So its about providing information and infrastructure, thats why I also set up some webpages with help and info about sagelive (puppy).
http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/emil/doc/html/en
I noticed that I learned so much during the last year that many things that seem natural from my viewpoint, may seem arcane and quirky for somebody not introduced to the puppy way of doing things.
As always, there is much room for improvements!
emil
In the meantime I have been busy and pulled together the next version of my sage live puppy. I have included Java, so even 3d Plotting should work out of the box.
sagelive-511-46.iso (normal iso file)
sagelive-511-46.exe (Windows exe installer)
sagelive-511-46.tar.gz (just vmlinu. initrd.gz and lupq-511.sfs for frugal inst)
I already uploaded them to
http://www.mydrive.ch
Username: download@sagelive
Password: mathematics
Beside that I had some other fixes:
added swapfilemanager (to autocreate swapspace)
added scratchfiletool (to give paranoid windows NTFS users a possibility for quarantine disk storage)
added Samba-TNG
fix for xgamma-gui (I didn't even knew that xgamma existet, but after my first sagelive version a year ago one of the first responses was that this in not working, so I feel responsible)
I will update also the top Post.
Regarding modularity:
Yes I think the SFS-TXZ linker seems a very interesting project. But I also had a look inside the initrd.gz, there seems a possibility that at least 1 sfs package is loaded "hard wired" by default. This would make production and maintainance of thematic live CD's much easier (Split of Base OS and Addons).
Regarding how to classify "beginner programs"
It all depends on the viewpoint and you are right, my intended target audience is not primarily on this forum, but outside - not even on the sage forum, because there it's rather about big workstations with 16+ cores, and how to compile on solaris etc... . As a fact I think it can be very useful to students of technical/scientific branches, who want to use a powerful software and who don't want to mess to much with the system behind it. Or for the math-prof who want to walk around with his sage puppy on usb stick, or want to install it quickly on some laptop. And personally I like the application mix of puppy very much. I have the feeling if taking them away and have just sage running on a barebone puppy would feel much too dry and no fun anymore.
About criteria
Other aspects, like being open source and free are secondary (thinking of the usual habbit of allowing those extra free copies of 1000$+ priced software to stay in business). In so far, userfriendly-wise we are doing good, especially I must say the windows exe installer makes it easier to install sagelive into a windows system, than any other variant (even easier than a frugal install on linux). With a decent download an inexperienced user can install and test the system in less then 15 minutes. Although it seems huge and bloated to puppy users it will seem lean for windows users and also regular sage users. Packages in the scope of sage usually take up far more than 1 GB of diskspace, so the 630 MB including OS (+Java..) will not scare them away.
So its about providing information and infrastructure, thats why I also set up some webpages with help and info about sagelive (puppy).
http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/emil/doc/html/en
I noticed that I learned so much during the last year that many things that seem natural from my viewpoint, may seem arcane and quirky for somebody not introduced to the puppy way of doing things.
As always, there is much room for improvements!
emil