Custom Distro???

[johnnyorion]

I've been using the Ubuntu Netbook Remix distro on my Dell Latitude
D400 (that only has a 20GB hdd) and even though I am pleased with the
OS at this point, I've just heard about Google's announcement of their
Chrome OS, due this fall and set to be sold on netbooks in the second
half of 2010. I've been keeping tabs on M$ and Apple and see their
trying to reduce the footprint of the OS's and increase efficiency.

My roommate has suggested 'building' my own distro. I'd like to do
that and would be interested to talk with anyone else who would be
interested in 'developing' a lightweight but full featured distro.

I actually run Windows Vista, OS X Leopard and Ubuntu 9. I really
like the application bundles in OS X. I really don't like how not
straight forward the linux file system is in regards to application
binaries(the actual icon that you'd click on in the file browser)...

I'd like to see if it's possible to create a very slim OS that has
either Darwin or GNU Darwin as the Kernel, or a current stable Linux
Kernel, likely Debian based I think, possibly GNU/Linux... Besides
that, the only other things that come to mind are the GUI/WM, which
I'd either like to see an open source Aqua-like GUI or Gnome...I think
what I'd really like to see happen is the creation of a more
standardized Unix based OS... not just another distro, if possible,
but a real re-think of the concepts that work best, like a centralized
program directory, application bundles, permissions based security,
only installing what is needed and only running what is being used
instead of running services that aren't actually being utilized at
all...

I tend to think that a streamlined architecture based on this sort of
diagram of the OS X Architecture, ( http://developer.apple.com/macosx/architecture/index.html
) would be a great start... Instead of having multiple libraries
that essentially do the same thing all running or at least
installed...

Looking forward to feedback...

Chris

[Nick Anderson]

johnnyorion wrote:
> My roommate has suggested 'building' my own distro. I'd like to do
> that and would be interested to talk with anyone else who would be
> interested in 'developing' a lightweight but full featured distro.
>

Building and maintaining your own distro would be a lot of work. Plus
there is no reason to re-invent the wheel.
If you like the all-in-one package thing just use klik
http://klik.atekon.de/

[Rezty Felty]

" I've been keeping tabs on M$ and Apple and see their
trying to reduce the footprint of the OS's and increase efficiency."

Really?  I've seen nothing like that out of the either camp.

Windows 2000:  29 million lines of code - 2GB Install footprnt
Windows XP: 40 million lines of code - 2GB Install footprint
Windows Vista: 50 million lines of code - 20GB Install footprint
Windows 7:  Rumored to be over 200 milion lines of code - 20GB Install footprint

OS X 10.4: 86 million lines of code - 3GB Install footprint
OS X 10.5.3 204 Million lines of code - 5GB Install footprint


Rezty Felty

[gladi...@gmail.com]

Chris,

Check out this site: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

There are a lot of lite linux distros out there--mostly targeted
towards embedded systems or the wee-pc crowd (think Soekris or
equivalent)

The problem you run into with the embedded distros is that they are
set up to take things like limited memory and flash storage into
consideration. The kind of ram disk manipulation magic is just
annoying overhead if you've got a full-sized machine to work with.

Beware: even with the guidance of the linuxfromscratch site, you won't
have a linux system functioning like you might have come to expect
from a conventional distro. What you can be rest assured of, though
(if you're patient and focused enough) is that you will know a mighty
bleepload about the details of how the various layers of such a
distribution works.

If you succeed, you will have a much better idea of the connection
between your kernel and your gnome widgets than you might otherwise.
If you don't... well... you can always reload Ubuntu.

-Stephen

[Russell Valentine]

johnnyorion wrote:
> Looking forward to feedback...

Use Gentoo and install just what you need?

A while back I was working on a custom gentoo installs to be used on
desktops. I set up a Gentoo binary package repository where I put
compiled packages. I had the system install/update from that repository
and only the packages I wanted. It worked ok, ran into a few problems
though but I think it could be worked out.

Light weight and full featured? You mean something that takes no
resources and does everything you want? Why haven't the current distro's
and software developers thought of this? They are so stupid!

I do not get your concern about clicking on binaries in a file browser,
why aren't you using shortcuts in your menu system?

Program directory and application bundles. This sounds like a package
repository and package management system. Almost all distros have this,
some maybe lack a GUI to access it though. Maybe there are some packages
you think are missing, or the GUI could be improved?

Almost all distro's you can install just what you use if you went
through the effort of figure out the minimal that you'll use. The
minimal is often different for people.

Your list of what you want doesn't really seem very defined. It sounds
like you just want any distro with it's settings/packages adjusted the
way you want it. Or you just want a OSX clone, I can't really tell.

Russell Valentine

[Jeffrey Watts]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 4:10 PM, johnnyorion <spektrum...@gmail.com> wrote:

I actually run Windows Vista, OS X Leopard and Ubuntu 9.  I really
like the application bundles in OS X. I really don't like how not
straight forward the linux file system is in regards to application
binaries(the actual icon that you'd click on in the file browser)...

You do realize that every modern operating system suffers from this "problem"?

Windows has dozens of utilities and applications that aren't in the Start menu.  Search for .exe and .com sometime.  MacOS is Unix, and there are hundreds of applications that aren't in the "Applications" folder.

What most systems do is provide a menu system where the more important or often used applications can be found.  See the Start menu, Applications folder, or whatever the menu Gnome has set up.

As far as making your own operating system from scratch (that's indeed what you were talking about), well, if you have ten years or so of free time go right ahead!  However, it's my personal opinion that unless you're going to do something new or novel, it would be a waste of time.  If you feel the need to "customize" something you should go with the other people's suggestions and use Linux From Scratch or something similar.

Personally, I'd recommend spending the time instead mastering Unix/Linux on a well-made distribution.  You'll learn a lot more.

Jeffrey.

--

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine

[johnnyorion]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'd looked for some of the smallest
distros I could find, like Damn Small Linux. I also found that Debian
has a 30mb net install disk but ran into issues getting it to install
on my laptop that has no CD drive. I've found that there's this
package called 'remastersys' that allow you to clone a system into a
livecd iso image. Then I've used the USB startup disk tool to 'burn'
the liveCD iso image to the USB as a bootable image.

I'd run across that linuxfromscratch.org site last night and was going
to check it out, even downloaded one of the isos to 'burn' to my USB.
It was important to me to back up the Ubuntu installation I've got on
my laptop already so that I can try out some of these different
kernels and packages (distros if you like, albeit customized)...

I just ran across another thing that sounded like something I'm
wanting to give a try. http://www.instalinux.com

I'm just not sure how much I can strip away and have a working
installation. Is it enough to just have the latest linux kernel and
Gnome and then select the program packages I'll use and have that be
it?

As far as creating my own OS, no I don't really, really want to do
that. I hate programming. I've tried it and I don't have the
patience. The issues I've had with finding programs is based upon
mainly one instance where I was setting up the program shortcuts in
the Avant Window Navigator (AWN, a dock application) and I couldn't
find where the firefox application actually was located only for the
purpose of setting the icon (I know the command for the shortcut is
simply 'firefox') and in the spirit of saving space, didn't want to
just download another icon because it was 'too hard to find' what was
already on my computer.

I have a call that I'm taking and need to end this post. Not sure if
I've stated what I need to but I will when I reply again... thanks for
the help and guidance.

l8r,
Chris

[Kendric Beachey]

Maybe all you need is the "which" command.

beachey@cadwell:~$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
beachey@cadwell:~$

Kendric Beachey

[Matt Linzer]

Hello Johnnyorion,

If you are looking for the icons, you may want to have a look in /usr/share/pixmaps/.  Many applications keep there icons in this directory.

--Matt Linzer

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:18 PM, johnnyorion <spektrum...@gmail.com> wrote: