Removing zTu virtual machine images

[Max R. P. Grossmann]

Friends,

You may have noticed that the zTu virtual machine images were removed
from my server. Only now have I had the opportunity to amend the
documentation to reflect this fact, for which I apologize.

I am happy to report that zTu still works as well as it ever did on the
most recent versions of Debian. However, this does not mean that you
should necessary continue using zTu. It was our distinct privilege to
help you all out during the early phases of Covid, and we are happy to
have somewhat achieved that purpose. But at this point in 2023, it
appears there is a limited set of reasons to continue using zTu. You
should probably just go back to the lab and run your experiments there.
Or, if you wish to enjoy the advantages of online experiments, consider
using one of the well-known frameworks made for that purpose. In my
personal view, zTu scratched a very particular itch at a very particular
point in time. This is the truth as I see it.

I am grateful to all of you who came up to me during ASFEE, ESA, IMEBESS
and other conferences and thanked me personally for (co-)developing zTu.

I still have a recent-ish working virtual machine image of zTu, which I
can share with you if you email me privately (but not indefinitely).
However, in general, if you wish to continue using zTu, I now recommend
using a server setup as described here:
https://cler1.gitlab.io/ztree-unleashed-doc/docs/installation-server/
It's actually quite straightforward.

I will continue maintaining and improving zTu for the foreseeable
future, but the great stability of z-Tree and Debian makes it unlikely
that much will change. Feel free to contact me or email this list if you
have any questions regarding zTu or the server setup.

Best,

Max
https://max.pm