[luau] My thoughts regarding linux demos

[Warren Togami]

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:

> I forgot to mention the question that I really meant to post:
>
> Can we (or do we know anyone who has been able to) squeeze Red Hat 8 
> or Mandrake 9 into a KNOPPIX-like bootable CD?
>
It would take a non-trivial amount of work, so if the project is 
monetarily sponsored then some people on this list would be more than 
capable of doing this.  If a /etc template is copied into a ram drive 
during bootup, it would be easy to use kudzu to go through a series of 
menus auto-detecting and configuring the hardware on the system.  A few 
other menus like netconfig would need to be added to the boot sequence, 
but that's easy.  Make sure ISOLINUX is used as the CD bootloader.

(I'm too busy to do this, but I have a considerable amount of tips for 
whoever takes on the project.)

IMHO, I think DemoLinux, Knoppix and this proposed Red Hat demo CD are 
okay, but perhaps may give the impression that Linux is "too slow." 
 Running Linux from a demo CD in this fashion is EXREMELY SLOW unless 
you use the optional Hard Drive install and swap file.  Unfortuantely 
this is a non-trivial affair for NTFS users (most computers these days) 
because this will require re-partitioning... defeating the purpose of a 
demo CD in the first place.  Even if you don't mind the "slowness" of 
running from a demo CD, you still do not have full capability unless you 
enable a swap file, again, non-trivial for most modern Windows users due 
to NTFS.

I am willing to explore the possibilities of a demo Linux server to 
allow VNC access, but only if others step up to the plate for permanent 
sys admin and monitoring.  I cannot maintain more systems on a volunteer 
basis.  We would also need to take care of security and access concerns 
which I will detail the challenges of later.

IMHO, I think this Flash demo for Red Hat 8.0 is an excellent example of 
effective demos to educate Windows users.
http://www.redhat.com/software/linux/flash/redhat6_5.html

I now officially proclaim that Flash doesn't suck, and I intend on using 
it as a teaching and communication tool in the future.  Flash movies 
have the capability of communicating ideas in a much more effective way 
than any other media format we currently have.  The format is also very 
well compressed, making downloads tolerably quick and easy.

Here is another excellent example of Flash as an excellent 
teaching/communication tool:
http://lessig.org/freeculture/free.html

If you are pissed off about this Flash idea, I don't really care.  You 
are already a Linux user, you are not the target audience of a Linux demo.

More about this later.  For now I sleep.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com