======================================================================= ======================================================================= These release notes are better viewed online with hyperlinks at - http://cloudsession.com/dawg/projects/scizyx/relnotes-0.6.0.3 Feedback encouraged... Cheers, -dmc Douglas McClendon dmc@cloudsession.com http://cloudsession.com/dawg ======================================================================= ======================================================================= ======================================================================= ****** Sci-ZyX ****** ======================================================================= ****** Release Notes ****** ======================================================================= **** version :: 0.6.0.3 :: "reproducibility" :: 2011.01.11 **** ======================================================================= ***** About ***** Sci-ZyX (tm) is a VirOS(tm) produced, alternative to the ancestor(el6- sl6ra4) standard desktop LiveCD/DVD/USB. Asside from being an exceptionally functional traditional LiveDVD/USB, it also highlights how the VirOS toolset makes it extremely easy to produce your own rebootlessly_installable descendent LiveOS_distribution. ======================================================================= ***** Disclaimer ***** This *beta* release of Sci-ZyX is still a work in progress, and needs further testing and peer-review. As such the usual_disclaimers_(see sec._15-17) apply. I.e. nobody but the user(that's you, not me) is responsible for unintentionally corrupted disks. Users should be unafraid of annoying and/or serious bugs, but optimistic that they may be pleasantly surprised by a very useful system. ======================================================================= ***** Features ***** Sci-ZyX has many compelling features, often differing from its ancestor. Some of the most important are - ZyX-LiveInstaller This LiveCD/DVD/USB is an installable free and open source operating system distribution. With the ZyX-LiveInstaller (available under the System Tools menu), you can install the running LiveOS to internal or external system disk rebootlessly. In other words, you may seemlessly utilize your system before, during, and after the install, without ever needing to reboot. VirOS The VirOS tool is installed, which allows the easy customization / mutation / transmogrification of Sci-ZyX into your own descendent distribution stripped of the Sci-ZyX branding. Try (with an internet connection- for this release)- viros spawn \ --debug \ --strain=platform \ --traits=splice-zyx-brand::distroname="BrandX":distroversion="0.1" \ --output=my-brandx.iso For more examples, please see the online_tutorial, as well as the pre-sourceforge project_page. Note, that a future version will include the scripts necessary to include a complete recompilation of all the packages viros uses to generate/spawn the iso, from the source packages that are already included in the .wsource.iso version of this .iso. I.e. This is a fully self-hosting-and- regenerating LiveOS distribution(not yet tested and automated). Office Software / Text Editing OpenOffice is included as is GNU Emacs. Vim, Gedit, and Tomboy are also there for all your text composition needs. Web, E-Mail, Video Conferencing, Internet, etc... Firefox 3.6 is included with additional popular extensions such as Swifttabs(future rev: tabkit, abp, noscript). Mozilla's Thunderbird is the primary email application instead of Evolution. Ekiga is available for text, voice, and video communications. Image Processing The GNU Image Manipulation Program (gimp) is provided for image editing and processing. Inkscape is also available for creating and editing scalable vector graphics (svg) images. UNetBootin Sci-ZyX is compatable with the popular unetbootin tool for 'burning' the sci-zyx*.iso file to a usb memory stick in 'LiveUSB' mode. Once you are running from a LiveUSB, boot times are on par with those of a normally installed system. Of course traditional installation to an internal or external system disk is also possible via zyx-liveinstaller at any time you are booted in LiveDVD/USB mode... SELinux is available, but turned off by default "Life is too short for SELinux" - Ted Ts'o In addition to a getting a five percent systemwide performance bump (according to the NSA), you should just assume the bios of any computer connected to wireless networking hardware is being used to spy on you, by oppressive governments, foreign and domestic. It may be paranoid, but statistically I imagine a safe bet. K.A.B.L.U.I. My personal desktop preferences are available to any user by running the command 'kablui' from a terminal. For now, lacking an 'unkablui' command, you probably want to try this on a test account first. Support You are currently reading 'the sci-zyx documentation'. For the timebeing, experience with similar LiveOSs is presumed. Please note that at the moment *ZyX is thus far pretty much the creation of a sole developer (redistributing his free and open source works as well as those of thousands, if not millions of other developers). However, given that I have been working on VirOS and LiveOS distributions passionately since before the millenium, to the point of Greg_DeKoenigsburg of Fedora/RedHat fame publically dubbing_me 'Godfather of the Fedora LiveCD', I can assure you that things will likely continue their steady forward progress in quality. With the VirOS-1.0 release coming in 2011 alongside the primary ancestor's 6.1 release, I have reasonable hopes of bringing together a significant user and development community around VirOS, now hosted at SourceForge. Please check out the project_page for more documentation, user forums, developer mailinglists, etc. viros.sf.net also has the latest released source code in .tar.bz2 format, as well as an active git development tree. ======================================================================= ***** Thanks for your interest... ***** Please check the_latest_errata to these release notes, as workarounds to known issues may accumulate there. In closing, the bottom line is this- I think that with rebootless installation, *ZyX has a great user experience, and the included VirOS software uses the most intuitive metaphors for its task. They may just be the right tools for your job, saving you time and/or money. ======================================================================= Release Notes Last Modified -- (c)2011/01/9 by Douglas_McClendon ======================================================================= -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 55f82cefa142253877a79d0ae9059db1d1aeea1de75b417ba1bff4ec8eb0239f4bd6ca39eac6efe5787fc0128d0e56c265a2d5c394504e2f76e516260db0a6e7 sci-zyx-0.6.0.3.iso 8453281f901b1f09e5cd21ea668ccc7957c8c57b846eb1657b53a0dbaf3571cbc9de77853532b23249d30730b8552b5d48199e2f6d14a92ee6a6561fb0c62d43 sci-zyx-0.6.0.3.wsource.append.tar 5de83995e094ea5b07dd7f28cd03e2cf88eda8ffcae6c92edcb0ca22ee6ca056111aa7d2db8e5745bd0d64bd21e1d8cc9b27a2cae29a1a067130297368ff2872 sci-zyx-0.6.0.3.wsource.iso e32e60e3e63558d3c5c35b052097051ddb98049d562426924dd25bca8e5416d89889997fc067f3898d38185c54beaa9617a816b083883b3d2741b565c6acb93d sci-zyx-0.6.0.3.build.log.bz2 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAk0rv/gACgkQvGv6ZsXs4G7TrgCgvKS9CorsWdwuoEpSYTXPvJGH A9UAnjfWOdX7QoE39dH83ARZf6yQjhQc =Gel3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----