Features/SoaS Creation Station
Summary
A Custom Remix of Gnome Desktop with livecd-tools and spin-kickstarts
- It can be either a liveCD or An Install CD.
- This is a Sub-Project of Remixability Feature. It cannot be labeled as Soas-remix as it is not intended to be used in a Classroom (per Mel)
- Targeted Audience: Teachers, Experienced Users, and Deployments.
- This Feature will allow Users to Make Custom Respins from edited .ks files.
- It requires installation to a Hard Disk or 16Gb USB to allow Building of Custom-Remix.iso files
This feature proposes:
- The development of a page on the SL wiki for highlighting classroom-made remixes, their kickstart files, and details on their usage
- Edits to the Customization Guide version for Mangolassi that reflect these changes
Owner
- Name: [| Thomas Gilliard]
- Email: satellit <at> bendbroadband <dot> com
Current status
- Targeted release: (Soas v4 Mangolassi)
- Last updated: [| Thomas Gilliard] 10:15, 3 August 2010 (PST)
- Percentage of completion: 10%
Detailed Description
Wiki page
The creation of a page that:
- Describes remixes
- Makes it clear that remixes are unsupported
- Links to the Customization Guide as the canonical resource on how to make remixes
- Lists existing community-made remixes so that people can see and try what others have created, with each remix listing having...
- The .iso available for download
- The .ks available for download
- A blog or a link to some resource that describes how this remix is being used in a live teaching setting
The page might look something like this:
+---------------------------------------------+ | Unofficial SoaS Remixes | | | | +-----------------+ +---------+---+----+ | | | SoaS Mangolassi | |remix #01|.ks|blog| | | | summary | +---------+---+----+ | | | | |remix #02|.ks|blog| | | | <link to main | +---------+---+----+ | | | SoaS project | |remix foo|.ks|blog| | | | page> | +---------+---+----+ | | +-----------------+ |remix bar|.ks|blog| | | +---------+---+----+ | | description of | Your remix here! | | | remixes, including | | | | clear text on how | Here's how: | | | they are UNSUPPORTED | <link to Custom- | | | | ization guide> | | | +------------------+ | +---------------------------------------------+
Sample remixes
In order to pre-populate the #Wiki page, we would follow the Customization Guide's instruction (Draft Content) [1] to create and post remixes for 2-4 deployments before Mangolassi's official release date. These would be specific, teacher-driven remixes that would be used in live deployments.
The "blog" link for each of these remixes would go to a description - written either by or in conjunction with the teacher - on why the remix was designed that way, and what their plans for classroom usage are. ("Ms. Smith created this remix for her middle-school Spanish-language classes with the following localization and activities so she could do the following things with Sugar in her syllabus...")
Image-building service
Provide and advertise an experimental remix image-building service available for the first 2 months after the Mangolassi release. For this time period, the feature owner takes responsibility for accepting emails with .ks files attached, building the resulting images, and responding to those emails with a link to a built .iso of the remix generated by that .ks.
The mechanism of this back-and-forth is up to the feature owner to determine, so long as the mechanism (and the unsupported nature of the remixes generated by it) are clear. The current proposal is as follows:
- Please send e-mail to:
To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org
Subject: [Custom KS]-{Name of your kickstart file}
*Attach your Custom.ks file*
PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION in e-mail:
Sugar Version :
(0.82; 0.86.x; 0.88.x; 0.89.x)
Country / Deployment :
Build system fedora version :
Number of USB's in Deployment :
PC/Netbooks used :
Notes and Any Bug No's submitted :
Customization guide edits
The Customization Guide would be edited to reflect the above changes, and reviewed and tested by a few new remixes for ease-of-use.
Benefit to Sugar
Promotes our already-existing technical flexibility to customize Soas-v4 for Deployments and individuals.
- add/delete desired applications to standard set on .iso
- Targeted uses:
- Multiple Language versions (Including EU Languages?)
- e-book reader
- Older students
- Games
- Shared kickstart files e-mailed to SOAS and posted to wiki allow others to learn how to make a .ks file and try various remixes.
- Posted links to a Catalog of prebuilt remix.iso's, with a description of their use and contents, allows less skilled users to use them.
Scope
The technical ability to create remixes has worked for a long time.
- all entries labled xxxx-remix were built using these instructions
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Talk:Features/Soas_V4/Install_Test_Table#Test_results
The implementation of this feature depends on:
- the editing of the Customization Guide
- the creation a wiki page
- the running of a Remix Image Building Service for 2 months after release
UI Design
N/A
How To Test
User Experience
Wider choices for users of Soas-v4 due to ability to Customize.
Dependencies
None that I know of.
Contingency Plan
Not Needed
Documentation
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Talk:Features/Soas_V4/Remixability#Build_Your_Own_Remix
Release Notes
None Needed