First PC/OS machine for sale

Its on eBay

its priced lower than some similar powered machines for sale by some other distros, the same configuration by some other distros cost almost $200.00

If you are looking for that second machine to try Linux or want a good homework PC, or even a machine to do website and graphic design this machine is perfect.  100% tested, comes with everything you need sans monitor, basically because I dont have an extra to spare.  Non-DOA guarantee.

more machines and some server systems coming soon.

New ISO’s uploaded.

If you look at the screenshots section you will see the revised theme and the new default wallpaper.  After I posted the revised theme I got bombarded from users who wanted it and I changed the default desktop background to be distinguishable and something unique.  The new ISO’s will be available by morning.  This was simply a cosmetic change

Source Availability

Being based on Linux and due to the GPL alot of people have asked “Wheres the source?”  The source code is available through Synaptic and can be accessed by making active the source code option in Software Sources.  Starting with 8.10 we wil be hosting the source code ourselves through a repository.  This will reflect all of our changes.

For the couple of kernel revisions I have recieved from users I have to add this.  All kernel code must have squashfs functionality added to it.  This aids in creating the liveCD instances.

Window Decoration refined

With the July update the Window theme has been refined. The minimize button as it is now the big hulking button with the line going through it has been replaced. The difference is that the new button is much smaller than the others which make it identifiable. The theme title has been changed. Instead of ‘Wannabe’ I changed it to NewBe.  if you want a copy of it for your installation let me know.   Below is a screenshot of the new button set

Complaints about the Minimal CD

There have been some complaints about the minimal install CD.  Basically it boils down to the fact that the Minimal install doesnt have the range of applications that the DVD has.  The minimal install CD was created for users whose systems meet the requirements to run the distribution but dont have a DVD drive.  You can get the applications and then some through Synaptic.  I am working on a script that upon installation you can execute this script and it will install everything for you.  Thats the best I can do, for the minimal install CD to serve its purpose it has to remain as small as possible.

There are also some complaints due to the lack of an x64 Flavor of PC/OS.  Unfortunately, I dont have that hardware nor do I have the funds to purchase that hardware.  So, when I get the funds or someone donates that hardware I will be glad to produce an x64 flavor.  On a side note, I have several users who do run the 32bit version on x64 hardware and some on xServes who tell me it does function the same.  So, if you want the x64 version either wait till I can afford it or donate the hardware.

PC/OS Expansion Pack

I have released the Expansion pack, sorry its late but my flight had a bunch of delays.   I didnt create an ISO of pack because basically of the size, 15 mb didnt warrant an ISO.  Distribution was better achieved by posting the tar.gz file and letting users extract it.  To extract the file just right click the file in Thunar and select ‘Extract Here’ For mobility you can always just a USB key or you can burn it to a CD.  The Update to Openoffice.org will be distributed via ISO and it will work on PC/OS, Xubuntu and Debian 4.  Here is a rundown of the Expansion Pack list.

On the Applications:  Some of them have dependencies to satisfy.  Dont worry about that its necessary for the applications to run properly.

ntEd  A new musical score editor called NtEd featuring WYSIWYG editing, anti aliasing, midi export and post script export.

QT Tube  Graphical application to download videos from YouTube.

Pencil  is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

RawStudio can read and convert RAW-images from many different cameras, including Nikon and Canon. Rawstudio uses dcraw.

Cheese is a Photobooth-inspired application for taking pictures and videos from a webcam. It also includes fancy graphical effects based on the gstreamer-backend.

DiskSearch is a tool for searching for files on all your removable media disks (e.g. CD’s, ZIP disks or backup tapes). For instance you can search for songs on your MP3-CD’s or for a document on your backup DVD’s. For advanced queries there is a regular expression search mode. The search is based on a simple database file which needs to be filled once by adding all your disks to it.

Hotwire is a graphical shell intended to replace the interactive command execution portion of a typical Unix shell. It includes much of the functionality found in the combination of a terminal emulator, a shell, and core utilities like ls and grep.

OpenLDev is a development environment that provides a graphical front-end to Linux compilers such as gcc. It includes the basic essentials needed by a Linux programmer. It is a graphical interface to the collection of command line programming tools available for Linux and Unix systems

TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP Mac OS X, and Linux

Thunderbird Lightning To install Lightning Open Thunderbird Click on Tools —> Add Ons.  Extension that adds Calendar and PIM functionality to Thunderbird

Wallpapers:

BirthNation                                                     mcbrownabstract
DuneDesktop                                                  LiquidPlasma
MacRed                                                          GreenAbstract
Plasma                                                           BlueFluid

Where can I get this great collection you may ask.  You can get it right here 

8.04 plans

8.04 will be released in August. With this some questions have arisen over the use of interface and whether server will be updated as well.

1. The interface will not change. Themes, colors and panel and menu placements will be the same as with 7.10. I keep constantly getting feedback on how people like the interface so this wont be changing at all.

2. I will look at forward porting some apps from 7.10 to 8.04, these will mostly be apps not included in the Ubuntu repositories. Im seriously looking at including Opera mostly for PC/OS mini which will be a 100mb possibly 200 or 300 mb install CD. Those plans are not set in stone yet though.

3. Server 8.04 will be released about the same time as client if not just a couple of weeks after. Im not expecting major upgrades to server as Server 7.10 is standing on its own and is well liked. Snort may be removed as Im getting the feedback nagios is more popular and most uninstall Snort to use Nagios.  Gambas will be completely removed from server due to feedback.  if you want Gambas kept do let me know, otherwise it will be removed.

7.10.1 Workstation released

7.10.1 on the workstation side went live tonight.  Now some things have changed.  1st is the Echo icon theme is now the default and not Mist.  Why?  Echo actually looks good and since Fedora doesn’t want them I decided to go ahead and use em so those authors can get some recognition.  TrueCrypt will be released separately.  I did this because of testing purposes.  I didn’t have enough time to test as thoroughly as I wanted.  i will release it on Saturday – Sunday with the PC/OS Expansion Pack which will have some Firefox themes, the lightning extension for Thunderbird, Automatix2 etc.  It will just be a tar.gz file so just uncompress and install via right clicking and choosing install for the packages and using Firefox and Thunderbird for the rest.  The Gutsy backports repository has been disabled.  this led to some stability and usability issues with some of the apps which have been reverted back to the originals in the official Ubuntu repositories.  if you want to re enable backports through software sources go right ahead.  There is a new menu item called Mobile.  This contains Firefox launchers to Gmail, Firefox, Live maps and Google Maps as well as Wikipedia and Box.net.  These were requested by users and I thought they were a good idea for laptop users who may not want to configure Thunderbird on their laptops for mail access and who need to access map services as well as online storage.  I wont be including Google Docs or any of the other online services unless I have requests for them which hasn’t happened yet.  ROXTerm replaced xfce terminal and other security fixes have been installed.  So get it from the download site and on-disk.com should be updated within 24 hours. 7.10.2 is scheduled for release in July with 8.04 being still scheduled for an August release.

Server Update tonight

After midnight PC/OS Server will recieve its first update.  This update addresses some security issues as well as adds new functionality thats already been discussed.  Server has had a lot of feedback and Server seems to be a hit.

Onward.

The Minimal install which recieved its first release yesterday already has the updates planned for the client, the DVD edition will be updated early next week.

Release cycles

8.04 will be the last time i do back to back releases of PC/OS. PC/OS will follow a bi release schedule. Mainly landing at the same time as x.10 release of Ubuntu is released. There will probably be testing and experimental releases of the x.04 series but unless its an LTS it wont be an official release.

Why? Because I want to ease the update process and having a bi release schedule allows us to test and concentrate on quality versus speed of release. I want quality to be the #1 priority and having to race to release doesnt deliver that quality. This is just a thought, not a rule yet. Keep sending the feedback and let me know what you think.  Innovations from the x.04 series may wind up in a Fixpack or and Update pack.