[rose: please try the torrent first] Linux, spun Homestuck-style

[orngjce223]

torrent file | image (use only if torrent is unavailable) | 1.7gb, MD5 73f51a0f5eb6c25ddd20288c38391c36 (if you wanna check, you probably should)


coming soon


by Yugosaki (thanks!)
torrent file | image | 1.6gb, md5

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status

Four kids, four Linux-based systems. I'm essentially finished with rose, which is now uploading. After that goes dave, which is similar to my current audio system so I'm not fussed about getting that too wrong. Both of these are built from xubuntu 10.04 (lucid), Dave with part of kxstudio tossed on top for the audio stuff.

jade and john, though, are currently beyond my capabilities. jade because I only have a grimy little netbook to test against and thus can't really make any eyecandy happen, and john because frankly I'm not a programmer and thus have no damn idea what a programmer would like.

Ideally these would all four be live-capable DVD size .iso, but I am aware I can't be picky if I'm not doing the work.

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but what the hell are these for?

If you have to ask, Windows is almost certainly the first program (or, technically, a set of programs - an operating system) that starts when you start your computer. You can replace it. Really. It won't make anything explode.

The base system that these are built on is the Ubuntu repositories, which are currently the most complete and up-to-date that are available (of course this is disputable). Ubuntu is a "Linux distribution". It's fairly easy to use, although you probably do want to learn what is going on because some things are still rough around the edges.

When these are complete, essentially you'll be able to a) carry a kidspin around on your keychain on a flash drive for portable use, and/or b) install a kidspin onto your own computer.

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spin-specific notes

rose

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rose is the lightweight of the four; the one that you can run on a teensy little netbook, or a laptop, and it will be faster than Windows. It also comes with a couple novel-writing tools - Storybook and Scribus, specifically, with more available if you prefer some other environment. There is also mtPaint (a very lightweight drawing tool that I personally use a lot, it's lighter and faster than GIMP for little jobs) and Audacity for some audio editing.

I've put Pesterchum 3.14 and a couple of goodies into it, too. For the road.

dave

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dave is a computer mixing station that can certainly still be used just fine as a desktop. It comes with the additional software from kxstudio available, and has JACK, the Cadence apps (which may be technically alpha but they're already pretty damn solid for use), a live-DJ application that I have yet to choose from the competitors (watch this space!), and a collection of plugins: filters, amp-likes, reverb, etc. that can be applied to the sound live. It also comes with a low-latency kernel that improves the performance of real-time audio processing.

When I'm finished building dave, I'll be working with the guy who's writing the cadence toolset about a tutorial on how to use the stuff live.

Update:

Okay, I don't currently have a computer because let's say mine got stepped on, but here's the basic outline of dave if you want to try what I was going to do:

• Xubuntu base install w/ many packages pared off the install (mostly extra applications, artwork, and icons)
• Extra repositories: kxstudio main, kxstudio kernels (for installs below 12.04), and kxstudio specials (for Cadence)
• linux-lowlatency (kernel, for installs below 12.04, because... well. Latency. linux-rt would be a better choice for super low latency, but it kills laptop batteries, so lowlatency is a good compromise.)
• cadence (part of kxstudio, above. I love it! It doesn't get very much attention, but it is awesome for the new set.)
• Pesterchum configured to Dave specifications
• Artwork (i.e. desktop backgrounds)
• ubuntustudio-audio-plugins (for their audio plugin set because AUDIO PLUGINS)
• I haven't decided yet, but maybe mixxx because live DJing (although that could also be done with cadence+another audio player if you don't like the interface)
• A music player; I'm considering aqualung because JACK support
• if space allows, an actual music production program that is not alpha-quality, like Ardour
• Samples: Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra, a bunch of drum loops from Freesound, and a few more soundfonts w/ more synthy-type sounds
• Dave-specific misc. tidbits (a couple Dave-centric fanfics in HTML form with permission; folders placed properly on the desktop; etc.)

jade

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See yugosaki's release notes for a list of what is included.

john

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tbd (I might be able to do this if someone gives me a fairly decent list of pointers as to IDEs and runtimes that should be installed, but rose and dave have to be done first)

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why are you doing this?

It's not exactly a secret that I'm this particular brand of fangirl, OK? It's not like I haven't done stuff like this before anyway.

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installation notes

If you've grabbed the .iso, I recommend using unetbootin to drop the image onto a USB key (2GB or larger will do). You can also use the Ubuntu ISO burning instructions, although be aware the images I have are too big for CDs so it's probably best to put them on DVDs.

For installation, there is an installer packaged on the liveimage that you can use, if you like. Note that the "try without installing" option only works with at least 512MB of memory; if you have less than that, skip straight to the installer. The desktop will work fine all the way down to 128MB, though, assuming of course sufficient swap space.

For reference, most netbooks have at least 512, so you should be fine with anything you have.

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support

I'll only provide limited support here. Your best bet is Google, honestly; this is based on Xubuntu which in turn is based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian, so you can search for that.

[poketama]

Sweet, Rose and Dave both sound cool. Keep up the good work.

[konec0]

Friiiiig Dave sounds so badass.
But I don't use Linux =<

[Obselescence]

I sure wish I knew about how stuff like this worked.

Even so, this sounds pretty awesome.

[unbridledExüberance]

Suggestions for the John version:
- add a Programming folder to the home directory
- include gcc and g++ (obviously), as well as jEdit and bless
- Probably some Python stuff too I guess? I only really use C and C++ so I don't know what would be the best to install there
- mingw-w64 and mingw32-runtime
- valgrind

[SenorEverClever]

Make sure to include the ~ATH editor with the John one.

[Frost]

Hah, wow. I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later (since the HS community has made basically everything else), but it's still sort of mindblowing.

For John, you've got a bit of a dilemma. A good programming setup will often end up being some kind of flashy, beautifully optimised, console-centric thing, maybe with a tiling window manager. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to fit too well with John's whole "incompetent programmer" schtick. Are you going for accuracy, or more broad-strokes theming?

[orngjce223]

Mostly broad strokes. Hell, if I wanted to be exact I'd've remade the icon themes to match the Homestuck ones, but frankly that. Isn't gonna happen without absurd amounts of crowdsourcing.

It would've taken me weeks, is the point.

In the meantime, I'm currently compressing the finished .iso and uploading it to my host, which... will take a couple hours.

Edit: 1.7GB. ETA 5 hours from now. What is my life.

Edit2: Screw this, I'm gonna make a torrent so you guys can start downloading while I try to get this to my teensy little server.

[Frost]

Mostly broad strokes. Hell, if I wanted to be exact I'd've remade the icon themes to match the Homestuck ones, but frankly that. Isn't gonna happen without absurd amounts of crowdsourcing.

This would actually be relatively doable, wouldn't it? You'd just need to get your hands on one or two vector artists, and one person willing to pull them all together into a working .deb. It's not like you'd have to replace all of the icons, either, and the resulting icon themes would be transferable to anybody running Gnome.

[orngjce223]

Pretty true, yes. If you'd like to do it, feel free; I've got my hands full putting rose on the Internet as it is.

Here's the torrent file if you want to grab it now: roselinuxspin-i386-desktop.iso.torrent Be patient, I'm seeding from a rather skinny pipe.

[unbridledExüberance]

By the way, are there 64-bit versions?

[orngjce223]

I don't currently have a 64-bit machine to play with. Sorry. I guess I could provide a minimal netinstall? I dunno, I'm looking at that and I don't see a way to drop arbitrary files into /etc/skel and /usr/share so maybe that's not the best idea either.

Although maybe I'm missing something, I'm a bit under the weather right now.

[atomicUltimatum]

This is awesome. I am downloading the Rose one for my Laptop and once the Dave one comes out I will be able to start my audio editing station. ^_^

[SenorEverClever]

Now that the Rose one is finished, can we get some screenshots or something?

[crispySteak]

you can do this just as a boot disk, right? I feel like it would be awesome to boot this on one of my friend's computers when they are away... "opps srry i borked your lappy bro..."
"WTF homestuck OS????"

[orngjce223]

Yeah, it'll boot a live session if you want it to.

[Twosevenska]

Already downloading and going to test it out on a virtualbox. Any reason there's few screenshots of the available OS?

[TheifofTruth]

i second the notion of screenshots. im new to linux,so can you switch between the two? id like rose for school work next year and dave for my music making.

[demosthenes2k8]

I'm willing to do a John version - apart from the themes, it'll basically be exactly what I have right now anyways - support for C, C++, D, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, and others, all through Exlipse (except for D, which I'm working on, and is currently done with Code::Blocks or, obviously, the terminal). (I haven't actually had a chance to test and make sure they all work, I'll do that when I'm building it)

If you send me any themes and other stuff you want included, it'll make it easier.

Also, yes you can switch between versions, or even your original Windows version, through a wonderful tool known as GRUB, which is installed when you install Ubuntu. You just have to be VERY careful when you set it up.

[Isoraqathedh]

I don't know, but a text-editor or two that isn't the default would be nice. Why not include both emacs and vi, so everyone involved in the argument is happy?

(I'm not very good at Linux computers of course; I use Notepad++ for my text editing procedures, which is not on the same level.)

[crispySteak]

yea ill download this soon if i can get some disks

also, demosthenes nice rhyme noise pin avatar

[orngjce223]

Y'know, I forgot to get screenshots while I was setting rose up, I'll do that when I can.

[demosthenes2k8]

Alright, I stuck vim, nano, and emacs in it. I'm working on breaking my filesystem to get Eclipse Helios working, so I'll tell you how that goes. By the way, Running Java inside virtualbox is a little slow on a laptop.

I think Helios installed properly, but I'm going to do some testing first. And a lot of setup.

Thanks!

[orngjce223]

Demos, give me a couple of days and I'll send you my wallpaper and GRUB background files for john, though I don't know what WM you're using so I can't theme before I know that.

[demosthenes2k8]

I'm currently using GNOME 2.32.1, basing it off of an (almost) fresh Ubuntu 11.04.

EDIT: erm...scratch that. I ran in to some problems. I'll base it off of openSUSE 11.4 instead, but still GNOME 2
Double edit all the way across the sky: OK, fixed that bug. Back to the Ubuntu install.