inx-devel team mailing list archive

[Peter Garrett <inx-one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Andre, all,

On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:32:21 +1000
Andre Mangan <andrem@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]
> 1.  Date on releases - I would favour a version number. 

I think so too...

> If you put a
> date on a release, say INX 2008, it will be considered obsolete in a few
> months when the calendar turns to 2009.  Although, following the Ubuntu
> tradition, if released in October this year it could be called 8.10 and
> that looks rather attractive.

Except that then people would think it was based on Ubuntu 8.10, which
it isn't, of course - and probably never will be :)

> 2.  Install INX - An installer is a must.  For myself, I like to access
> INX via VirtualBox from my Ubuntu desktop - it saves the drudgery of
> rebooting; others may want it as a complete installable operating
> system.

*sigh* I fully agree, but as cjwatson of Ubiquity fame said to me some
time ago, "Installers are not trivial." I'm really hitting the ceiling
of my current knowledge and abilities on this one. Anyone out there
care to have a look at the Inxtaller and see if they can come up with
something more sophisticated?

> 3.  Updating INX - the current situation means a complete new download
> whenever sufficient changes are made to warrant it.  Since "the core
> programmes" are "static", I would welcome a facility for only
> downloading changes to my INX installation.  INX is bound to grow.

Well, this is possible for an installed INX, or a virtual install -
doing incremental updates on an ISO is probably not practical, as you
would have seen from the way most distros do this.

You can save a lot of downloading by using "buildinx" and updating the
tarball from the site ( /buildinx directory) - but this is not a
solution for the masses :) Also, some of the updates are not included
in that tarball now (Ceni is an example - it is a .deb from the Sidux
project).

> 4.  Manoeuvrability within the tutorial section - In the beginning I
> found the absence of a forward/backward button a drawback but as I
> became familiar with the topics of the lessons, I accessed these less
> often and therefore this lack of manoeuvrability became a non-issue.

This is still a "to do" item. To be honest, each time I have considered
tackling it I looked at the line count in the tutorials section and
silently turned to something more manageable :)

> Since the tutorials are one of the reasons for the existence of INX as a
> tutor of the marvels of the command line interpreter, I would agree that
> incorporating some sort of navigational aid into the basic tutorials
> would be of benefit.

Definitely.

> 5.  Release now or later? - Later never comes, so release now.  This
> will ensure a wider dispersion and therefore increase feedback.

True. On the other hand, since I do about 95% of the work, I worry that
I will forget something basic and create a release that is broken. This
of course is my problem, not anyone else's :)

> 6.  Polls - That would depend on how widely distributed INX will be.  If
> you do not have a copy of INX you cannot participate in a poll.
> Feedback via the present mailing lists should suffice, at least for the
> moment.

Agreed. 
 
> 7.  What does INX mean to me? - It is a tutor.  It has been instrumental
> in teaching me the command line (even though the screen was black) and
> it has shown me that every programme in Ubuntu can function without a
> GUI.  I suppose that GUIs are really just the icing on a cake.
> 
> 8.  Stable or unstable - that means nothing to me other than before
> drinks or after.

Heheh :)

Peter

-- 
"INX Is Not X" Live CD based on Ubuntu 8.04 : http://inx.maincontent.net
Screenshots slideshow: http://inx.maincontent.net/album/1.png.html