[blag-whereto] BLAG 1xK

[jayeola]

On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 11:51:00 -0500
"Abdur-Rahman Morgan" <21stcenturytechnosapien at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello All,
> 
> The question of where we take BLAG and GNU Linux, is a question that
> encompasses what legacy we want to leave for future generations who
> undoubtedly will have to overcome challenges that the GNU GPL will
> continue to fight to ensure our freedoms. As we enter the second
> decade of the 21st century, as users, developers, activists, artists,
> technosapiens, we must think and re-define how new technologies and
> advances in computing and electronics will allow us to maintain the
> principles that bought is here. Our physical existence and virtual
> resources that have continue to closely come together are integral on
> how we get work done in our daily lives.
> 
> For the past three years (and continuing on) I have enjoyed using
> BLAG 60k and 70k, playing around with 80k and adjusting to using 90k,
> on systems that ranged from a Pentium II to now my AMD Athlon 64 X-2
> Desktop. Before that, I had not understood the issues that
> differentiates BLAG, gNewSense, uTuto, Dynebolic, GNUStep and Musix
> while using Fedora Core, but a trip to FSF Annual members meeting
> quickly changed that. I have been happy with all versions of BLAG
> even with the challenges in 90k with the issues with yum and apt,
> because it somewhat reminded me of the days when I started using
> Linux, with Redhat 8 and 9 and configuring some of the hardware
> manually was a pain. As a whole community we have come very far and I
> am proud of what has evolved using Free Software from a social,
> political and technological standpoint.
> 
> BLAG 90k and prior versions
> -----------------------------------
> We need to continue on the same path Jebba has bought us. And Jebba
> we will need your guidance to ensure that the distribution is
> maintained. We have a reputation in the community that is respected
> and all of us need to bring our skills together during this time to
> demonstrate the power of who we are as individuals and blag users. We
> need to keep BLAG 90k up to date by:
> 
> Ensuring we have server(s) that it can be downloaded from
> Ensuring that it is available using peer to peer clients through
> torrents Ensuring that we can keep up with the updates.
> 
> In order to accomplish this, we will need to define at least 3 or 4
> sources it is presently available (direct and or as a mirror) and
> ensure that we are providing the most updated copies for individuals
> to install. Any present updates should be included as we continue to
> maintain and update 90k. This I think we owe to users who are
> visiting our site downloading, trying it, and using it and to the
> Free Software Foundation that has our name listed among
> distributions. There is a body of users using Fedora who I think we
> have the ability to persuade that using BLAG will change the whole
> GNU/Linux experience.
> 
> BLAG 1xK and onward
> ---------------------------
> I think our focus should defintely be on improving upon what 90k was
> and put the best of 70k in there. I think 10k should be based on a
> live image to serve users who are still using older systems because
> that is one of the original goals I recall from the Wiki. A market is
> still there for us to demonstrate to individuals who are using older
> hardware that they can have a system that is viable in the 21st
> century with GNU/Linux. As more individuals are using flash drives to
> do installs on systems with bootable bios's, I think utilzing FUSBi,
> would greatly help the spread of the distribution.
> 
> I was hoping that we could spin out a 64-bit version possibly in 11
> or 12k
> 
> >From a package standpoint, we need to come together and decide what
> >we want
> to see in 10k and make sure that a combination of the most utilized
> tools, the best technologies available for Graphics, Office, Sound
> and Video are out there for our community. Let's create a poll and
> thread on the forum and discuss on IRC and the lists the software you
> are using. I recently discovered Last Exit, the last.fm client and am
> loving.
> 
> Meeting Times
> ------------------
> I think as much as I have read the forums and been on the IRC
> Channel, I would like to see a weekly online meeting around the same
> time as the weekly meetings take place physically. While, we all live
> in different time zones and I think moving forward we should loosely
> discuss where we are going while setting up a timetable of our goals.
> This information can then be posted on this list, the forum and the
> wiki for individuals to provide feedback.
> 
> Response to Jayeola
> ---------------------------
> You are defintintely right. We need to organize and plan. If we fail
> to plan then we fail hundreds of users that are not only using BLAG,
> but those can become part of our community and we miss an opportunity
> to show every other distrubtion the best of what 100% Free Software
> has to offer. For new users of GNU/Linux, we want them to become
> comfortable using the system. I am a big fan of literacy and I think
> we can create a Wiki, that is truly informative for non-blag users as
> well who are using similar systems. The contributions that 2.6
> partially bought on spoiled me, but has made Linux a pleasure to use
> and I think we need to spoil our users while creating a means for
> them to learn as well
> 
> A quick thought about the Wiki
> ------------------------------------
> The wiki should definitely be a learning tool. Not just a place to put
> information, but a place where information can empower people to do
> things and bring those ideas back to the community
> 
> A quick thought about the forums
> ---------------------------------------
> I love the forums just they way they are. I only recommend having a
> timestamp on each thread
> 
> Do nothing or demand the impossible because it is possible
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I think in the next three months, if we all re-affirm our commitment,
> we can have a nicely polished BLAG 10k. I really just  want to
> maintain updates and have the resources for people to update without
> a work around. It's easy for us geeks, but for new users, I could
> only imagine. We need to bring all of our skills and talent together
> and where we need help, we must ask, learn and become better at who
> we are, what we now and what we are capable of. Let's look at the
> Fedora roadmap, assess what tools we have to spin out a distro, put
> it out there for individuals to test, get feedback and improve upon
> it day by day.
> 
> Resources
> -------------
> Can you specify what we need. Hardware. Software. Knowledge wise!
> 
> What Free Software tools in BLAG can we currently use to stay
> organized?
> 
> Let's learn git(http://git.or.cz/), talking about what need to do
> with it and and become familiar on using it without losing any work.
> For individuals with experience, please post your knowledge.
> 
> I really like Dynebolic. I think any scripts from Jamoril and
> gNewSense are important.
> Freeeee. I used BLAG 70k on my EEE PC and the keyboard was definitely
> to small. Any contributions that I can make there, I will put my
> energy towards
> 
> Servers
> ----------
> Is there someway we can utilize Savannah?
> Do we need to contribute for domain/hosting for blagblagblag.org
> 
> Comunication
> -----------------
> I think we need to utilze a number of systems for communication, but
> before let's discuss our infrastructure. Who will be working on
> developing the iso? Who is going to accept responsiblilty for the
> main site? I think some communication for some groups should be live
> 
> A Quick note about blagblagblag.org and creative works
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Artists, writers, designers, please bring forth your ideas, designs,
> for the site as well as recommendations on how we can maintain the
> site with a new fresh look. I think your feedback would also be
> valuable to the design of our upcoming distributions as well.
> 
> Timing
> --------
> I agree with you all the way as far as the amount of time we can all
> contribute. I think some contributions may take more time according
> to the type of work that is being done, but I think our to make BLAG
> as great as we want it, we should contribute the respective time and
> energy that will make it what we want it to be. I think managing what
> we our doing with our time and keeping people updated is important as
> well.
> 
> Distros
> --------
> I think we should stick with Fedora X as a basis and add relevant
> packages to make sure we have them available for non-desktop(servers,
> workstations, etc) systems.
> I think migrating from Fedora Core would be good but there may be
> issues with the packages they have installed compared to what is
> available in BLAG. I think we should not have people migrating from
> BLAG to Fedora at all. There could be some dependency issues either
> way with certain packages creating a broken system, versioning issues
> and repositiory issues as well.
> 
> People/Skill set
> --------------------------
> I want to join. First I want to provide my feedback when its
> relevant. I would like to help organize and coordinate with everyone
> to ensure that we are all on the same page. I also want to make sure
> that we are keeping our packages in line with the guidelines setup by
> the FSF. I think we should work with the other Free Software
> distributions, utilize the Free Software directory and ensure that
> all the packages we are putting in as Free. There is definitely a
> difference between what we had installed in BLAG as compared to
> gNewSense 1.0 and 2.0(which I use along with BLAG 90k)and I think we
> need to remain consistent as a family of Free Software distributions.
> Our goals are the same, but people have preferences, but I think we
> want to generally provide people with the same user interface that
> and tools they prefer. I think there is opportunity to do so much and
> I would like to get my feet wet wherever it is needed. I am
> comfortable testing and providing feedback. Maybe in the future
> providing feedback to code for scripts and package management.
> 
> Mailing Lists
> ---------------
> No comment
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> You say it best
> BLAG 'em up


This is gonna be a funny one. Thus far I've been playing with FC10 on
an IBM Thinkpad x30. I won't go into the bugs here but once this has
been "set up", I'll probably create a "public space" to put the output
from scripts and commands. This will allow all to laugh at my silly
mistakes...

... more importantly it'll be part blog, part "let's not make the same
mistake he made" and part what ever else it turns out to be.

very good idea of the live cd. (/Me steals this idea) and the older
hardware /* stealing that  one too */

/jjm