just wondering, would anyone be interested in making/building a new linux distro, sort of a community project...called LinuxLQ

??

Total waste of time.
So many distros alreday exist.

I don't think it would be such a waste of time. Linux is like ice cream, just because there's already several hundred flavors doesn't me there isn't room for another.

It shouldn't be called LinuxLQ, but it should be actively developed by us.

i agree with AxeZ, the only reason i can see to develop a LQ distro is to meet a need to yet addressed by other versions of Linux but i don't know what that would be?

Judging by the ammount of "my distro is best" posts I'd say the first battle would be deciding or agreeing on wether it would be based on RPM, DEB, or TGZ (Red Hat, Debain or Slackware) and then there would be another for is it going to be a live cd or not,,,,,

and then awwwww hell not this!
which software to include cos after all this desktop enviroment is better than that destop enviroment and then that editor is better than this editor and so on.

It is an excellent idea, but I think anybody who took it on would have an grey hair and an ulcer within a month just by putting up with all the arguments.

You may want to see what Jeremy has to say about this - I know he has some ideas himself.

This is moved to WQ&S so he will have a better chance of seeing the thread.

If we did it, it would be a livecd most likely. What we have to ask is, what (if anything) needs to be improved over the existing options? What would be our differentiator (besides an LQ homepage and other LQ-related items of course).

--jeremy

I say if you want to devote your time in making a Linux Distro, why not take any ideas you have for it and possibly present to existing ones or possibly help the existing distros. Why have a bunch of distro's all with different tools, options, installs when you can help make the existing ones better... ? Just a thought.

I agree with Jeremy though, if we did make one, make it a LiveCD type distro.

why a live CD? live CDs do nothing to get people adjusted to a linux environment, they just plunge a user into a desktop with NO idea what to do.

By installing (e.g. slackware) you actually read a little description of every single program it's installing, so you have some idea what's what when you get in.

Probably better hardware detection and wireless support,

The leaders on the live CD market are Knoppix and Mepis, both are excellent and Debian based but Mepis in my opinion is better at HW detection, although the current "Simply Mepis" seems more aimed at Windows refugees and beginners
Did there used to be a "what do you want linux from linux" thread in General?
perhaps ideas could be gleamed from this and similar threads.

or start a thread, make it a non discusion type and ask what could we improve if we made a distro?

Im gonna shut up now, I think too much & Ive said too much in the "big boys playground"

I liveCD because, much of the trouble of getting someone to convert to Linux is getting them to actually try Linux. A liveCD makes that extremely easy.

--jeremy

But at the same time it doesn't really convert them. It's very easy to try but it's also very easy not to stick around with.

Also, if live CDs don't use KDE or GNOME and boot to init 4 by default then people just get lost, but at the same time, just looking through a start menu (because that's effectively what they are) of foreign programs and without your documents or favourites/bookmarks from windows.

I've never seen anyone convinced (apart from misguided people who are trying because they "hate micro$haft" - but then they're prejudiced) about linux from knoppix or a liveCD, but perhaps you have. But my experienced with it is that they get in and say "ok, so what?"

It really doesn't show any of the advantages of linux over windows and at the same time liveCDs are SLOW AS HELL to run, because it all has to be extracted from the CD at run time. People think that linux is really that slow.

for starters, dont think of it as "awwww, another distro, big whoop, try someones whos better or more popular" type of thinking, think of it as a distro that was built by the linux community, which lots of people can learn from, as it would also be a excellent learning opportunity in many aspects, myself included.

about the which package installer (RPM,DEB,TGZ) Jason (of elitelinux.com) had an excellent idea to leet the user choose, 1,2 or 3 of them, depending on personal choice.

next, package selection. i myself, who is on dialup gets real shitty when i download a package, only to find it has a missing package thats like 20-30 mb in size...i think, for people who want minimal, server, that sort of thing, it can be installed with common packages only. so its easily on 1 cd. for the rest, say custom/complete installation, have a few more cd's with as many of the packages as possible, without having 10 cd's for complete. i say a limit to 3-4 cd's.

also, with the editor choice, this is better than that...include all major ones, because this distro wouldnt be one person only, and other people may want both, or at least a choice of what to use.

oh, and linuxLQ was just a quick name.

if this poll gets enough votes in the yes direction, would the Admin of LQ be willing to start a new forum under the distro section, for all our distro discussion to go in there.

just my thoughts.

Radd

well, we could always have live cd to start with, then when development gets better, able to download a alpha then beta version, so that its installable. this way, test will be able to get a good feel for it, as it would normally run, and find bugs better...