TheOpenCD 3.0 released -- featuring an Ubuntu derivative Live CD

[Henrik Nilsen Omma]

TheOpenCD team is pleased to announce the release of TheOpenCD 3.0, now 
featuring a live CD based on Ubuntu [1]. TheOpenCD traditionally 
provides a handy collection of quality FOSS [2] applications for 
Windows, professionally presented in an elegant CD browser. This latest 
edition also lets you boot into a highly polished desktop based on 
Ubuntu for a taste of the world of free operating systems! Many of the 
same applications found on the Windows side of the disc are also 
pre-installed on the live Ubuntu demo, showing how the user experience 
and data can be preserved across platforms. Version 3.0 includes the 
latest versions of old favorites like the Firefox Web browser, the 
OpenOffice.org office productivity suite, and the GIMP image editing 
application. (see the full list [3]).

The Live CD portion of TheOpenCD allows you to preview a Linux-based 
operating system without altering your existing setup. It is based on 
Ubuntu 5.04, slimmed down slightly to make room for the traditional 
content (see complete Ubuntu package list [4]). To try it, simply leave 
the CD in the drive and reboot into a live demo. When you're done, just 
eject the CD and next time you boot your computer it will start your 
usual system. We would like to thank Colin Watson and Adam Conrad of 
Canonical for helping us to build the excellent Live Ubuntu component 
and Jason King of SFD for his early prototyping work on this. The Ubuntu 
operating system is available in a range of other configurations, 
including CDs and DVDs for i386, PPC and AMD64 machines, in live-demo 
and install versions. The software from both these projects is free to 
use, to share, and even to modify if you like.

We have continued to improve the user interface of the CD browser, based 
on general user feedback and a formal usability study conducted by Kelly 
White of NSU [5]. We have replaced the hovering menu with a simpler 
static structure and lightened the user interface. We are also 
continuing to explore ways of making the build process easier. Parts of 
the CD structure was built using a new online tool called CD-Orchard 
[6], written by Matt Oquist on behalf of TheOpenCD project. The goal of 
CD-Orchard is to facilitate easy customisation of the base distribution, 
including localised versions. If you are interested in making 
derivatives of TheOpenCD or to contributing to the core project, we 
encourage you to work with Orchard, which is also free software under 
the GPL.

TheOpenCD 3.0 is the official CD for Software Freedom Day [7] 2005 
(SFD), to be held on September 10th . Our primary sponsor Canonical Ltd. 
(makers of Ubuntu) have pledged to provide 100 CDs each for up to 150 
qualified SFD teams.

[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSS
[3] 
http://www.theopencd.org/index.php?option=com_static&staticfile=applist.html
[4] http://www.theopencd.org/releases/3.0/TheOpenCD-3.0.manifest
[5] http://www.nova.edu/
[6] http://www.theopencd.org/orchard/
[7] http://softwarefreedomday.org/

The following mirrors are currently updated:

http://www.omma.org.uk/mirror/theopencd/releases/3.0/
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/opencd/releases/3.0/
http://mirror.pacific.net.au/OpenCD/releases/3.0/
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pc/OpenCD/releases/3.0/
http://theopencd.hands.com/releases/3.0/
http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/theopencd/3.0/
ftp://cs.ubishops.ca/pub/windows/opencd/iso/v3.0/
http://ftp.sunsite.dk/projects/TheOpenCD/pub/releases/3.0/
ftp://ftp.proxad.net/mirrors/ftp.theopencd.org/TheOpenCD/releases/3.0/
ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/mirror/opencd/releases/3.0/
ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pub/pc/TheOpenCD/releases/3.0/
ftp://theopencd.ftp.fu-berlin.de/releases/3.0/
http://ftp.rz.tu-bs.de/pub/mirror/TheOpenCD/releases/3.0/
http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors//theopencd/releases/3.0/
http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/TheOpenCD/releases/3.0/
http://zcat.wired.net.nz/files/ (.nz only please)
http://neacm.fe.up.pt/pub/OpenCD/releases/3.0/
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/mirrors/TheOpenCD/releases/3.0/
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/gd.tuwien.ac.at/pc/OpenCD/releases/3.0/
(a bittorrent file will be up shortly)

-- TheOpenCD Team