[xubuntu-users] OEM install

Wed May 23 06:03:19 UTC 2007

Daniel,
     Yes, I think Xubuntu would be the best candidate for those machines
hands down, especially because of their specifications. As far as the term
"OEM", I was unaware there was even such a thing for Xubuntu and if it does
exist I don't entirely know if it is officially supported (which might
answer why the experience with it was less than satisfactory). I recommend
using the "alternate install cd" as that will provide with a rather low
resource consuming installation method and we use the ubuntu installer
(which is essentially the classic debian installer with a few modifications
in an attempt to make it easier).

     In respect to software, I personally feel that the default installation
of software is perfect for a stand alone machine, the only things I install
beyond that are development tools and applications for internet tasks.

Abiword is an incredible word processing alternative that I use daily for
both school and work (i'm a college student) and the only time I ever use
OpenOffice is for heavily style-formatted documents in the .doc format

The OpenOffice.org word processor is installed by default in Feisty if that
is needed.

If by any chance you would need to install anything further, Xubuntu is
entirely based on ubuntu and shares the same sub-system and same package
repositories so any application you might need can be installed past that
using aptitude, apt-get, synaptic, smartpm, or other package manager of your
choice.

Please message back about the OEM installation you spoke of, I am rather
curious to look into it.

-Adam

On 5/22/07, daniel.faulkner at boltblue.com <daniel.faulkner at boltblue.com>
wrote:
>
> I work at a school and we've got a few computers to sell/give away (with
> no software
> licensed for them), i've used linux for years, lately ubuntu and suggested
> setting up
> the computers with linux which seemed to go down quite well with the
> system manager,
> who was concerned at trying to sell/give away a system with no software.
>
> The computers are roughly 500Mhz intel, 128mb ram and 20gb HDD and
> whatever builtin
> graphics card is on the motherboards (used to run windows XP). The
> suggested ideas
> have either been to sell them at a few pounds each or to give the
> computers to any of
> the children who don't have a computer at home. Seems silly to pay to have
> the
> computers disposed of if we can give them a new lease of life.
>
> So as most of the computers have no CD drive (can install from an external
> drive or
> fit a CD drive for the installation period) and theres a chance won't be
> plugged into
> the internet any time soon i'm trying to decide which ubuntu varient to go
> with, i
> want it to be ubuntu based (or debian based) as it's what i've used and
> don't want to
> setup something i'm not used too.
>
> Xubuntu seems the obvious choice as it's designed around the older
> machine, but is it
> featureful enough considering that it's going to be awkward for the end
> user to add
> extra programs? Would plain ubuntu offer a more mature and better app
> selection and
> run at a reasonable speed?
> I guess i should find out myself, when i have time i'll try and setup one
> of the
> computers with ubuntu/xubuntu and find out the performace for myself, but
> i suspect
> i'll find ubuntu to work but slowly.
>
> I tried to test the xubuntu oem setup procedure in qemu to get an idea of
> the process:
> * There is very very little documentation on the oem process and how to
> customize the
> install (changing backgrounds/default setings etc)
> * Once you have logged in as the oem user and added the extra packages you
> want and
> run oem-prepare (or whatever the command was), on next logging in the OEM
> setup
> doesn't seem to (IMO) look all that nice and isn't helpped by having the
> default
> ubuntu wall paper on the screens where the new user enters his/her name.
> (instead of
> the xubuntu wallpaper which suits the theme far better and would be more
> consistant).
> * After i installed xubuntu in the virtual machine i came across a bug
> (reported in
> launchpad) where every time i tried to open a terminal X crashed.
>
> So my experience wasn't all that good, i've used xubuntu in the past and
> loved it on
> my older laptop etc. I really recommend some of the dev team try an OEM
> install to
> see what i mean about the wall paper issue (I think the process needs a
> little
> polish, i like the kubuntu oem screen shots looks very professional)
> Is anyone else effected by the terminal problem? This would be a bit of a
> show
> stopper if it affected those PC's. More documentation is definatly needed,
> it's
> sparse for all the ubuntu family but kubuntu and ubuntu do have a screen
> shot tour in
> the wiki of the process at least so mores needed in this respect.
>
> So any input at this point from the xubuntu community would be welcome and
> advice on
> what setup would be best (my thoughts have been leaning towards
> investigating
> xubuntu, and installing the complete openoffice suite ontop of xubuntu).
> Any packages
> other than open office you would think are essential to a stand alone
> setup?
>
> Daniel
>
> PS. I appreciate this is a volunteer effort and don't expect the areas i
> identified
> to be sorted just for me, i would love to help in anyway i could in what
> little time
> i have too spare lately.
>
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