[xubuntu-users] OEM install

[Vincent]

On 23/05/07, Adam Miller <maxamillion at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
> >
> >
I agree with Adam in that Xubuntu is full-featured enough, and package
management is as easy as Ubuntu's with Add/Remove, Synaptic or whatever
you'd like. And Abiword works for me too, as a high school student, but if
you don't mind the speed then I guess you'd still might prefer OpenOffice.

Anyway, I know nothing about OEM, but you might (or might not ;-) want to
look into Reconstructor: http://reconstructor.aperantis.com/

Reconstructor allows you to create a customized installation CD so that you
can customize it once and then use the same CD for every install.


Regards,
-- 
Vincent
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