JoeOs 2.5

[joedoe4]

My son has been working on a variation of Ubuntu with some variations, to the original system.
He has uploaded an image to http://joeos.sourceforge.net/ I would appreciate if any linux fans would download a copy run it and give some feedback. He is still working on it please be professional he is my son.  and I'm very proud of him.
Thanks guys.

[cmiranda]

A couple of things.

1. He needs to make sure that spelling and grammar on the Sourceforge page are in check.  Otherwise, his project won't be taken seriously.

2. He also needs to make sure that he's not infringing on anything.  Funny for me to say that for an open source OS, yes, but there are instances in which he cannot use certain material unless he gets permission.  While you can take an existing distribution and build off of that (since most everything is under GPL or an open source license like BSD or MIT), things like logos (especially the Ubuntu logo and Firefox logo) can be trademarked and require permission from the owner unless specified in a more liberal license.  Usually a distribution provider will have terms for the use of their trademarked material so best to check there.

If it isn't too far off from Ubuntu itself, he could see about it listed as an Ubuntu respin.  Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, KXStudio, and a few others are still very much Ubuntu at heart but have their own twists to them (the first three being pretty obvious).  You also have distros like Linux Mint that are pretty much their own distribution but still use the Ubuntu repositories at their core.

I'm going to download an ISO and run it in VirtualBox.  I'll post more info as I come across them.

[cmiranda]

Alright, I've gone ahead and installed it in VBox and I have a few things to bring up thus far.

1. A lot of elements are still "Ubuntu".  The bootsplash, login manager, options in the bootloader (see 2nd image), all still specify Ubuntu.  Those should be changed to JoeOS along with a custom logo for the distro.





2. I noticed some other entries in the GRUB bootloader list that shouldn't be there.  I don't have any Vista installations in VirtualBox so I'm not quite sure why they are there.  That needs to be cleaned out.



3. Once I logged in, I was presented with what the image below displays for the desktop.  Seems to have a lot of things missing compared to the screenshots on the website.



4. Noticed some unnecessary services for a desktop.  When I started the shutdown process, I saw apache2 being shutdown.  That I know of, this isn't included on stock Ubuntu for desktop at all.



Do you know if he's doing this on a clean system?  I wonder if he could create this distribution using VirtualBox so that it's not tainted with files on a production machine.

I do look forward to playing with future versions of JoeOS in the future as it matures.

[joedoe4]

I will pass that along to my son, actually Ill let him log in here so he can read your input, I think it is very valuable, and I thank you for your time and patience on this. He is starting and I figured he'd have a few bugs, and who better than an experienced expert to point them out thanks, Miranda

[joedoe4]

This is jose mendoza jr.

Thank you so much for your feed back, cmiranda ^^. I have added these suggestions into launchpad (to remind my self) and I'm working on them ASAP, as for the the missing dock (I noticed that was missing on the screen shot you posted) sometimes gnome-do (with the docky theme) will close unexpectedly. I'm not sure if it is a memory leak, it just crashes or ubuntu just ends the process (which I have read that ubuntu will automatically close low priority apps in order to run high priority or intensive cpu/memory apps). However I am still looking into that, it is just proving difficult since "docky" because it's own application and became separated from gnome-do. I am also working on asking permission from mozilla, google chrome, wine and LOTS of other developers/projects if I could, you were right and I totally forgot about since I was thinking "yeah it's ope source they shouldn't mind" but I should still ask the developers and ask if it's ok or if perhaps they would like to receive credit in a certain way (heck they might not what they're package included because they feel like they don't want it distributed for x reason).

Although you can automatically restart the docky by pressing the "super"+ALT and space key (I chose those keys on the spot since gnome do uses the "super and space key; I might want to change that).

I look forward to more feed back with any improvements to this project I'm doing ^^.

*ps. I also have a logo I will put on the splash screen, even a custom theme (based from kde and elementary) I'm working on. the new logo and themes are on https://laucnhpad.net/joeos/trunk/3.1, just something simple (I changed the color and added the mathematical therefore sign because based on the the philosophy of "Ubuntu for humans" and added therefore it should be easy; well that it kinda looked cool at first, I'm still working on the logo; I welcome any suggestions on that too)

[cmiranda]

Glad to help, guys.

Regarding the logos, the only reason I bring that up is because although the code for a particular project or application may be under a free license like the GPL or LGPL or even under an open source license like BSD, MIT, and others, it's possible that the logos for those applications are trademarked.  An example would be Firefox.  One would have to license the Firefox logo and artwork from Mozilla in order to include it in a particular distribution.  Those that don't can still use the code (since the code is open source) but not the logo and artwork and even the name.  This is why Debian has IceCat (formerly Iceweasel), which is pretty much Firefox without the Firefox branding.

I know that GNOME-Do requires Mono.  Have you included Mono as part of the installation package?  If not, then this might be why it's not running after JoeOS is installed.  I will try the tip that you gave me to restart Docky.

I'll check for a link to Launchpad on the project page for future bug reports.