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BrandonThoughts about making my own Linux distro
A DOS GUI could easily be compared to a Linux desktop environment. When I first started my GUI I sat down at a computer with DOS and wanted to make it better. Now all of my computers run Linux and I find myself wanting to improve it, but I'm not sure where to start. Sometime around 2008, I released a "puplet" which was a version of Puppy Linux with my package selections and then used it on my own machines and distributed it. The problem with this was that I didn't really understand enough about Puppy to really make it work the way that I wanted it to. I at one time though I might try my hand at writing an OS. I only recently to realized that I don't really care how the underlying OS works. As far as I'm concerned the Linux Kernel works fine.However, I'm not happy with the user-land, actually I'm not happy with any modern OS user-land that I've tried (Haiku is getting close though). After coming to the realization that I could use the Linux kernel, I spent a weekend realizing that I could use other things too, and started trimming down Debian, only to realize that I had gained nothing from the experience. I ended up with a 200MB CD that installed out to less than 1GB that essentially was the product of running remastersys on a Debian system with nothing but Xorg and XFCE installed. Now I realizing that the point in writing a Linux distro wouldn't be anything other than to learn from the experience and to gain something from it. On that note I've been thinking about what my "dream disto" would look like. I have a number of PowerPC machines and I know that the distribution options there are pretty limited, so I guess I'd want support for that. Support for x86 would obviously come first, but once I got some sort of auto-compile system working PowerPC and ARM (for Raspberry Pi) and x64 would make sense. My favorite distros have always been the smaller lighter ones, so I'd target something like a G3 with 128MB RAM or Pentium II with 128MB RAM or the Raspberry Pi with a download way less than a CD. As far as software goes, that's where I'd have projects for years.... a custom filemanager, control panel, and music player would need to be wrote to be lighter and easier to use. Obviously that is over my head, but so was a GUI with all the features of Fun500 6 when I first started the project. Hopefully I'll look back at this post in the future like I look back at old posts now and think about how nieve I was. So, what do you think, is a linux distro a good project idea? What would you like to see in a distro? What disto/OS do you run?		2013-03-1111:55 PM
atrocityRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
For YEARS I've used Linux, and gone back to Windows time and time again for gaming reasons. With Steam being on Linux officialy now, it's easier for me to make the switch but still can't because of WoW and other Windows-only games (well, offically). I've used Debian/Ubuntu for YEARS, but they're quite bloated. I've toyed with the idea of writing the GUI I was making for Linux not using xorg or anything just to say I did. Granted, none of the current GUI programs would run on it, but just something fun to do. Good luck figuring this out, though, haha!		2013-03-127:39 AM
BrandonRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
Ironically, I don't use Linux on a day-to-day basis anymore. My last PC laptop had Intel graphics that'd artifact when playing games under Linux (Minecraft), and when I was looking at new machines, most either had Intel graphics or Optimus (NVIDIA + Intel) Graphics. I ended up with a MacBook Pro, which works pretty well, if I want to do anything serious I use another machine anyways. My desktop runs Windows for 2 reasons: a lot of my classwork requires Windows, and Window Media center is way easier to set up than any linux PVR software I've tried. I do have a Linux box in the closet that runs my Minecraft Server and crunchbang linux. I also maintain linux computers for my mother and grandmother (both run Mint Debian). But I have to agree about the bloat, Ubuntu is horrible on just about anything, and Debian works ok, but idk how it takes up a whole 700MB CD with a base install. Lately Debian forks have been my thing, Crunchbang on my own boxes, and Mint Debian on boxes for other (less literate) people. I could easily just run crunchbang but I really want to understand more of how a distro works.		2013-03-1212:09 PM
atrocityRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
If you're decent with Linux and want to lower the requirements for just running Minecraft, check out http://minecraft.codeemo.com/ (Mine OS). Basically has the minimums for hosting multiple minecraft servers using a web interface to run them. Ran it on a VM server in my house and it ran perfectly!		2013-03-1212:18 PM
BrandonRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
Never knew about that, I have a couple RAIDed drives in that box for network storage and it has SSH, so It works pretty well. I'll have to keep that in mind when I go home though, my brother is always nagging me to set-up a server.		2013-03-122:06 PM
atrocityRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
It's just nice because it keeps the entire world on a RAM drive, and (in the background) saves the entire world on an interval. SUPER-fast loading of chunks for users!		2013-03-131:31 PM
BrandonRe: Thoughts about making my own Linux distro
Oh, that sounds perfect actually, I had played with using a RAM drive in the past, but it seemed like everytime I improperly shutdown my drive was corrupted. I'm going home for spring break next week, I guess I'll be paying with a Pentium D box I have..		2013-03-132:01 PM

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