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TerraGraphics Linux

Hello everybody out there using minix – I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-) Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi) PS. Yes – it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.

Below are some things I've learned that I think you might find useful.

The main benefits of Debian are a large developer community, a large user base, and a conservative release process.

Similarly KDE is old and stable and widely used. It comes with a large set of applications and utilities that are highly recommended.

QT is apparently powerful and capable. The KDE desktop was written with it, so it is kind of native in KDE. QT programs can be compiled to run on Windows as well as Linux. Google Earth was written using it. QT can produce both graphic programs and text only programs.

What about X and Wayland?

• The current most popular distribution (as of 2011) is ubuntu. It seemed sensible to start with this until I learn more. I first installed the 32 bit server release (not the 64 because my computer wouldn't support it) on 2011-01-17 and the workstation release on 2011-11-02. For the workstation, I used 32 bit because there seems to be better support for it. Of course that will change.
• Wine is an effort to run Windows programs without installing Windows

• The server is text only (no GUI).
• To support Windows workstations, use Samba (just select "Samba file server" during installation).
• ubuntu does not encourage logging in as root and suggests using the sudo command to execute commands that require root privelege. Here's the workaround for that:
  1. Type: sudo passwd root
  2. Set the root password to whatever you want.
  3. Type: exit
  4. Log in as root whenever you want to (just like any other Linux).

• The workstation version of ubuntu installed easily and I was happy with it.
• I was able to move my old Windows 2000 installation into a VirtualBox so now I can use Windows and Linux simultaniously on the same computer.
• The current version of ubuntu comes with the GNOME version 3 desktop. Fortunately, I tried an older one first and it had the GNOME version 2 desktop. I get the impression that Windows folks will like version 2 and Apple folks will like version 3. After I loaded the newer ubuntu and couldn't get anything done with GNOME 3, I found a way to tell it to use GNOME 2 like the older one did. The next update I installed a few weeks later switched to GNOME 3 again and I coud not get GNOME 2 back.
• I did some research on how various disributions are maintained and decided to switch from "easiest for new users" to "most stable". I was impressed with the idea that ubuntu releases are replaced every few weeks and debian releases last a year or so. I don't want to reinstall any more often than I have to.

• Debian was easy to install - either with the text interface or with the gui interface. It came up working fine with a very nice GNOME 2 desktop that I'm hoping will last until GNOME 3 becomes usable or maybe until I switch to KDE.
• VirtualBox worked but had to be configured after each bootstrap. I don't know why but I started over and it works fine now.