At the beginning of the year, I began building simple .iso
images for the
OpenBSD-interested, as well as the OpenBSD-literate. As the
first versions
were being completed, I posted about this in two
newbie-focused arenas:
Usenet's comp.unix.openbsd.misc, and at www.bsdforums.org.
These low volume
low use arenas were acceptable for such a "beta
test."
Now that I have access to a fatter pipe to offer downloads,
I thought I
would ask here for suggestions and advice, prior to any sort
of
announcements to the community at large.
While this sort of unofficial advocacy is not of *direct*
interest to the
project, there may be indirect value in showing OpenBSD to a
wider audience,
through additional sales of CDs and merchandise, and perhaps
additional
donations of money or hardware, in ratios similar to the
existing community.
Q1 of my FAQ is, "Why did you make these LiveCDs
available to the public?"
-----
To aid with OS familiarization and to aid with hardware
testing:
* To allow curious people the opportunity to try out an
OpenBSD environment
without actually installing it.
* To allow existing users the ability to easily test out new
hardware without
changes to what is on hard drive. This might be for the
purpose of testing
a system or peripheral device in a retail store, or
similar situations.
* To give a new user the opportunity to try the OS first,
before making the
decision on whether to conduct a standard installation.
* It could also be used as a rescue disc for production
environments, if
desired, though most production environments would have
installation media,
network boot, or some other form of recovery process in
place.
To be clear, the purpose of these LiveCDs is to make testing
of the OS
easier. They are not used to install the OS on hard drive,
and are not
intended to advocate OpenBSD as the OS for the masses. The
OpenBSD Project
has no interest in taking over the world, or winning any
popularity contests.
The project is run by the developers for the developers, and
we lucky users
go along for the ride (though many support the Project in a
variety of ways).
LiveCDs have been produced over time by members of the
community for a number
of different reasons. Those that were made available to the
public that I
am aware of have been special-purpose rather than generic
OpenBSD.
The OpenBSD installation process is quick and easy. But, for
the new user,
the process of doing the install can be intimidating and
possibly risks
losing data due to manual partitioning. These LiveCDs may
help a new user
decide whether or not to make that minimal, but required,
intellectual
investment...
-----
The only negative feedback I have received so far has been
emotional,
elitist and classist: "Don't bring us any more
stinking newbies."
While I can be just as elitist as the next snob, I believe
that the possible
benefits of a small increase in the user community outweigh
the risks that
a new user might embarass him or herself by, if you will,
throwing
themselves into a pool of sharks that make up misc ,
tech, and the other
lists. From what I've seen, the vast majority of newbies
don't post to
misc
or ports -- they go to places like bsdforums.org instead. In
general, noobs who post in the lists have either carefully
done their
homework -- or, they are clueless, or fearless.
So far, just over 130 .iso's have been downloaded since I
made my
little project semi-public. I have not had any technical
questions
or support issues arise, nor have I seen a single post in
misc
about them.
I think that so far, the concern about newbies polluting
mailing lists has
proven unfounded.
Right now, the discs are based on 4.0-release, and are i386.
I plan to
refresh these with each -release, and add additional
architectures as time
and resource allow.
I am interested in feedback, and I will gratefully accept
any suggestions
for technical improvements, or FAQ improvements, or other
constructive
advice. Even negative criticism would be accepted with
grace, as long as it
is rational and constructive. This is an *unofficial*
project, created
at my whim, but I believe its benefits will outweigh flaws.
http://jggim
i.homeip.net/livecd/faq.html
http:
//jggimi.homeipe.net/livecd/downloads.html
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