We've been working pretty much flat stick to get our much awaited ubuntu distro ready. Next week we start cloning it for a Cook Islands project we are working on. I'm just going over the final bits and pieces now.
We've been doing our own debian derived distros ever since we first started, at one time we were rolling out a Knoppix variant.
This distro has to be our best by far, it builds on all the work and experiences we've had over 10 years as well as upon the good work of the Ubuntu community. Many folks have helped - Ed, John, Con, David L, Glenn, Alistair, Mohan, Barry, myself and many others.
The distro is inspired by our users - users who are new to computing and who have generally only been exposed to a Windows environment. Most of our users use the mouse to click on things, typing commands and using a shell is alien to them.
We are still using KDE as the default desktop but have also included a full working GNOME desktop for people to try out. We use KDE because we can make it look familiar to Windows users. In some cases GNOME may be the better choice as it is simpler to use.
A lot of time has been spent working on special scripts - cloning, refreshing users, adding users, deleting .ICEAuthority and updating skel files. While we plan to develop more scripts, we will not hold up the release waiting for them. The main scripts are in place and fully work.
We include a lot of software - 79 'end user' programs across different software categories - our distro is 4G!! We spend a lot of time tweaking program options, optimising configs and setting consistent choices. We pay a lot of attention to getting it all right so the user doesn't have to do a thing. I'm really proud of our efforts in putting together a rock solid and fast distro.
The major changes this time around include a move from su to sudo (kdesu), new software additions (games, graphics, education, multimedia, office), updated software versions, use of GUI network tools for setting up network cards, use of GNOME PPP instead of a custom dial up config tool. Some software has also been dropped.
I'm currently working on the final touch- bringing our userguide up to date. I've also been playing around with recordmydesktop and have put together a number of video how to screencasts aimed at people who prefer a more visual approach to learning.
References: For more info on the Computerbank distro see the Computerbank wiki page
http://vic.computerbank.org.au/wiki/ComputerbankUbuntuDistro
I had my first night on the Gambro PD machine "Serena." I wasn't really sure what to expect, I had heard the machines were noisy. Serena is very quiet, you can hardly hear it.
The thing that bothers me the most about PD (peritoneal dialysis) is the amount of rubbish it generates. Stacks!
Camping at Eden was fantastic, just what I needed. Even more so after the car journey up, traveling almost 5 hours with the heater on so as to cool the engine. This was after a kmart auto mechanic told us we'd be fine. Nothing wrong with our radiator. Right. Lucky for us *the* Cann River mechanic was open on a Saturday. He took one look at our radiator and said it needed replacing. We stayed overnight in Cann River while our friends drove on, some had already made it to Eden (we all left at the same time). We arranged for our friend Mark to come back and get us the next day (3 hour return trip), our car would not be ready until Tuesday.
We stayed in the Ben Boyd National Park. A really nice spot not far from the coast. We had goannas, possums and wallabies in our camp scavenging for leftover food. The goannas would eat whole fish carcasses, yuck. While driving into Eden I also saw two lyrebirds. They quickly run away off into the bush. We saw and heard a lots of other birds including bowerbirds, wonga pigeons, kookaburras, currawongs and more.
Despite advice not to do so I went snorkeling using a tegaderm patch over my exit site. On the first attempt I used 2 patches doubled over and it seemed to work - I only swam for 15 minutes though. The next time I went swimming I tried it with 1 patch and went for longer (an hour). It didn't work and my exit site bandage was wet. Salt water is good for wounds so I really don't think it matters much - just as long as nothing nasty got in.
My partner Greg, a spearo freediver type, got us dinner nearly every night. He caught leatherjackets, Australian salmon, blue, red and banded morwong, catfish and some abalone. Tim and Bel, friends from Melbourne, traveling around in the area, also stopped by for a fishy dinner a couple of nights.
