I created a version of Ubuntu and would like for folks to give their opinions

Hey everyone - So I have been using Cubic to package a version of Ubuntu Budgie for high schoolers and was hoping some people wouldn’t mind trying it out for me. I am hoping that there are no rules against that type of thing so I am posting this first to ask that and also to guage interest in helping me out since I don’t really have anyone who can test it for me easily at this point. In short it is Budgie but with the icons and colors and wallpaper and stuff customized for my school (which I realize can be easily changed) and I have removed apps that I think should NOT be in there and added programs that I think students should use for HS/perhaps uni. If I post links to MEGA, etc., would anyone be willing to dowload it and try it out? I have pre-installed the Virtualbox guest additions and so it should work without needing the iso image in VBox 6.014+ without much of a hassle but should also work in non-VBox installations of course as well, though it will give a warning that the VBox Guest kmods cannot be found if installed in a non-VBox installation (can use the uninstall script to get rid of that if thats the case). FYI, as my school (and many others) uses Google I have removed Firefox and installed Chrome. This is NOT a totally open-source build and DOES have proprietary code (yea yea, I know the arguments, I am looking for what is BEST for my STUDENTS right NOW, I am ignoring the moral arguments behind closed/open source, etc. and not looking at the future but rather looking at what is available NOW). That said, I can understand if folks don’t want to TRUST my build and the best that I can say is that any shitware in there wasn’t put in by me intentionally. I am not at that level of Linux user. I did some customization, removed some stuff, and added some stuff. That’s it really. What I am hoping is that people can give some feedback on things that I need to improve. I BELIEVE that I have a decent set of software for HS students as it is but that’s where I’m not totally sure. One last point - I realize that there used to be Edubuntu and this uses many of the KDE packages which were in that. Also, I realize that Elementary exists and I do plan to lock this down a bit more once I have some of these details ironed out (and learn how to) but basically, I just don’t really like Elementary. It seems too MacOsX-ish to me and I realize that is the point, but is not what I was trying to do with this.
So…with that said…is there any interest in trying this out for me by chance and just posting some comments below on what you think of it?

well…no comments but here are the ISO’s available for download…if ANYONE is willing to try these out id be super appreciative…here goes:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/6lbug9n3ajxok1t/EyUBudgie-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso/file

https://mega.nz/#!8BYUEABJ!Qvrn5HQRafvHc4HEKqwg6fqrR_2m3hbekXQF7rnkzRI

Also, yes, I realize that this is a large ISO and thats because im trying to smash everything that a HS/uni student would need into this one ISO from the get…i DO need to add a couple of mind-mapping programs and the TI calculatior software but this is CLOSE to finished in terms of the software catalog (but not optimized at all, I’m still learning)…at any rate, ANY feedback that is real would be welcome

made a few changes to this and the new version is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/8hassln7talk382/EdUBudgie-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso/file

I noticed that around a dozen folks downloaded it 9or at least clicked the link to download though I guess i don;t know if any of them completed the DL)…so i am hoping to get some sort of feedback even if it isnt actionable (though that would be best)…anyways, thought I would share the updated ISO a few days before i delete the previous version…in short i got rid of the BS from my own school such as the logos and wallpaper, added the TI software, added a few other small things and this time left in the VBox guest additions…

Anyways, I do look forward to any comments anyone has, if any :grinning: :grinning: :grinning:
Thanks!
Adam

I just found this post by accident. I might know why no one is commenting or trying it. Let me summarize your request in way simpler and maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek way:

“Hey, I have this stuff I want you to install and test. Here’s a file hoster link.”
Honestly: Would YOU click and install it? Unchecked, untested undocumented and unknown? As member of a Tech Forum?

That’s what VM’s are for…sure, they aren’t perfect, but in short if I had the time yes, I would try someone’s stuff out if it were a forum that I can reasonably trust and a person who didn’t join yesterday (in a sandbox or possibly on hardware that I don’t care about). I also mentioned what you’re getting at in my first so clearly i realize people may have concerns.
I come here for support personally and for that matter folks COULD always look at my other posts if they want to see if i have any clue about what i’m talking about or if im just some jackass who shows up once to try to distribute shitware. so while I get your point for sure my hope is STILL that folks will give some feedback on it.

But for that matter then let me ask you - how would you go about eliciting feedback for software you’ve worked on? I personally would go to the familiar spots that I go to and see if anyone is willing to try it. But if you have some advice I’d love to hear it because I think the package is decent (for what it is intended for) but I’ve no clue where to find an audience. Any tips?

The other thing is that according the mediafire a dozen folks clicked on the link though I guess I don’t know if they totally downloaded it. Why would one click on the link at all if they thought it was just trash?

Was not my intention to attack you, just give you a possible reason. CRCs help too. And maybe a manifest to see, what exactly you changed so people know what to expect.

I agree with you in principle on the kinda trusted space. Maybe it’s just my OPSec and training that let’s me be very cautious with stuff like that. Just wanted to help, not attack or patronize you.

I don’t think that the ones who clicked think it is trash. I don’t think that anyone thinks of it as trash. The why? Maybe to “check it out later”… I am to blame of that also sometimes.

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Excuse me, did you say you have full fat Chrome in there? Or just an installer? Cause I’m not sure you are allowed to distribute it?

Do you have a YouTube vid of your ‘buntu bistro? Or a site with write up and diffs!

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I hear ya man, no worries - and yea every now and then we hear about some active exploit in some VM software or in the CPUs or hardware itself where something can jump outta the sandbox like a cat who just did their business so i totally get you and so i didnt really have high expectations that I would hear back honestly but hope nonetheless
And as for the check it out later idea that was my thought too - also with all of the programs that I have packaged in there the size is like 5gb for just the iso so folks might have clicked it and then halfway through said naw forget this

I did and thats good to know and something that I didn’t think about - my original intention was to try and push it in my own school here and we are a google school (though chromebooks dont really exist in Turkey oddly)…so while my intent was to have a package that was ready-to-go out of the box i will have to look into that and replace it with chromium+add ons perhaps…but yes as of right now it has the full fatty
A youtube video is a great idea so i will have to do that. I have been thinking of putting together a site for it as well. It is early in the process now and was hoping for some feedback before i spent money on a domain and figured out where i want to set it up and all that jazz but perhaps youre right and that is the best next step…the thing is that honestly its not much more than a regular budgie distro with a few customizations (so yup, its ‘just another damn ubuntu clone’) but thats sorta the idea for simplicity’s sake at the moment…i was hoping to get deeper into it before a page but i think youre right - i just have to dive in, damn the haters…thanks man

Security was my first thought, but mostly I just didn’t feel interested enough in checking out Budgie with different themes/defaults to go through the bother of downloading it/etc, and suspect this might be the case with others.
However I figured wth tonight and downloaded/ran in virtualbox. Unfortunately I’m not able to run it ‘live’ - goes to a login screen and I’m stuck there:

Not sure if this could be related to a login bug I heard about in 19.10 or what… I don’t want to install on this drive due to somewhat precious/limited space, but maybe I’ll fool with it again on another drive/os tomorrow or another day.

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Hmmm. I’m interested. I’ll give it a look tomorrow if things don’t get too busy.

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Yes and I should have mentioned that clearly - I don’t know if it is a bug perhapr in Ubiquity or something but I think in fact it as actually just the way that Cubic, the tool that I have used to package this together, works. Something that I thought about was to make a user with a specific password for live login but I haven’t gotten into that just yet.

You’re correct though, it is just Budgie and so not particularly interesting and that’s something I am looking into customizing and/or changing entirely. I will probably experiment and make the final decision when I switch to 20.04 LTS base.

At this point it is little more than some pre-included educational packages and I am HOPING that it is adequate for a typical school but my other concern is simply, is it stable, does it tend to work most of them time, the basic things haha.
With that said - it is WONDERFUL to see someone post a screenshot of it which I did not myself create! Thank you for trying and i will work on the login bit ASAP.

I am working on a (very simple) website and video as we speak so that potential users are less wary of trying it hopefully and will be taking it from there. Honestly my background is in Mechanical Eng and I am an English teacher so while this is child’s play for most of you guys it’s still exciting for me so I really appreciate the support immensely!!!

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Well of course i do understand some of the above concerns in regards,
to trying a new undocumented distro.
So i suppose the @aodix does something with that feedback.

Still i do think that we should encourage initiatives like this.
Give feed back and share tips.
Because people are actually giving up their free time for projects like that.
And that is basically the entire fundament of foss.

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My criticism was aimed that way; Not to dissuade but to give pointers on what (at least for me) is needed in order to give it a try.

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FYI - I definitely see this feedback as helpful just straight up and I know there will definitely be critics and surely in most cases, with good cause.
I am working on a website now though I am ashamed, embarassed, and generally horrified to say that I am just using Google Sites…I’m sorry I wanted to get something out quickly with my thought being I could put it onto my own server or use AWS or Google Cloud or something like that sometime later…but also since so many schools use the Google Suite perhaps it OK in this case.
I’m off to cry about my life choices now, but I will still send you all a link soon :disappointed_relieved::sweat_smile:

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A google site or a github page is perfectly fine.
Just somewhere to catalogue the features and changes

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I attempted to give it a try but unfortunately not having much luck with the ISO.

I made a boot-able USB stick and on the USB the “Live” version is still asking for a user and password to login. So I tried installing on my testing laptop and it makes it through it install perfectly fine but upon reboot it simply goes to a grey screen. I left it on for a day with no change.

Sorry I couldn’t give you better feedback.

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I haven’t tried your spin yet, but I wanted to chime in on some hopefully broader questions. I think that one of the best ways to come to terms with Linux is to hack and package it like this, but actual deployments at scale aren’t done like this anymore. It is too much work to repackage when you can rely on upstream. Using target-state systems to pull a generic, good image, then have configs ready to push to the device is how to sanely manage deployments; its how Docker works, VPSes, VM stacks etc. Your kind of tailored and specific environment is best for a live system, meant to be used off of a flash drive, which it sounds like you are onto. Next you need to think about who your target audience is; if high school students, are they able and wanting to use this Ubuntu spin, or fine with their Chromebook and pre-installed Windows? Would the school admins want this kind of system on campus networks? Just some thoughts about what your ultimate goals are. If it is just to learn more about Linux, try again but using a different base, such as Debian, then work your way down the disto-difficulty tree.

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The live version won’t work, that is something that I still ahve to figure out - but the install should have. Do you mind letting me know what the specs of your pc are?
Thanks a ton for trying it out…I haven’t had that issues happen before so it’s great feedback.