[Csped] Power2People Goals (and a question)

Fri Feb 2 19:33:28 CST 2007

I think it's fairly obvious that some Linux distro is going to be our
best bet for the OS/software. As Dr. Howland mentioned, I think Ubuntu
would be a pretty good choice. I've only been using Linux for a few
months, and I've only used Fedora and Ubuntu for extended periods of
time, but I do know that Ubuntu has a lot of community support and I
haven't really had any major hardware configuration problems. Other
distro's like Slackware would simply be too difficult for inexperienced
users to operate.

In particular, I think Xubuntu looks pretty appealing:
http://www.xubuntu.org/ 

>From the main page: "Xubuntu is a complete GNU/Linux based operating
system with an Ubuntu base. It is lighter on system requirements and
tends to be more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses
the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end
machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more
performance out of their hardware."

Sounds like just what we need. The only disadvantage to using it vs
GNOME or KDE that I can think of is that it's less mainstream and so
there is less support and it also wouldn't support all of the KDE/Gnome
applications so well. On the other hand, I think that's a fair trade off
considering our design limitations.

The huge benefit that I see to using Linux is the availability of so
much free software. I can't think of anything we would want to put on
the machines that we couldn't get in a matter of minutes, especially
using a package manager such as Yum or Synaptic. This will be an
especially useful feature for the end user, who will probably have
limited access to software otherwise. In addition, major Linux distros
usually have pretty good support for languages.

Now that I've got that out of the way... I think Joey question about
portability is an important one. This is going to affect not only the
hardware that we can use (as well as its cost), but also how we deploy
the units as a whole. If we go the route of building desktops with big
towers, then for any kind of update capability the user will most likely
have to have some kind of local network/internet connection, or some
means of transporting a big computer to a location where he/she can
access one.

I think a laptop would be a bit on the extreme side as far as
portability goes. If we can possibly squeeze the size down to something
like the Dell machines in the library, then they will be transportable
but can still use some standard components. In addition, the machines
don't have to have built in displays to be portable. In the case of Dr.
Howland's example, the school, maybe students can bring their computers
home and plug an old 15" CRT into them, which might not be too expensive
(depending on the cost to deliver a bulky item to a distant location).

I think the best way to approach this project is to, at the least,
assume the following:

Users will periodically have access to power (maybe they can charge a
battery).
Users will periodically have access to either a: the internet, or b: a
network with software updates available.

Joey mentioned the possibility of connecting the machine to a more
powerful machine for updates. I think this is an important point to
consider. Maybe we can design a system where a central, powerful machine
makes up for some of the weaknesses of the smaller ones, which can
connect to it. If anyone can think of specific applications of this,
please chime in.

I also think we need a way of restoring the machine to its original
state. I think this can be easily done by distributing a few CDs or DVDs
with hard disk images on them to locations where these machines will be
deployed, and if the system needs to be wiped, it can be easily done by
loading the image onto the drive. Since every computer will have
identical components, this should work pretty well.

Sorry for the long read, I'll get to the point and give the criteria
which I think are important:

1) Software usability/maintainability/availability
2) Non-bulky hardware which will allow the machine to be transported
3) Some form of AC power
4) A network adapter for a network/internet connection
5) Ability to restore the machine to its original state

As far as my personal preferences go, I'd prefer working with the OS and
selecting software packages, but hardware would be good too.

Everyone should feel free to make comments about anything and everything.

Tim

On Thu, 2007-02-01 at 17:17 -0600, John Howland wrote:
> On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Joey wrote:
> 
> > Ill start with the question.  Are we looking for a portable system?
> > Clearly there are pros and cons to a portable machine.
> 
> All of the choices/criteria are yours to determine.  Portability adds
> (probably) to overall cost and complexity.  However, portability could
> be defined to be easily movable, but not operable when not connected to
> some sort of power grid.  For example, suppose the target user was a
> school setting where, for security reasons, the machines had to be
> moved to a secure locker, but when they were in use they could be connected
> to a power source.
> 
> >
> > Things our system should be capable of:
> >
> > 1.  Connecting to a network for weather information, email, web browsing
> > and so on.
> > 2.  Word processing
> 
> Spreadsheet?
> 
> > 3. Multi-user capability, with extremely limited access to normal user
> > accounts (the less access the average user has, the less maintenance the
> > system is likely to need).
> > 4. Very basic and easy interface... much of what is available in open
> > source operating systems will be completely useless to the average user
> > of these systems.
> 
> Gnome seems to be most linux distro's choice, but there are lots of lighter
> weight gui's.  See Ubuntu for example.
> 
> > 5. Update capability, likely over a local connection, possibly to a
> > central, more powerful machine.
> > 6. Some sort of method to completely reset the system to its original
> > configuration, in case of extreme malfunction. Obviously the easier the
> > better
> > 7. Install that can be easily changed for locality.  Language, special
> > applications and so on.
> >
> > I don't have much to say about hardware, it might be best to figure out
> > what we want to be able to do and then build our system around that.  It
> 
> User requirements! Radical!  UML might even be useful here to get a handle
> users.
> 
> > would be a shame to build a system, only to realize later it is
> > completely useless for our goals.
> >
> > Doesn't matter to me what I end up doing, Im more than willing to take
> > any job nobody else wants to do, although there are enough interesting
> > topics that I don't see that being a huge problem...
> >
> > I hope to see more of these by tomorrow!  See you all in Software
> > Engineering HAHAHA (Im sure we will have loads of fun :))
> >
> > Joey
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CSPED mailing list
> > CSPED at mail.cs.trinity.edu
> > http://www.cs.trinity.edu/mailman/listinfo/csped
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________________________
> John E. Howland       url: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/
> Computer Science    email: jhowland at ariel.cs.trinity.edu
> Trinity University  voice: (210) 999-7364
> One Trinity Place     fax: (210) 999-7477
> San Antonio, Texas  78212-7200
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