Dear Linux hackers,

As you may be aware, we, the Computer Science Linux User's Group, are attempting to make our own re-branded distribution of Linux based on Fedora Core 5.

This distribution is aimed at having a customised set of packages that we need in our BCS/MCS/BE/ME/MCA/Diploma syllabus so that one set of three or four CDs can be moved around without carring peripheral CDs for Java, plugins, multimedia, etc.

Moreover, we were mailed regularly by people that they had trouble setting up Postgres, PHP, tomcat, Perl, JDBC, etc. during their time of critical needs. It is definately not fair to expect people to learn how to configure these things at the last moment when practicals are declared within a week.

Even if someone is capable of configuring these, it is likely that they may forget at the last moment and also likely that people wont want to spend time configuring stuff on the day previous to the exam at the cost of studying.

For this purpose, we also aim to provide pre-configured RPMs and configuration scripts that can achieve this task within a few minutes. In fact, CSLinux version 1 released last year allowed even first year students to set up many things that TYs were having trouble with.

This version will be aimed at pushing this simplicity and ease-of-use to the next level. With GUIs, web-based tools for remote management of nodes in labs, configuration replication scripts for applying common settings to multiple laboratory nodes, user management scripts for handling the thousads of users on college servers, etc.

For more information on what's been going on in regard to CSLinux, you are encouraged to join the CSLUG group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cslug and go through the archives http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cslug/message . We have also started a Wiki seedwiki.com/wiki/computer_science_linux_users_group/ for simplifying this effort and the link to it can be found in he CSLUG archives.

We request your participation, support and encouragement in this effort. Please do spread the word around.

We need all sorts of people to help us out. We need graphics designers to design the themes, logos, images, wallpapers, bootscreens, etc. for CSLinux. We require people to modify the installer Anaconda. We need people to modify RPM files and change the default configuration in them. We need people to make and build binary RPMs out of source tarballs for packages whose RPMs that may not already be available or when i686 RPMs may not be available.

We also need developers to develop the configuration scripts, the small tools that we will provide with CSLinux and changing initscripts.

Finally and most importantly, we also require the BCS/MCS/BE/ME/MCA/Diploma community to contribute their academic projects to be put up on CSLinux. This is to encourage students to make professional-grade real-life applicable projects by providing them a large exposure within the peer community.

Also, we need people to search for sponsors. For example, we may approach coaching classes to sponsor the project in return for putting up their ads/banners on our default wallpaper, the GNOME/KDE splash screens, the default gdm login logo, and the CD covers and the prints on the CD themselves.

Absolutely any help will be appreciated a lot. We would like CSLinux to become a living example of an open source project that is self-sustaining, started off by students on their own, and a successful business model within Pune (although it will be strictly not-for-profit).

If you feel that you have completed any assignment from BCS/MCS/BE/ME/MCA/Diploma to perfection and would like the community to see it, then we will also be including such assignments for reference on the distribution. This is a very highly-demanded feature by many.

Your contribution on recommendations to what tools, packages and documents that should be included in CSL would be highly appreciated.

We thank you for all your support in this matter.

For more information you may contact the following:

Amit Karpe: amitkarpe@vsnl.net, 9226745408 Archis Gore: archisgore@yahoo.com, 9371058022

It would be preferred if you could post your suggesstions, ideas and contributions onto the list.

Thank you, Yours sincerely, The CSL Team

P.S. Please forward this mail to as many mailing lists and people that may be interested.

E-mail: archisgore@yahoo.com Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/archisgore