[SWLUG] FLOSS?

[plebs.col at virgin.net]

I am stll puzzling over FLOSS.      But my schoolkid subverting idea seems  
to have taken a very sensible useful turn.

I think there is a  bootable 2GB Ubuntu memory stick here.    Suspect that  
with a little doctoring by one who knows what is going on, it could open  
up and copy Windows files on most computers onto it.     What could one do  
with an 8 GM stick!

Ilyan


On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:13:42 -0000, James Edgeworth  
<diagmato at black0ps.com> wrote:

> justin wrote:
>
> On  Sun,  2009-01-25  at  10:23  +0000,  plebs.col at virgin.net  wrote:
>
> Is  there  a  precise  meaning  to  FLOSS?
>
> I  suspect  that  a  USB  memory  stick  with  a  self  starting    
> Linux  OS
> properly
> presented  could  intrigue  a  lot  of  school  children..
>
>    Such  a  stick  could  be  self  reproducing  once  made  available.
>
> Could  update  its  own  operating  system  whenever  connected  to   
> the  web?
>
>
> theres  loads  of  linux  LiveCD  systems  that  also  work  on  usb   
> keys.
>
> for  example  Fedora  10,  the  installation  manual  tells  you  how  to
> download
> the  files  and  make  a  bootable  usb  key,  from  linux  or  from   
> windows.
>
> the  usb  key  solution  being  better  than  just  a  livecd  because   
> it
> allows
> for  an  overlay,  where  it  can  remeber  all  the  modifications  and
> personal
> settings  that  you  apply  to  it.  so  they  are  all  there  next   
> time.
>
> i  have  one  that  i  use  on  my  eee  when  i  want  to  experiment   
> with
> stuff  or
> use  a  better  desktop  (with  compiz  :)  than  the  default,  but   
> the  boot
> time
> is  slower  so  i  dont  use  it  as  my  main  os  (yet).
>
> im  sure  that  Ubuntu  and  many  others  also  have  the  same   
> features,
> but  ive
> not  tried  them.
>
>
> Ive recently tried both Fedora and Ubuntu for a LiveUSB version. Overall  
> a good
> idea, but both had the same problem - apparently running out of space.
>
> It was an 8GB flash drive, but Fedora's liveUSB installer would allow a  
> max
> persistent storage area of 2GB - I tried formatting the drive as ext3 in  
> case it
> was fat32's 2GB file size limit (as suggested elsewhere), but that didnt  
> solve
> it. It was the same fate with the Ubuntu version. I did try installing  
> software,
> but nothing rediculously large like OpenOffice (a Flash plugin, and a  
> few C
> developer tools). Rather tham the OS actually realising there's, say, <  
> 10MB or
> so left so it can be handled safely, it would get completely to 0 bytes  
> left and
> not allow me to do anything which required using the storage. It wouldnt  
> even
> let me open a network share without complaining that it was out of space.
>
>
> Regarding the schools idea - there are a number of primary schools  
> throughout
> Cardiff which are not even using Windows 2000. I'm willing to bet that  
> most
> arent connected to the internet, so teachers cant as easily get software  
> for use
> in the class. A Linux install would do some serious favours given the  
> amount of
> creative software, and even software targeted at kids which would  
> potentially
> cost the school for a Windows equivalent. A lot of the software is even  
> on the
> distro's installation media, depending on the distro.