Give the Gift of a Custom Linux Distro

http://cam.ly/blog/2010/12/give-the-gift-of-a-custom-linux-distro/

by heyrhett • 16 years ago

21 7 16 years ago

dreaming• 16 years ago

When reading this, all I can think is:

Family members, friends, and co-workers might, at first, give you some strange looks when they take a look at a “YOUR-SANDWHICH” written on one side with a sharpie. This is where you explain that you made a “custom sandwhich” just for them.

How do they try it out? Simple. I recommend that you build your custom sandwhich using your own ingredients, similar to a regular sandwhich . That way, people can eat it, and it won’t chmod whatever is already in the fridge. It’s a great way for people to try out other sandwhiches whenever they want.

jerf• 16 years ago

Well, I personally dislike saying that a custom distro is a "new operating system just for you", but, hey, if Russia [1], China [2] (FreeBSD this time), and North Korea [3] can do it, why not you? (Probably also India and Iran, but I couldn't find solid proof their efforts are Unix-based.)

[1] http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/23/1450224

[2] http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/chinas-secure-os-kylin-a-...

[3] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9165758/N._Korea_deve...

subway• 16 years ago

I've never understood why people regard a disc image that installs a custom set of packages from existing repos belonging to an existing distro as an entirely new distro. Does this mean I'm authoring a new distro every time I write a Debian preseed or a RH kickstart?

mapleoin2• 16 years ago

Suse Studio actually lets you do more than that. You can patch any file and also submit your own custom updates to the distros you've created. You can also change the branding.

But I agree, custom distro might be a bit of a stretch. What would you call a *SUSE image that's not SUSE?

rwolf• 16 years ago

Just wait until the cam.ly team learns about login screen customization and desktop themes--it'll be like a new disto^3!

mapleoin2• 16 years ago

SUSE Studio already allows for changing the branding.

nitrogen• 16 years ago

Probably coming soon:

Before Cam.ly, I helped to make a web service that makes creating your own linux distro easy: Suse Studio.

Give the Gift of a Custom Linux Distro

Related Stories