[Computerbank] CBAUS BUILD - Part Two

[Dale Long]

Some other points to consider for the CBAUS OS build:
Priorities - What is more important to us, so that we may address those
first.

The issues to discuss can be broken into sections, there will be
dependencies between these but it will give us some levels of abstraction
to work with. These could be:
OS Distribution - It will be Linux (sorry Shaun :) ) But which disto, if
  it is debian, which release (do we snap shot our own build from sid?)
  etc...

Environment - What windows manager/enviroment? KDE? Gnome? IceWM with
  addons? 
  Choosing gnome might mean using only gnome/gtk apps on low end boxes.
  Choosing kde might mean using only qt/kde apps on low end boxes.
  Which offers an interface with less suprisesd and a level of comfort
  that suits new users? Is that important?
  Which environment supports a good printing system, is it important?
  One issue with Red Hat, as the graphical tools are all based on
  Gnome/GTK/Glade those libraries will be there if those tools are 
  installed. And so a KDE desktop might have issues on a 486 for example.
  There might be a way around this.
  Will we supply some boxes with a text only interface for those who are
  comfortable with it?

Application load - This is almost OS/Distribution independent.
  This does have some dependencies on the environment.
  Is Open Office a consideration? Has anyone used it?
  What main applications and applets do we install?
  Do we install a GUI package manager (eg: kpackage?)
  Do we install any compilers or development tools (some recipients will
  want them and some wont).

Installation - How easy is it to automate it and configure and update/path
  the build?

Security, Stability, Data Integrity and Maintainability
What backup otions do we give?
What firewall settings do wew use for internet connected recips?
Do we run services like http on a recipients box (some may want it), do we
let them know they can?

...

Dale.