A neowin linux?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

A resurrection of Shift wouldn't necessarily be aimed at creating the next big distribution. It'd be more of a project to get parts of the community involved, to learn and perhaps to come up with some ideas.

Here's a suggestion for what the desktop could look like: GNOME 3.4, with Zukitwo GTK and shell theme, Faenza icons, installed GNOME Shell extensions:

• Alternative Status Menu
  
• Remove Accessibility
  
• User Themes
  
• Panel Docklet
  
• Applications Menu
  

Result:

With some fine tuning (Shift-specific wallpaper, better configuration for panel extension etc) this could work as a default desktop I think.

All this is running on Fedora 17. Which distribution to base a new release of Shift on is another debate.

The main question is how many contributors could be found for a resurrection of Shift Linux.

[HawkMan]

A question Barney. Why dont you collaborate for Elementary? :)

I truly believe is the future of linux.

Then why did they go with the idea of a Dock.... the most awkward way to handle windows ever.

[n_K]

A resurrection of Shift wouldn't necessarily be aimed at creating the next big distribution. It'd be more of a project to get parts of the community involved, to learn and perhaps to come up with some ideas.

Here's a suggestion for what the desktop could look like: GNOME 3.4, with Zukitwo GTK and shell theme, Faenza icons, installed GNOME Shell extensions:

• Alternative Status Menu
  
• Remove Accessibility
  
• User Themes
  
• Panel Docklet
  
• Applications Menu
  

Result:

With some fine tuning (Shift-specific wallpaper, better configuration for panel extension etc) this could work as a default desktop I think.

All this is running on Fedora 17. Which distribution to base a new release of Shift on is another debate.

The main question is how many contributors could be found for a resurrection of Shift Linux.

Some good suggestions there! I wouldn't like the idea of basing it off something large and clanky like fedora or ubuntu, yes they're great in that they work on LOADS of different PCs and support all kinds of addins like alsa and/or pulseaudio and/or gstreamer and/or esd etc. but rather (maybe use arch's AUR or gentoo's style building?) have things built with just what's needed, -alsa -gstreamer -esd +pulseaudio or whatnot (yes I'm overly obsessed with efficiency). Maybe have iptables preconfigured too (I know a lot of distributions do this, but every single one of them sucks. They're big and bulky with no need! Maybe have a GTK interface to select some predefined rules to include i.e. 'block all of china' or 'only allow ports X,X-X,X-X,X' etc. maybe even some predefined NAT/bridge rules [i've never seen any bridge rules come with any distros]?).

Also I'm still annoyed that by default all distributions use the default of 16 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores or something in the kernel? The most cores a home-PC has at the moment is 6 core, OK so some dual-socket [overkill] home PCs exist but they still only pushes it up to 12 CPU cores! And 20 GPU cores? SLI with 4 is pretty much the most anyone with an extreme home PC is likely to have for the next few years. All inefficiency!

[sanctified Veteran]

(yes I'm overly obsessed with efficiency).

Asperger too?

[n_K]

Asperger too?

Nope.

[sanctified Veteran]

Nope.

No offence meant, just curious. I have it.

[Farstrider]

If you read my first post you would understand the intent, instead of simply trolling this thread. I encountered a bunch of these kinds of comments when I started with our Linux community here. The trolls came out in force. Fortunately, the team learned a bunch about creating a distro using XML files using Morphix, as well as branding and compiling. Although we did create our own Linux brand, our first intent was to do a community project to learn how to build it. I encourage any of you guys who want to try this. It was a rich and rewarding experience, and in the end, I developed many close friends who have gained a ton of knowledge with the experience they learned.

Well said! This is the ill that Neowin is suffering at present, some people just CANNOT help themselves! They just have to make spurious comments purely for the sake of trying to rile other people. Perhaps they think they are being clever/smart who knows?

As per the highlighted section of your post, this, I think, would make the entire project worth while. When you guys started with shift I had just started looking at Linux as an alternative and was pretty clueless. I think this would be something that could spark some serious interest from the few guys (Linux people and hopefully others) who love Linux at Neowin.

[Barney T. Administrators]

^ Very well said. I thank you for your positive comments! :yes:

[Kreuger]

Shift is just ubuntu... There's already masses of ubuntu derivitives out there...

If I recall correctly, we were working on moving away from this. We had looked into LFS as a base. I dont recall what happened with it though.

[n_K]

Hummm was just looking around to see if I could edit this thread to put a poll on it with one question of 'would you be interested in making this idea a reality' and another or 'would you be interested in using this project' but it doesn't look like it can be edited :/.

EDIT: Anyway, reguardless, I'm still interested in making this project a reality, despite really being anti-ubuntu as a base, if needs be ubuntu is the base then that really doesn't matter, as Barney and a few people have said, it's the experiance (and fun?) of doing it that counts. So, I guess the first thing to do would be learn from past experiances and points of failure to not make the same mistakes again. It goes without saying that a seperate repo will need to be set up - fusion OS was threatened with legal action for using ubuntu's I believe?

Edited May 28, 2012 by n_K

[Barney T. Administrators]

Hummm was just looking around to see if I could edit this thread to put a poll on it with one question of 'would you be interested in making this idea a reality' and another or 'would you be interested in using this project' but it doesn't look like it can be edited :/.

Done (Y)

Let me know if the way it is written is not as you intended.

[n_K]

Ahha nice one Barney! :D

Could there be a 'null vote' or something for the latter as I guess anyone that's developing it will actively be testing/using it as a given.

[Yorak]

I certainly hope it will not come shipped with all those pinned applications. That bottom bar looks ridiculous. And while I understand that is the only decent Gnome theme, I think it is overused. Nobody uses the default Gnome theme that I know of. Almost everyone uses that one. Faenza icons are great, I do enjoy them.

Honestly, what it comes down to is what can Shift Linux offer that other distros do not? Probably nothing, if it is based on Ubuntu or Fedora, to be honest. A few cosmetic changes and maybe adding a few more applications? I never understood the point of all these spin-offs of Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. Applications are very easy to remove/install. I think the only beneficial change would be adding the DeepIn Software Center...which is by far the cleanest and most efficient software center I have seen.

[ncc50446]

I wouldn't be able to help much with the development, but I could help test it. I don't know much about developing for Linux, and not sure if I have time to learn much at the moment. But, I would be interested in testing. I only got to test Shift once before it was stopped, was just getting into Linux at the time lol

It sounds like a good way to learn more about Linux, while having some fun. It's the nice thing about Linux.

Good luck :)

[n_K]

Honestly, what it comes down to is what can Shift Linux offer that other distros do not? Probably nothing, if it is based on Ubuntu or Fedora, to be honest. A few cosmetic changes and maybe adding a few more applications? I never understood the point of all these spin-offs of Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. Applications are very easy to remove/install. I think the only beneficial change would be adding the DeepIn Software Center...which is by far the cleanest and most efficient software center I have seen.

See;

I wouldn't be able to help much with the development, but I could help test it. I don't know much about developing for Linux, and not sure if I have time to learn much at the moment. But, I would be interested in testing. I only got to test Shift once before it was stopped, was just getting into Linux at the time lol

It sounds like a good way to learn more about Linux, while having some fun. It's the nice thing about Linux.

Good luck :)

[Nothing Here]

Would be awesome to get this back up and running. I quit usin it when it was changed to an Arch base. I would definitly try and help with it, if someone would restart it usin the buntu base.

[camuflage]

It would be great to get a neowin distro, as long as the default apps were chosen by a voting pool, for example "which email client should be included?".

[n_K]

So exams finish next week and I'd like to get this project off the ground, so I'm gonna go and play with some distros and various different packages and see what works well, etc. when they're over.

Each of the various linux distros that are out there has it's own main fort? (arch = basic intermediate configure-how-you-want, genoo = geek compile everything exactly as you want it, red hat = commercial support and backing/testing, ubuntu = linux newbies, no configuration changes needed, centos = remote server CLI mostly, fedora = red hat testing for non-commercial users), I can't really think of anything that's missing except for a decent firewall/security distribution but quite frankly you'd need to be a security expert to bother with such a task... And not many people would use it :p.

Anyone else got any ideas for the main idea/point of the distro? (It is better to be unique).

And maybe we should get an IRC room going for discussing about this too.

[Growled Member]

Would be awesome to get this back up and running. I quit usin it when it was changed to an Arch base. I would definitly try and help with it, if someone would restart it usin the buntu base.

I think a Debian base would be better. If you use Ubuntu you would have to consider re-basing every six months.

[bjoswald]

If you are serious about rebooting this project, please do it from a "pure" source (e.g. Debian, Arch, etc). We have too many "spins" as it is, and if you build upon them, it will be another layer we just don't need (i.e. a spin of a spin). Oh, and please give us a choice over which DE to use!

[pers3us]

It would be great to get a neowin distro, as long as the default apps were chosen by a voting pool, for example "which email client should be included?".

Better, why not make installer that installs the packages according to the choices that you make.

[n_K]

What about a choice of downloading it and compiling it locally (gentoo style) or downloading a precompiled package, or heck, submitting a package to be compiled to your specifications online? :?.

Anyway talking of building, been playing around with gentoo on my raspberry pi, I'll admit the RPi kinda really sucks for distributed compiling, got it linked to my PC here (all 4 vCPUs on powersave mode) and the 700MHz CPU overclocked to 820MHz is still being utilised 100% when it's not compiling at all locally and sending it all across the network whilst the PC maxes at 20% CPU usage :/. Anyway, interesting experiance none-the-less. It's taught me some things, like setting up a cross-compiler enviroment is something I'll never be doing again! :p

Oh and a random question for anyone actually, arch linux's PHP runs code such as $ABC = explode(' ', $ABC)[1]; fine but no matter what USE flags in gentoo I use, it will not work and spits out the 'unexpected [' error, can't really understand why though :s.

[Growled Member]

You know, I've been thinking about this and it would be cool to make our own desktop and tie in web apps (like Neowin web apps.) Most of what I do is on the web anyway.

[threesixtyflip]

Well I for one would definitely like to offer my services if this gets going. I have been looking for a challenge for a while now :D

[Noir Angel]

The problem with modern Linux is that there are a bazillion different distributions offering, let's face it, very little to set them apart. If you want to win users over you need to offer them something different and to do so would probably require starting either from scratch or with incredibly extensive rewrites. A lot of time input with little potential reward.