[Leaplist] hamcation

[Phil Barnett]

On Thu, 2010-01-07 at 02:45 -0500, John Simpson wrote:

> here it is, mid-january, and nobody has even mentioned hamcation yet. as always,
> it's the second weekend of february, so this year it's february 12th, 13th, and 
> 14th. LEAP only has one regular meeting and one installfest left before hamcation starts.
> 
> i've already spoken with the OARC people who assign tables, and the same table
> we've had in years past is waiting for us. we just need to decide what we're
> going to do with it. if we don't get any other ideas, it looks like we'll be
> doing the same things we have in years past- handing out linux CDs in exchange
> for donations, and hopefully setting up an antenna on the roof and letting linux
> talk to other computers out there.
> 
> we've usually burned and labeled 300 CDs, 100 each of three different distros. 
> usually it's the current *buntu, a mainstream "server" distro such as centos, 
> and then some kind of ham radio distro. i'm thinking we can do 100 kubuntu 9.10 
> live CDs, 100 centos 5.4 DVDs, and 100 of whatever ham radio distro we end up going with.

We've never done a server centric distro at Hamcation. Last year we did
my Custom Puppy Ham Linux, Fedora 11 and Mint 6.

I still like Mint, and I doubt that many hams care one way or the other
about a bunch of people in Europe's political views. Seems like a
tempest in a teapot.

Just out of curiosity, if I install Mint, I have agreed to which
political philosophy? And I will be measured how?

> speaking of the ham radio distro... last year we used a ham radio-flavoured
> version of puppy linux called "digipup". it's still around, and last month
> i found a distro called "shackbox" which looks good as well.
> 
> http://www.w1hkj.com/flpuppy.html
> 
> http://shackbox.net/

> the shackbox web site is a bit strange, he says you need to register in
> order to download but then he gives a userid and password on the same
> page so you can download without registering. hopefully somebody with
> more recent linux/radio experience than myself (phil?) can try it out,
> compare it to the current digipup, and figure out which one is better.
> (and then maybe customize the background, re-master it, and burn a
> hundred of 'em, hint hint...)

Last year I made the ham distro from Puppy Linux base, fldigi, flarq and
NBEMS.

> once we decide what we're going to do... i can burn 100 of whatever.
> i can also design, print, and apply labels, although i'm not the world's
> greatest artist- the labels we had last year were awesome, hopefully
> we can sweet-talk phil's wife into donating her design talents again this year.

I made designed last years labels from scratch and also the ones for
Florida Linux Show. I still have the templates from last year and from
Florida Linux Show.

> once we decide *what* we'll be making, people can start burning the CDs
> themselves. we also need to figure out if we want to have one person
> pick up blanks and then figure out how to get them to the appropriate
> people, or if we want to just tell people to buy a stack of 100 CDs or
> DVDs, and LEAP will reimburse them (which i think probably makes more
> sense, given the short time frame we're working with.)
> 
> i have two un-opened boxes of 100 white paper envelopes, which i will
> be donating to the cause, and i don't mind picking up a third box if
> needed. if we can get the CD/DVDs burned and the labels designed and
> printed before next month's installfest, we can have a CD stamping
> and envelope stuffing party there, and be done with it.
> 
> so... questions? comments? volunteers?

I don't think a server centric distro would be a good choice for ham
radio users. If they are that into Linux, they will download whatever
they want. We need desktop Linux distros for these guys.

Also, the $5 per disk or all three for $10 worked VERY well last year.
We should do that again.

My suggest:

Fedora 12 DVD, i386
kubuntu 9.10, i386
Some ham distro with fldigi, flarq and NBEMS, even if I have to make it
again.

I'll start working on the Puppy distro.



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