Desktop Linux
Description
The objective of this initiative is to develop a platform that could be used by a novice, so that he/she could easily employ a graphical user interface (GUI) to provide applications and services available on competing operating systems. ET's original investigation involved Mandrake Linux and RedHat Enterprise Linux. Subsequent investigations have included SUSE Linux Professional, more recent versions of RedHat Workstation, and Fedora Core Linux. SUSE seemed to be the most polished and finished product. SUSE was able to recognize and configure the dual-band WiFi card in a test ThinkPad laptop. Automated system maintenance is a for-fee service, which seems to work well for RedHat and SUSE. The RedHat AS and SUSE Professional distributions with the 2.6 kernel seemed to be a big step forward in ease-of-use. Once the machine is customized, it is quite usable. Pending some major change, this project is moving to inactive status.
Publications
N/A
Resources
Ubuntu Linux - A very user-friendly Linux distribution
SUSE Linux
Fedora Linux
Mandriva Linux
Knoppix Linux - LiveCD
Sun's Java Desktop
DesktopLinux.com
Desktop Linux Consortium
K Desktop Environment
GNOME Desktop Environment
Evolution Groupware Project
Primary ET Contact
Al Williams alw@psu.edu
Collaborators
At this time, Desktop Linux is an effort internal to ET.
Expected Deliverable(s)
A recommendation for a usable desktop Linux.
Level of ET Involvement
This is an internal ET investigation.
Initiative Start Date
March 2003