Sci-ZyX-v0.6.0.3 and viros-0.7.2k110111

Hello viros-devel,

I'm happy to announce the first release of Sci-ZyX.  Sci-ZyX is
a VirOS produced, rebootlessly installable, descendent of Scientific
Linux's 6rolling alpha(4).  This release is also (I think) the first
LiveOS release I've ever made which I can make the following claim about-

In this release, viros is installed as an rpm, and is in such a
mature and tested state that a simple viros commandline can easily
reproduce a rebranded descendent of the host (Sci-ZyX-v0.6.0.3).

The release notes as well as download signatures are appended to
this announcement in html2text formatting.  But please read them
online with all their useful links intact at-

http://cloudsession.com/dawg/projects/scizyx/relnotes-0.6...

and the actual bits are here -

http://cloudsession.com/dawg/downloads/zyx/sci/v0.6.0.3

The vague roadmap is as follows- sleep, git push of the viros release
included in and used to build scizyx0603, better viros.sf.net website
frontpage, yum repo, guitar-zyx-0.6 release descended from el6, 64-bit
support for viros/*ZyX, gui, debuntu ancestor support.  But
those last two probably won't happen for years.

Feedback encouraged...  Cheers,

-dmc
Douglas McClendon
dmc@cloudsession.com
http://cloudsession.com/dawg

=======================================================================
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
****** Sci-ZyX ******


=======================================================================
****** Release Notes ******


=======================================================================
**** version :: 0.6.0.3 :: "reproducibility" :: 2011.01.11 ****


=======================================================================
***** About *****

Sci-ZyX (tm) is a VirOS(tm) produced, alternative to the ancestor(el6-
sl6ra4) standard desktop LiveCD/DVD/USB. Asside from being an
exceptionally functional traditional LiveDVD/USB, it also highlights
how the VirOS toolset makes it extremely easy to produce your own
rebootlessly_installable descendent LiveOS_distribution.


=======================================================================
***** Disclaimer *****

This *beta* release of Sci-ZyX is still a work in progress, and needs
further testing and peer-review. As such the usual_disclaimers_(see
sec._15-17) apply. I.e. nobody but the user(that's you, not me) is
responsible for unintentionally corrupted disks. Users should be
unafraid of annoying and/or serious bugs, but optimistic that they may
be pleasantly surprised by a very useful system.


=======================================================================
***** Features *****

Sci-ZyX has many compelling features, often differing from its
ancestor. Some of the most important are -
   ZyX-LiveInstaller

       This LiveCD/DVD/USB is an installable free and open source
       operating system distribution. With the ZyX-LiveInstaller
       (available under the System Tools menu), you can install the
       running LiveOS to internal or external system disk rebootlessly.
       In other words, you may seemlessly utilize your system before,
       during, and after the install, without ever needing to reboot.

   VirOS

       The VirOS tool is installed, which allows the easy customization
       / mutation / transmogrification of Sci-ZyX into your own
       descendent distribution stripped of the Sci-ZyX branding. Try
       (with an internet connection- for this release)-

       viros spawn \
           --debug \
           --strain=platform \
   --traits=splice-zyx-brand::distroname="BrandX":distroversion="0.1" \
           --output=my-brandx.iso

       For more examples, please see the online_tutorial, as well as the
       pre-sourceforge project_page. Note, that a future version will
       include the scripts necessary to include a complete recompilation
       of all the packages viros uses to generate/spawn the iso, from
       the source packages that are already included in the .wsource.iso
       version of this .iso. I.e. This is a fully self-hosting-and-
       regenerating LiveOS distribution(not yet tested and automated).

   Office Software / Text Editing

       OpenOffice is included as is GNU Emacs. Vim, Gedit, and Tomboy
       are also there for all your text composition needs.

   Web, E-Mail, Video Conferencing, Internet, etc...

       Firefox 3.6 is included with additional popular extensions such
       as Swifttabs(future rev: tabkit, abp, noscript). Mozilla's
       Thunderbird is the primary email application instead of
       Evolution. Ekiga is available for text, voice, and video
       communications.

   Image Processing

       The GNU Image Manipulation Program (gimp) is provided for image
       editing and processing. Inkscape is also available for creating
       and editing scalable vector graphics (svg) images.

   UNetBootin

       Sci-ZyX is compatable with the popular unetbootin tool for
       Sci-ZyX is compatable with the popular unetbootin tool for
       'burning' the sci-zyx*.iso file to a usb memory stick in
       'LiveUSB' mode. Once you are running from a LiveUSB, boot times
       are on par with those of a normally installed system. Of course
       traditional installation to an internal or external system disk
       is also possible via zyx-liveinstaller at any time you are booted
       in LiveDVD/USB mode...

   SELinux is available, but turned off by default

       "Life is too short for SELinux" - Ted Ts'o

       In addition to a getting a five percent systemwide performance
       bump (according to the NSA), you should just assume the bios of
       any computer connected to wireless networking hardware is being
       used to spy on you, by oppressive governments, foreign and
       domestic. It may be paranoid, but statistically I imagine a safe
       bet.

   K.A.B.L.U.I.

       My personal desktop preferences are available to any user by
       running the command 'kablui' from a terminal. For now, lacking an
       'unkablui' command, you probably want to try this on a test
       account first.

   Support

       You are currently reading 'the sci-zyx documentation'. For the
       timebeing, experience with similar LiveOSs is presumed. Please
       note that at the moment *ZyX is thus far pretty much the creation
       of a sole developer (redistributing his free and open source
       works as well as those of thousands, if not millions of other
       developers). However, given that I have been working on VirOS and
       LiveOS distributions passionately since before the millenium, to
       the point of Greg_DeKoenigsburg of Fedora/RedHat fame publically
       dubbing_me 'Godfather of the Fedora LiveCD', I can assure you
       that things will likely continue their steady forward progress in
       quality. With the VirOS-1.0 release coming in 2011 alongside the
       primary ancestor's 6.1 release, I have reasonable hopes of
       bringing together a significant user and development community
       around VirOS, now hosted at SourceForge. Please check out the
       project_page for more documentation, user forums, developer
       mailinglists, etc. viros.sf.net also has the latest released
       source code in .tar.bz2 format, as well as an active git
       development tree.


=======================================================================
***** Thanks for your interest... *****

Please check the_latest_errata to these release notes, as workarounds
to known issues may accumulate there. In closing, the bottom line is
this- I think that with rebootless installation, *ZyX has a great user
experience, and the included VirOS software uses the most intuitive
metaphors for its task. They may just be the right tools for your job,
saving you time and/or money.


=======================================================================
Release Notes Last Modified -- (c)2011/01/9 by Douglas_McClendon
=======================================================================

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