Trisquel variant making it a libre clone of the discontinued Hybryde distribution

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fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

(See below)

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

Annonce en français

Hello everyone, I'm here to announce the arrival of a simple variant of Trisquel.
(P.-S.: unofficial.)
This is a libre clone of the Hybryde distribution.
I named it OmniDEmos - 'DE' refers to the abbreviation Desktop Environment, and the entire name to 'the mother of all demos'.

The concept is simple and educational; A beginner or instructor, educator, etc. can use this single ISO image to (make) discover a large variety of desktop environments. It is a live environment that can be put on common media including CD, DVD, USB, and possibly other obscure media.

In this variant are present: Unity (default D.E.), MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment, and two personalisable window managers - Openbox and FVWM.

If you're interested, download the ISO image right below.
And here's its md5 file - it is used to verify the integrity of the file, its fingerprint.

Multiple mirrors are available:
- England (HTTPS, I2P)
- Germany (HTTPS)
- U.S.A. (HTTPS and BitTorrent, torrent file [alt. Chile], magnet [?] link: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:f2aa74b05d4447c2670de3a6f83f71c651fa6e16&dn=omnidemos_1.0_amd64.iso)
- Chile (HTTPS)

--- Questions-answers

I don't sufficiently comprehend English or Spanish. How can I change the language?
- Don't worry; to do so requires solely a couple of clicks.
From the default desktop - Unity -, click on the settings icon in the taskbar, then open 'Language Support' in the first line. If you aren't on the Unity desktop, search for this tool in the launch menu or open a terminal by pressing simultaneously Ctrl-Alt-T on the keyboard and then enter 'gnome-language-selector'.
Click on the 'Install/Remove Languages...' button and make a selection, then apply by confirming.
Finally, disconnect and reconnect.
N.B.: Some software such as Abrowser require language packages - note that Abrowser refers to them as 'locale' packages, but such packages are often named l10n, etc. -, search for them via the web interface or via the Synaptic graphical interface of Debian's package management system.
If necessary, restart the session.

How do I change the desktop environment / window manager?
- Disconnect from your session: see in/near the power options for desktops - click on the desktop and option like 'Quit' or 'Exit' for window managers. Once on the session manager, type in the username 'omnidemos', press Enter/Return, the password bar should go away and you should now click on the session button, top right corner. Choose a session and press Enter/Return to start it.
N.B.: As indicated, enter the user name before selecting the session, as the session manager resets the session selection when the password bar departs.

Where are GNOME and KDE Plasma?
- KDE Plasma comes with Triskel - wishing you good luck in managing that giant, labyrinthine system.
GNOME is someplace else - for example in the software repositories of Trisquel, Parabola, Guix, etc. -, I don't want be an apologist for it.

Where are x, y, z?
- Don't hesitate to send us your suggestions!

Is there a more general educational environment?
- For certain educational needs, Trisquel offers the Sugar environment, including the highly commendable GCompris educational suite, but the rest is imperfect in its current state.

Can I install Trisquel via this variant?
- No, if you want to install Trisquel with multiple desktops, that's entirely possible, but you should install Trisquel (e. g. its Mini edition) and install some desktop environments manually. In this variant, the Ubiquity installer doesn't work, as it's disabled - however, interactions related to installation don't cause major errors, e.g. 'Install Trisquel' ignores Ubiquity and switches to the default X session.

What's the update cycle?
- First, there's no difference in software/packages with Trisquel, everything is stable.
Since this variant is reproducible by anyone, in theory there could be perpetual updates - that is, as long as the CUBIC tool and the Trisquel project are active.
For my part, I intend to update this variant when something new occurs, be it improvements by myself or others, new desktop environments, or new versions of Trisquel.

-----
Version history

- 2023-06-01. Initial release; 1.0 (amd64, approx. 2.7G - 2846556160 KB) with Unity (default D.E.), MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment, and two personalisable window managers - Openbox and FVWM.
-----
Source / How to reproduce this:
(N.B.: ideally a modified version of the makeiso script should be used - however, it takes competence to create one.)

Instructions using CUBIC - the sole method for the moment.
P.-S.: following the request of quiliro, a trial of compatibility verification between CUBIC and the GNU FSDG is available here.
These recommendations are not suitable for this case, but - apparently - there's nothing else.

=Base=
- CUBIC installation
- Latest Trisquel Mini ISO insertion
- Required fields fill in
=CUBIC Terminal=
- Update
# apt update && apt upgrade
- Desktop environments installation
# apt install mate cinnamon xfce4 enlightenment fvwm unity unity-lens-*
- (Optional) Deactivate Ubiquity, this ISO is improper for a Trisquel installation
(Ubiquity won't work and the 'Install Trisquel' option launches X after a few moments).
# echo '' > /usr/bin/ubiquity
-----

License: same license as Trisquel.

eric23
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Joined: 06/30/2017

Are you the original developer/maintainer of Hybryde?

In Trisquel isn't Ubiquity the default installer for the graphical environment. I thought the graphical installer was working. I just learned about Ubiquity from your post, but it looks similar to what I ran in Triskel live.

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

Hi - I'm not a developer of Hybryde, though these guys are French speakers too.
I don't know where they are now, but I doubt they care about fully free software as they provided proprietary software like Skype back then so I didn't bother to try to contact anyone.

Yes, Ubiquity is the default installer, it is working but I disabled it so nobody ever installs Trisquel 'the wrong way' with so many desktops and the whole thing being an unofficial remix.
It's an educational live environment, I am not optimizing it to run better or anything - for now atleast; I would be disappointed of myself if somebody ever rejects Trisquel or free/libre software as a whole because something bad and unexpected happens with OmniDEmos so it only does what it's supposed to do.

prospero
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Joined: 05/20/2022

> I would be disappointed of myself if somebody ever rejects Trisquel or free/libre software as a whole because something bad and unexpected happens with OmniDEmos

This makes me think that you may have posted this announcement in the wrong section: the General Free Software Talk may be a more appropriate place if you want to avoid confusion. I would certainly expect it there.

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

Yeah, I might just create a wiki entry and announce updates in General Free Software Talk :)

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

I didn't know that messages can't be modified after a certain time...
This announcement all the way above may contain obsolete info - mirror links, etc. - or errors; for example the size of the first version - 2846556160 - isn't in KB but bytes.

I think the solution would be to create a wiki entry.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

>"I think the solution would be to create a wiki entry."

Just drop an update post at the bottom of this thread. People here are generally smart enough to read through a thread before they start following complex instructions.

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

Of course, but a wiki entry + update announcements in 'General Free Software Talk' would make it cleaner I'm certain.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

Your clone of Hybryde sounds like an interesting project. I would love to take a look at the source code for your project. Could you please share where I can access the source code for OmniDEmos?

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

Check out the section called 'Source / How to reproduce this' in the announcement - do read the N.B. to understand why I did it that way.
P.-S.: I'd welcome any person with programming competences to better the way this remix is built; it could lead to make it official.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

You're sharing the modified ISO but not the source code of the programs along with it? The GPL might have something to say on this topic. You may be interested in
https://jxself.org/outsourcing.shtml

Trisquel, for example, provides a corresponding source ISO to go along with the binary one. I encourage you to begin distributing the sources of the binary programs you're now distributing. This recommendation follows 4.1.1 Option (a): Source Alongside Binary: https://softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

I already provided the 'source' instructions on how to reproduce the ISO, indeed I think the maximum I can add would be links to the desktop environments sources as I already linked CUBIC's.

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022

An update about this issue: I tried to run Trisquel's makeiso script with a slight modification being the addition of the packages OmniDEmos are presenting.

Unfortunately, it seems my computer doesn't have enough memory - the instructions, perhaps obsolete, recommend 6 GB of RAM, yet I can't use the script with my computer that has more than 6 GB of RAM.
I tried doing so in a tty environment for RAM-saving.

fiorile
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Joined: 07/16/2022