Recommends for "just a browser" live distros- either existing ones orcomments on making one.

[Kelsay, Brian - Kansas City, MO]

 AS I've said MANY times, there are lots of minimalistic LiveCDs.  If
you don't like KioskCD or the best one, Webconverger, then make yourself
a custom Puppy LiveCD or DamnSmallLinux.  Those two ALREADY have ALL the
customization stuff BUILT-IN.   Why is this so hard?   Let's try not to
reinvent the wheel here or make some big new project, just edit the dang
LiveCD already.  Get MagicISO for $20 for Windows (Well worth it if you
are doing many ISOs for LiveCDs) or figure out how to mount and edit
ISOs on Linux(slightly more complex).  We are not treading new territory
here.  How long has Knoppix been out on the scene with the LiveCD idea?

Here's a spin, try building a custom LiveCD of Linux From Scratch (LFS).
Then you can get all that custom compiling out of your system at the
same time.  It's like Gentoo only more ricer.

Of those distros I mentioned above, DamnSmall, Puppy, Webconverger, and
KioskCD can ALL be loaded on to a USB device for booting.


Brian Kelsay


-----Original Message-----
From:  Oren Beck

As a result of past discussions on using free to cheap hardware for
Linux some folks are sharing ideas.
One of my campers here suggested I "bribe" programmers to improve his
kiosk Linux experience! That evening produced about 10 pages of
scribbled notes on must do and cannot EVER do events. Then a near
equal amount of "would be so cool" functionalities. The upshot is we
soon grasped a fundamental common element. A web browser was 100% of
the user interaction with whatever that user was doing! So? Nothing
earth shaking in that. The recurrent theme/s in comparing all 3 lists?
 must do FOO- never can let BAR happen - would be neat if it could?

ALL centered on insulating a user from preventable frustration .

The user sits down and accesses the web. NO tech skill needed. - For
the duration of their session every step builds a "Go Back" button
buffer.  Saving and printing  in some mode akin to assisted
repartitioning tools. The information above was harvested from
comments made by campers and staff over the last year or so that the
kiosk has been up. Let me fill in the background if anyone on list
missed it.

I have been using both Puppy and Damn Small for a public guest kiosk
here at the campground. Subject to minor annoyances it's been an
overall success. The question to me is what other options exist for
this niche? Or is there potential in craft building such a distro? I
would consider trading camping and fishing as incentives. Basically I
think our membership has the collective skills to make several sorts
of world improvements. Or just to share ideas in a different sort of
meeting space

The idea being?  To get a group session out here sometime next spring
where we'd compare the winter's projects.