SoC2007 Live CD

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Here are some ideas regarding DTP Live CD.

The aim of this project is to create a costume GNU/Linux Live CD bundled with FOSS applications used in Desktop Publishing field. This is to make it ready out-of-box for non Linux users and newcomers, and any one else as well.

base distro

I think Ubuntu is a good choice for a base distro, because:

  • Being a debian based distro, so we can benefit from all debian technologies (like apt) and community support as well.
  • It is one of the most widely used distros these days, it has a very wide user base and well established community support.
  • Virtually any piece of software available for debian is available for ubuntu at the same time, which mean we've an extensive set of available applications.

Be careful: (K)Ubuntu's version of Qt has some nasty bugs that cause issues with Scribus and other Qt based programs. I suggest you use Debian/Knoppix instead.

Some comments:

  • OpenSuse is also an option as it contains almost everything we need and I have a build server account. Moreover, Ubuntu seems to not only have some Qt bugs but odd and random 'can't print' issues. I second using Debian/Knoppix instead.
  • Please do not install any of the following: gv, ghostview, gpdf, evince,ggv. They are either old or too disfunctional to use with Scribus EPS/PDF. --mrdocs 12:21, 24 March 2007 (CET)

Software to be included

3-D software

Clipart

Desktop environment(s)

  • KDE
    • I strongly recommend KDE as default. We can show off drag and drop.--Mrdocs 22:27, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
    • It might be useful to include the KDE Baghira theme for MacOS X users. A little script that changes the desktop to Baghira could be useful too, together with a short description ("If you want your desktop to resemble MacOS X, open Konsole and type ./macosxlook.sh, then hit "Enter", or something like that; same for Win2K or XP users. There should be menu entries for easily switching between a yet to be determined KDE theme and OS X/WinXP/Win2K themes).
    • Clean up the Kicker and remove unnecessary/irritating entries
    • Create a new structure for the Kicker (eg an extra DTP entry with sub-menus for image editing, DTP, vector drawing, fonts etc.)

Documentation

  • grab all documentation available under a free license and make it easily accessible in a uniform layout (html, pdf)
  • introduction which autmatically shows up after "login" (similar to the current introduction to Knoppix)
  • Make sure that Python, SVG, and ODF documentation is included.

Email clients

Needed for collaboration on the projects

  • Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Kontact

Fonts

  • A collection of high quality fonts (type 1, ttf, otf) available for free distribution
    • (Be careful with distribution provisions in license when it comes to fonts)
    • Remove crummy fonts so they can't accidentally be used for production
  • Install this collection of well designed free fonts for Central Europe, provided by Polish TeX User Group:

ftp://ftp.gust.org.pl/pub/GUST/contrib/fonts/ Description and links to font packages (pl)

Font utilities

HTML editors

Image viewers

Layout

  • Scribus stable — currently 1.3.x series
  • Scribus cvs snapshot — installed as an addition to the stable version, for those wanting to use latest improvements

Misc Utils/Apps

Postscript and pdf instruments

  • gs-afpl >= 8.50
  • Gsview
  • Pstoedit
  • Xpdf << note 3.02 was recently released and supports transparency much better now
  • kpdf 3.5+
  • pdftohtml http://pdftohtml.sourceforge.net/
  • Multivalent Java Tools - http://multivalent.sourceforge.net/
  • pdftk - the pdf toolkit - http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ (or are we typically avoiding commandline tools ?) (there is a pdftk service menu for KDE)
  • PoDoFo + PoDoFo Browser (requires Qt4)
  • Consider Adobe Reader 7.x, but check the licence first. OpenSuSE 10.2 is shipped with AR. Currently, no FLOSS PDF viewer is even close to AR!

Raster graphics

System software

  • Networking tools to enable establishing working network connection
  • Tools for easy installation of the Live system to HDD if necessary
  • CUPS
  • Apache (for CUPS and Batik) Apache not needed to run Batik, only compile
  • gutenprint (gimp-print 5.0)
  • JVM 1.4.2+ for running Batik and/or delineate

Trace tools

Typesetting

Vector graphics

Web browsers

Needed for looking up materials and for collaboration over the web (include a bunch of DTP bookmarks)

  • Konqueror
  • Mozilla Firefox (with svg plugin...)

Word processor(s)

Required to edit large amounts of text easier than in scribus

  • OpenOffice.org
  • KWord (can be used for basic PDF editing)

OCR

It may be a good idea to bundle it with gocr with easy to use GUI (Kooka).

Find a an appealing name for the distro

Probably one of the harder nuts to crack ;)

Proposals from the old LiveCD draft

  • Scribux (too similar to Scribus?)
  • Publix (there may be trademark issues with this one since it is the name of a U.S. supermarket chain
  • scribOS - Linux DTP CD
  • FOPUX (Free and Open Publishing Linux)
  • OpenCanvas (another name with trademark issues, since there already exists a drawing software called OpenCanvas)
  • OpenPage
  • OpenPub
  • OpenDTP
  • Design on Disc (from bug #1763)
  • Artix or Artux (combining Latin ars (art) with the almost obligatory *ix/*ux)