[ros-kernel] Making a "livecd" for promotion?

[Mark IJbema]

On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 12:35:19AM -0000, Andrew Greenwood wrote:
> Just had an interesting thought...
> 
> I have a contact who works for a computer magazine, who basically is in
> charge of what goes on the cover CD. I've previously had my own music
> program on their cover CD, and also got ReactOS a mention in the Windows
> 2000 column.
> 
> What I'm thinking is, as ReactOS is bootable from CD, if we can get one of
> the forthcoming versions "polished up" to a pretty decent standard (ie, so
> things basically work as they should), a "live CD" can be created, maybe as
> a simple ISO file, that can be included on cover CDs of magazines.
> 
> Basically, it should boot from CD into a GUI environment - without any
> hitches. So far this doesn't happen for me on real hardware.
> 
> It should *not* touch the users hard disk in any way - just in case there
> are any bugs lurking in our FAT driver. Obviously we can throw up a
> disclaimer at the start.
> 
> But at what time should this be done? I reckon once the GUI is neatened up a
> bit, OpenGL/networking/sound is implemented and once a few minor apps run on
> it, it should be ready. Bear in mind that, as it'll be run from the CD, all
> that's important is that our own apps run on it - for now.
> 
> What does everyone think? Is this a good idea or a stupid one?
> 
> I could always ask of course that the magazine feature each 0.x release?
> 
> Good idea? Stupid idea?

I think it's a good idea, and it has been discussed before on irc and
forums. It would have several advantages, one being able to test on
_way_ more hardware. I have 5 test-pc's, but if the live cd guarantees
to touch nothing i can test on 4 or 5 more, and i'm sure there are
people who only have one pc, and they don't want to risk testing with
that. So next to it being useful for promotion, i think it's useful for
testing as well.

Mark