New vector linux COOL distro?

[haywire]

I have been using vectorlinux for several years now for all of my artistic endeavors.

These endeavors including writing instructions and how to guides, music, sound and sample design, video work, and graphics design for products which have been distrubuted and sold worldwide.

In using this system of work, I have created what I feel is the ultimate desktop for creative people.
Okay, maybe not the ultimate but its getting there. My desktop is great for audio, graphics and writing.

In working with my desktop, I began to think of my linux box as more than a computer, but as really as the greatest tool for artistic expression ever. I call this box my "Imagination station"

From here, my imaginings take shape and make it into the real world, in the form of writings, graphics, audio and to a lesser extent, video. (Need more apps and work for serious video work!)

My "Imagination station" also uses emulation to still use useful tools from a bygone era... Ft2 and many more old dos programs. Besides dos, I also have a fully working amiga os. Yes I still use some old amiga apps and games as well.

Add to this my dependance on a few windows program, run from wine or virtualbox in a full windows xp desktop.Think of a computer that can run linux apps but also dos, windows, amiga apps, and hopefully mac apps too. (working on mac)

Because of  the live tools I have heard about, I am considering making a live dvd release of this kind of desktop. It will be full of audio, video, graphics and writing applications. It will include dosbox, euae (amiga os emulation) compiz fusion, tons of creative people type applications for linux, dos, windows (where gpl or shareware) amiga os and possibly mac os if I can get that working.

I just wanted to see if I need permission or a blessing from the vectorlinux developers (and users) before commiting to this type of project. Please let me know what you think and any suggestions you have.

Ideally, I'd like a portable live dvd which can also be installed to harddrive. You can take this base desktop with you in the form of a dvd or cf card wherever you go, always haveing your desktop and tools for work with you to run on foreign machines.

What do you think of this, Vectorlinux : Imagination Station distribution - ?

Please share your thoughts on this type of project with me.

Steven

[M0E-lnx]

Are you talking about a fork?
If you are, I dont think you *need* anybody's permission. After all, VL is open source. You must however, make sure that all the tools you include in your dvd to distribute are in fact open source.

take VBox for instance... they have a binary (closed source) and a onother open source version... if you distribute it, you must use their OSE version.
That's just one example... there may be more things out there that are not necessarily... especially libraries and media codecs that you may have installed in your box and you need for your environment. You must be careful not to distribute these proprietary pieces of software.

[stretchedthin]

I'm no insider, but you have a cool idea.  I think MOE, is right, your greatest concern is that do not want to distribute anything proprietary.  Also, I now have kdenlive and openshot video working on my VL-std box, if you want to know more about how just pm me.  I quite like Openshot, works well so far and has a better look than kdenlive.
Ken

[M0E-lnx]

kdenlive is one of those... examples.

To get the most out of your kdenlive install, you need to compile other things like ffmpeg with some specific configure options against some codecs that may not be fully distributable...

Those are the kind of things you need to worry about.

[haywire]

I agree that I would have to be careful to be sure I am not violating any eula or terms of use statements or copyrights. These things can be researched I suppose. What I plan on doing is rebuilding a new system from a vlstandard base, then adding my own "interface enhancements" Then one by one adding applications. I suppose I can research each during this rebuilding phase. My own personal box has tons of stuff, which will need to be trimmed down to fit on a live dvd I think. This is no huge rush, I may wait till I get a spare pc just for this purpose. In the meantime, I can tinker with ideas on my own vl box.

I'm not one to rush into things, this is still something I am merely thinking about, but I'm fairly sure I will proceed with it.

I would love to have kdenlive or a decent video editor working, I tried and gave up but that was some time ago, I'm probably ready to try again so by all means please do pm me more info on getting those going...

I can post some newer screenshots here if anyone is interested, the interface I think I want to use is a combination of amiga, linux, windows and mac os
elements, basically taking what I like from each and mixing things up. The desktop is clean, sleek,organized and very functional.

Steven

[haywire]

I forgot to mention but I'm also interested in finding people to help contribute. I'm a just a computer hobbyist not a programmer, so someone who can
help on that end would be awesome. Also interested in graphics like icon/backdrop designers, and so on.

I think vector is an ideal base for such a system for creative folks. Its fast, has small footprint and stable. Hopefully, that part of the system will not change
much. My focus really will be on providing a custom interface, alot of creative applications, and an ideal enviorment for creative endeavors.

Some goals I had in mind

1) Make it much faster booting than standard vector linux.
2) Allow the use of Linux,dos, amiga, windows and maybe even mac applications.
A further goal is to make the use of these apps seamless, that is running amiga, windows, dos
or windows apps on the linux desktop in a window by pointing and clicking on a launcher or the executable.
The user should not even need to know its running in an emulator. 
3) Include alot of themes, wallpapers, icon sets, cursor sets, and so on.
4) Make it easy to migrate from windows or mac to this system.


I'm sure there are many more goals in mind, but this is enough to think about for now.

Steven