Spread the word

[kidd]

Hi vectorites,

VL 6 is next door, and I think most of us (users/community as well as devs) are very proud of this release.

I think we lack on spreading the word outside our community and close friends.

Any ideas of new ways to break into major distribution media would be great, but as I don't what we could do in this aspect, I'll just suggest what I think would be a little effort to each one of us who own a little blog but may help vl.

It's just a matter of announcing when vl 6 comes out in our pages.  A little mention about new installer, or how good/bad results gave you (I hope good), or placing  a little VL badge from http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7432.msg50750#msg50750 somewhere in your page.

I'll do it for sure, but I wonder if anyone else has some other ideas to help improving VL visibility in the linuxsphere.

By no means I want to start a massive spamming, but only find more places where one can tell about his experiences with VL (I repeat: good or bad).  It's sad many people just don't know vl for good nor for bad.

Suggestions? opinions? insults? Don't hesitate posting.

Regards,

kidd
 

[caitlyn]

It will be announced in DistroWatch, of course, and I will do my usual review for O'Reilly Media. 

One point I want to make about reviews:  do them but be honest.  If you decide to write about VL6 in your blog or for a tech/Linux site describe any shortcomings you find as well as all the good things.  The numerous fawning fan reviews out there are mostly dismissed as just that.  Write a real review and people will pay attention.  There is no perfect distro or perfect OS.  The reason I use VL is that is serves my needs better than most other distros and it has a great community, not because I think it's perfect.

[StrayBit]

placing  a little VL badge from http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7432.msg50750#msg50750

A lot of conversation but no badges nor any links.

[caitlyn]

One more important point:  "major" distros (not Slackware but the others) all have huge repositories.  The VL6 repository is the best we've ever had before a release but its still miniscule compared to Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, or SUSE.  

Most people don't compile their own software and don't want to know from compiling.  If you can compile from source you can build a VL package.  If you're going to compile something for yourself anyway compile it for the whole VL community by building a package to standards.  kidd already does this.  So can many of our users.  That will really help keep users once they try VL.

[kidd]

placing  a little VL badge from http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7432.msg50750#msg50750

A lot of conversation but no badges nor any links.

I have them just in front of me...
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7694/screente0.jpg


@Cait: wise advices. I'll follow them.   

As for repo sizes I think the same.  We are still far from those huge repos, but we're doing walking in the right direction.  One of my motivation for writting sbbuilder was making easier to anyone to make a package. to distribute in official repos.

So if you're compiling your own apps, please, consider packaging it seriously and you'll have it available just a slapt-get away from you and other users will benefit from it too.

[StrayBit]

Yes, they do look great, Kidd.  Unfortunately, Seamonkey wont let me copy one or more of the images from the image of (apparently) your screen.  And I can't find a category titled Cooking up the treats in this forum.

[rbistolfi]

StryBit, if you scroll down after following the forum link, you will find the post where Masta shows the badges.

I am looking at them here http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7432.msg50750#msg50750

[GrannyGeek]

I took some nice screen shots I'll include when I make announcements in a couple of fora where they would be appropriate. VL6 looks great. I think screen shots may pique some interest beyond words alone.
--GrannyGeek

[Windozer]

[...]If you can compile from source you can build a VL package.  If you're going to compile something for yourself anyway compile it for the whole VL community by building a package to standards. [...]

Caitlyn,

I will do this too, once I'm confident enough that my builds haven't introduced mistakes, and once I understand how the packaging works. To be frank, the first several reads of the how-to's on packaging were overwhelming.    ... sorry I don't have enough time space yet to do anything serious for this release  -
other than study the documentation 

Any ideas of new ways to break into major distribution media 

Rename VectorLinux to Vectobuntu?

@self: Oh, bad bad programmer --- no doughnut! 

cheers
and GO VL !
- H

[Masta]

HI guys and gals!
                          Sorry I am just getting to this thread. I am thrilled that you are finding the badges useful and I am thrilled that they/some are liked.  I recently got an idea started on another modification of one, but it has not arrived to preview stage yet.
edit: Now it's done and is in line with the other on the other topic link.

 I wanted to mention that if anyone needs/wants a copy of the badge images, I will be glad to put them in a package somewhere that the community can download them from. If all else fails, maybe we (the community) can email them around (to community and friends, no spamming them, please).

They should be down loadable by clicking the image from the above forum link, then right clicking on them in your browser , but just in case there are some that have issues for whatever reason.

[caitlyn]

Actually a VL badge package in the repo is a great idea, Masta, since everyone who runs VL has access to the repo via gslapt.  I like it 

[tomh38]

I realize that, as caitlyn wrote, the VL repositories have far fewer packages than, say, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, or SUSE.  Nevertheless, when I recommend Vector Linux to people (which I do whenever somebody seems open to the idea), I can honestly say that there is a wide variety of software packages available which serve most purposes.

Now, having said that, I have a question.  Does anybody know more precisely where VL stands in terms of numbers of packages compared to those larger distributions?  Or does anybody know where I could find out?  I tried googling this subject but couldn't find any hard numbers.

I will say this, though.  From my own experience I think that you can download any package from the VL repositories and be fairly certain that not only will dependencies be met but more importantly it won't break your system.

I think that the quality control done by those who manage the repositories is very high.

EDIT:  I should have mentioned that I'm working on an opportunity to get Vector Linux deployed in a school system but so far it's still in a very early stage.  It may happen or not.  I want it to happen, because I think VL would be a good choice for at least some schools.

[uelsk8s]

tomh38,
The main reason IMO there are no hard numbers is: most non-slack based distro's split a source package into 2 or 3 smaller packages.
There are pro's and con's that come from them doing that.

Uelsk8s

[tomh38]

Uelsk8s:

Thanks, that helps explain things.  I've often read things like "Debian has thousands of software packages," and have wondered "how many thousands? Don't they know?"

Also, from what you wrote, we should look at VL a little differently.  We still have less software, but it's more than you can conclude just from the number of packages.

Since I'm posting, I have a question.  I just got a call from my contact person in this school system (it's in Baltimore).  Does anybody think that VL wouldn't be good in an educational setting?  If not, why not?  Personally, I think it would be, but the educational setting in which I work is at the university level.

If I don't hear from anybody why I shouldn't over the next few days, I'm going to buy a plane ticket so that I can fly out to Baltimore and do a presentation for this school board.

Tom

[lm8]

Since I'm posting, I have a question.  I just got a call from my contact person in this school system (it's in Baltimore). 
...
If I don't hear from anybody why I shouldn't over the next few days, I'm going to buy a plane ticket so that I can fly out to Baltimore and do a presentation for this school board.

You may want to check with the School Forge site ( http://www.schoolforge.net/ ).  They discuss issues like this on their mailing list all the time.  Might give you some help with your presentation.  One of the many resources they've mentioned on the School Forge mailing list is this document on free educational software for schools:
http://www.ncose.org/node/3
Someone did a really nice job of putting it together.

Good luck with your presentation.