Monday 23 February 2009

The Law of Diminishing Returns!


So I have finally released Vinux 1.3 - it took a lot longer than I thought to complete, and in the end I decided I just had to release it whether or not it was perfect! I have managed to solve some significant problems and added new features but there are still some things I need to sort out in future versions. You can now choose your own username and password during the install process and install Vinux straight to a USB pendrive from the live CD or the ISO after installation. I have added lots of useful console applications and the yasr screen-reader, and also incorporated several forensic/recovery tools so that it could be used as a portable recovery tool by more experienced users. I have not been able to fix the cups server issue: it works from the live CD and/or USB pendrive but not once installed to a hard drive. This is a known issue when using remastersys with Ubuntu 8.10, but there is a simple fix which is available from the vinux.org.uk website. The feature I really wanted to include but just couldn't get to work was speech-dispatcher with alsa. I could get it to work, but only at the cost of losing multi-channel sound, so I have installed it but not enabled or configured it yet. So even though it isn't perfect I felt obliged to release it because of the law of diminishing returns - I was spending longer and longer make smaller and smaller improvements. I have to say I feel a lot better now I have released it, it is a great weight off my mind, as I have now spent nearly two months remastering it again and again in what little spare time I have. I will now try to relax for a few weeks and provide technical support for anyone who needs it before starting on another release. I may experiment with a few things in the meantime. The biggest dilemma is whether I should move to 9.04 when it is released in April, or stick with 8.10 until the release of 9.10?