Revlinux's Blog

RevLinuxOS 1.10 Released!

2011-02-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

The RevLinuxOS team is proud to announce the Release of RevLinuxOS 1.10 (Code name: Cryogenesis) to the community! This release of RevLinuxOS is based on the Kubuntu Hardy core, and is intended for older desktop systems. There will be another release in June or RevLinuxOS 2.0 for newer systems based on a newer core. Please stay tuned for further news and information. For more information or to download the current release, please join us in the RevLinuxOS community forums: News and Announcements

RevLinuxOS sites are back online!

2010-05-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

The RevLinuxOS sites are back online!

Thank you to everyone in the community for your patience and understanding during the Hacking issues and the mess it has created. I have most of the sites back online, but there are some ongoing issues to relate:

1.) I'm still uploading files from the other server, and this may still take some time because I'm on DSL, so I have crappy upload speeds.

2.) We were able to save and reuse the Remastersys forum database, but we lost the RevLinuxOS forum database due to data corruption.

3.) I was able to save the files for the Masonux project and get them back online, but I am currently unable to get the Vlocity project files from the godaddy.com hosted servers because they suspended my account. It was a really sh*ty thing to do because I was moving to a new hosting provider, so they suddenly called my account a security risk and suspended my account!

I don't know about you, but it takes allot of nerve to behave like that. 38,500 of Godaddy's customer got hacked twice in one month by the same group using the same exploits, and godaddy has the nerve of blaming their customers for "causing" the problem!

When that many sites get hacked in a 4 hour period twice in a month, and they all use the same hosting provider, the problem is systemic. I am now calling on all Godaddy customers that had this problem and got treated the same way as I was by Godaddy to boycott doing business with them. Godaddy has obviously become so big that they no longer care about their paying customers or the idea of customer service. I find their behaviour reprehensible and unethical and will never do business with them again!

Domain Attack On My Hosting Provider

2010-05-03T19:31:00.001-07:00

Due to a domain attack on godaddy.com, my hosting provider, all of our sites are currently down. My sites were all infected with malware from hackers that appear to have possibly compromised the godaddy.com service. It looks to me at this point that hackers have gained superuser access to their servers, because tens of thousands of sites have been hacked in the past few weeks.

Godaddy refuses to admit that their service has been compromised, and says it is the fault of the webmasters who own the sites that were hacked. I find it unacceptable for them to blame their customers for these issues, and am now shopping for a new hosting service.

I will be taking down all of my sites and moving my domains as soon as I get a new hosting provider. IN the mean time, please avoid use of geekconnection.org and all RevLinuxOS websites until I announce the sites are back up with a new hosting service.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

Regards,

RevLinux (A.K.A. geekydude)

2010-04-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

RevLinuxOS 2009.1 - Update Coming Soon!

2010-04-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

I've handed the updated materials to fragadelic so he can put it together and build the ISO.
Please be aware that he's on-call this week, so he won't get to it until the weekend or perhaps a day or two after the weekend.

We've already begun working on ideas for the next release based on the Lucid Lynx core.
If you have any ideas to share, please be sure to drop in to the community forums and let us know what's on your mind.

If you are a developer or graphic artist and wish to contribute work for the next release, please feel free to contact me. We are especially in need of a web developer, but we also could use someone who would be interested in working on development of Linux apps that interface with mobile devices (such as Android).

Hosting Issues abound!

2010-04-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

My hosting provider moved my sites to new servers and everything has gone downhill from there!
I've been chasing issues left and right.

Then there was the earthquakes in Tijuana, Baja, California, and Arizona that caused connectivity issues for my hosting provider, and now I'm wondering what else can go wrong.
So please excuse our mess while I attempt to chase down all of the broken links and other issues.

Thanks!

Update on RevLinuxOS 2009.1 (first update)

2010-01-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

We're getting close....
We're adding some missing apps and removing some we decided were not working out for our users.

We decided to revise the look of RevLinuxOS.
We're ditching the gold and going with a look from my darker roots.

Here's the new revised look for RevLinuxOS.
It still may change and nothing is official yet, but I thought I'd share with you the direction it will be moving.

I hope you like it!

Screenshot of the Style control panel:

Screenshot of the Menus and how Konqueror looks:

Screenshot of The Firefox Theme:

Screenshot of the Thunderbird theme:

Update on RevLinuxOS 2009.1

2009-12-31T00:08:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back in the groove and working on the RevLinuxOS 2009 update.
My hope is to have the updates ready next weekend for Fragadelic to include in the updated build.

That's all I have for now, so please stay tuned for more info next weekend!

My Recent Surgery

2009-12-18T02:31:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I underwent surgery to remove my gall bladder, and I wanted to provide a brief report of how I'm doing......

Well I'm still alive!!!
I've been suffering from high fever and abdominal pain, but it subsided enough to go online for a few minutes to let you know that I'm still kicking (barely ).
It's been a rough recovery, so I'm not moving around much yet. The good news is I've lost over 10 pounds.

I'll attempt to go on-line and interact with this community more this weekend.
For now, I'm gonna go back to bed and get some rest.

RevLinuxOS commmunity test release is now available for download!

2009-10-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!
RevLinuxOS commmunity test release is now available for download!

http://downloads.revlinuxos.com/revlinuxos_2009/test_releases/2009.0/

Please keep in mind it is our first test release, and still needs some refinement.
Please provide your feedback and bug reports in the RevlinuxOS forums:

http://forum.revlinuxos.com/index.php?board=31.0

Happy Halloween!!!

RevLinuxOS community test release is almost here!

2009-10-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

We had to change the core to be based on Kubuntu Hardy core due to irreconcilable problems with the Debian Lenny core that required more work than it was worth to overcome.

However, I'm happy to inform all of our members that we are performing the absolute final minor tweaks and touches to it as I write this post.

So get your hard drives and bandwidth ready for a download party at 12:00 AM Friday night as it turns to Halloween morning!!!

The Halloween Season Is Upon Us!

2009-10-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was talking to one of my co-workers about Halloween.
One of the interesting things they said was that Halloween is one of the their favorite "holidays".

After further discussion, we discovered that one of the major reasons "grown-ups" like it so much is because they are given an opportunity to act like children . I remember hearing or reading some where that the more complex your job & responsibilities are, the more the need we have for simple fun.

So during the Halloween season, we get to do what our children & youth do!
We dress up in costumes and either run around begging for treats, or pass them out.
We have simple fun such as costume parties, play pranks on one another, go to haunted houses, etc.

So now we ask you to join the RevLinuxOS community and join us for some Halloween fun and festivities!

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-10-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I have some great news!

I've just confirmed this with Fragadelic.
We will have an ISO ready for community testing at the stroke of midnight when Friday, October 30th becomes Halloween!
At exactly 12:00 AM (Eastern) on the morning of October 31, 2009, this community will be able to download RevLinuxOS 2009 for testing!

It will not be a public release, and because it is for testing purposes, you will be advised to back up your data.
Until we've completed testing, those who install it will be installing at their own risk.

Time to set your watches!

Artwork overhaul is complete

2009-09-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

It has taken longer than expected, but the new artwork has been uploaded, and the final change list has been sent to fragadelic to include in the ISO.

Sproggy and his cohorts are not going to slow down our development progress, and posting immature comments to this blog will not stop us either (yes, your IP's have been logged, and I know who posted the comments to this blog!).
LOL!

We're finally back to where we were before the artwork copyright issues were discovered and the ensuing spat that resulted, so here we come!

Thanks to everyone else for your patience during the artwork disruption. :)

2009-08-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

OK...
We are nearing completion of our artwork overhaul.
We are fine tuning some of the artwork, and the community has been asked to provide feedback by voting for artwork they like best. If you haven't had a chance to participate, please feel free to vote in the RevLinuxOS forums.

2009-08-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Due to a sudden issue with artwork licensing and copyrights, we have had to create a new logo and update the artwork prior to release. We anticipate Release in Mid September.

Thanks for your patience!

2009-08-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I apologize to everyone for not keeping up the blog for a few weeks.
I had some things go on in my personal life, but all is good now.

We have some serious development activity going on with Fragadelic and sqlpython going full steam ahead... We have much more definitive plans for release!

Fragadelic says he will likely have an ISO built next weekend, So here's the tentative schedule for a public release:

1.) I'm setting a tentative deadline for Saturday, August 22nd to have an ISO uploaded to the server for the dev team to check out.
2.) If we don't have any major show-stoppers, we will make it available for the testing team the following weekend (August 29th).
3.) If they don't find any show-stoppers, we will make it available to the community the following weekend on Friday (Sept. 4th).
4.) If they don't find any show-stoppers, we will go to public release and give it to the world on Friday (Sept. 11th).

I've asked our team to begin work on a press release so that we can make a splash when we go public.

RevLinuxOS Forums Now Open To The Public!

2009-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Due to the number of requests I've received, the RevLinuxOS forums have just been officially opened to the public (ahead of schedule). All are welcome to join!

Thank you for your overwhelming support!

We Need Your Feeedback!

2009-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is your chance to get involved prior to our public release. We need feedback on the default color scheme (minus wallpapers). The color scheme is primarily golden colors. We need to know the good and the bad.

You can find detailed close-up screenshots here:

http://images.revlinuxos.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=193751

And a slide show of the same images here (bottom of the page):

http://www.revlinuxos.com/

Please provide some comments with your thoughts and feedback.

Thanks!

Release Update:

2009-05-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well, we hit a snag in the timing of our first release. A week ago, fragadelic encountered some serious plumbing problems and had to do repairs for a few days instead of performing development work. The plumbing issues have been resolved, and now we've hit another minor snag!

It was my fault....
I totally forgot to send him some important additions for inclusion in RevLinuxOS.
There wasn't just a few of them either, but a couple of large lists of plugins/extensions for Firefox and Songbird. Of course I haven't exactly been coy about how big the DVD will be due to the sheer amount of goodies that will come preinstalled. We are loading it up!

The delay will likely be a few extra days to install and configure, and test the extra stuff I provided him at the last minute. Then our testing team will check it out and make sure there are no major problems. Once they say it is good to go, we will release to the public. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.

Thank you for your patience!

RevLinuxOS Artwork Is Progessing Well

2009-05-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the RevLinuxOS Artwork Team, the artwork is progressing well. They are producing some very nice and also quite creative artwork.

You can check out the artwork on our website:

However, they could use your help. What colors do you like? Do you like light color themes, dark color themes, etc. What do you prefer?

What artwork would you like to see them create?

We need your feedback!

We're Very Close....

2009-05-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

We're very close to having a DVD ISO image ready for testing.
However, fragadelic had some unexpected plumbing issues last week, so we may be behind schedule a day or two. Please be patient, it really is coming soon!

Please accept our deepest apologies for not opening the forums to the public, but I can assure you we will be opening the forums in the very near future, and it will be worth the wait.

For those that have tried to go to the RevLinuxOS forums, I know some of you are anxious to join, but we're not quite ready for the public yet. I hope everyone can understand that we want you to know what is happening, but there's nothing to see or do in the community forums until we have something substantial to discuss.

If you have any questions or comments, you can post them in this blog or email me.

Thanks, and we'll see you soon!

Recent Decisions & Changes

2009-05-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

After some extra discussions and decision making, we've decided to include multimedia support out of the box. So instead of having users download andl install multimedia codecs, we've decided to include them by default!

Other things of note:

We will not be following the traditional Alpha, Beta, RC release cycle tradition. This is because RevLinuxOS will be based on Debian Lenny, which is as stable as an OS is going to get.

The testing focus will be on the stuff we add to Debian Lenny to take it to the "next level" in user convenience and usefulness.

We currently expect to have a test version available to our testing group next weekend (May 16 or 17).

Once the base distro is tested, we will add any goodies that have not been included yet, then release RevLinuxOS to the public soon after.

Please stay tuned for further updates and announcements!

The Initial Release of RevLinuxOS Is Near!

2009-05-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

The RevLinuxOS development and testing teams have been working very hard lately.
RevLinuxOS 2009 is almost ready for it's first release! Fragadelic deserves much credit for his innovative work on the installer scripts. Please take some time to let him know if you appreciate his work, as it is a thankless job.

I also want to thank Woodsmoke, Gray Wolf, Kmanley57, and sqlpython for their ideas, feedback, and contributions. Special thanks to S3Indiana for his efforts with setting up our new social networking sites, and beginning work on a RevLinuxOS wiki.

After many iterations, our Revolutionary artists have produced most of the default artwork for RevLinuxOS 2009. They've done a fantastic job of producing artwork that fits most tastes. All of that great artwork was produced by Nightshift, Papabearak, and special thanks to Sproggy for his design of the RevLinuxOS Logo. Thank you for a great job!

One missing element in the Linux world is that there's not much out there for women.
That's one thing we hope to rectify over time. we want this distro to be inclusive instead of exclusive, so we can look forward to some nice feminine artwork in the future.

More information to come when we are ready for our first release (Hopefully, in about a week).

What Do You Wish Linux Could Do For You That It Doesn't Do Now?

2009-03-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

I wish Linux came pre-configured for the little things in life so I don't have to fiddle with it.
Don't you?

Like:
* Multimedia to just work out of the box.
* Ability to hook up iPods and other devices and have them work.
* Ability to access Blackberry.
* Have most of the applications that do what you need them to do already installed and configured.
* Be able to use USB, Firewire, and various memory stick devices just by plugging them in.
* Have lots of software available to install at the click of a button.

So my question for you is:
What Do You Wish Linux Could Do For You That It Doesn't Do Now?

The beginning of a journey

2009-03-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is the first blog entry of what I'm sure will be many more to take this new journey together.

First of all I want to thank fragadelic for his invaluable development skills.
He is an amazing talent when it comes to writing scripts. He is a coder among coders, in my opinion and has never really received all of the credit he is due. Fragadelic is the developer behind such projects as Remastersys, Remastersys-LXDE, and Important development work for Vector Linux (especially their innovative installer).

Secondly, I wish to acknowledge sqlpython, whom I consider a good friend. He is a busy developer for his day job, then unselfishly volunteers his spare time to work on innovative projects. I cannot express how much respect I have for his quiet contributions that often many people never know about. Such projects include work with the KDE project team on printer app development, the Klikit Control Center, and so on.

The journey of creating RevLinuxOS is just beginning, so I hope you will stick around and join us on this new journey!

Here's a brief description of what Revolution LinuxOS is all about:

What is RevLinuxOS?

RevLinuxOS is a new Linux distribution dedicated to the user experience.
We want Linux to be fun and easy to use.

RevLinuxOS is:

* Easy to install.
* Easy to use.
* Multimedia, Multimedia, Multimedia!
* Beautiful & Artistic.
* All about the new socially networked generation.

Finally! A Linux distro for regular users who are not geeks and nerds. Most people of the next generation just want their computer to work. They don't want to spend all of their time trying to figure things out. Who has time? Now days, we are too busy with our social networking, cell phones, and jobs (if you have one during these tough times). But tough times usually bring about innovation and change. Right now, everyone seems to be about change, and keeping up with our rapidly changing world. That's why our focus will be on making your life easier, and putting the things that matter most at your fingertips.

The new generation is globally connected via online communities such as: MySpace, Twitter, Craig's List, Chat, texting, cell phones, iPhones, etc. These days, people are always on the go, taking their blackberry's and their laptops everywhere they go. That's why RevLinuxOS will be there with you every step of the way! Change is here, and that change is in the form of a generational revolution. So come join the Linux Revolution! The Generation of Change has arrived, RevLinuxOS is the system for the next generation!

Come, join the Revolution, and get connected!

Here's a list of some of the things I'm thinking about including in RevLinuxOS:

1.) Grub Restore (Put here as a kind of checklist item for you ).

2.) USB pen/thumb drive, etc install option.

3.) Radio button option to install by taking over Drive, Partition, Free Space, automatically resize Windows partition and install.

4.) Detect if Grub is installed and if it is already the current boot loader.
a.) If Grub is already installed and the current boot loader, then don't install Grub, but only add an entry to Grub boot menu list.
b.) If Grub is not installed/current boot loader, then Grub will be installed.
* If this could be done, it would signal that our distro plays well with others, which seems like a novel concept these days.

5.) Option/wizard to install commercial Video drivers for NVIDIA & ATI graphics cards during installation.

6.) All drives (including USB) mounted with read/write permissions for all users at boot time.

7.) Root account enabled and password set during installation.

8.) Ability to create User accounts with passwords & possibly a few levels of permissions that can be assigned to them. All plain Language for the user of course, but basically enable them to have admin access (member or root permissions group), a level below that, and possibly a really low level of user level access.

The idea is to define the permissions in a wizard that puts it in easy language with possibly 3 user permission levels for easy setup during installation.

Applications I'm planning on including:

* Firefox web browser (with many social networking add-ons).
* Thunderbird Email Client (as default mail client).
* Sunbird/Lightning for integrated calendering/contacts For Thunderbird.
* FrostWire (which handles P2P & Bit torrents).
* Oxygen Office (high-powered version of Open Office).
* Songbird (as default music player).
* VLC (as default video player).
* XMMS (for those that just want a playlist).
* Kopete (possibly Pigin, not sure yet).
* Script to install Compiz-Fusion & all of the latest plugins(3D desktop for great eye candy!)
* Google Earth.
* Kompozer (website/Web page editor).
* Adobe Flash.
* Adobe Air (New for Linux!).
* Script to install Shockwave (If I can get it running in Wine).
* Multimedia codecs preinstalled and configured.
* TrueCrypt (for file, partition, and hard drive encryption on the fly).
* Firestarter (Firewall).

I'll add to this list later as ideas come to me.
Please note that this is just a list of ideas.

Here are some screenshots of 3D desktop for your entertainment: