1. Install ubuntu. You'll need to be running in ubuntu while you create the distro.
2. Make a list of all essential programs you need. I chose The GIMP, Gaim, VLC media player etc to make the distro complete.
3. We now need a program to do our work. We chose Reconstructor
4. Fire up Reconstructor with "sudo python reconstructor.py" in your Linux terminal, and you'll be told which dependencies you need to install before you run Reconstructor.
5. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package manager > settings > Respositories to make sure the Universe and Multiverse repositories are selected. Open a terminal and run "sudo apt-get install squashfs-tools gcc rsync libbogl-dev libus-plash-dev gpg dpkg-dev fakeroot apt-utlis" in the terminal window. You need to be online for this to work.
6. After downloading the dependencies, start Reconstructor again and you'll be greeted by a welcome screen.
7. In the new screen, select the "Create Remaster", "Create Root", and "Create Initial Ramdisk" options.
8. The last option in the window asks for the location of the main Ubuntu ISO file, which will be used to replicate the directory structure. Click the "..." button next to Live CD ISO Filename option, and navigate to where the Ubuntu ISO file is located; then click next.
9. The screen is divided into different tabs, the first being "Boot screens". This is where you change the first screen that is shown and also the image shown after you select boot options. To select the image, click on "Generate" button. Select the image and choose where to save it. Reconstructor will copy it to the correct directories, automatically giving you the custom screens.
10. The "Gnome" tab allows you to change the default login screen, theme, and fonts of the Ubuntu software after it's installed. You can either select one of the default themes, or click "..." button next to the theme selection option and import a custom theme.
11. The "Apt" tab allows you to select the repositories you want available during the live CD customisation phase. What impressed me most was that based on the version of Ubuntu you're using as a base, Reconstructor automatically chooses the corresponding repositories.
12. The next tab- "Live CD"- you can set the default username, password and hostname of the computer.
13. Once done, move over to the next tabcalled "Modules"- the soul of the program. Towards the bottom half of the screen, you'll find options to install or remove custom programs from the list above. Here you can add any program especially the essentials i mentioned in the second step.
Once you have all the modules and customisation in place, click on Apply button to go ahead and compile your very own linux distro.
NeroLINUX provides LINUX users with the essential tools to effectively perform optical recording tasks. The application supports burning data and disc images to CDs/DVDs (ISO9660, UDF and UDF/ISO9660 Bridge), Bootable CDs/DVDs, Audio CDs with CD text, Mixed Mode CDs, CD-EXTRA, Multisession CD/DVDs and Double Layer DVDs. It is provided as a standard Linux package in RPM or DEB.
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (a.k.a. etch) was released April 8th, 2007. The release included many major changes.The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system that we have created is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. At the core of an operating system is the kernel. The kernel is the most fundamental program on the computer and does all the basic housekeeping and lets you start other programs. Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide.
The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed "etch", after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB.
Using a now fully integrated installation process, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 comes with out-of-the-box support for encrypted partitions. This release introduces a newly developed graphical frontend to the installation system supporting scripts using composed characters and complex languages; the installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been translated to 58 languages.
Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi', with a more complete feature set.
Vim is useful whether you're already using vi or using a different editor. Users of Vim 5 should consider upgrading to Vim 6, which is greatly enhanced since Vim 5.
Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems.
Vim is often called a "programmer's editor," and so useful for programming that many consider it an entire IDE. It's not just for programmers, though. Vim is perfect for all kinds of text editing, from composing email to editing configuration files.
Download Vim
"One thing is for sure, kids in some of the poorest areas of the world will start getting exposed not only to computing but to Linux computing from the end of this year. We wonder what Intel chairman Chris Barret will make of the “$100 gadget” once it hits the intended under-resourced educational market? Or what Bill Gates, he of the high education for all aspirations, will have to say about the design once it proves workable, and without Windows, after all?"
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