Branding as separate distro vs. add-on to Debian
Hi all,
I'm curious what "derivatives" there are on this list that see themselves
as add-ons to an existing OS/distribution as opposed to an OS on their
own. Specifically, I'm curious about branding, especially with derivatives
that are targeting existing Debian/Ubuntu users.
I work on Debathena, which packages MIT's Project Athena clients as well
as configuration for network logins, integration with MIT's authentication
infrastructure, etc. In several ways we behave like our on OS: we
customize the branding of the login screen and other components on public
workstations, we have a live CD, etc. But we work on top of an existing
Debian or Ubuntu installation with an added repo, as opposed to our own
installer, repo, etc.
More relevantly, we support laptop users and have a standard metapackage
for not configuring networked logins or anything similarly invasive, and
only installing clients and configuring, e.g., krb5.conf. In this case,
they install Debian or Ubuntu first, and then run our install script.
We often see people confused about Debathena as a separate OS, with
comments like "I already installed Ubuntu and I don't want to
triple-boot". I'm curious what distros/projects are targeting people who
_already_ have Debian or some other similar distro installed, and whether
you've run into this issue with marketing and publicity. I generally
picture derivatives at targeting new installs, not existing ones, and I'd
like to hear about derivatives that intend to be installed on existing
ones.
--
Geoffrey Thomas
geofft@mit.edu
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