[CS-FSLUG] A Grand Pipe-dream Proposal

[Ed Hurst]

Brothers and Sisters!

You may be aware that at least one of our list members is a
console-only user. Despite the difficulty, he's been getting along just
fine. However, he is working at a from a power-user position. Is it
possible to create a Linux that fairly ordinary users could adopt that
has no GUI? How about just an advanced framebuffer?

There are some important applications missing, primarily a console word
processor. How often have I heard that lamented in my 8 years using
Linux/BSD? How did we get short-changed on that? Some applications
claiming to be for the console are actually for Xterm and friends, and
won't work properly without X.

This is not about a hostility toward X, just a desire to provide a
console version that works consistently. You can call it a new distro
if you like, but the aim is take what's available, modify it and add
some things missing until we get a genuine user distro for the console.

As a motive, consider all the Christian users around the world who
can't afford the latest and greatest hardware, but use 486s and such.
Are they doomed to a world of DOS/Windoze, or the current massive
learning curve to catch up with our power users? How about a distro
that will embrace the 3rd world! :-)

Enough hype and sales talk. If anyone is interested in working on this,
our greatest shortfall right now is genunine coders to add the missing
apps, and someone with enough skill to remaster something like Knoppix
for the console. It would be really great if someone could help us
construct a "TUI" -- text user interface. I'm certain there are lots of
projects just a step or two away from what we need.

If nothing else, pray for me. I'm willing to raise money for hosting so
this project has a chance. If this thing dies at the starting gate, I'm
willing to wear the egg on my face. I'll play the front man plus write
the documentation.


Ed Hurst
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Linux & Unix Help -- http://ed.asisaid.com/
Blog -- http://ed.asisaid.com/blog/