In an effort to properly document the process of creating a new Operating System / Linux Distribution, I have decided to publish a once-weekly (every Friday) Status Report for "The Lunduke Computer Operating System."
By doing this one per week, I am not flooding everyone with updates every single time some little thing gets tweaked or changed -- while still keeping folks in the loop and up to date. Plus it makes it easy to chronicle how the development progresses. You know. For posterity.
I present to you, the first "Lunduke Computer Operating System Status", for June 21st, 2024.
Name & Branding
A name has been settled on! A number of different name ideas were investigated, but none of them quite worked (many were already trademarked in the computer industry, and we didn't want to pull a Firefox).
"The Lunduke Computer Operating System" was ultimately chosen for a few key reasons:
- It has a nice "Old-school Engineering" feel to it. Which fits in with the design goals.
- The name wasn't taken.
- I like puting my name on things. And I can. So I did.
To go along with the name selection, a preliminary logo has been designed.
While the logo is certain to undergo some revisions in the weeks ahead, this will serve quite nicely as the project gets underway.
The GitLab Project
The project will be using GitLab for hosting a large portion of the infrastructure:
- Source code repository
- Project Wiki (documentation)
- Bug, issue, & task tracking
This has only been setup in the last day, with quite a lot of organizational work still to be done. But this is where the project tracking, documentation, and source will live.
The Philosophy & Code of Ethics
The first two pages added to the official wiki deal with the overall project philosophy... and the Code of Ethics.
The project philosophy page contains some of the key tenets to be considered as development moves forward. This page will need some additional details as time goes on, but will do the job for the time being.
I am quite pleased with the Code of Ethics and consider that document "complete". This is a topic I've had a lot of time to consider, and we are learning from the mistakes of oh-so-many other projects.
New Lunduke.com
Lunduke.com has been redesigned. It is now a simple landing page which provides key links to both The Lunduke Journal and The Lunduke Computer Operating System. Additional links can be added as needed.
The Week Ahead
While there is, obviously, a tremendous amount of work to be done... here is what my priorities are, for The Lunduke Computer Operating System, over the next week.
- Setup the official forum. (We have a Discord chat server, but we need a forum.)
- Check-in the first, very early revision of the build script.
- Begin documenting how to setup a build and dev environment.
- Begin onboarding the first contributor(s). A couple at a time as we work out the kinks.
In essense: Bring up things to a state where we can have the first official contributors setup... and be a real project. With real downloads.
Looking to Contribute?
After next week, the opportunities for contributing to the project begin to open up significantly. The following skills will prove to be very valuable:
- BASH Scripting
- Debian style repository and package building
- AppImage ISO building
- Gambas
- Documentation Writing & Editing (Wiki, Markdown)
- GTK & XFCE Theme Development
- Graphic Design (Bitmap)
- Sound Effect Design, Music, & Foley
- Testing
If you have skills in any of those areas... you'll have a chance to get involved.
