Good news everybody!
We're finially recovering from all the excitement and lack of sleep that was [url=http://hopenumbernine.net]HOPE[/url]. So we know this announcment is a little late, since we already did this on stage on Saturday, but better late than never.
The whole team, as well as our very dedicated supporters, is proud to officially announce the [url=http://project-byzantium.org/announcing-the-release-of-byzantium-linux-v... release of Byzantium Linux V0.2a[/url]. You can find the download links on our website ([url=http://project-byzantium.org]http://project-byzantium.org[/url]) as well as on several popular torrent trackers. We also have a few of the printed CDs left over (and more on the way) which are available upon request.
We have code-named this release "Bath Salts" as a reference to the drug which was originally reported to be responsible for several zombie-like cannibal attacks.
Please help us distribute this release announcment far and wide. The official text is included below.
Thank you all,
Ben the Pyrate
==
ANNOUNCING BYZANTIUM LINUX V0.2a (Bath Salts)
Approved for: GENERAL RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED
Project Byzantium, a working group of HacDC (http://hacdc.org/) is proud to announce the release of v0.2 alpha of Byzantium Linux, a live distribution of Linux which makes it fast and easy to construct an ad-hoc wireless mesh network which can augment or replace the current telecommunications infrastructure in the event that it is knocked offline (for example, due to a natural disaster) or rendered untrustworthy (through widespread surveillance or disconnection by hostile entities). Byzantium Linux is designed to run on any x86 computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface. Byzantium can be burned to a CD- or DVD-ROM (the .iso image is around 460 megabytes in size), booted from an external hard drive, or can even be installed in parallel with an existing operating system without risk to the user's data and software. Byzantium Linux will act as a node of the mesh and will automatically connect to other mesh nodes and act as an access point for wifi-enabled mobile devices.
THIS IS AN ALPHA RELEASE! Do NOT expect Byzantium to be perfect. Some features are not ready yet, others need work. Things are going to break in weird ways and we need to know what those ways are so we can fix them. Please, for the love of LOLcats, do not deploy Byzantium in situations where lives are at stake.
FEATURES:
- - Binary compatible with Slackware-CURRENT. Existing Slackware packages can be converted with a single command.
- - Can act as a gateway to the Internet if a link is available (via Ethernet or tethered smartphone).
- - Linux kernel v3.1.8
- - Drivers for dozens of wireless chipsets
- - KDE Trinity v3.5.12
- - LXDE (2010 release of all components)
- - Mplayer
- - GCC v4.5.2
- - Perl v5.12.3
- - Python v2.6.6
- - Firefox v4.0.1
- - X.org
- - Custom web-based control panel
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (to use)
- - Minimum of 1GB of RAM (512MB without copy2ram boot option)
- - i586 CPU or better
- - CD- or DVD-ROM drive
- - BIOS must boot removable media
- - At least one (1) 802.11 a/b/g/n interface
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (for persistent changes)
- - The above requirements to use Byzantium
- - 2+GB of free space on thumbdrive or harddrive
WHAT WE NEED:
- - Developers.
- - Developers!
- - DEVELOPERS!
- - No more Bill Ballmer impersonations.
- - People running Byzantium to find bugs.
- - People reporting bugs on our Github page (https://github.com/Byzantium/Byzantium/issues). We can't fix what we don't know about!
- - Patches.
- - People booting Byzantium and setting up small meshes (2-5 clients) to tell us how well it works for you with your hardware. We have a hardware compatibility list on our wiki that needs to be expanded.
- - Help translating the user interface. We especially need people fluent in dialects of Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu.
- - Help us write and translate documentation.
Homepage: [url=http://project-byzantium.org/]http://project-byzantium.org/[/url]
Download sites: [url=http://project-byzantium.org/download/]http://project-byzantium.org/down...
This announcement is published under a Creative Commons By Attribution / Noncommercial / Share Alike v3.0 License. ([url=http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/]http://creativecommons...)
Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.
Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
Thu, 2012-07-19 10:51
#1
Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
Thu, 2012-07-19 19:50
#2
Re: Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
@-rep++
—
[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/titan_userbar.jpg[/img]
[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/pro_userbar.jpg[/img]
The Computer wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by death.
Thu, 2012-07-19 20:44
#3
Re: Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
CONGRATULATIONS, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND ALL THE BEST!
No, I'm not ironic, I really applaud the idea, effort and the product (actually I don't know how stable it is but I sure you will iron it up). I'm doing my viral vector part so this should bring more people...
—
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
Fri, 2012-07-20 10:18
#4
Re: Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
Thank you very much!
Byzantium Linux is stable enough that we test it by deploying guerilla wireless networks in public. Our users to date have been quite pleased ($27us/day for wi-fi in 2012? Come on...), and in fact the mesh network we built at HOPE resulted in a slew of new patches and not a few bug reports.
—
[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/info_userbar.jpg[/img]
[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/argo_userbar.jpg[/img]
[url=https://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/blankbadge.png][img]http://drwho.vir...
Fri, 2012-07-20 18:00
#5
Re: Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
Dude, you and your project just got [url=http://boingboing.net/2012/07/20/byzantium-a-bootable-linux-wi.html]name... by Cory Doctorow[/url]! High five!!!
Seriously though, the project is maturing nicely. I still say that more encryption and protection software should be built into the live implementation, like Tor. At least as an option that can be selected during login. Still, with it being based on Linux, those aren't hard to implement on one's own.
That said, what I'm seeing now has me absolutely excited about what this project will look like upon maturity. It might even be something you'd want to pair to a hardware platform. Imagine a small cheap device, like the Raspberry Pi or even Ouya, that acts like a mesh hub as soon as it is plugged into an outlet and boots up. It could be the start of an ever-active internet infrastructure. And it would be an awesome excuse for you to make a Kickstarter.
I'm just saying….
—
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age.
[url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
Sat, 2012-07-21 11:06
#6
Re: Byzantium Linux v0.2a (Bath Salts) released!
o/
We are working on it. We want to build a solid foundation that can be built upon, and that means getting the control panel re-engineered, replacing the proof-of-concept apps with a more solid solution, and doing another security audit. Things on our roadmap are opportunistic IPsec, gatewaying over Tor and VPNs, and full clustering of user-side applications.
We talk about that from time to time on IRC and our mailing list. One of the developers is looking at a port to the ARM architecture, but we do not yet have much in the way of ARM hardware to experiment on. As for a PC-like hardware platform we are partnered with Commotion Wireless, the Free Network Foundation, and the Freedombox project, and are collaborating on interoperability modes. We are halfway done with Commotion interoperability due to our participation in the Mount Pleasant Community Wireless project of Washington, DC.
If you would like to join the mailing list (if anyone reading this does, for that matter), you are welcome to do so.
—
[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/info_userbar.jpg[/img]
[img]http://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/argo_userbar.jpg[/img]
[url=https://drwho.virtadpt.net/graphics/blankbadge.png][img]http://drwho.vir...