BOINCOS - Looking For Community Feedback

Hi all, In the following post I'll be outlining some ideas I had about the BOINCOS project, specifically the different distributions of it I intend to derive from it that are tuned to various use-cases in addition to upcoming development ideas. This post was prompted by the web development being initiated as I wanted to ensure clarity of what this project will branch into so that it can be added to the site.

So I'm asking for community feedback for any features you would like to see in this project/OS.

Application Specific Distributions

Ever since this project started, I wanted to build three different branching distributions for various use-cases, now I'm calling them Minimal, Standard and Full Package variants.

(all icons were made by me)

Minimal:

As the name says it, its the most lightweight variant. I intend for this to run on a 4GB USB with a gigabyte to spare and to reach these limits, we have to strip the graphical interface. The user will interact solely with a command line interface (CLI) and interact with BOINC similarly (via boinctui).

The obvious caveat to this approach is the lack of user-friendliness which can be mildly overcome with the addition of some help programs and documentation, but even then, an average user would not feel at home with this type of interface. That's why this variant is targeted at advanced users who are comfortable navigating a CLI and managing their system purely through textual components.

Standard:

This is the currently released variant and the one currently actively developed upon. It is a simplistic system with only what the user needs to crunch projects and monitor progress. It contains a standard and minimal graphical user interface (GUI) made simpler with the addition of the (to be built) BOINCOS-Helper software.

This variant is expected to fit on at least an 8GB USB and targets all audiences, providing a fast-as-possible setup to start crunching for BOINC.

Full Package:

I haven't particularly fleshed out this idea but from what I have so far, it is essentially a complete, fully functional and graphical operating system with its selling point being that it comes pre-installed with BOINC and the Gridcoin wallet.

There is no expected size limit I want to place on this however I would definitely recommend this variant be run on an actual hard drive or a large and fast flash drive.

Finally, considering size limitations, there may have to be an installer of some sort developed for this variant to be distributed effectively.

BOINCOS-Helper

This program has been apart of the initial idea for the project ever since the beginning. It is the basic interface between the user and BOINCOS and provides access to the bare minimum the user needs to feel at home with the system. The following is part of some internal documentation which shows the intended design of the BOINCOS-Helper software:

As you can see from the diagram, this single software solution harbours all the necessary components of the OS that allows it to be usable.

The main screen contains links to the essential programs bundled with the system and additional navigation to the inbuilt settings window.

The settings window contains themes and backgrounds as well as localisations and further preferences (which will lead to appearance and display settings).

Other Announcements

The main thing, as I shared in the introduction, was the fact that development on the BOINCOS website has commenced. The main site looks have been laid out and my web developer is just waiting on me to formulate some info-graphics and other things to go on there.

You can find the developer of the site, Benjamin Collings, on the contributors list.

Here is what we have so far (Mind some outdated info):

In other news, the next update to the alpha will include security implementations and package updates (especially in light of recent events). Following this update I expect to release the first beta after appearance and functionality improvements.

Finally I'm also considering making a proper logo for the project so I'll definitely be putting some thought into that.

Conclusion

So what do you think? Do you like where it's going? Do you think something could be better? Do you want to see something specific be added?

Post a comment here or contact me personally via [email protected] if you wish to discuss possible improvements.

Once again, thanks for reading!