gEDA-user: gEDA Suite and easy-to-use installer on CD

[sdb@cloud9.net (Stuart Brorson)]

Hello gEDA users --

Announcing the gEDA CD distribution!  This is a collection of gEDA
tools bundled together on a CD with an Install Wizard which automates
the installation process under Linux.  If you're a hardware engineer
who just wants an "insert CD and install" method to start using the
powerful tools in the gEDA suite, this is it!  The CD distribution is
perfect for professional and business users of the gEDA suite!  More
detail about the CD is presented below.

I will send a free CD to the first five people who send me an email
requesting a copy.  Please e-mail me at sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net, and
let me know your street or delivery address.  Sorry, but if you live
outside of the USA I can't send you a free CD.  [1]  When I get five
responses I will post to the geda-users list a message saying that I
cannot accept more orders.  [2]

In exchange for a free CD, you must agree to test the installation on
your machine *and* provide me with a test report (i.e. your
distribution, GTK version, a logfile of the installation, whether the
installation was successful or not, and how it suceeded/failed).  This
report will be beneficial to the entire gEDA community because it will
help me iron out wrinkles in the installer, which will in turn enable
more people to use this wonderful tool suite!     

Please direct all questions to me.  Thanks for trying out the gEDA CD! 

Stuart
sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net

[1]  If you ask nicely, I can find out how much shipping costs to your
country & will ship you a CD if you pre-pay my shipping and customs
costs. 

[2]  This assumes I get any responses at all . . . . . .   :-)

==================================================================
---------  Announcing the gEDA Suite on CD for Linux  ------------
Announcing a CD distribution holding your favorite components of
the gEDA suite, including: 

*  gEDA/gaf
*  ngspice
*  PCB
*  gerbv
*  Icarus Verilog
*  GTKWave

This distribution comes bundled with a GUI-based, self-contained,
user-friendly installer which automates the installation process.  It
checks your system configuration, and installs various system
utilities required by the gEDA Suite (e.g. guile, readline,
pkg-config).   The CD makes gEDA installation as easy as running the
"Install Wizard" in Windows.  

--------  A gEDA distribution for the working engineer  --------
The target audience for gEDA CD is professional hardware engineers who
use Linux, and want to run the gEDA suite, but don't have the time,
skills, or inclination to resolve the dependency problems sometimes
associated with installing large software packages on Linux.  

If you have a Linux box, and just want to do hardware design, then this
CD is for you [1]!  If you're a teacher or professor who needs a
license-hassle-free electronics design and simulation suite for your
students, this is it!  If you are a company which gives away -- or
wants to give away -- gEDA software to your prospective customers as a
way to get their business, then this CD is ideally suited to meet your
needs [2]!  

--------  Supported Platforms and System Requirements  ------------
The install CD has been tested and verified on the following
platforms:

* Fedora Core 1
* Red Hat 9
* SuSE 9.0
* Debian Unstable (recent version)

The installer will fail on these platforms:

* Red Hat 8 and below (binary incompatability in glibc)
* Any distribution with glibc-2.XX

System requirements for installer to run successfully:

*  gcc
*  glibc-2.3.2 or above
*  make
*  GTK+-2.2 or above

Note:  If the installer fails, you still have the ability to install
the gEDA Suite manuallly since the source tarballs are included on the
CD. 

-----------------------  How It Works  ------------------------
The gEDA CD comes with source tarballs of the various components.  
When you start the CD (usually by inserting it into your CDROM
reader), a friendly GUI starts up with guides you through the install
process, while controlling the installation of packages behind the
scenes.  The installer first checks out your system and installs any
required system pacakges (prompts for root password).  Next it asks
for your preferred source and install directories.  Then, it untars
each source tarball and & does "./configure && make && make install"
for all the packages in the gEDA Suite.  This way, the "configure"
system expertly handles the difficult part of handling dependencies
while building your gEDA distribution. 

The installer is designed to fail gracefully if a problem is
encountered, and a log window shows the user what is going on at all
times.  If desired, the user can also create a logfile of all system
messages generated during the installation process.  

-------------------------  Licensing  -------------------------
All components of the gEDA Suite are licensed under an OSI-approved
license (GPL or BSD).  

The installer is also licensed under the GPL.  However, if you are a
commercial organization who wants to redistribute the CD to your
customers, I encourage you to contact me and arrange to receive
"branded" CDs with a nice label rather than just copying the CD
verbatim.  Contact: Stuart Brorson -- sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net.

-------------------------  Footnotes  -------------------------
[1]  On the other hand, if you would rather spend your time
customizing and recompiling your kernel, or upgrading your box to
the latest, bleeding-edge "development" versions of gcc and glibc
checked out of CVS, then this gEDA CD is probably uninteresting
for you.  Please carry on with your normal work life.   :-)

[2]  Please contact me for more information about "branded"
professional copies of the gEDA Suite CD.  Contact: Stuart Brorson
-- sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net.