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Teenager Develops User Friendly GNU Linux OS|
- By Julia Fernandes, May 20, 2005 1350 hrs IST
- Tags : linux OS
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Obstacles such as financial constraints, very minimum PC resources, did not in any way deter the grit of Kerala-based, 15-year old Sarath Lakshman from developing SLYNUX- a highly user-friendly GNU/Linux operating system designed for beginners. A completely self-taught person, who has never stepped into a computer-learning institute in his lifetime, his tale is one of guts and more guts.
Speaking to CXOtoday, Lakshman recollected, "I had first heard about GNU/Linux when I was a computer (Windows user) from standard eight. However, I was advised by tech-savvy people that only experts could use it. This inspired me to collect a Linux distro. I collected Redhat 9.0- the only Linux distro known and available in my locality and installed it in my system (128MB Ram and Celeron 1Ghz processor).
"That was my first brush with Linux; its basic features impressed me though the OS was not user friendly as I could not understand the program names, commands since I was a fresher to Linux. This paved the seed of a user friendly Linux in my mind," added Lakshman.
The main feature of this operating system is that, any person who is familiar with Microsoft Windows OS can handle this operating system very easily. The desktop of this operating system is arranged so as to make it friendly to the user. It comes with a wide range of application programs, which are pre-installed. It can be run completely from CD without installation with options of installing a hard disk.
Speaking further he said, "I have written many shell scripts, though I have not counted the same. I have done little C++ compilations and codings too with some kernel modifications too. (The base of every GNU/Linux is shell scripts)."
SLYNUX is a live Linux distribution, which includes content of about 2GB made available by using transparent compression. This is a debian based GNU/Linux developed from Knoppix (credit of most features of this Distro goes to knoppix). 256 MB Ram is recommended to run SLYNUX Live CD for good performance.
Describing the challenges he faced, Lakshman stated, "The first problem I faced was lack of Internet facility. I currently use a BSNL dial up connection with about 44 Kbps speed since I cannot afford a broadband connection. Because of this, I could use the Web only for browsing purposes. All resources related to GNU/Linux are available for download, especially source codes, which were of huge sizes (around 20MB, 50MB, 600MB etc)."
The second problem was lack of help. "At the place, which I reside there are no Linux users until now. But in places like Ernakulum and Trivandrum, in Kerala, Linux is gaining momentum. I later met an IT consultant at the Kerala legislative assembly who helped me a lot by giving me some GNU/Linux distros, (especially knoppix 3.6.)," said Lakshman.
Describing his struggle further he said, "Thirdly, the PC (Intel Celeron 1Gnz, 810E motherboard), I currently use is unfit for development activities and many Linux distros cannot support my configuration for graphics. This resulted in long hours for cloop compression (a process in SLYNUX development, which used to take about 2 hours for compression every time. A good configuration system would have take me only about 8 to 10 minutes."
Lakshman rues the fact that he does not even posses a Web space for hosting his site. He has currently hosted it in a free domain.
He insists that SLYNUX is especially for newbies of Linux. "Using SLYNUX every Windows user can migrate to the GNU/Linux. Meanwhile, SLYNUX 1.1, 2.0 can also be used by enterprise users as I plan to shortly release SLYNUX 3.0 with kernel 2.6.8.1 and other Apache server tools, MySQL etc. (MySQL is already there with SLYNUX.)," stated Lakshman.
A science and technology enthusiast from the age of 10, Lakshman has just appeared for the SSLC (Kerala state syllabus) public examination and waiting for the results. His other achievements include developing an e-periodic table with basic knowledge of Visual Basic programming when he was studying in the ninth grade. The Executive Director, IT@School, Thiruvananthapuram demanded the copy right of the software to include it in the X standard resource CD to supply to all High schools in Kerala.
Speaking about the road ahead, he has no clue about how to go about marketing his product, though he hopes to be approached by genuine companies who would be interested in marketing his product, although in the same breath he states he does not have a profit motive, (he follows the philosophy of free software).
While it is indisputable, that India does possess the talent, brains, and the determination, efforts such as these often go unnoticed due to lack of a strategic marketing plan and direction. Meanwhile, any takers for SLYNUX?
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Discussion Board
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by Linux User on Aug 11, 2005 09:12 AMHere is a first hand info. I did talk to this kid twice. He has no clue on what creating a distro is about. He just could not give me an Technical details about his distro. When I probed him too much he said he said I need to go now and disconnected. Having used linux for 8 years now, I know what basic info is needed to create a distro. After my two conversations with him Iam fully convinced he is creating a ''sympathy wave'' with his ''age factor'' and fool people of 250 Rs. Pls be aware
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by Alexey on Jul 27, 2005 10:35 PMBest luck to this kid with everything. I am coming from a 3d world country myself and still remember browsing the web in text due to the lack of bandwith and time of internet access, learning English via IRC, lacking the western culture influence on the FSU area... Very touching.. Now everything changed obviously... But the lack of opportunity for smart kids in shitholes like India, Russia, Kazahstan etc. is really sad. Very touching. To get the opportunities western folks have you need to be really smart. I hope this kid will get everything he wants! Good luck with in his professional life and everything, don't lose the drive man! You rock!
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by too much on Jul 03, 2005 04:38 AM
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by just another gu on Jun 27, 2005 09:49 PMwhy do i see so many pro-OSS guys bashing this 15 yr old? u guys have to realise that this 15 yr old has dabbled with an OS that a very few people even know of in india. in a way he has done something to spread the word of GNU/linux and encourage its use in a place where operating system largely means Windows. now a few more guys will know what GNU/linux is, how its different from windows and what r its capabilities. the OSS guys want people to ditch windows and other proprietary software, but how can they if they restrict want its use to power users. if the so called n00bs wont try GNU/linux, then its going nowhere. i come from kerala and i know what the conceptions of a majority of people there are about computers and operating systems. most dont even know the existance or the concept of open source. but because of this 15 yr old dude, some more people may get interested in such matters. when the achievement of this guy was shown on a channel (kairali TV), the response was passive, people were like "huh?" "whats the deal?" coz they dont know a damn about GNU/Linux. so this guy should be encouraged coz he has done something that few people if his land would do.
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by Grant brenstte on Jun 24, 2005 12:05 PMOh Man. This kid is good at techie things. But I really donno whether I can call him a genius or a wiz kid, coz I dint have a look at the product, which he claims to be a user friendly OS just like windows on Linux base. Any how we have to appreciate the immense talent and his urge to do things. I personally know his place and the sorroundings and never thought about a person from that area to come on lime light. His work really deserve applause and encouragement.
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by NobodyXX on Jun 15, 2005 10:46 PMThis is a good notice. If even 15 years old guys can do a distro it is a good sign to linux. Some people is saying that is not good, only because is a remastered Knoppix, but are they really reading the enterview? He have no resources, no teacher, no financial support and only the info throw the internet. I think this IS a real work to do that with this limitations and being so young. Good work boy!!!
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by Disgusted_of_Sl on Jun 12, 2005 08:08 PMThis story has produced so many links at so many locations. The age of the person has created so much publicity. Nowadays journalists dont verify the veracity of anything. Slynux is a publicity stunt by somebody other than the boy. He is just a frontend on somebodies behalf. There is so much noise generated in the Linux and OSS world, this is another such noise. Instead of generating Yet another Distro, people should think of contributing to improve applications.
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by Vishal Kashyap on Jun 07, 2005 02:12 AM
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by some_dude on Jun 03, 2005 10:08 AMDon't bother giving this site hits. There doesn't appear to be anything new about it. All he has done is taken a bunch of OS apps (available in pretty much any distro) and put his name and "slynux" images on them. There is nothing on the page that would indicate that it is any better than any other distro out there - the best he does is cite "features" that are available in pretty much any contemporary distro (FAT32 support? come on). It's not even GPL like he says it is - there is no source. The base of a GNU/Linux system is not scripts. This is yet another example of how people really don't understand how open source works. The FOSS landscape is already lush with projects. Instead of wasting duplicative efforts on things like this (replacing the login image in gaim deserves no recognition) just leave a fragmented landscape with a lot of unproductivity. Rather than making (yet another) distro or stealing someone else's app, we should be improving the ones that are already there. We don't need a distro just for recording live music. We need a good, solid, app that can work well with an optimized system for things like disk bandwidth and high fidelity recording (those are the two major issues, right?) Once that app exists, you can run it on any number of distros! As a matter of fact, I am sure there must already some very good apps reaching maturity as we publish this. For music recording... for anything. We don't need a distro for word processing, a distro for internet, a distro for image processing, a distro for playing music. We need to build into the distros we have with the talents we were otherwise wasting and build up the apps that are weak in our opinions. That's the power of open source... you can help build something great... not just rip something off from someone else that has already done something great. It's A community, not 12 communities.
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by mike list on Jun 03, 2005 03:07 AM
keeping in mind that this is a very intelligent but not necessarily computer savvy, it's a job well done, if for no other reason than to show that it is relatively trivial to modify Linux, and in the case of a use-specific distribution (I need or will work out a live music recording distro, thanks to the encouragement of this young man) to work out the best apps to use and how to get certain hardware privileges without making users too rooty. -
by Alexander Nedo on Jun 02, 2005 11:03 PM
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by nlp on Jun 02, 2005 09:36 PMCongratulations, Sarath! This is what Free Software is all about -- the ability to learn and build on someone else's work to meet your own needs and those of others, and share the results, so we ALL benefit! I'm personally unlikely to use your distro, as I prefer the Gnome desktop and it sounds like yours is Knoppix-based, but all improvements are appreciated. If you've made some good changes, be sure to honour the letter and spirit of the GPL by providing the sources for your code to those who ask, and contributing your ideas and code to the upstream projects (Knoppix, KDE, GNU, etc.) Ignore the naysayers, and keep up the good work!
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by lloyd on Jun 02, 2005 08:00 PM
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by Karl on May 29, 2005 01:54 AMYou should be proud of your work. Anyone that can learn to make a distro by himself should be praised by the linux comunity. Way to go..... Even if you use another distro or think this disro is not the best you must still give this develper credit for his hard work. Think of the computer he is useing. Limited system and still he works for his own distro. This is amazing....
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by Dmitriy aka SDV on May 24, 2005 10:38 PM
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by priti on May 24, 2005 12:48 PM
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by Walt Fles on May 23, 2005 08:33 PM
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by Dr. Love on May 23, 2005 08:23 PMThis looks a lot like a modified version of Knoppix, I am not sure how this will really work in the real world. I know that I have looked at about 30 to 40 different distros from Red Hat to Puppy Linux and just about every thing in between and the closest I have ever seen to a windows OS is Xandros 2.5. It is not free but it does come with a built in Crossover by Code Weaver that works great and networking with windows systems is as easy as working in windows itself. If you want a true win2k look-a-like, try Xandros 2.5
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by Dr. Love on May 23, 2005 08:22 PMThis looks a lot like a modified version of Knoppix, I am not sure how this will really work in the real world. I know that I have looked at about 30 to 40 different distros from Red Hat to Puppy Linux and just about every thing in between and the closest I have ever seen to a windows OS is Xandros 2.5. It is not free but it does come with a built in Crossover by Code Weaver that works great and networking with windows systems is as easy as working in windows itself. If you want a true win2k look-a-like, try Xandros 2.5
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by Ram Murthy. N on May 23, 2005 03:42 PM
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by Indiaman_Linuxm on May 23, 2005 08:34 AMThat is all he did ... renamed some programs in Knoppix. Should be put in jail. It is jerkos like this that give India a bad name. Add him to the list of the people who claimed that they made petrol from water, to the ones who falsified information that they got recruited by NASA .... These people would go to any extent to get into the limelight. What a shame!
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by urban on May 23, 2005 04:47 AMit has been confirmed that this "distro" of linux is in fact knoppix with renamed scripts, pictures, and things of the like. if someone wants real "genius", i'll make about twenty of my own "distrobutions" in the same manner in about 20 minutes. if any actual work was done, this kid should be honored. no real work was done, and if not for GNU, a lawsuit would probably have been the next course of action.
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by Theodis Butler on May 23, 2005 01:48 AMI would try it. And if I liked it, I would recommend all my clients use it as opposed to Windows. That way I don't have service calls every week because so-and-so's computer is infected with spyware, viruses, etc. I think highly of the young man who lives in a country oversees to support GNU/Linux. The very people that holller, "Open source," and yadda yadda yadda are posting negative comments about someone who is supporting open source. Change the number 15 to 35 and re-read the story.
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by LNXH8TR on May 22, 2005 11:30 PMOh great, just what we need, another distro. Especially one made by a 15 year old. Linux isn't that hard to use, especially when you are using KDE. The problem is getting hardware to work, and having to install software from source. Until these major problems are fixed, Linux will never make it on the desktop. When will you zealots finally realize that?
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by Tony Pikus on May 22, 2005 01:55 PMGood on this guy, reading some of the earlier posts it appears some readers haven`t grasped where Linux is going - and thats onto the desktop of people who don`t care to know how things work - like me. I use Linux for what it gives me - a browser, email, streaming music, processing pics off my camera, spreadsheets and word processors. ( And thats how M$ is playing it too ) This guy is looking at the overall picture and not trying to stand out with a clever version for the nerds. Need proof - how many off you can drive a car - and how many of you can strip down and rebore the motor - not many I bet - but hey. your all still driving and consider yourself capable....
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by Frinkiac7 on May 22, 2005 10:06 PM
I consider it important to have at least a basic knowledge of how a car works, and to be able to perform routine maintenance myself. Change the oil, tires, filters, check and replenish needed fluids, etc. This gives me a much better understanding of my car and I dont panic when the light comes on or I have to drive another vehicle and the turn signal lever isnt exactly in the same location. The exact same principle applies to using an OS. The more you know about it, the more effectively you can use it. -
by Khan Md Ashraf on May 22, 2005 08:59 PMSure ! Becasue it is done by somebody who would otherwise have been laughed outta of any office he stepped in. Because I am an Indian and would like to help promote another Indian who has the guts to use GNU/Linux and get this far. Most Indians including the government does not have the guts to jettison proprietary software. I am sure there is more to this than meets the eye. I run a GNU/Linux service outfit in Chennai and am willing to help the young man as best as I can. One misconception I must allay is that I do not believe in the concept of marketing GNU/Linux. It needs no marketing since it is there for anybody to take and do as they please, just as our young friend has. If you want to make money with it then you have to service with GNU/Linux. I do that and I make money I can assure you. I don't sell no GNU/Linux product. I do not modify anything. I just use it and provide services such as installation, configuration and support. Charging reasonable sums for the same. My clients are extremely happy because they do not have to pay astronomical sums for software that is unreliable and comes with support that cannot be relied upon. My USP is providing a level of service that is as reliable as GNU/Linux. I have GNU/Linux servers running file and database that have been running non-stop for the better part of three years with nary a problem. GNU/Linux is truly a brave GNU world.
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by Concerned on May 22, 2005 02:34 PMThis is a joke right? No offense, but I see nothing "genius" about this at all. See DistroWatch distro listings for all other distro "geniuses" out there. Seriously, where's the code anyway? All I'm seeing is some screenshots of a lightly modified Linux desktop and a BUY IT NOW button. Where's the code? This is GPL software... where's the code? huh?
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by Frostystorm on May 22, 2005 09:14 AMI dont think i would try it (im into my hardcore linux distros, i learned to use myself, Bash debian all the way!!!!!, who needs a GUI), it is a step in bringing linux into the desktop world for more people, meaning a step away from the mega giant microsoft, what really needs to happen to make linux more friendly is a more resourceful way of using hardware that is making it more or less support something closer to windows drivers. That would be the biggest step to be made :-)
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by Anonymous on May 22, 2005 07:35 AMGood to see the effort and all, but after going to the site, it's just Knoppix with new backgrounds, icons, and names. Puting a new start image in Gaim doesn't make it Slynux Messenger, it makes it Gaim with a new start picture. A 15 year old geek SHOULD be able to do what he did if he is worth is salt, but a boy genius he certainly is not..
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by john paxton on May 21, 2005 06:29 AM
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by Kevin Jackson on May 22, 2005 03:37 AM
This isn't another distro with a Debian base - its another distro with a Knoppix base, which in turn is based off Debian. We don't need another unknown "friendly" distro, we need a big name "friendly" distro. No, this isn't me being all pro-Red Hat (though I am, I'm a highly successful RHCE) - but I'm a huge fan of Linux growing, at isn't going to start with a 15 year old's distro which, personally, is no different to the other spawns of Knoppix -- i.e. Joe Public won't even touch Knoppix. Sure, hats off to a "15 year old" creating this, but corporates, where the desktop battle commences, isn't going to get reassurance here. It's just me being realistic. -
by Oliver Pullin on May 21, 2005 09:17 PM
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by Lazy-legs on May 21, 2005 03:22 PM
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by Krishnadas on May 21, 2005 06:12 PM
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by Sean Jodrey on May 21, 2005 03:36 PM
