[wx-discuss] wxWidgets virtual appliance

[Kevin Ollivier]

Hi Julian,

On Mar 21, 2006, at 3:06 AM, Julian Smart wrote:

> I see that VMware offers a free Player app to run prebuilt virtual  
> machines;
> so here's an idea. To help Windows users evaluate and migrate to
> Linux + wxWidgets, why not provide a virtual machine (appliance in
> VMware's terminology)? We could have:
>
> - wxWidgets source and lib binaries (or foolproof script to build
>   the binaries for various configurations, to reduce the VM size);
> - choice of dialog editor demo/freebies;
> - IDE.
>
> Then all a user needs to do is download Player + wxAppliance,
> run the appliance, run the build script, and start playing with wxGTK,
> wxMotif, and wxX11.
>
> (This would need to be created with VMware 5. Note that if you're
> already running VMware 4, Player can't be installed without
> uninstalling 4.)
>
> Maybe this would encourage more potential users who find the whole
> Linux + dev tools + wxWidgets thing a bit overwhelming? They could
> explore it from the comfort of their Windows environment, and all  
> for free.

While I think this is a good idea in general, we'd have to maintain  
it, and there are already a dearth of LiveCDs out there, and also you  
can get free CDs for most distros as well. Also, VMWare actually has  
community VMs, including FC4 and others, available for download from  
their community site, so perhaps we can point people to that:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/community.html

 From a perspective of learning, if they're going to work with Linux,  
IMHO it's better for the user to experience the configuration  
themselves so that they can learn how it works and get comfortable  
with it. In a sense, installing and configuring a distro is also a  
learning experience about how Linux packaging systems work and how  
Linux manages software. I think recommending IDEs and preparing some  
sort of setup guide might be a good idea, though. This way they can  
learn how things work while at the same time being guided towards  
solutions rather than drowned in a sea of choices and options.

Thanks,

Kevin

> Julian
>
>
> ====================================================================== 
> ========
> Julian Smart                           julian at anthemion.co.uk
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