CHAPTER ONE Introduction Introduction In this chapter we present the broad picture of the Linux and the open-source

movement. We seek to demystify various issues that you will come across as you go through this proposal. Background Information Linux is a group of UNIX like operating systems that use the Linux kernel. The development of Linux is one of the prominent example of the free and open source software collaboration; typically the all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified and redistributed both commercially and non-commercially by anyone under licenses such as the GNU(General Public License). It can be used on desktops, laptops and servers. Some popular Linux distributions include: Linux Debian and derivatives such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Open Suse. Linux for desktops comes in two flavors i.e. Gnome and KDE plasma desktops environments. Other distributions such as for web servers may omit graphical desktop environment. One of the most successive Linux distributions on the desktop is Ubuntu. Ubuntu was forked out of Debian operating system in October 2004 and was code named Warty Warthog, it had one philosophy (Ubuntu) Linux for Humanity since then it has seen an increase in the number of users as well as the developers. What drives Ubuntu is the spirit that it is free, open source and hence can be modified and redistributed. This has seen the emergence of several Ubuntu derivatives which include: Linux Mint, Edubuntu, Ubuntu studio e.t.c.

Ubuntu is supported by canonical, a company started by a South African tycoon. A new version is currently released after every 6 months. One of the main reasons that Ubuntu is so successful on both desktops and servers is because it offers a solid stable and secure operating environment. Kabu-linux will be based on the solid foundations of Ubuntu. Statement of problem There lacks an operating system that comes pre-installed with softwares and resources required by university scholars which enable them use a computer more as a study companion. Why Another Ubuntu Distro? Since the launch of Ubuntu many Ubuntu derivatives have been created for almost every groups of people i.e. backtrack for network security professionals, Ubuntu studio for music producers, Edubuntu for education purposes, Macbuntu for Mac OS X admirers and Linux mint for general users. Edubuntu being the most popular educational distro, was meant for general educational use and included the most commonly used softwares but due to size, limitations could not include some of the most important softwares for higher education scholars and researchers i.e. Free MAT an open source alternative to MATLAB used by engineering and mathematical purposes . Kabu-Linux aims to overcome this by including only the softwares for university scholars and live out other educational softwares aimed for lower levels of learning. This will create an ultimate Ubuntu distro containing as many resources for university scholars as possible but still be small enough to fit on a DVD. The ultimate target of the Kabu-Linux is the higher education scholar who is used to using windows and may have little or no experience using Linux by helping him providing him with and install and go solution. For seasoned Linux users getting the software we aim to include in this distro may seem like a walk in the park however the fact that this distro comes ready to use will also save them a lot of time.

Objectives
1 2 3

Reorganize the Ubuntu interface to make easier for windows users to use. Include the best open-source education software for scholars and researchers. Customize Mozilla specifically for research by including additional add-ons, plugins and bookmarks.

4 5

Create an exclusive and customized Google search tool for advanced searches. Configure Ubuntu to authenticate from behind corporate proxies using the preparatory NTLM technology.

6 7

Organize the menu by subject area making access to the software easy. Create a community of users and developers from various universities.

Advantages
1

To the us and the university Once we complete this project will have earned good understanding of the linux operating system. A powerful OS any self-respecting computer science student or professional must understand inside out. Once we release the operating system we will raise the status of the university in the ICT field in that we will have something that really sets our university apart. To the education fraternity Provided a ready to use tool for learning and research Since the project aims to obtain its developer community from various universities across Kenya this will increase corroboration and enhance learning.

Challenges
The main challenge we seek to solve is to create an active community of developers to help in the continuous development of this project. The project also faces a financial challages since we need to promote the distro and distribute it free of charge until we are able to run it on a cloud where we will charge for the cloud services.

Goal To goal of this project is to deliver a state of the art Linux distro made for university scholars by university scholars make it available for download, on DVDs and run it on a cloud.

Mission
To reconstruct Ubuntu 10.04 natty including the best of open-source for university scholars and researchers and fine-tune Mozilla to work for research.

Target group
This project is targeted to university scholars and researchers in Kenya and across the world who are currently using windows. It will provide them with tools needed for day to day academic work as well as in research. The also aims to provide an OS for the old and tired computers which are lying unutilized in various institutions just because they can no longer support windows.

Definition of terms

Distro OS NTLM Reconstruct Reconstructor Mozilla UNIX Proxy Chroot Xchroot Cloud

CHAPTER TWO
Literature review
Since it launch Ubuntu has been derived for almost all fields of profession. Some of the most successful custom Ubuntu distro include;
1 Backtrack This is a distro that was developed for security professionals.it incorporates more than 300 tools for network security testing and security. It is highly regarded in by networking security experts and is a must have tool. It is developed by offensive security. 2 Ubuntu studio A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.. 3 Edubuntu This is a branch of the Ubuntu project and not really a derivative of Ubuntu. It is specially tailored for general education community. The fact that it is foe the education community space limitation makes this

distro shallow in what if offers since it has to higher education has it has to offer something to other levels of learning.
4 Uberstudent Uberstudent is a distribution of Linux based on Ubuntu and it's designed for students and other researchers. Its is targeted mostly at higher education students. Just like Ubuntu, berStudent is a complete OS with programs for everyday computing tasks, but comes with an additional core of expertly configured programs, and many user-friendly extras, designed to increase your academic success. Its Software Explorer enables you to easily extend Uberstudent still further for specific academic disciplines. This is the distro that led us to think of Kabu-Linux. We seek to offer all that Uberstudent has to offer plus what they fail to offer. The main difference will be mainly on the user interface. While Uberstudents interface is simply Ubuntu we seek to tweak the interface to give it a windows feel. The other place Uberstudent fails to address is the NTLM authentication behind most proxies which is a common scenario for academic institutions.

1. Linux mint We are interested in this distro not because it is a special distro but because it offers windows users switching to Linux a smaller learning curve. However li it is still closer to Ubuntu than windows and it will take a windows user sometime to be comfortable using it. This is the reason for the next Ubuntu distro we will discuss.

Zorin OS

Many people coming from Windows try Ubuntu Linux as their first Linux distribution. But Ubuntu itself, while very good, may not always be the best choice. There are many Ubuntu derivatives and its possible that one of those can sometimes be a better bet for those seeking to ease their way into a comfortable Linux niche. Zorin OS is an Ubuntu derivative designed to help make the transition from Windows to Linux as easy as possible. This OS s interface brings a nice windows vista like experience to Ubuntu. We seek to adopt this for Kabu-Linux.

CHAPTER THREE
Methodology.
TOOLS

Reconstructor online will be used to add packages to the distro and customize the boot process. While online we will also customize the software repositories. Reconstructor offline will be used to develop an easy to use custom interface for KABU-Linux. Though most of the work done by the online version of this useful tool can be done by its offline twin brother we will prefer to use the online version because it gives us a easy way to do technical reconstruction since no downloads are involved. However the online version become useless when it will come to reconstructing the OS on a real desktop environment. (xchroot). That is where the offline tool comes in handy. Netbeans a software development environment will be used to develop Agoogler using the JAVA programming language. We chose java because of its security and cross platform success. Python is a shell scripting language that will be used in the development of Kabu-Linux. We shall utilize the Kiswahili glossary developed by Kiswahili experts from both Institute of Kiswahili Research (IKR) - University of Dar es salaam and Baraza la Kiswahili Tanzania (BAKITA) as part of the Kilinux project to develop a Kiswahili language pack for Kabu-Linux. http://www.kilinux.udsm.ac.tz/kiblog/index.html. We shall proceed to utilize the Linux language pack software base to develop the Swahili language pack for KABU Linux. http://pkgs.org/package/language-pack-sw-base

WOKK PLAN Meetings to develop the software list and the best way to categorize the by studying other similar distros and including what they have not. Sign-up for the reconstructor online account and use it to add the softwares to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and do other technical customizations Download the complete ISO and test it in a real environment to check if all the software ware correctly installed. Start working on the branding which includes custom graphics, icon themes, windows borders and Plymouth theme. Upload this branding to Reconstructor online and include them in the custom distro. Download the ISO and use reconstructor-offline to fine-tune it. Run a full scale lab-test to ensure everything works alright Create copies ready for distribution Take care of the online hosting Print branding material which includes printing T-shirts, brochures and launch the website. Launch the Distribution BUDGET
1 2

Communication Internet phone Branding and promoting logo website brochures and poster t-shirts budges

armbands Attending conferences Personnel Programmers

4 5

Distribution Blank DVDs Internet hosting Technical Computers modems

REFERENCENCES www.wikipedia.com www.ubuntu.com www.zorinos.com www.distrowatch.com