Spin Name
Fedora Scientific
Summary
Fedora Scientific spin aims to create a Fedora desktop based spin which will have a generic toolset for Linux users whose profession/studies involve scientific research. The spin aims to be directly under the umbrella of the Fedora Science and Technology SIG.
Owner(s)
- Name: Amit Saha
- email: droidery@gmail.com
Detailed Description
I am a long-term Linux user and have been into full-time scientific research for the past 3 years now. Everytime I have to do a fresh-install of Linux (not so frequently, ofcourse), I have to download a bunch of tools which I use regularly. For example, gnuplot, xfig, LaTex compilers, numpy, etc. Say hello to Fedora-Scientific. The idea is to create a Fedora spin based on the Fedora KDE Desktop, but having additional tools which most researchers will use.
Benefit to Fedora
Although the motivation for such a spin is purely "scratching my own itch", but I won't be wrong in stating that a significant percentage of Fedora users will be involved in scientific research use a number of numerical libraries, tools and libraries in their daily work. Pulling all those packages everytime a fresh install of Fedora is done is time consuming and redundant.
Moving beyond Fedora users, such a spin will definitely attract new or seasoned Linux users who feels the need to have some the scientific software that he/she uses to be already insalled.
I discussed this idea on mailing lists and the CLUG folks showed a lot of +1s to the idea (Thread). As was pointed out to me (which I didn't think before!), Fedora Scientific will be complimentary to the relatively more stable, RHEL based, Scientific Linux, as Fedora will cater to a similar audience, but giving the users more bleeding edge software experience.
Kickstart File
KDE Based Kickstart file (Lasted Updated on: October 5, 2011)
ISO Name / FS Label
Fedora-16-x86_64-Scientific
Dependencies
Fedora KDE Spin
Scope / Testing
This spin will be based on the Fedora KDE spin . A number of tools and libraries for scientific research is included. I have decided upon the current set of applications based on my own experience and some discussions on mailing lists, notable the Canberra Linux Users Group. (as pointed out earlier).
The current set of packages include a IDE, tools and libraries for programming in C, C++, Python, Java and R. Also included alongwith are libraries for parallel computing such as the OpenMPI and OpenMP. Tools for typesetting, writing and publishing are included. Scientific computing libraries and tools such as the GNU Scientific Library, SciPy, Octave, Maxima are also shipped in this spin.
A detailed list of all packages can be seen from the kickstart file. To see some discussions/thoughts/decisions and to add your own, please visit the Talk:Scientific_Spin page. The ISO stands at about ~2.2 G.
Spins Page
To Be Written Upon Approval
Slogan
Fedora for Researchers in Science and Engineering
Spin description
Fedora Scientific Spin brings together the open source scientific and numerical tools used in research alongwith the goodness of the Fedora KDE desktop. These tools range from libraries such as the GNU Scientific library, the SciPy libraries, tools like Octave and xfig to typesetting tools like Kile and graphics programs such as Inkscape. Fedora Scientific Spin aims to prevent the need to re-install your favourite scientific packages everytime you re-install Linux.
Screenshot
Download tab
To Be Done
Support tab
Since this spin aims be under the umbrella of the Fedora SciTech SIG, I aim to use the communication channels for the SIG as support group for this spin as well:
- Mailing list: Fedora Scitech List '
- #fedora-science on the freenode IRC network
Custom branding
Submitted a ticket to the design team
Comments and Discussion