COMP 3000 Distribution Report Specifications 2011

Format

Your report should ideally be submitted on the wiki (see the signup page); however PDF is also acceptable. If you submit a MS Word file, expect it to be opened in Libreoffice or Openoffice and hence its formatting and contents may be changed and/or corrupted.

Note that reports submitted on the wiki will be indexed in major search engines automatically. If you wish your report to remain private, please submit a PDF.

Be sure to upload a link to your report or your PDF to WebCT by the due date.

Recording Authorship

Please do not include your name and student number in the body of your wiki page. Instead, please submit a link to your paper via webct. If there is joint authorship of the report, then both authors should submit a link to the page. Both authors should also include a note stating the name of their co-author.

Part I

Due: October 17, 2011

The key goal of Part I is to report on the user experience with your chosen operating system distribution.

This first part of your distribution report should be divided into five sections that should be 4-6 pages in length total excluding figures. If this portion is longer that is fine, except that the graders may stop reading soon after page 6. If you encounter difficulty generating sufficient material, then you should talk with the TAs or the instructor.

Background

This section should detail background information about your distribution. Please describe:

• The name of the distribution,
• its goals and target audience,
• who develops it,
• how it may be obtained,
• its approximate size,
• and its heritage (what other OS distribution(s) is it derived from.

Also include any other background information that you feel is relevant for understanding the rest of your report.

Installation/Startup

In this section, detail how you got the distribution up and running. Ideally, include a screenshot or two of the installation/boot procedure. Describe the setup of the virtualization software you used, if any. Also detail any problems you encountered and how you overcame them (or didn't).

Basic Operation

Here describe your experience in using your distribution for simple use cases. You should attempt to use the distribution for its intended purpose; if this is not feasible, explain why but still do your best to use it in some capacity. Again, explain any problems you encountered. Also, if feasible, include a screenshot of some typical or interesting activities.

Usage Evaluation

To what extent does your chosen distribution meet its design goals? What is your overall impression of it? Be candid and specific in your critique or praise.

References

List all references used in proper bibliographic form, if any. Be sure to cite these sources in the main text as appropriate.

Part II

Due: November 7, 2011

Part III

Due: December 5, 2011