[Tetaneutral] Fwd: [hackerspaces] Fwd: [HacDC:Byzantium] Announcing the release of Byzantium Linux v0.2a (codename: Bath Salts)

Thu Jul 19 17:26:13 CEST 2012

http://project-byzantium.org/about/

The goal of Project Byzantium is to develop a communication system by
which users can connect to each other and share information in the
absence of convenient access to the Internet.  This is done by setting
up an ad-hoc wireless mesh network that offers services which replace
popular websites often used for this purpose, such as Twitter and IRC.

These services and web apps were selected because they are the ones most
often used by activists around the world to find one another, exchange
information, post media, and organize.  They were also selected because
they stand the best chance of being easy to use by our intended
userbase, which are people using mobile devices like smartphones, MP3
players, and tablet PCs.

Unlike most mesh implementations, a Byzantium Mesh requires no
specialized equipment that may not be easy to get during an emergency,
just an x86 computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     [hackerspaces] Fwd: [HacDC:Byzantium] Announcing the
release of Byzantium Linux v0.2a (codename: Bath Salts)
Date:     Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:16:31 -0400
From:     The Doctor <drwho at virtadpt.net>
Reply-To:     drwho at virtadpt.net, Hackerspaces General Discussion List
<discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
Organization:     Virtual Adept Networks, Unlimited
To:     Hackerspaces General Discussion List
<discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>

Forwarded from the Project Byzantium mailing list:

-- 
The Doctor [412/724/301/703] [ZS]
Developer, Project Byzantium: http://project-byzantium.org/

PGP: 0x807B17C1 / 7960 1CDC 85C9 0B63 8D9F  DD89 3BD8 FF2B 807B 17C1
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/

The future belongs to the brave.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [HacDC:Byzantium] Announcing the release of Byzantium Linux
v0.2a (codename: Bath Salts)
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:29:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ben Mendis <dragonwisard at gmail.com>
Reply-To: byzantium at hacdc.org
To: byzantium at hacdc.org

Good news everybody!

We're finially recovering from all the excitement and lack of sleep that
was HOPE. So we know this announcment is a little late, since we already
did this on stage on Saturday, but better late than never.

The whole team, as well as our very dedicated supporters, is proud to
officially announce the public release of Byzantium Linux V0.2a. You can
find the download links on our website (http://project-byzantium.org) as
well as on several popular torrent trackers. We also have a few of the
printed CDs left over (and more on the way) which are available upon
request.

We have code-named this release "Bath Salts" as a reference to the drug
which was originally reported to be responsible for several zombie-like
cannibal attacks.

Please help us distribute this release announcment far and wide. The
official text is included below.

Thank you all,
Ben the Pyrate

==

ANNOUNCING BYZANTIUM LINUX V0.2a (Bath Salts)
Approved for: GENERAL RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED

Project Byzantium, a working group of HacDC (http://hacdc.org/) is proud
to announce the release of v0.2 alpha of Byzantium Linux, a live
distribution of Linux which makes it fast and easy to construct an
ad-hoc wireless mesh network which can augment or replace the current
telecommunications infrastructure in the event that it is knocked
offline (for example, due to a natural disaster) or rendered
untrustworthy (through widespread surveillance or disconnection by
hostile entities).  Byzantium Linux is designed to run on any x86
computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface.  Byzantium
can be burned to a CD- or DVD-ROM (the .iso image is around 460
megabytes in size), booted from an external hard drive, or can even be
installed in parallel with an existing operating system without risk to
the user's data and software.  Byzantium Linux will act as a node of the
mesh and will automatically connect to other mesh nodes and act as an
access point for wifi-enabled mobile devices.

THIS IS AN ALPHA RELEASE!  Do NOT expect Byzantium to be perfect.  Some
features are not ready yet, others need work.  Things are going to break
in weird ways and we need to know what those ways are so we can fix
them.  Please, for the love of LOLcats, do not deploy Byzantium in
situations where lives are at stake.

FEATURES:
- Binary compatible with Slackware-CURRENT.  Existing Slackware
packages can be converted with a single command.
- Can act as a gateway to the Internet if a link is available (via
Ethernet or tethered smartphone).
- Linux kernel v3.1.8
- Drivers for dozens of wireless chipsets
- KDE Trinity v3.5.12
- LXDE (2010 release of all components)
- Mplayer
- GCC v4.5.2
- Perl v5.12.3
- Python v2.6.6
- Firefox v4.0.1
- X.org
- Custom web-based control panel

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (to use)
- Minimum of 1GB of RAM (512MB without copy2ram boot option)
- i586 CPU or better
- CD- or DVD-ROM drive
- BIOS must boot removable media
- At least one (1) 802.11 a/b/g/n interface

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (for persistent changes)
- The above requirements to use Byzantium
- 2+GB of free space on thumbdrive or harddrive

WHAT WE NEED:
- Developers.
- Developers!
- DEVELOPERS!
- No more Bill Ballmer impersonations.
- People running Byzantium to find bugs.
- People reporting bugs on our Github page
(https://github.com/Byzantium/Byzantium/issues).  We can't fix what we
don't know about!
- Patches.
- People booting Byzantium and setting up small meshes (2-5 clients)
to tell us how well it works for you with your hardware.  We have a
hardware compatibility list on our wiki that needs to be expanded.
- Help translating the user interface.  We especially need people
fluent in dialects of Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu.
- Help us write and translate documentation.

Homepage: http://project-byzantium.org/

Download sites: http://project-byzantium.org/download/

This announcement is published under a Creative Commons By Attribution /
Noncommercial / Share Alike v3.0 License.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

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