Finally the Graphical User Interface has been released.

A lot of considerations have been done up to here, before releasing such a GUI, since we had to find the best solution with respect to quality/easyness ratio. Zenity gave us the possibility to “export” complicate bash commands and scripts to the final user and to put them all in a slim and easy to use interface. As we stated in many circumstances, VDD configuration/administration is not easy, so a Graphical User Interface which helps people involved in this task is certainly a step forward.

This first release is intended to be a “launching ramp” for the GUI development. Actually, other solutions can be eventually considered, like GTK programming in different languages (eg. Python for the portability or C++ for the performances) as well as other improvements be made.

GUI flux diagram and source code can be found here. See also screenshots section. Here, more information on the related NLnet project work package.

Sunday the 20th of december 2009, VDD will be guested at l'Altradomenica, an event dedicated to Open Communication and Free Software. It will be possible to put hands on it!

The three themes of this edition of L'Altradomenica are creativity, cooperation and sharing.  A presentation and a demo of VDD will be given within the SHARE space. In the FUN space, Internet Point Desktop-as-a-Service! Choose your distro and go! Come and see VDD at work at Città dell'Altra Economia, Largo Dino Frisullo - Foro Boario - ex mattatoio a Testaccio - Roma.

More info at:

• Altradomenica
• Città dell'Altra Economia
• Binario Etico
• Frontiere digitali

Linux Day, the most important event on GNU/Linux in Italy, organized by the Italian Linux Society (ILS), accepted our submission to the call for partecipation! So this coming saturday, the 24th of October, Binario Etico is going to present VDD at Linux Day 2009! The venue is in Via Eudossiana 18 (Rome) at the Faculty of Engineering.

During the speech, we will officially open the call for partecipation to the project. We intend to gather developers, promoters, partners and interested parties. Join the crew!

More info at: Italian Linux Day web site

Attachments:

vdd_linuxday.odp

[Slides of the speech at Linux Day 2009]

1701 Kb

We are happy to announce that Virtual Distro Dispatcher project is now under a new phase of development! Thanks to NLnet Foundation, that decided to finance the project, we are at work again!

This is the road map:

• Setting up a new laboratory.
• Implementing High availability clustering solution.
• Implementing privacy solution.
• Implementing web-based GUI.
• Implementing host-based GUI.
• Mapping system level to desktop level performance.
• Dispatching distros over the Internet.
• Usability tests.

The first two are done. We are now about to start point 3 and 4. More details can be found in this web site. Anyway, feel free to drop us an email if you are interested to know some more!

Virtual Distro Dispatcher (VDD) is a distributed system whose aim is to project virtual, fully operational and multiple operating system instances on terminals in a network. Client terminals can be obsolete PCs or energy saving thin clients (such as mini-ITX) managed by a powerful, multiprocessor (and possibly clustered) central system.

Desktops are instantiated on a server and then provided to thin clients on demand across a network. It is possible to define such paradigm as a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution: desktops can be transformed into a cost-effective, scalable and comfortable subscription service.      

VDD gives users the possibility to enjoy their own favourite operating systems, including those that are not Open Source, possibly at the same time, on each single thin client. Thin clients are interfaces to proper and isolated machines, that can be made to measure for whatever need and in whatever number (within server limits, of course). This is completely transparent to users, who, even from an obsolete machine, can select a particular machine with certain characteristics and then do absolutely everything they would do on such a machine as if it was physical and with its defined performance.

Contrary to other systems, like LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) the VDD offers not only the host operating system to thin clients, but projects virtualized guest systems, i.e. fully operational and independent machines.