From:	 Seth David Schoen <schoen@loyalty.org>
To:	 lwn@lwn.net
Subject: LNX-BBC -- new Bootable Business Card distribution
Date:	 Wed, 20 Jun 2001 23:40:35 -0700

I am pleased to announce to the general public a new mini-distribution
derived from the Linuxcare Bootable Business Card.  This distribution is
called LNX-BBC, and you can see its home page at

http://www.lnx-bbc.org/

All of the original developers who created the Linuxcare Bootable Business
Card (Duncan MacKinnon, Thomas Crimi, and myself) are now working on this
project, with the co-operation of several other long-time Bootable Business
Card developers and contributors.

The LNX-BBC system, like the Linuxcare Bootable Business Card, is a rescue
system designed to fit in a 50-megabyte bootable CD-ROM in the size and
shape of a business card.  Thus, you can carry in your pocket a complete
bootable rescue system, including X11, networking, cryptography, many file
and disk diagnostic and recovery tools, and much more.  (Currently we use the
cloop compressed loopback block device driver, written by Rusty Russell and
maintained by Klaus Knopper, to increase the effective capacity of the
CD-ROM.)

This system is also useful for turning almost any system which can boot CDs
into a simple Linux workstation.  We also aim to make the system easily
customizable so that you can use it as a starting point for your own
bootable CD-ROMs.

The need for a fork was first recognized after several of the BBC developers
had left Linuxcare.  Several attempts were made to gain access for them to
continue working on the project.  None of these attempts were successful, and
when nearly all the developers had left the company's employment, we felt
that it was necessary, in order to continue our development efforts, to
create an independent project.

We plan a release in time for LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in August,
where Duncan and I will be giving a conference presentation on bootable
Linux CDs.

We have a mailing list for users and developers.  To subscribe, or view the
archives, see

http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/lnx-bbc/

My original announcement of this project, which contains some predictions
about new features and the future course of development, is available at

http://zork.net/pipermail/lnx-bbc/2001-May/000003.html

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen@loyalty.org>  | And do not say, I will study when I
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/  | have leisure; for perhaps you will
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF)  | not have leisure.  -- Pirke Avot 2:5