The Plasma Netbook Reference Platform

What It Is

The Plasma Netbook Reference Platform is a Linux-based software distribution that gives you quick access to the KDE Plasma Netbook experience.

It's designed to be easy to get: If you have a 2 GB (or larger) USB memory stick and a device (laptop, netbook, tablet) that can boot from a USB stick, you are one download, two (copy and paste) commands and a few minutes away from having the latest build of Plasma Netbook up and running.

It's designed to be easy to get involved with: We are using an openSUSE Build Service project that you can not only use and monitor but which you can even modify in your very own "playground". You can share your changes with others easily and even request merges from your work back into the main project.

Why?

Testing Plasma Netbook, demonstrating the possibilities of it to others or even just simply using the latest builds has not been easy or reliable enough. The Plasma Netbook Reference Platform gives us the opportunity to build and deliver a quality example of Plasma Netbook that is constantly kept up to date with development. This will hopefully allow us to:

• test Plasma Netbook easily and reliably


• provide system integrators a reference to evaluate Plasma Netbook with, to compare their own Plasma Netbook offerings with and to work with us on improvements that they need/want to deliver to their audiences/markets


• support the growing Plasma Netbook user base in being able to easily get involved with testing, improving and demonstrating interesting, useful and fun modifications both to the upstream Plasma project as well as to other Plasma Netbook users

We were lacking a tool that could do all of this for us ... until now!

How To Get It and Get Involved

Here are all the resources you need to get started immediately:

• The project page on the KDE Community wiki
: this has all the step by step instructions and information you need to get involved as a user, an evaluator and/or a contributor.

• The OBS project page: the work is coordinated and happens here.


• #plasma-netbook on irc.freenode.net: real time communication with the developers


• plasma-devel at kde.org: development discussion via email

How We Will Measure Success

There are three very simple ways we will be measuring the success of the Plasma Netbook Reference Platform

1. Is Plasma Netbook improving in quality?


2. Is it more evident to our user and distributor audiences what Plasma Netbook can look and perform like?


3. Are more people using and contributing interesting improvements to Plasma Netbook?

A Personal Invitation

This is your chance to dive into the deep end of the pool the easy way, to get a bit closer to Plasma Netbook and the KDE workspace projects using an easy and exciting set of tools. Whether your aim is to evaluate, use or contribute I personally invite you to take the Plasma Netbook Reference Platform for a spin today, track where we go tomorrow and share your feedback and ideas of how Plasma Netbook can be tweaked to perfection.

Here's where you start, we're already there and waiting for you. :)

Thank Yous

Thanks to:

• openSUSE and Novell for hosting Tokamak 4 which is where this concept was finally able to come together, for their patient and extensive demonstration of the very cool OBS tools, and for helping us set up the OBS project itself.


• Marco Martin for being an amazing steward to the Plasma Netbook project.


• Qt Development Framework's support of both Marco and my own efforts.


• Every single Plasma Netbook user: you are who we do this for.