The Google Summer of Code (GSOC) is a popular programme that’s catching on among software techies and enthusiasts of Free Software.
Sarath Lakshman, a fifth semester Computer Science student of the Model Engineering College, Kochi, has cleared the GSOC for a second time in 2009. ``My project is named Pardusman. It is a custom GNU/Linux distro creator from the web. We have numerous variants of GNU/Linux for different purposes, these variants are called GNU/Linux distributions.
Once we go for a distro install, we receive only a base system with a standard set of applications bundled with it. For making the Operating System workable to our needs, we need to install a set of another packages belonging to our working domain or interest. Also setting up themes, wallpaper, copying user’s own files to home directory etc are required,’’ he explains on how he worked out his solution.
Different users have different tastes and they always tweak a distro installation with new wallpapers, packages etc.
``My projects aim at bringing a distro cooker for user. Users should be able to build their own custom distro builds by providing numerous custom options which ranges from wallpaper to packages. In short, aim of my project is to build a distro maker from Web.
By locating the url of the distro building service, we can customise through a simple web interface,’’ he adds.
Sarath who is also the web administrator of his college has been in the forefront of FOSS activity in the campus. He has already created an operating system called Slynux. According to his principal Suresh Kumar, the college has been active in Open Software and organised a conference which motivated several students to work with innovative programmes in the software world. The Google global program offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. Google works with several open source, free software, and technology- related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2,500 successful student participants and 2,500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide.
Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to realworld software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits.
In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
``I have been working on developing custom web based distro creator for Pardus project. Pardus is arguably the best KDE 4.2 distro I have ever seen. Pardus 2009 comes with lots of packages bundled with KDE 4.2. It has a batteries included effect. I have been running Pardus 2008 with KDE 3.8 on my desktop at home and my parents are happy with it. It comes with all applications and plugins required by a regular user. Also the package management system of Pardus, PISI is a new generation package management system. It is awesome,’’ he says. Sarath who did his programming with his mentor Ekin Meroglu who is the core developer and project administrator at Pardus Linux Project.
``I aimed to create a web based application for building customized CDs and ready-to-run images for VMs,” he adds. Web based UI and services can be built with Python.
The programme is evaluated after one and half month of taking up the project. Normally only 85 percent of the candidates, roughly numbering about 1000 clear the final project. Sarath worked from home on his project and was not required to visit either Google or Pardus Project’s offices as part of his work.
He has also been writing articles in `Linux For You’ magazine for since November 2008. The latest edition of the magazine features his Pardusman project. ``This is the second time I am working with Summer of Code.
Pardus is a nicely built userfriendly GNU/Linux distro from Turkey by TUBITAK (The National Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey),” he says.
Wondering how he loves to sign off. Its ``Happy Hacking’’.
Blog on to Sarath Lakshman at http://www.sarathlakshman.
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