Game Development Bootable Linux Distribution
Over at the pygame-users mailing list, Horst F. Jens is looking for people interested in making a bootable USB drive with Linux, Python, and Pygame on it.
I think that this is a great idea! I’ve been looking for something like this for quite some time now, and I’m glad that this is starting out.
Eventually, I also think that this could be turned into a “game programming distro” – aside from Python and Pygame, perhaps we could also have Panda3D, PyODE, and even C++ or Java game programming libraries included. And maybe some content creation tools like GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Audacity, etc. And having freely-available game programming documents in the distro would be excellent!
This would be a fantastic way for beginners to explore game programming. A “Game Programming Starter Kit” CD/DVD/USB drive.
Or maybe there are already game programming distros out there? Sorry but right now I’m not aware of any.
Can’t wait! 
License
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January 16th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Awesome! I wouldn’t have thought of making a whole distro around making games, although I’ve seen a few that focus on playing them.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Progress report:
i made big progress last night (thanks to the cool concept of Slax Linux – see http://www.slax.org) and to date i am able to boot from usb-stick (256MB) or from CDROM a linux with 2.6 kernel, python2.5, Tkinter, idle, pythondoc, pygame1.7, pygame-examples and kde desktop.
I still wait for the new pygame1.8 to appear on the pygame website. Hopefully until then i manage to include wxpython, xfc instead of kde, flashplayer and maybe even mangae to fit on a 128 MB usb stick. Not sure if the last point is possible.
So far the kids i showed it are not very impressed: “It takes long times to load”…
“it looks like windows”….
January 30th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
It’s great to know that your project is progressing well, Horst
. When I heard of this project of yours, I had no idea that I would need to have something like that shortly after! I’ll elaborate on this in a future post 
. Good luck with your project!
February 15th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I’d like to make, or help make, a game programming distro. I was already going to make one for my dad’s family day business, so why not make one for this too? If I did, it would be based on PCLinuxOS. I love that distro.
February 16th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Yes, I’ve heard good things about PCLinuxOS, but haven’t tried it personally. I think it allows you to make a remastered ISO by using just one command, which is very convenient.
Sure, maybe we can work on this. Let’s start with a few ideas, then hopefully this can turn into something useful for many people
.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:30 am
I am also interested in that, but I would suggest gentoo as the base distro.. it is very flexible and highly optimizable. I am currently working on a gentoo on usb-stick.. or CompactFlash.. that I need for running an app made with pygame..