Wednesday, March 18, 2009

IEOR Tools Linux distribution?

There is a lot of talk about using Open Source tools lately in the Operations Research blog-0-sphere. I thought it would be a good idea to develop a Linux distribution variant that emphasizes Operations Research and Industrial Engineering tools. It seems it would be a natural progression for the IEOR Tools blog since my intentions are to spread and advocate the impact of Open Source software.

Yet before I start this undertaking I would like to find out if there is an interest. Would this be something the Operations Research community could use? Here would be my ideas for the uses of an IEOR Tools Linux variant

  1. Promote free software and Open Source to the Operations Research, Industrial Engineering and Management Science community
  2. Help in the development and advocacy of the free and Open Source projects in Operations Research
  3. Academic tool that is a "one stop shop" for software
Please comment if you think this would be a good project for the IEOR Tools blog. Also let me know if you like to contribute to this project.

1 comment:

Jack Dausman said...

Larry, I know that having a LiveCD is a terrific way to demonstrate a proof-of-concept. I've been able to excite people about OSS systems by popping in a LiveCD and running the software. IBM is doing one for Lotus Notes (OCCS) and is hosted by Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/occs)