====== Why work so hard to create yet another Linux distro for bioinformatics? ======

And a good question it is :-) There are a number of effort out there to do such a thing:

  * [[http://www.rocksclusters.org/roll-documentation/bio/5.3/|BioBrew / ROCKS' Bio roll]]
  * [[http://bioknoppix.hpcf.upr.edu/|BioKnoppix]]
  * [[http://www.biopuppy.org|BioPuppy]]
  * [[http://www.dnalinux.com/|DNALinux]]
  * [[http://envgen.nox.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux|NEBC Bio-Linux]]
  * [[http://www.vigyaancd.org/|Vigyaan]]
  * [[http://www.bioinformatics.org/vlinux/|VLinux]]

Most of them fail for my needs on one or more of the following points:

  * In many cases, they include out-dated applications or out-dated versions of currently used applications.
  * Some of them are targeting a specific audience, like structural chemists.
  * Very few of them are including a complete documentation package, not only to describe the applications and their use but also to help out a user to select the proper tool for the question to answer.
  * Most of them lack applications in the forefront of integrative biology and/or high throughput transcriptomics and genomics.
  * Some of them do not seem to have active support.
  * Some of them are very specialized, needing a cluster to be used effectively (i.e. Bio roll).

After having a hard look at all of them, I came to the conclusion that I needed to start from scratch to build a bioinformatics distro for teaching my students as well as provide a starting point to build their own bioinformatics server.


 --- //[[sylvain.foisy@diploide.net|Sylvain Foisy]] 2010/04/18 14:10//