[Neurodebian-users] Fresh NeuroDebian VM 6.0.2 (based on the released Squeeze)

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

Dear NeuroDebian users,

We are thrilled to announce a fresh release of the NeuroDebian virtual
appliance, so you would not need to experience lengthy initial upgrade
procedure as if you were installing NeuroDebian VM 6.0.1 nowadays.

Get it while it is hot from: http://neuro.debian.net/vm.html .

6.0.2 is based on the freshly released stable Debian Squeeze (6.0) so in
the long run, this VM could provide a target stable and versatile
research environment for neuroscience research on your hostile native
operating systems.  From now on, since it is based on a stable Debian
release, VM systems updates should be reliable and rather minimal.
Debian will provide only security fixes and critical functionality
updates for the core components, and we will complement them with the
most recent releases of neuroscience-related software we cover.

Visible VM-specific changes introduced in 6.0.2:

* Consistent hostname (neurodebian)
* Automatic installation of software from NeuroDebian menu should become
  more reliable
* NeuroDebian initial setup wizard:
  - Optionally adds sourcing of FSL and AFNI environment files into your
    .profile
  - Octave is added to the list of initial set of package sets 

If you are already using a previous version of the VM, you should
be able to simply upgrade using package manager of your preference --
there should be no need to replace entire virtual machine with a new
'release'.  Although upgrades usually should work without major issues,
to guarantee a fall back solution, we would recommend to use VirtualBox
snapshots [see 1 for basic intro].  This way you will be able to retract
back to the previous functional state if something goes wrong.

Remember that Virtual Appliance comes with a minimalistic setup and not
tailored for particular research needs.  It is done so that you could
easily customize it for your field of research.  It requires just few
clicks to install relevant applications from a range of the thousands
packages provided by Debian (and NeuroDebian) using package managers
such as aptitude, synaptic or software center.  You might find task
pages of debian-med and debian-science projects helpful providing
informative coverage of what is already available in (Neuro)Debian or
what is WiP in terms of covering different fields of
(neuro)science: 

  http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/
  http://blends.alioth.debian.org/science/tasks/

If you need some tutoring on VM setup, please see instructions and
video tutorials at http://neuro.debian.net/vm.html .

And remember -- your feedback ( positive especially ;) ) will be
greatly appreciated!

[1] http://onsoftware.en.softonic.com/how-to-create-and-manage-snapshots-in-virtualbox

Enjoy

With best regards,
-- 
NeuroDebian Team