System and method of creating and delivering software

• US 6,080,207 A
• Filed: 06/04/1998
• Issued: 06/27/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Gateway Incorporated (Acer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gateway 2000, Inc. (Acer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peasley, Richard, Marshall, James J., Kroening, James L., Fangman, Darrin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOOKER, KELVIN
• Application Number:
  US09/090,118
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 395/712, 717/11
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A computerized system and a method for generating a custom software configuration for a hard drive of a computer system according to desired software configuration defined by a purchasing customer. The computerized system and method utilizes an image builder for creating a disk image of the desired software configuration and transferring the image to a storage device. The storage device is connected to an image server that transfers the disk image directly to the hard drive during a manufacturing and assembly process of the computer system. Once the computer system is assembled, the image server broadcasts the disk image to the computer system via a wired or wireless connection.

Claims

1. A method of building a custom software configuration comprising:

receiving a desired software configuration;

surveying a plurality of images of preexisting software configurations and selecting a baseline software configuration corresponding to the desired software configuration;

comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration; and

generating an image of a set of changes based on the comparison, the image of a set of chances corresponding to the difference between the baseline software configuration and the desired software configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising broadcasting the image of the set of changes.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising incorporating the image of the set of changes with the image of the baseline configuration to generate an image of a custom software configuration.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein broadcasting comprises broadcasting by a satellite.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein broadcasting comprises broadcasting over the Internet.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein broadcasting comprises broadcasting using an Ethernet connection and a local area network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration comprises examining a data stream of the baseline software configuration on a bit by bit basis.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration comprises examining a data stream of the baseline software configuration on a file by file basis.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the image of the set of changes on a computer readable medium.

11. A computerized system for building a custom software configuration comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium; and

a plurality of computer instructions executed by the processor from the computer readable medium for;

receiving a desired software configuration;

surveying a plurality of images of preexisting software configurations and selecting a baseline software configuration similar to the desired software configuration;

comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration to determine a set of changes; and

generating an image of the set of changes, the image of the set of changes corresponding to the difference between the baseline software configuration and the desired software configuration.

12. The computerized system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises broadcasting the image of the set of changes.

13. The computerized system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises incorporating the image of the set of changes with the image of the baseline software configuration to generate an image of a custom software configuration.

14. The computerized system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration.

15. The computerized system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration by a satellite.

16. The computerized system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration over the Internet.

17. The computerized system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration using an Ethernet connection and a local area network.

18. The computerized system of claim 11 wherein comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration comprises examining a data stream of the baseline software configuration on a file by file basis.

19. The computerized system of claim 11 wherein comparing an image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration comprises examining a data stream of the baseline software configuration on a bit by bit basis.

20. The computerized system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of computer instructions further comprises storing the image of the set of changes on the computer readable medium.

21. A machine readable medium having machine readable instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform the method comprising:

receiving a desired software configuration;

surveying a plurality of images of preexisting software configurations and selecting one of the plurality of images, wherein the selected image corresponds to a baseline software configuration and the baseline software configuration is similar to the desired software configuration;

comparing the image of the baseline software configuration with the desired software configuration to determine a set of changes to be made to the image of the baseline software configuration, the set of changes corresponding to the difference between the baseline software configuration and the desired software configuration; and

generating an image of the set of changes.

22. The machine readable medium of claim 21 wherein the machine readable instruction of generating an image of the set of changes further comprises incorporating the image of the set of changes with the image of the baseline configuration.

23. The machine readable medium of claim 21 further comprising machine readable instructions for broadcasting the image of the set of changes.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 21 further comprising machine readable instructions for storing the image of the set of changes on a computer readable medium.

25. A computerized network for creating and broadcasting a customized software configuration, the computerized network comprising:

computer means for receiving information corresponding to a desired software configuration for a particular computer system;

storage means comprising a plurality of available software configurations stored as images;

image builder means coupled to the computer means and the storage means, the image builder means for receiving the desired software configuration, surveying the storage means to find an image of a software configuration similar to the desired software configurations comparing the image with an image of the desired software configuration to determine the image of a set of changes, incorporating the image of the set of changes with the found image, thus generating an image of the custom software configuration, and storing the image of the custom software configuration on the storage means; and

image server means for receiving the image of the custom software configuration from the storage means and broadcasting the image of the custom software configuration to the particular computer system.

26. The computerized network of claim 25 wherein the image server means broadcasts the image via a wireless connection.

27. The computerized network of claim 25 wherein the image server means broadcasts the image via a wired connection.

28. A method of updating a software configuration of a computer system, the method comprising:

receiving a desired software configuration;

selecting an image of a preexisting software configuration from a plurality of images of preexisting software configurations, the selected image approximating the desired software configuration;

comparing the preexisting software configuration corresponding to the selected image with the desired software configuration to determine a set of changes; and

generating an image of the set of changes, the image of the set of changes corresponding to the difference between the preexisting software configuration and the desired software configuration.

29. The method of updating a software configuration of claim 28 further comprising broadcasting the image of the set of changes.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein broadcasting comprises broadcasting via a wireless connection.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein broadcasting comprises broadcasting via a wired connection.

32. A computerized system for building a custom software configuration, the computerized system comprising:

a processor;

a storage device accessible to the processor having a plurality of available software configurations stored as images; and

an image builder coupled to the processor and coupled to the storage device, the image builder for receiving a desired software configuration, searching the available software configurations, selecting one of the available software configurations similar to the desired software configuration, ring the image of the selected software configuration with the image desired software configuration, determining required changes such that the selected software configuration combined with the changes yields the desired software configuration and storing the image of the desired software configuration on the storage device.

33. The computerized system of claim 32 further comprising an image server coupled to the storage device, the image server for broadcasting the image of the desired software configuration.

34. The computerized system of claim 33 wherein the image server broadcasts via a satellite.

35. The computerized system of claim 33 wherein the image server broadcasts over the Internet.

36. The computerized system of claim 33 wherein the image server broadcasts using an Ethernet connection and a local area network.

37. A computerized method comprising:

receiving specifics of a computer system;

receiving a desired software configuration;

determining if an image of the desired configuration already exists, the image of the desired configuration determined as a function of the specifics and the desired software configuration;

if the desired configuration already exists, then sending notification that an image is available;

otherwise,

selecting an appropriate baseline image from a plurality of baseline images;

selecting an appropriate delta image from a plurality of delta images, the appropriate baseline image and the appropriate delta image selected such that the combination of the appropriate baseline image and the appropriate delta image yield the image of the desired configuration;

storing the image of the desired configuration.

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising transferring the image of the desired configuration to the computer system.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein selecting an appropriate delta image comprises creating a delta image.

40. The method of claim 37 further comprising assigning a configuration number to each baseline image and each delta image.

41. The method of claim 37 wherein the desired configuration is rejected if the desired configuration is incompatible with the computer system.