OpenSUSE aims Linux initiative at schools

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Jun. 04, 2007

Novell's openSUSE project has launched a new initiative dedicated to advancing the public awareness of the popular Linux distribution in the educational community.

A new section of the openSUSE website has been designated as a place where educators and technologists who use openSUSE can post stories about their successes, applications used, and "how-to's," the team said in the introductory announcement.

The goal is to eventually create an "add-on" CD called "The openSUSE EDU-CD" (aka "The SLEducator") that eases the installation and configuration of an educational network and student desktops, the team said. This could work into a sort of "ERP [enterprise resource planning] for education," the team stated in the announcement of the initiative.

"As more and more schools evaluate Linux as a cost-efficient alternative for their running systems in a way that will be 'ready for the future of education' and as more and more home users find out, that their children need a PC (and good PC knowledge) to have a stake in the future," the team added.

Created by community members

This project has been created by members of the openSUSE community, the team said.

"We do not want to create a new distro out of this or a fork that requires large amounts of code maintenance, since that would be futile. We only want to add certain packages and features that pertain specifically to educators and student users alike," the team said.

The team that it expects the "EDU-CD" to be capable of producing an installation that can serve as both a desktop and a thin-client server and administrative suite for one school. Additionally, it will be able to create the individual component servers needed to communicate with each other in order to create the administrative infrastructure for an entire school district, according to the team.

"There are many pieces to this puzzle and everyone can help," the team said, asking that those interested should visit the "Education -- To do" list on the website to see what needs to be done.

Anyone with a valid openSUSE account can participate, the team said.

Help needed in several areas

Help is needed in many fields, according to the team, including:

Packaging new applications (or write new ones?)
Testing new applications
Writing articles here in the wiki or at other places
Helping others with their problems

"Wouldn't it be nice for a rural school to be able to build a small network based on openSUSE and thin clients, that hosts all the student management, course delivery, and testing services they need as well as provide achievement and testing records that are recognized world wide?" the team asked, noting that "All these tools exist in open source today; what is missing is the distribution to host and deliver them, together we can solve this issue."

Those wishing to participate in this initiative are asked to join the mailing list at "opensuse-edu" by sending an email to this address. Afterwards, send an email to this address and describe your needs, the team said. Mailing list archives may be found here.

-- Chris Preimesberger

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