| Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 2.0 heads for schools |
Mar. 18, 2006
Following more than 21 months of development, Skolelinux Friday released a major new version, Debian-Edu/Skolelinux v2.0, designed specifically for use in the classroom. Skolelinux, which uses the 2.6 kernel and KDE desktop as defaults, is installed in hundreds of schools in Norway, Germany, and other countries, the project said.
Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 2.0 aims to provide an out-of-the-box, localized environment tailored for schools and universities. It environment comes with 75 applications aimed at schools, as well as 15 network services pre-configured for a school environment, the project said.
The simple, three-question installation requires minimal technical knowledge. Upgrade and maintenance of the software can be done over the Internet with the power of Debian's apt-get. The core goals of Skolelinux are localization and ease of system administration.
According to the project, many municipalities use Norway-based Skolelinux in all of their schools. Such centralized operation offers low maintenance and operational costs, the project team said.
The new version of Skolelinux offers recent versions of popular programs such as OpenOffice 2.0.2, Mozilla Firefox 1.5, and GCompris ("an educational software suite [comprised] of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10") -- all in many languages.
Thin client support has been improved, and it is now possible to install "half-thick" clients. Half-thick clients allow for full use of newer hardware, offering support for CD/DVD-ROM, USB-pen, and audio devices. Since all software is distributed from the Skolelinux servers, maintenance costs on half-thick clients are still kept low, the team said.
A complete list of changes since the last version can be found here.
Some screenshots of Debian-Edu/Skolelinux v2.0 here.
To download the free iso image (698 MB) for i386 architecture, go here.
Another Debian-derived distro, Ubuntu, also has an "education" version: Edubuntu.
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