Skolelinux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Company / developer | Debian-Edu/Skolelinux |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Free and open source software |
| Initial release | June 20, 2004 (1.0) |
| Latest stable release | 5.0 / February 10, 2010 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic Linux kernel |
| Default user interface | KDE |
| License | Various |
| Website | skolelinux.org |
Skolelinux is an operating system intended for educational use and based on Debian (hence it is also named Debian-Edu).
Skolelinux is a free and open source software project founded in Norway, now supporting all languages present in Debian. Its name is a direct translation of "school linux" from Norwegian, 'skole' being derived from the Latin word schola. Skolelinux offers four different installation profiles on one compact disk that will easily install a pre-configured educational network, including a main server, workstations and thin client servers. In short, its major goals are to:
- Enable teachers to provide high quality IT teaching to their students.
- Create a Linux distribution tailored for schools -- based on their needs and resources.
- Simplify maintenance of computer facilities.
- Provide a thin client-solution, which eases maintenance, reduces costs and allows use of old hardware.
- Cut costs by using open source software and re-using old hardware.
- Localize the IT infrastructure by translating the software pages to both official writing forms of Norwegian — Bokmål and Nynorsk, as well as Northern_Sami (This goal is later extended to reach out to all languages though in schools around the world).
- Identify and facilitate suitable programs for use in the schools.
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[edit] History
The Skolelinux project was started on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators agreed to improve the use of software in education. They disliked that the next generation of computer users were not able to have access to source code, arguing that children who are interested should be able to learn from expert programmers to create their own software. Other developers, especially the translators, were interested in providing computer programs in the students' native languages. These developers thought that students should be able to navigate the internet by having "road signs" they would understand.
The Skolelinux project was associated with the member organisation "Linux in schools", which was founded on July 16th, 2001. "Linux in schools" later changed its name to "Free Software in Schools" by the annual meeting on October 16th, 2004. German teachers, developers and translators joined Skolelinux throughout 2002. In 2003, Skolelinux was included step-by-step as a standard part of Debian.
Since 2003, many developers from around the world have joined the project, with developers in France, Greece and Germany being the most active. The Skolelinux project also cooperates with many other free educational software projects such as LTSP, gnuLinEx, Edubuntu, K12LTSP, KDE, Gnome, Firefox and OpenOffice.org. Similar organisations have also been established in Spain, Germany, Latvia, France, Brasil and Denmark.
Skolelinux has been a major contributor to rewriting the Debian installer. In addition, Skolelinux has conducted extensive development and testing of thin clients and diskless workstations as a part of the new LTSP version 5.
[edit] Releases
- Skolelinux 1.0 - codenamed "Venus" (after the almost concurrent Venus transit), is based on Debian Woody and was released on June 20, 2004.
- Skolelinux 2.0 - codenamed "DebianEdu" (after Skolelinux was adopted as part of the Debian sub-project with that name), is based on Debian Sarge and was released March 14, 2006.
- Skolelinux 3.0 - codenamed "Terra", is based on Debian Etch and was released July 22, 2007.[1] Due to the tight connection between the Debian project and the custom Debian distribution (CDD) Skolelinux, this distribution is sometimes also referred to as Debian Edu 3.0.
- Under development: Skolelinux 4.0. Codename unknown. Will most likely be released in 2009[citation needed].
[edit] Funding
Skolelinux development is sponsored by SLX Debian Labs on a yearly basis. The Norwegian Ministry of Education and The Ministry of Reform and Administration has sponsored the project. Also private donors and companies have provided sponsorship. This helps organize 7-10 developer gatherings annually in Norway, Spain and Germany.
[edit] References
- ^ DebianEdu (2007-07-22). "Press release DebianEdu-3.0 "Terra"". DebianEdu Wiki. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/PressReleases/PressRelease_DebianEdu-3.0_Terra. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
