Differences between revisions 17 and 18
Revision 17 as of 2014-03-14 20:46:40
Size: 10603
Editor: ?pulchras
Comment:
Revision 18 as of 2014-03-14 22:25:11
Size: 9837
Editor: ?pulchras
Comment:
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 6: Line 6:
It is an advanced network solution that provides a terminal server environment suitable to many educational scenarios and it comes with most of its services pre-configured out-of-the-box. It allows both a technical and non-technical installation process depending on the user needs and expertise and it highly simplifies middle to large system deployments and configurations. It is an advanced network solution that provides a terminal server environment suitable to most educational scenarios and it comes with most of its services pre-configured out-of-the-box. It allows both a technical and non-technical installation process depending on the user needs and expertise and highly simplifies middle to large system deployments and configurations.
Line 12: Line 12:
It all started on a warm summer day in 2001 when a group of four computer-savvy people started talking about the computer situation in schools. They totally disliked the predominant market domination of proprietary software and all its associated restrictions and costs. They thought of a better scenario where Norwegian students could have software natively translated into their own language or were they could access to the source code of any program they ran arguing that children who are interested should be able to learn from expert programmers to create their own software. They were conscious about schools' issues about license cost and constant renewing equipments cost.<<BR>>
With great enthusiasm and computer knowledge, they decided to stop just talking and actually do something about it and so they took action and officially founded Skolelinux project on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators agreed to improve the use of software in education. 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.
Skolelinux seed appeared during a warm summer day in 2001 when a group of four computer-savvy people started debating about the computer situation at schools and how much they disliked the predominant market domination of proprietary software. They dreamt of a better scenario where Norwegian students could enjoy software natively translated and where they could have access to the source code to be able to learn from it. They were also conscious about schools' problems with all high costs and restrictions that proprietary software impose.
Line 15: Line 14:
The Skolelinux project was associated with the member organisation "Linux in schools", which was founded on July 16, 2001. "Linux in schools" later changed its name to "Free Software in Schools" by the annual meeting on October 16, 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. With great enthusiasm and high computer skills, they started working and officially founded Skolelinux project on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators combined efforts to improve and promote educational software. Naturally, some of this pioneers were more interested about software itself and some others about providing as much native translations as possible.<<BR>>
More or less at the same time, Raphael Herzog started the Debian Edu project in France to create an education-related meta-packages collection until 2003 when the two projects merged.
Line 17: Line 17:
The skolelinux project was launched on 2 July founded in 2001, around the same time Raphael Herzog began in France with Debian Edu. Since 2003, the two projects are one, and the names are synonyms. Some say that Debian Edu is the name of the project, and skolelinux the name of the distribution. Today, many working volunteers on the further development of the project: Over 130 programmers support skolelinux, as the Debian Edu developer from Norway , France , Spain , Germany , Lithuania , Brazil and the U.S. including. 2009 skolelinux is in a pilot phase at eleven schools in the country Rhineland-Palatinate tested after already Hamburg introduced the system in its schools. [1] Soon DebianEdu/Skolelinux importance grew and it associated with the "Free Software in Schools" organization (earlier called "Linux in schools") which was founded on July 16, 2001. During 2002 german teachers, developers and translators joined Skolelinux. In 2003, Skolelinux was included step-by-step as a standard part of Debian and since then many developers from around the world have collaborated to the project. During 2009 was tested on a pilot phase at eleven Norway schools and it was introduced in Hamburg schools too.

Nowadays the project has established cooperation with many other free educational software projects such as LTSP, gnuLinEx, Edubuntu, K12LTSP, KDE, Gnome, Firefox and OpenOffice.org.
Line 23: Line 25:
At some point during the spring and summer of 2001 both DebianEdu and Skolelinux projects started as an attempt to create a GNU/Linux distribution for educational purposes. DebianEdu started from a french group called IIRC as a project intended to create education-related meta-packages and Skolelinux from a Norwegian group as a project intended to create a CD distribution.
After some minimal collaborations, the french group left package maintenance to the norwegian group which started to include them on their CD. By that time people all over the world were contributing but was at that point that both projects effectively became one. So nowadays both names actually refer to the same project.
At some point during the spring and summer of 2001 both DebianEdu and Skolelinux projects started as an attempt to create a GNU/Linux distribution for educational purposes. Raphael Herzog started DebianEdu project as a member of a group called IIRC with objective to create education-related meta-packages and Skolelinux started from a Norwegian group as a project intended to create a CD distribution.
After some minimal collaborations, the french group left package maintenance to the norwegian group which started to include them on their CD. By that time people all over the world were contributing but was at that point that both projects effectively became one. Some say that DebianEdu is the name of the project, and skolelinux is the name of the distribution but in practice nowadays both name actually refer to the same project.

What is it?

DebianEdu/Skolelinux is an operating system intended for educational use and a Debian Pure Blend . As skole [skuːl] is the norvegian word for school, Skolelinux's literal translation is "school linux". It has been created as an overall free software computer solution designed to fit on school's resources and needs and is currently being internationally developed by a large international and growing community.
It is an advanced network solution that provides a terminal server environment suitable to most educational scenarios and it comes with most of its services pre-configured out-of-the-box. It allows both a technical and non-technical installation process depending on the user needs and expertise and highly simplifies middle to large system deployments and configurations.

A bit of history

Skolelinux seed appeared during a warm summer day in 2001 when a group of four computer-savvy people started debating about the computer situation at schools and how much they disliked the predominant market domination of proprietary software. They dreamt of a better scenario where Norwegian students could enjoy software natively translated and where they could have access to the source code to be able to learn from it. They were also conscious about schools' problems with all high costs and restrictions that proprietary software impose.

With great enthusiasm and high computer skills, they started working and officially founded Skolelinux project on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators combined efforts to improve and promote educational software. Naturally, some of this pioneers were more interested about software itself and some others about providing as much native translations as possible.
More or less at the same time, Raphael Herzog started the Debian Edu project in France to create an education-related meta-packages collection until 2003 when the two projects merged.

Soon DebianEdu/Skolelinux importance grew and it associated with the "Free Software in Schools" organization (earlier called "Linux in schools") which was founded on July 16, 2001. During 2002 german teachers, developers and translators joined Skolelinux. In 2003, Skolelinux was included step-by-step as a standard part of Debian and since then many developers from around the world have collaborated to the project. During 2009 was tested on a pilot phase at eleven Norway schools and it was introduced in Hamburg schools too.

Nowadays the project has established cooperation with many other free educational software projects such as LTSP, gnuLinEx, Edubuntu, K12LTSP, KDE, Gnome, Firefox and OpenOffice.org.

DebianEdu or Skolelinux?

At some point during the spring and summer of 2001 both DebianEdu and Skolelinux projects started as an attempt to create a GNU/Linux distribution for educational purposes. Raphael Herzog started DebianEdu project as a member of a group called IIRC with objective to create education-related meta-packages and Skolelinux started from a Norwegian group as a project intended to create a CD distribution. After some minimal collaborations, the french group left package maintenance to the norwegian group which started to include them on their CD. By that time people all over the world were contributing but was at that point that both projects effectively became one. Some say that DebianEdu is the name of the project, and skolelinux is the name of the distribution but in practice nowadays both name actually refer to the same project.

Project objectives

  • Create a complete solution: provide a complete educational free software solution suitable for real scenarios.

  • Reduce technical barriers: The best way to reach wide spread is by easing instalation, use, maintenance and administration. We make it easy and working out-of-the-box.

  • International scale: as part of a collaborative project it is essential to offer as higher native translation level as possible.

  • Educational software ecosystem: it is necessary to locate, package and classify any educational free software.

  • Teaching documentation: it is important not only to provide a great platform but to provide documentation on how to better use it for teaching.


Why consider it?

Advantatges

  • Free software This is ethically important for schools. School should not be an arena where piracy is accepted or encouraged, but a place that promotes the making and sharing of knowledge. Skolelinux respects this need. has user-friendly licences that give you rights – not responsibilities!

  • Economical savings Teleplan, an independent agency, has estimated (report available in Norwegian only) savings up to 60% by using Skolelinux with thin clients, compared to a traditional Windows solution. These savings are mainly due to eased maintenance, and not because Skolelinux has zero cost

  • Higly supported Skolelinux is part of Debian, and as such, is supported by a large and vibrant community. This means lots of momentum, development, and a guarantee that Skolelinux will be around in years to come.

  • Ecological By enabling reuse of old equipment, Skolelinux helps save the environment. Instead of trashing old hardware, it can be used as thin clients.

  • Stability and reliability Skolelinux is very stable and reliable. The students will experience predictability and a system that works. Additionally, Skolelinux is less vulnerable to worms and viruses.

  • Solves real needs Skolelinux is made by schools for schools. Thus, Skolelinux is tailored to school needs.

  • Provides control Skolelinux makes the users independent of supplier, and can decide themselves when to upgrade both hardware and software.


Opinions

?DebianEdu/InterestingLinks#Opinions



Who is behind it?

The institution "SLX Debian Labs" is financially responsible for the Skolelinux project. SLX Debian Labs sponsor FRISK to fund the development of Skolelinux through an joint agreement.

The "FRISK" (Free software in schools [Norwegian nonprofit organization]) member organization is an interest community, which takes care of the actual development in tandem with the larger Debian-Edu community across the world. FRISK have about 120 developers, with an active core of about 30 developers, a board and are always welcoming new people.

See "Organization" for more information.

Where we are now?

Current achievements

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. Many schools using Skolelinux are currently listed on the DebianEdu Wiki. This case study of implementing Skolelinux at a school in Greece is typical of user experiences.

In short, its major goals are to: 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. Identify and facilitate suitable programs for use in the schools. Enable teachers to provide high quality IT teaching to their students. 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.

The goal of our customization of Debian is to make it easy to install and maintain for schools. – with all applications available in the students mother tongue.

  • It is a network architecture tailored for use in schools.
  • It is developed and supported by a large and growing international community.
  • It is designed to be easy and cheap to maintain.
  • It gives the students their own usernames, home directories and services.
  • It includes OpenOffice.org

  • its auxiliary software components are free software
  • Central user catalogue: One username and one password for several machines and services.
  • Central storage: Regardless of which machine you use in a Skolelinux network, you have access to your files and meet an interface with your settings – an interface you are familiar with.
  • Thin client solution: The applications are run on a thin client server, which is a powerful machine. The image from those applications is drawn on a "thin client", which usually is an old and cheap machine. This enables you to use old hardware. Moreover, it eases administration, as you have one server to maintain.
  • Printers may be shared and made available in the network.
  • A proxy server caches files downloaded from the Internet, resulting in a faster surfing experience.

More detailed information can be found on the Product-pages.

Achievements for the future


How can I contribute?

Join the team

Please help us help kids learn to share and tinker, by donating some money to the project. We use them for developer gatherings and other project activites.

Other things you can do