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 literal translation is "school linux". It was founded in Norway 2001 with the objective to become an overall computer solution designed to fit on school's resources and needs. Nowadays it is being internationally developed by a large international and growing community.
It is an advanced network solution that allows both technical and non-technical installation process depending on the user needs and expertise. It provides many pre-configured services out-of-the-box and highly simplify middle to large system deployments and system configurations.
Why consider it?
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.
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.
A bit of history
On a warm summer day in 2001, a group of four computer-savvy people sat down and talked about the computer situation in schools. They found it depressing that Norwegian students – computer users of the future – did not have access to the source code behind the software they were using, or enough equipment to learn while using computers as a tool. Additionally, they wanted to have the "road signs" of the information highway available in the local language.
With great enthusiasm and computer knowledge, they decided to stop just talking and actually do something about it. Now, three years later, Skolelinux is, in various reports, said to be "the only computer solution that takes the schools' needs and resources seriously" (Statskonsult report #18, December 2003).
The Skolelinux project was started on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators agreed to improve the use of software in education.[3] 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 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,[4] 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. A total of 196 schools using Skolelinux are currently listed on the DebianEdu Wiki. This case study[5] of implementing Skolelinux at a school in Greece is typical of user experiences.[6]
Its goals
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.
It aims to:
- provide a complete educational free software solution useful on real scenarios.
- be easy to install, use, maintain, administer and to just get working out of the box.
- classify and package any educational free software.
- provide documentation on how teachers can make the most of all available tools.
- reach international scale being natively translated into many languages.
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
Great features
- 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.