Press Package to be released to the media upon release of 3.0.
The press package contains the following pieces:
- A general press release announcing availability of Skolelinux 3.0. with media contacts from five countries and general information.
- Quotes from developers, media contacts and beta-testers.
- What about including some pictures, perhaps of a classroom using skolelinux or a screenshot of the desktop? [pere 2007-07-20]
The press package is available in English, Norwegian, Spanish and other languages online at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/PressReleases/
Media information
This freely available 'press package' from Debian-Edu is made available as a part of the 3.0 ("Terra") release of our Custom Debian Distribution - Skolelinux.
For questions regarding the 'press package' or any content found within, please contact the Debian-Edu media contacts found here: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/PressReleases/PressRelease_DebianEdu-3.0_Terra
1: Press release
Debian-Edu: Skolelinux 3.0 Terra available for free download!
* Oslo - July 22., 2007
Skolelinux 3.0 is ready. This is an community release with comprehensive support from regional and national projects in Germany, Spain, France, Greece and Norway. The Skolelinux project is now a part of Debian under the name Debian-Edu. Several other projects have made additional functionality to Skolelinux tailored for national needs. Skolelinux now supports 50 countries.
Whats new in Skolelinux 3.0:
- based on Debian 4.0 "etch" and therefore compatible to LSB 3.1, using kernel 2.6.18 and KDE 3.5.5
Full support for networked Thin clients, LowFat (diskless) clients, Workstations and Laptops. With the LowFat clients users got full PC functionality with extremely low maintenance cost. The use of LowFat clients gives full support for sound, video, USB memory stick's and DVDs without the need for a local installation.
Skolelinux now got more than 80 applications selected for pedagogic uses, supporting more than 50 languages. Many new applications are introduced in addition to popular classic as !GCompris, KDE-Edu, Iceweasel (unbranded version of Firefox) and OpenOffice.org.
- Installation is a breeze: Both the installation and source code for all software are now distributed on a single DVD now supporting three different processor platforms as i386, PowerPC and AMD64. This makes it more easy to choose hardware, and to study the recipes behind the software. Those interested can excercize their freedom to learn, participate and share knowledge more easily. Installation CDs are also available, but requires a working Internet connection for installation.
About Skolelinux
Skolelinux is a complete tailored software solution for the needs of any educational institution or school. It is a ready computer system were the school does not need to piece together the components.
Skolelinux is the result of the work of the Debian Edu project and Debian Edu is an official Debian subproject. It is installed in a great number of schools in Norway, Germany, France and other countries. Municipalities and Commercial Service Providers run Skolelinux across multiple schools, operated and maintained centrally. Service providers report that the "lowfat clients" require half the maintenance cost of other desktop alternatives.
The next milestone of Skolelinux development will be to merge the Debian-based LinEx distro into Debian Edu[2]. Currently LinEx is used by more than 250,000 students and public employees in the region of Extremadura in Spain.
In depth
"Lowfat clients" is also known as Diskless workstations. They run applications locally on the client. All software comes from the server instead of locally from the client hard drive. Recommended minimum requirement for client machines is > 256 MB RAM and 800 MHz CPU. Skolelinux now got improved tools for system survailance and maintenence.
Roadmap for next merging of LinEx and Debian-Edu:
Please note that the documentation for the 3.0 Terra release is only available in English at the moment and contains some rough edges. We have considered releasing before the end of the summer holidays more important and we will fix those rough edges in the coming weeks, when we also expect more translations to show up. Those fixes will be included in the upcoming 3.0 r1 release.
Contact information
- General information about Debian-Edu or Skolelinux:
- E-mail: debian-edu AT lists.debian.org
- Media contacts
- Norway
- Anders Kringstad Hanssen
<akai AT skolelinux.no> +47 932 82 137 (cellphone) Knut Yrvin
<knuty AT skolelinux.no> +47 908 95 765 (cellphone)
- Anders Kringstad Hanssen
- Germany
- Kurt Gramlich
<kurt AT skolelinux.de>
- Kurt Gramlich
- Spain
- José L. Redrejo Rodríguez
<jredrejo AT edu.juntaextremadura.net>
- José L. Redrejo Rodríguez
- France
- Thierry Stauder
<thierry AT skolelinux.fr>
- Thierry Stauder
- Pakistan
- Tariq Farooqi
<tariq AT linuxpakistan.net> +92-21-6622134 (cellphone)
- Tariq Farooqi
- Norway
For more information about Debian-Edu/Skolelinux please see our webpage at
Download:
A complete list of improvements have been made available at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/ReleaseNotes
2: Quotes
Steffen Joeris, Developer - Germany:
- "I think the last release cycle was very vital and it included major changes.
This includes the new "Debian-Edu/Skolelinux 3.0" version and many things behind the curtain as well, such as new infrastructure, internal team structure, new contributors and a deeper connection to Debian."
Steffen Joeris, Developer - Germany:
- "The usability point was improved a lot and our focus is still the teacher, who needs to teach instead of spending all his time to administrate the network."
Anders Kringstad Hanssen, Leader, Free Software in Schools - Norway:
- "With the great 3.0 release of Debian-Edu, we are putting focus back on a often overlooked need for freedom and stability in educational software. The proprietary software industry treats pupils as consumers, instead of as human beings who are curious to learn how things are made. Educational software should be both user friendly and universally accessible, encouraging pupils and teachers to learn from each other and innovate."
Knut Yrvin, Relations manager, Skolelinux project - Norway:
- "Skolelinux 3.0 is a clear and powerful community release with large-scale support from regionaly and nationaly based projects in Germany, Spain, France and Norway. I am confident that with this release we have given educators in many countries a tool they have been waiting for."
Holger Levsen, Developer - Germany:
- "As much as I'm proud about all the technical advances under the hood, I think maybe the best news are not so much technical: first and probably the best, our team has become bigger and more diversed, we have various infrastructue improvements in place, of which the new documentation is probably the best in the long run: it's written in a wiki, then transformed into docbook, which then can be used for translations in many free software projects. We can create PDFs and HTML and other versions from those docbook documents. I'm looking forward to see the full power of all this in the future."
Richard Brand, German School of Oslo - Norway:
- "Stable, secure, userfriendly and flexible in all needed languages! Thus, we have used Skolelinux for several years - both for students and teachers. (July 2007)"
Trond Mæhlum, ICT advisor, municipality of Kongsvinger - Norway:
- "In the municipality of Kongsvinger we have used Skolelinux in all our schools since 2004. This includes 8 schools and 2300 users. Our Installation has 20 servers and about 900 lowfat clients. After three years of use, we would have choosen Skolelinux again if we were to re-concider. (July 2007)"
Viggo Fedreheim, municipality of Narvik - Norway:
- "We have used Skolelinux for 3 years at 14 schools and are very pleased. We administer all schools from a centric solution. Our schools has all they need to complete their learning mission. In addition we're saving hundreds of thousands on licence fees. (June 2007)"