THIS IS A DRAFT UNTIL SKOLELINUX 3.0 IS RELEASED
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 and other languages online at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/PressReleases/PressPackage/3.0/
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 20, 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: - 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 (Firefox) and OpenOffice.org.
- Installation is a breeze: Both the installation and source code for all software are now distributed on one DVD now supporting three different processor platforms as i386, Power and AMD64. This makes it more easy to choose hardware, and to study the recipes behind the software. Those with interest now got the freedom to learn, participate and share knowledge. 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 Debian Edu project's Custom Debian Distribution. 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. 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>
- José "L. Redrejo" RodrÃguez
<jredrejo AT edu.juntaextremadura.net>
- Thierry Stauder
<thierry AT skolelinux.fr>
- Tariq Farooqi
<tariq AT linuxpakistan.net> +92-21-6622134 (cellphone)
- Kurt Gramlich
- - Norway
For more information about Debian-Edu/Skolelinux please see or webpage at
Download information:
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."