Debian Edu Whislist
This is a which list for next Debian Edu relases. Some whishes are already in Debian. A HOWTO might be written explaining how to use a feauture, an applications or a server.
Others might not go in as several of the Netbook alternatives. We might pick two or three alternatives given our voluntary resources got time to do it. But we will not pick all. If you're unhappy with our priorities, you can join our effort making your preference a part of Skolelinux. It's free software, so no one stop you in adding new desktops, features or other things your self
Squeeze
- A netbook version of skolelinux. There are several Netbook alternatives today. Some examples are listed underneath.
WiFi-controller based on wrt-hardware
An easy way to freez all screens in a classroom. One button. ?ControlAula is already in Debian. Please add HOWTO.
- Exam-mode, where communication, internet and so on, is blocked.
More than 50 static adresses for workstations (why is there a limit). Ralf Gesellensetter has extended that IP range himself. It took 2-3 hours with trail and errors. Let convince Ralf to make an HOWTO
- Send message to all users, or group of users.
- Print quota
A way to use the amount of free diskspace on "diskless workstations". They are sold with harddisk most of them
- Digital signage app (info screen) that runs on the server.
- Wii whiteboard, or something similar.
- New artwork for d-i, grub, usplash, kdm and the desktop background
Easy content creation and catalogation tools for teachers. A tool like eXe would be excellent for the teachers to compose their own classes.
- Better integration between the different educative applications, in a web interface, if possible.
Netbook Desktop alternatives
Here is a list of Netbook alternatives shipped today. Several are in production, and most can be run on Debian Testing today without to much hassle (apt-get install ...).
KDE Plasma Netbook which is a default choice from KDE 4.4 Software Compilation shedduled for release February 2010
Sugar Desktop witch is default on One Laptop per Child.
Moblin is an Intel initiative
Android is promoted as a netbook alternative.
Maemo is Nokia's alternative for mobile PC's and Mobile Internet Devices.
At ?LinEx we've prepared a Desktop for secondary schools based on Gnome and are working on another one for primary schools based on LXDE. In both cases, using some configurations and simple scripts. The first one is for powerful laptops, and the second one for low resources laptops a.k.a Netbooks.
<fixme: There are several others not mentioned here. E.g Gnome developers are working on a new netbook interface>
As you can see there are many Netbook alternatives. Looking at the goals for Skolelinux reaching out to education, the Sugar Dekstop is an obvious choice for lower grades (the 1-5 first years at school). Since KDE 4.4 comes with a Netbook desktop as a choice, that might be a convinient choice for those using KDE. The KDE Plasma Netbook also got good reviews initially.