Skolelinux/Debian-Edu and LinEx

[Posted July 25, 2007 by ris]

The Skolelinux project got its start in Norway in 2001. At that time the initial goals included using a Debian-based distribution with applications localized in two Norwegian dialects, Bokmål and Nynorsk, and in the Northern Sami language. The solution was envisioned as a server with thin clients, well documented and easy to use. Any teacher, even those without computer experience, should be able to install the system and have it ready for students without much effort.

Skolelinux has been on the LWN Distribution list since before pre release 41 was announced (November 2, 2003). That was about the time that the Skolelinux project and the Debian-Edu project decided that one big project was better than two little projects. The merger of the two mailing lists was completed in early 2004.

Skipping forward to the present, Skolelinux/Debian-Edu 3.0 has been released. It is based on Debian 4.0 "etch" and therefore compatible with LSB 3.1, using kernel 2.6.18 and KDE 3.5.5. This new release has full support for networked thin clients, diskless clients, workstations and laptops. There are more than 80 instructional applications, translated to more than 50 languages. Skolelinux receives support from regional and national projects in Germany, Spain, France, Greece and Norway.

The next milestone for Skolelinux will be to merge the Debian based gnuLinEx distribution, which is used by more than 250,000 students and public employees in the region of Extremadura in Spain. According to the road map, the merger will start with the educational installations of LinEx in primary and secondary schools. LinEx has many other installations in health care, government and small business that will not be affected, at least in the early stages.

There are some differences between LinEx and Debian-Edu that will need to addressed during the merger. For example, LinEx does not currently support thin and diskless clients, or use web-based system administration. Also LinEx uses GNOME and Skolelinux KDE, so GNOME will need to be integrated into the final product. Ideally all the required packages would be in the Debian repository, but there are licensing issues with packages that use Squeak, Flash or Java and LinEx contains some Spanish documentation, tutorials and training courses that have restrictive licenses. There are other LinEx specific packages could go into the Debian repository, they just aren't there now. Currently there are different packages in LinEx and Debian-Edu that do the same task, so one may be chosen over the other.

There are hurdles to overcome, but one of the largest may be that of producing a system that is familiar and comfortable for the users of both LinEx and Skolelinux, and by users I mean the teachers and administrators. The students will adapt.