Roundup of Educational Linux Distributions

Roundup of Educational Linux Distributions

Posted Jun 12, 2003 17:17 UTC (Thu) by haraldt (guest, #961)
Parent article: Roundup of Educational Linux Distributions

On the Skolelinux project:
You have mentioned the translation project, which is a major part of it.
But not what would be of most interest to LWN readers, the technical efforts.

Skolelinux is meant to ease installation and setup by providing a set of roll-out profiles. Get some boxen, wire up the network. Boot the CD, choose installation profile, default language and some other (very few) options. Repeat once per box, and voila! You got it up and running. You can customize and pluck from the whole Debian distribution if you want to, but plan is to avoid that time-consuming fickling and make it part of the distribution instead.
Computer administration on schools has very small resources compared to what's demanded of them. Because of this, complex setups are pretty much nonexistant. A very beautiful niche indeed. Our best argument is to ask beaurocrats to plan their investments. Lack of proper cost/benefit analysis is pretty unique to the computer technology market.

The default installation profiles also gives the user easy access to advanced technology. Login and user profiles through LDAP database. Shared file/printer access throught the whole network. Customizing the application menu by user groups. Standard setup of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) and of course, install-and-run network setup.
As per prerelase 38, the installation profiles are presented this way:

• Every Skolelinux network needs one, and only one 'Server'. The 'Server' option contains mainly a file/network server and a LDAP-server. This option alone does not contain a Graphical User Interface.
• The 'Workstation' option is a normal workstation on the Skolelinux network which mounts users home directories via NFS and authenticates via LDAP, against a machine running the profile 'Server'.
• The 'LTSP-server' options holds the necessary packages to run thin clients, it is also a DHCP-server. This option also includes the option 'Workstation'. The three profiles above can all be installed on the same machine.
• The 'Standalone' option is experimental and not yet functioning. It is meant to be a standalone machine outside of the Skolelinux network, like in the homes of pupils and teachers.

Internationalization of the project has begun. English, French and Dutch is supported on the distribution but english docamentation and web pages is rare so far. Most focus is on stabilizing the forthcoming 1.0 version.

More information can be had from the english-speakers developer list https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/devel or you can ask at the open mailing list info at skolelinux dot no.

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