Skolelinux
Encyclopedia
Skolelinux is an operating system
intended for educational use and based on Debian
(hence it is also named Debian-Edu).
Skolelinux is a free and open source software
project founded in Norway
, now supporting all languages present in Debian. Its name is a direct translation of "school linux" from Norwegian
, skole derived from the Latin word schola.
, including a main server
, workstation
s and thin client servers. In short, its major goals are to:
The Skolelinux project was associated with the member organisation "Linux in schools", which was founded on July 16, 2001. "Linux in schools" later changed its name to "Free Software in Schools" by the annual meeting on October 16, 2004. German teachers, developers and translators joined Skolelinux throughout 2002. In 2003, Skolelinux was included step-by-step as a standard part of Debian
.
Since 2003, many developers from around the world have joined the project, with developers in France, Greece and Germany being the most active. The Skolelinux project also cooperates with many other free educational software projects such as LTSP
, gnuLinEx
, Edubuntu
, K12LTSP
, KDE
, Gnome
, Firefox and OpenOffice.org
. Similar organisations have also been established in Spain, Germany, Latvia, France, Brasil and Denmark.
Skolelinux has been a major contributor to rewriting the Debian-Installer
. In addition, Skolelinux has conducted extensive development and testing of thin client
s and diskless workstation
s as a part of the new LTSP
version 5.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
intended for educational use and based on Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
(hence it is also named Debian-Edu).
Skolelinux is a free and open source software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
project founded in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, now supporting all languages present in Debian. Its name is a direct translation of "school linux" from Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, skole derived from the Latin word schola.
Design and principles
Skolelinux offers four different installation profiles on one compact disk that will easily install a pre-configured educational networkComputer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
, including a main server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
, workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
s and thin client servers. In short, its major goals are to:
- Enable teachers to provide high quality IT teaching to their students.
- Create a Linux distributionLinux distributionA Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
tailored for schools—based on their needs and resources. - Simplify maintenance of computer facilities.
- Provide a thin clientThin clientA thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...
-solution, which eases maintenance, reduces costs and allows use of old hardware. - Cut costs by using open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software and re-using old hardware. - Localize the IT infrastructure by translating the software pages to both official writing forms of NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
— BokmålBokmålBokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
and NynorskNynorskNynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
, as well as Northern SamiNorthern SamiNorthern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland...
. This goal is later extended to reach out to all languages though in schools around the world. - Identify and facilitate suitable programs for use in the schools.
History
The Skolelinux project was started on July 2, 2001. Twenty-five computer programmers and translators agreed to improve the use of software in education. They disliked that the next generation of computer users were not able to have access to source code, arguing that children who are interested should be able to learn from expert programmers to create their own software. Other developers, especially the translators, were interested in providing computer programs in the students' native languages. These developers thought that students should be able to navigate the internet by having "road signs" they would understand.The Skolelinux project was associated with the member organisation "Linux in schools", which was founded on July 16, 2001. "Linux in schools" later changed its name to "Free Software in Schools" by the annual meeting on October 16, 2004. German teachers, developers and translators joined Skolelinux throughout 2002. In 2003, Skolelinux was included step-by-step as a standard part of Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
.
Since 2003, many developers from around the world have joined the project, with developers in France, Greece and Germany being the most active. The Skolelinux project also cooperates with many other free educational software projects such as LTSP
Linux Terminal Server Project
Linux Terminal Server Project is a free and open source terminal server for Linux that allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer. Applications run on the server with a terminal known as a thin client handling input and output...
, gnuLinEx
GnuLinEx
gnuLinEx, or LinEx, is a Debian-based GNU-Linux operating system that uses GNOME for its desktop. An initiative of the regional government of Extremadura, Spain, gnuLinEx is intended to be used in all schools in Extremadura, as well as in official institutions. It is actively promoted for business...
, Edubuntu
Edubuntu
Edubuntu, also previously known as Ubuntu Education Edition, is an official derivative of the Ubuntu operating system designed for use in classrooms inside schools, homes and communities....
, K12LTSP
K12LTSP
K12LTSP is a modification to the Centos operating system with the Linux Terminal Server Project packages integrated into it. It's designed to be easy to install and configure. K12LTSP is an off-shoot of the Linux in School Project ....
, KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
, Gnome
Gnome
A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature...
, Firefox and OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
. Similar organisations have also been established in Spain, Germany, Latvia, France, Brasil and Denmark.
Skolelinux has been a major contributor to rewriting the Debian-Installer
Debian-Installer
Debian-Installer is the installation program for Debian. It was originally written for the Debian 3.1 release , although the first version of a Linux distribution it was used with was Skolelinux Venus ....
. In addition, Skolelinux has conducted extensive development and testing of thin client
Thin client
A thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...
s and diskless workstation
Diskless workstation
A diskless node is a workstation or personal computer without disk drives, which employs network booting to load its operating system from a server...
s as a part of the new LTSP
Linux Terminal Server Project
Linux Terminal Server Project is a free and open source terminal server for Linux that allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer. Applications run on the server with a terminal known as a thin client handling input and output...
version 5.
Releases
- Skolelinux 1.0 - codenamed "Venus" (after the almost concurrent Venus transitTransit of Venus, 2004The most recent transit of Venus when observed from Earth took place on June 8, 2004. The event received significant attention, since it was the first Venus transit to take place after the invention of broadcast media...
), is based on Debian Woody and was released on June 20, 2004. - Skolelinux 2.0 - codenamed "DebianEdu" (after Skolelinux was adopted as part of the Debian sub-project with that name), is based on Debian Sarge and was released March 14, 2006.
- Skolelinux 3.0 - codenamed "Terra", is based on Debian Etch and was released July 22, 2007.
- Skolelinux 5.0 aka Debian Edu 5.0.4+edu0 is based on Debian Lenny and was released February 9, 2010.
Funding
Skolelinux development is sponsored by the SLX Debian Labs Foundation on a yearly basis. The Norwegian Ministry of Education and The Ministry of Reform and Administration has sponsored the project. Also private donors and companies have provided sponsorship. This helps organize 7-10 developer gatherings annually in Norway, Spain and Germany.See also
- Comparison of Linux distributionsComparison of Linux distributionsTechnical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons...
- List of Linux distributions