Edubuntu, previously known as Ubuntu Education Edition, was an official derivative of the

Ubuntu operating system Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...

designed for use in classrooms inside

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

s, homes and communities. Edubuntu was developed in collaboration with teachers and technologists in several countries. Edubuntu is built on top of the Ubuntu base, incorporates the LTSP

thin client In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...

architecture and several education-specific applications, and is aimed at users aged 6 to 18. It was designed for easy installation and ongoing system maintenance.

Features

Included with Edubuntu is the

Linux Terminal Server Project Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) 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 (also known as an X te ...

and many applications relevant to education including

GCompris GCompris is a software suite comprising educational entertainment software for children aged 2 to 10. GCompris was originally written in C and Python using the GTK+ widget toolkit, but a rewrite in C++ and QML using the Qt widget toolkit has ...

, KDE Edutainment Suite, Sabayon Profile Manager, Pessulus Lockdown Editor, Edubuntu Menueditor, LibreOffice, Gnome Nanny and iTalc. Edubuntu CDs were previously available free of charge through their ''Shipit'' service; it is only available as a download in a DVD format. Edubuntu's default

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...

, while GNOME is still available.

has been the default GUI since the release of 12.04. Since release 7.10,

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

is also available as Edubuntu KDE. In 2010, Edubuntu and the Qimo 4 Kids project were working on providing Qimo within Edubuntu, but this was not done as it would not have fit on a CD.

Project goals

The primary goal of Edubuntu was to enable an educator with limited technical knowledge and skills to set up a computer lab or an on-line learning environment in an hour or less and then effectively administer that environment. The principal design goals of Edubuntu were centralized management of configuration, users and processes, together with facilities for working collaboratively in a classroom setting. Equally important was the gathering together of the best available free software and digital materials for education. According to a statement of goals on the official Edubuntu website: "Our aim is to put together a system that contains all the best free software available in education and make it easy to install and maintain." It also aimed to allow low income environments to maximize utilisation of their available (older) equipment.

Versions

The first Edubuntu release coincided with the release of Ubuntu 5.10, which was codenamed ''Breezy Badger'' on 2005-10-13. With the 8.04 Hardy Heron release of Edubuntu it was given the name of Ubuntu Education Edition and was changed to be an add-on to a standard Ubuntu installation instead of being an installable LiveCD. From version 9.10 onwards, Edubuntu changed to be available as a full system DVD instead of an Add-on CD. Edubuntu is also installable via a selection of "edubuntu" packages for all distributions using the official Ubuntu repositories (

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

and Kubuntu mainly). Since 14.04, Edubuntu became LTS-only; Edubuntu announced that they would skip the 16.04 LTS update and that they planned on staying with 14.04 due to lack of contributors.

References

External links

* * {{FOSS 2005 software Educational operating systems Free educational software Linux Terminal Server Project Ubuntu derivatives Discontinued Linux distributions Linux distributions

Features

Project goals

Versions

See also

References

External links