Download Skolelinux / Debian Edu 6.0.4

Skolelinux or Debian Edu is a Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and aimed at schools. This allows teachers to offer a Linux environment to their students in which many things have already been arranged in advance. According to the developers, it contains a mountain of useful programs that can be incorporated into teaching material. In addition, it uses LTSP, which allows the students to use simple hardware since the actual program is run on the central server. The developers have provided their distribution with a Debian Squeeze background instead of Debian Lenny. The version number has therefore come to be at 6.0.4. The corresponding announcement looks like this:

First “Squeeze”-based Debian Edu version released

The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu “Squeeze” 6.0.4+r0! Debian Edu (aka “Skolelinux”) is a Debian Pure Blend specifically targeted at schools and educational institutions, and provides a completely configured school network environment out of the box. It covers PXE installation, PXE booting for diskless machines, and setup for a school server, for stationary workstations, and for workstations that can be taken away from the school network. Several educational applications like Celestia, Dr. Geo, GCompris, GeoGebra, Kalzium, KGeography and Solfege are included in the default desktop setup.

Besides including everything provided by the fourth update of Debian “Squeeze” (6.0.4), this new release of Debian Edu introduces some interesting improvements, including: replacement of LWAT with GOsa² as the LDAP administration interface; updated artwork and new Debian Edu / Skolelinux logo; a new LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and GNOME (LXDE and GNOME are available only with the CD installation method); faster LTSP client boot; improved handling of removable media on thin clients; a new roaming workstation profile for laptops; full Samba NT4 domain support for Windows XP/Vista/7; etc.

The Debian Edu Team has also worked intensively on the documentation, improving and extending the manual which is now fully translated to German, French and Italian, while partial translations exist for Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Spanish. The installation process has also been improved, integrating the new version of debian-installer, allowing copying of ISO images to USB sticks and changing partitioning for Standalone installs to have a separate /home and no /usr.

When asked about the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu, Nigel Barker replied: “For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the workstation, or the LTSP. It’s all of them, and it’s all configured ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is designed to be set up and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who doesn’t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with Japan.”

For those who want to give Debian Edu “Squeeze” a try, complete download and installation instructions are available, including detailed instructions in the “Getting Started” chapter of the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting up a network or adding users.

Those who are already using rc1-3 can upgrade to this version by using for example “apt-get upgrade” – users upgrading from beta3 must make sure they keep the existing gosa.conf file when dpkg asks how to handle the changed file during upgrade .

Would you like to give your school’s computer a longer life? Are you tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administer all the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week? Check out Debian Edu Squeeze! Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world, mostly in Germany (in 2009 the region of Rhineland-Palatinate decided to use it in all its schools) and Norway.

About Debian Edu
The Skolelinux project was founded in Norway in 2001 with the aim of creating a GNU/Linux distribution for schools and other educational institutions. After merging with the French Debian Edu project in 2003, Skolelinux became a Debian Pure Blend. Today the system is in use in several countries around the world, with most installations in Norway, Spain, Germany and France.

About Debian
The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the “universal operating system”.