Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (292 mails)

[Michael Brown <mbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Mr Miles Berry wrote:
> Also for the under 11s, many of the excellent programs on Michael's
> resource list are perhaps a little too complex,

This is a known weakness - applications suitable for primary age are
currently under-represented in the Resource Library (I think Logo is
probably the only primary-specific application at the moment).

> My Key Stage 1 & 2 colleagues currently expect a range of education
> specific titles to be available, which are only at present available
> for Windows - OK VMWare and WINE mean these can be run under Linux but
> that's kind of defeating the object IMHO. Given time then I'm sure the
> functionality of these programs will be available under Linux or,
> preferably, via the web.

Could you describe the education software that you use?  Titles alone will
not mean much to me, but if you can give me a description then I can start
someone searching for Linux-based or web-based equivalents.

> I think that at least some of OSiE's efforts should be devoted to
> advocating Linux as a server solution for the small school. There are
> plenty out there still with no networking or with only peer to peer
> solutions for whom the huge added functionality of a single Linux box
> doing files, printers, proxying, mail and intranet would be a great
> benefit educationally and a good advert for what Linux can do.

What is the demand like for this type of setup?  It's relatively simple to
set up, which is why we don't provide it - there's not much value we can
add to the basic Linux distribution.  For example, if I run through the
install process on my distribution of choice, select "Server" and make
sure to choose the Samba, CUPS, Squid, Postfix and Apache packages then I
will end up with a system that requires only a couple of tweaks to turn it
into the type of server you describe.  The default configuration for most
of the packages will suffice.

> Setting up a NT box to do all this is certainly a non-trivial
> operation, but we do need to have a distribution that's at least no
> worse than this, so that a tech savvy but hard pressed teacher can
> still get it up and running.

Already exists!  The installation procedure could even be automated to the
point that the whole system installs automatically with the correct
packages, automatic partitioning etc. by just creating a single text file.

Michael Brown
Fen Systems Ltd.