Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (28 mails)

["James Tremblay" <JT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lars,
these server packages are some of the current best of bread but would
be more work to build the ERP solution.
Koha  is not a true LAMP app but dupliates openbiblio using perl and is
very well respected.
ClaSS is similar to Centre although CLaSS is very young and its feature
set is still imature but it is already a true LAMP product.

The three packages that would be a priority to me are
Centre
Moodle
Openbiblio
The goal I have for a School ERP is based on these three packages.
These are all written in PHP, Centre merely needs MySQL porting to be
truely a  LAMP product and more compatible with the others, do you know
of anyone in the OpenSUSE group who might be able to do this, I can
write  my contacts asking that it become a priority. 
I have already written to the core maintainers of these projects and
asked if they would take code from us that would help them integrate
with one another. Centre is a BIG yes,
Moodle is looking at it and Openbiblio is a source forge product and
they have not returned an answer to me, I would like to fork  it into
Centre.
We will of course include any school management tools that someone
wants to work with but they need to step up and work with us on the
testing  and integration.

I will see what I can do about setting up a sabayon and kdekiosk demo
for my teachers and ask them to evaluate.
How about making the parent\teacher user during installation and
building a student\class\child administration tool basically a less
technical looking more parent\teacher featured version of yast2-users
with the new settings for the  sabayon or Kiosk tool? Then we could
stick that right on the desktop of the parent\teacher and have that user
setup as a  "priveledged user" like SLED SP1 does for ZMD users, with
extra privledges for adding users, updates and software packages.
Just to ease your work this time through, I would have to think that
just pushing Sabayon\KDEKiosk tool and yast2-users to the
"parent\teacher desktop" and pointing to there "online" documentation
would be a great start.
p.s. I have also added 
http://en.opensuse.org/Education_Server_Applications ;
and http://en.opensuse.org/Education#Example_EDU_Addon_CD  with all of
Jay's work on apps for SLED 
which of course can be moved if OpenSUSE has the storage.

>>> Lars Vogdt <lrupp@xxxxxxx> 4/11/2007 2:48 PM >>>
Hi @ll

I would like to give you and update on the openSUSE Edu-Project. Feel
free to 
comment, enhance or even add thinks I missed here... 

1) Edu-Packages for the Desktop
2) Edu-Packages for the Server
3) The education add on CD for 10.3

1) Packages for the Desktop

http://software.opensuse.org/download/Education:/desktop/ lists around
70 new 
packages. Not all of them are desktop applications - some of them are
just 
needed to run the desktop applications. Some others are already part of
the 
openSUSE distribution. 

I currently see:
wxMaxima: Graphical User Interface for the maxima Computer Algebra
System
yacas: YACAS is an easy to use, general purpose Computer Algebra
System.
klogic: Digital circiut simulation
ksudoku: Generate and Solve Sudoku Puzzles in 2D or 3D
tuxmath: Tux Math - educational math game
noteedit: Score Editor with Extensive MIDI and MusiXTeX Functionality
maxima: Maxima Symbolic Computation Program/Computer Algebra System
octave: A High Level Programming Language
kdeedu3: different Education Applications
tuxpaint: Drawing Program for Young Children
celestia: OpenGL Space Simulator
stellarium: Astronomical Sky Simulator

James has updated the
http://en.opensuse.org/Education_Desktop_Applications ;
site (thanks!) - but I see some "red" links (meens no wikisite) for
some of 
the listed applications. 

I like to see more "blue" links to pages like
http://en.opensuse.org/KStars ;
(thanks to Rajko!). What do you think? Sarah, is this something you can

support?

Can someone have a look at 
http://en.opensuse.org/Wishlist_Education ;
and come back here with a "priorisation list" what applications should
be 
packaged next?


2) Packages for the Server

http://software.opensuse.org/download/Education:/server/ lists around
90 
packages. But most of them are subpackages.

dansguardian: Content filtering web proxy
ClaSS: ClaSS stands for ClaSS Student System
selflinux: German Linux tutorial
squid: Squid WWW proxy server  (containing patches for dansguardian)
Centre: SIS-Student Information System  
koha: Koha is a full-featured open-source ILS (Integrated Library
System).  
openbiblio: OpenBiblio is an easy to use, automated library system  

I need someone who can tell me something about the differences
between:
* ClaSS vs. Centre
* koha vs. openbiblio
What do these Applications? Which application should be "preferred"?


3)  The education add on CD for 10.3

This would be the first community add on CD for openSUSE 10.3! So we
can and 
should show the other people outsite the benefits they can get with
such Add 
on CDs (additional packages, change the installation workflow, add 
yast-modules, ...). So perhaps even other projects or vendors start to

distribute such add on medias.

Current action items for me - but if someone would take care of some of
them 
or has better ideas I can do other things (-:

+ Search for a KDE and GNOME Theme (Desktop layout, Wallpaper, Icons)
which is 
more children friendly than the current default one. 

Think about children < 10 years old). For KDE we have a first package
using 
the "kids-theme" from everaldo.com - but we have to check the license
first 
bevore we can use it. Come up with better ideas... ..or have a look at
the 
screenshot: 
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/KDE+4+Kids?content=9144 ;

+ We need KIOSK-Tool- (KDE) and Sabayon- (GNOME) Templates for
children. 

Note: kiosktool and sabayon are still part of the distribution - so we
just 
need someone who "clicks through" the application and decides which 
restrictions are useful for children and which are not. With 
the tools you can restrict the access for the desktop (for example:
changing 
the wallpaper, starting a terminal, starting applications at all, ...).
For 
more details see
http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/sabayon ;
http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/ ;

+ Create a first "Edu-Pattern" for the normal 10.3 installation Images.


This EDU-Pattern should contain the "normal" packages, already on the
media - 
and also the additional software in the buildservice. So people who
enable 
the buildservice-repository or add the Education Add on CD would get
all the 
software installed.

Missing education packages can be added to the Wishlist:
http://en.opensuse.org/Wishlist_Education ;
The current pattern will include all the files listed above in 1 & 2.


+ Perhaps (if time permits) create an additional YaST-Module:
This module will start during installation of a PC. The user should be
able 
to:
* create a new user => his child
* choose one of the three(?) settings:
   1) child < 7 years (pre school)
   2) child 7-14 years (primary school)
   3) child 14> years
  Depending on these settings, YaST2 should:
  * enable one of three Kiosk-Modes (see above) for the new user 
  * configure a transparent Proxy and Internet-Filter (allow
whitelisted sites 
    only, deny blacklisted websites only, allow everything - depending
on the
    age of the child?) which can be configured by the parent later
    (YaST2-Modul for dansguardian or squidguard needed)
  * configure the Firewall settings for IRC and other tools using
Internet 
     connections - depending on the age of the child.

I hope that we can create a really good add on media with a great
impact to 
all educational areas :-) But to do this we need to work together. I'm

comming more from the technical site - I need additional people coming
from 
the education site who tell me what is really needed and what could be
a good 
solution. So feel free to write me an email or just "ping" me on 
IRC#opensuse-project (my nickname is kl_eisbaer).

Greetings,
Lars


Disclaimer: 
I'm "just working" for SUSE/Novell - I'm a developer and not a project
manager 
nor a teacher (but become a father in the next weeks ;-). I like open
source, 
I like kids and I like openSUSE - so I like to support the openSUSE
education 
project as much as my time permits. But normaly I work on other things.
So 
please don't get hurt if my response times are sometimes a bit slow...
;-)


-- 
Lars Vogdt <lrupp@xxxxxxx>                
Autobuild Team
SUSE Linux Products GmbH                 GF: Markus Rex
Nuernberg, Germany                            HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg)
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