COMP 3000 2011 Report Part I: Edubuntu
Background
Edubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu designed to be used in school classrooms and homes for education purposes. It is developed by Canonical Ltd and an international community of developers, in collaboration with Educators around the world. The primary target audience of Edubuntu is users within the 6-18 age group and educators. The main goal of Edubuntu is to allow educators with limited technical knowledge to set-up labs and online learning environments for students. Thus, it is designed to be very easy to install, use and maintain for users with limited technical knowledge (i.e. students, educators). It also promises to provide the best set of education related applications for free, such as the ones included in the KDE Edutainment and GCompris suites that come installed with Edubuntu. Edubuntu is being used in all primary and secondary schools of The Republic of Macedonia, as part of their Computer for every child program [1]. The Edubuntu community is working with the Qimo 4 kids project to bring Qimo games and artwork as an installable option in Edubuntu [2].
Edubuntu is built on top of Ubuntu and it incorporates the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) thin client and various education related applications. The LTSP thin client allows many people to use the same computer simultaneously. It does this by having one server containing all of the applications, where users can use an application by connecting to the server using a thin client terminal (low-powered, low-cost, quieter computers without a hard disk). LTSP thin clients also provide administrators more control over how computing resources are used on the network. LTSP thin clients can be used with Edubuntu to provide computing services in schools and classrooms (i.e. setting up a lab etc.).
Edubuntu can be downloaded from the Downloads section of the Edubuntu website directly, or via bittorrent (preferred method). It can also be installed on top of Ubuntu by installing the desired Edubuntu packages using the Applications menu in Ubuntu or a package manager. Edubuntu can also be accessed in a browser by using WebLive. Finally, it can also be ordered on a DVD disk from a list of vendors that carry it, such as OSDisc. The approximate size of an Edubuntu installation is 2.66 GB.