Custom Linux Distributions from Educational Institutions?

Benoit des Ligneris asks: "The engineering faculty of Sherbrooke University, the Sherbrooke University LUG and Mandrake Canada just released a Linux distribution called EduLinux, which is based on Mandrake 9.1. The event had good press coverage [in French]. Now, it looks like several universities in Canada are interested in the project. EduLinux targets novice users and educational users, alike. As one of the leader of the project, I wonder if other universities or corporations are endorsing Linux like this? What does Slashdot think of the future of this kind of personalized Linux distribution?" Note that the Canadians aren't the only ones doing this, NewsForge reports that the Swiss are, too. How long do you think it will be before colleges in the US start following suit? Update: 06/20 04:34 GMT by C : The EduLinux website is now available in English.

Comments

finally

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't mean to troll, but doesn't someone come out with a linux distro for novices once a month? I wonder what is going to be so special about this one? and what was wrong with the other user firiendly ones that they had to make a new one? mandrake is usually considered one of the friendlier ones by itself, and then they modified it? too bad the site is in french (and i'm to tired to babelfish it[i.e. karma whore]) best of luck to them, though

Re:finally

[wcbarksdale]

There are certainly benefits for a school to maintain its own distribution. It can include unusual or local software, either required for a course or used for things like payroll or checking grades. Also, it can reduce administration through standardization.

There are in fact a lot of initiatives...

[wsapplegate]

Here, we've SLAES and AbulÃdu. And I'm sure I heard about more projects (if I remember well, the Spanish Debian-based LinEx is also geared towards education). These are not made by a single educational institution, but they are clearly targeted at them. The main problem is that educational software is always made for Win32, but this is slowly becoming a moot point, as free software is developed, and emulation solutions get better support for these programs.

BTW, I talked recently with an official from a high school who pushes Linux in his establishment, and he sure saw the benefits of switching to a system with such a better manageability. His main problem was (amazingly !) Microsoft-infeodated executives trying to find every little flaw they could to push their solutions instead (despite national directives recommending Open Source to be used where applicable). PR are still the Achilles heel of Linux, it seems...