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OpenSuSE to Release Linux Distro for Educators

Posted by Zonk on from the not-the-best-conglomerate-word-ever dept.

christian.einfeldt writes "The next version of openSUSE, due out in the fall, will include an add-on CD optimized for educators. According to the Education section of the openSUSE wiki, the openSUSE community sees the add-on as a way to make it easy for school administrators to create both networked systems and stand-alone desktops for teachers and students. To tailor the add-on CD to the needs of educators, the openSUSE community is asking educators and technologists to submit their software successes, applications used, and 'HOW-TOs' for writing applications and using applications. Dubbed the SLEDucator, the package collection is being included as an add-on, as opposed to a new distro or a fork."

6 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. the SLEDucator by Overzeetop · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another stroke of linux name/marketing genius.

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    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  2. Now all we need is a similar add-on for SMBs by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would be great if the SUSE folks also made a similar add-on CD for the SMB segment. They face many of the same technical challenges as the schools/educators, just wrapped in different words and scenarios.

    Making tools which allow educators and people in small businesses to deploy and administer a small networked Linux environment is a great idea. And the lack of such tools is often what intimidates non-Linux-geeks from adopting Linux.

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    My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
  3. Apple called ... by trolltalk.com · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple called ... they want their 1980's marketing program back ...

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    Kevin Smith on Prince
    1. Re:Apple called ... by Dewin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It never worked for Apple? At one time the only computers you could find in schools were from Apple, from the student labs to the principal's desk.


      I believe the idea was that by having Apple computers in schools, when parents purchased a PC for home they would buy Apple, because that is what their kids were used to.

      In reality, what happened is most people bought PCs (In the "IBM and compatible sense", so don't get pendantic) because that's what they used themselves in the workplace.
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      Of course nobody reads the FAQ! If people read the FAQ, the Questions wouldn't be so Frequently Asked.
  4. k12ltsp by zenray · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What the educational field needs is not another GNU/Linux distro for them - there is k12ltsp that's been around a long time. Also the new eumbuntu distro. There exist several school districts that have implemted Linux in some form already. What would be more usefull is a new batch of 'killer apps' that the education field uses. Also cheep traning, support, and maybe a freshmeat type repository of these type of things. What Novell may have is company name brand supporting them.

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    zenray
  5. Re:Good approach by Random+BedHead+Ed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One of the nightmares most educators face when they attempt to introduce Linux into their school is the myriad of distros and choices they have

    I've read about 1,000 variations on this sentence over the past few years, and I haven't been able to puzzle it out. Maybe I'm dense, but I've never figured out why diversity is a problem that threatens to make all our heads asplode. You don't see Baskin-Robbins cutting back to serving only vanilla and chocolate because people have avoided their store, heads dizzy with thoughts of cookies-n-cream, mint chocolate chip and the like.

    I suppose computing is an inherently stressful field. (I know this first hand after spending a few years supporting desktops for some of the smartest neuroscientists in the world, who still can't organize a folder or set up a wireless network nearly as easily as they can publish a 100-page paper on brain chemistry ... if they can figure out how to get their network printer to work.) But still, in software I've always found a lack of choice to be more stressful than too much of it. This is particularly true with free operating systems. Pick one of the major ones: Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora, RedHat, CentOS. To find out whether it works, just install it. If it runs on your hardware (which almost any major distro will) and if suits your needs (you may be able to figure this out relatively quickly), the choice is made. If the choice was RedHat Enterprise, having people tell you that Ubuntu was also a good choice doesn't diminish the choice you already made: you are not qualified to feel stress. If you decide that the cost of running RHEL is not worth it and you want to run Ubuntu, you have the freedom to switch.

    Contrast with non-free software. You can buy Windows from one vendor. Ditto with OS X. And with Solaris. If you decide you don't like their terms, tough. If you want to take OS X and run it on a non-Apple machine someone donated to your school, or roll out more copies of Windows Vista than your budget allows, then you become eligible to feel stress.