OpenSuSE to Release Linux Distro for Educators

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."

Comments

the SLEDucator

[Overzeetop]

Another stroke of linux name/marketing genius.

Re:the SLEDucator

[Overzeetop]

...edubuntu...worth a look too if you run linux and have kids..."

Looked at it, loved it, got it running now on an old laptop for the 4yo. Can't get the wireless networking running, but she's still working through the "games". Wish there were some more puzzles; for some reason they're her favorite.

Stop, Vile Fiends! I am the SLEDucator!

[Enoxice]

Didn't I read a comic book about the SLEDucator? He used his mighty Sledge Hammer of Justice to teach criminals that crime doesn't pay, right?

What is different?

[Kohath]

- Does this Linux distribution take the summer off?
- Does it complain about the pay?
- Does it blame parents for poor computer performance?
- Does it have TV commercials promoting itself?
- Does it claim to be a "professional" distribution even though "home" distributions have better performance?
- Is it certified?
- Is the government paying for it?
- Does it work on 30 documents but tell you that you'd be better off paying more and only doing 25 documents?

Re:What is different?

[JasonWM]

-school technician
-uses LTS in school district
-doesn't get summer off
-knows techs aren't part of the teachers union
-no commercials, no crap,no budget, just work as hard as you can
-doesn't bitch

Being the tech director (sole technician/network admin/everything guy in a system with 250 desktops, 13 servers, 1200 accounts), and having tested SUSE enterprise for distribution, I know it isn't close to edubuntu as far as being ready for school distribution. I know some CIO's/techs are saying SUSE is ready for enterprise, and it may well be, but I don't have the time, money, or political support to move something like this forward despite a solid pushing from my part towards open-source technologies.

Time will tell, but even with an add-on to suse, it will be awhile before they get my support

Good approach

[SplatMan_DK]

Making the CD as an add-on is a great idea. 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 to somehow analyze and understand. By simply adding the tools an educator needs for administrating a collection of Linux computers in a school, they make the distro a lot more attractive.

Schools generally don't have large IT department loaded with hardcore Linux geeks.

Re:Good approach

[Random BedHead Ed]

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.

Now all we need is a similar add-on for SMBs

[SplatMan_DK]

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.

Re:Now all we need is a similar add-on for SMBs

[houghi]

Ask them, or even better, ask them to release the tools to make your own addons.
They already released the code to make your own distribution trademark free and information how to make your own openSUSE based ditribution.

Join their mailinglist, discuss and you might be amazed of what is possible. The educators part came there because of demand.

Re:Now all we need is a similar add-on for SMBs

[SplatMan_DK]

While i do have some understanding of business processed, IT architecture and basic programming I am no way near geeky enough to undertake such a project.

I am the guy who would be able to push such a product/distro/add-on to the SMBs ... not the guy who can code it. In other words I can increase the use once it is there - but not create it from scratch.

I will be following SUSE and openSUSE more closely in the future though. I think that the more business-oriented approach that Novell has, strengthens Linux community - not the opposite (as some might say).

Apple called ...

[trolltalk.com]

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

Re:Apple called ...

[Trigun]

Why? It never worked for Apple.

Re:Apple called ...

[Overzeetop]

Don't tell the linux folks...they'd love to hit 4% market penetration!

(maybe I should post this AC, naaaaa)

Re:Apple called ...

[Dewin]

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.

k12ltsp

[zenray]

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.

Why Linux in Education Fails

[MadMacSkillz]

Adding another CD won't matter. Linux won't take off in schools for a boatload of reasons, support being perhaps the biggest. We've got former and current classroom teachers running networks in schools. They've got their hands full with OS X Server, they're completely blown away by Windows 2003 Server, and they've got no hope of making Linux work campuswide with all of their current peripherals AND finding replacement software for all of their educational titles AND securing the thing so the kids don't mess it up AND keeping everything up and running AND finding open source alternatives to programs mandated by the state that don't come in anything but Windows and OS X AND... I could go on and on and on. Linux will one day be the number one operating system, or some future OS based on it will. But not today.