Re: [seul-edu] Linux in Elementry

[Jim Thomas <jthomas@bittware.com>]

Matt Jezorek wrote:
> 
> How do people feel about a dedicated Linux Distro made for the Educational
> Group? The reason I ask is my company is starting development of this distro
> and we would like feedback on what the public or those supporting and
> dealing with the school systems closly think.  With this distro we would try
> to pack all the Educational Software games and such for younger students as
> well as put together a second version that will contain administrative
> software for the schools. Does anyone think it can fly?
> 
> -Matt

I've considered doing this myself, but since I've already got a billion
projects to do and no time to do them...

But here are my thoughts.  I've been working with RedHat distros, so
this is based on how I would change RH for education.  The installation
should offer four options:
1) Student machine
2) Teacher machine
3) Server
4) Custom

The student machines should be configured with the sort of applications
students will typically run, with options to set up NFS, NIS, and other
clients.  The applications should appear in the the start menus.  The
start menus should not include sysadmin functions other than desktop
customization (which I don't consider sysadmin).  The distro should not
include violent games.

Teacher machines should include everything student machines do plus
teacher applications (i.e., gradebook, math worksheet generation tools,
courseware development stuff, and perhaps a web-filtering management
software).

Server machines should run services such as NFS, NIS, DHCP, squid,
gateway (with a firewall), httpd, mail, etc - not that different from a
typical server installation.

My 40% of a nickle...

-- 
Jim Thomas      **    Principal Applications Engineer ** Bittware, Inc
703.779.7770    **    jthomas@bittware.com **  http://www.bittware.com
The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that is even worse.
 - Calvin's dad