“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. The current version of Edubuntu is aimed at classroom use, and future versions of Edubuntu will expand to other educational usage, such as university use. This is what the Edubuntu website (http://www.edubuntu.org) says about its operating system.
The Desktop
Edubuntu uses the GNOME Desktop Environment. It has file managers, network browsers, menus, and system tools. It even comes with a selection of programs that you can download at the click of a button. No need to search the Internet for educational programs. Just choose the program from a built in application called Synaptic and the computer automatically downloads the application for you, provided you have an Internet connection. The desktop is fun and easy to use. You can choose from three different theme setups for the desktop: ‘young’, for younger users, ‘plain’ for a clean desktop setup, and ‘default’, which is a general purpose theme setup. The latest release , Edubuntu 7.10, was codenamed “Gutsy Gibbon”.
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KDE Edutainment Suite
KDE is a graphical environment and serves as an application framework for KDE Edutainment Suite, a collection of educational software for Language, Mathematics, Science, Keyboarding, Geography and other subjects. The latest version of the KDE Edutainment software is included in Edubuntu.
An example of a Science application, Kalzium is a small and quick database for the elements. It shows the symbol for the element , the element number , the most important oxidation-stages , the elemental weight, , the atomic shells, orbital structure, density , etc. Some elements have information about their isotopes.
See more screenshots of KDE software at :
http://edu.kde.org/
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GCompris
Gcompris is a collection of educational activities for kindergarden for basic computer use, basic maths, reading , logic, experiential activities and others . It’s so easy to use, my 3 year old daughter uses it with minimal supervision.
See more screenshots of GCompris at :
http://gcompris.net/
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Tux4Kids
Software such as TuxPaint, TuxMaths and TuxTyping are software for developing graphics, math and keyboarding .
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See screenshots at : http://www.tuxpaint.org/
OpenOffice.org Office Suite
Edubuntu includes OpenOffice.org version 2. OpenOffice.org components include a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, simple vector drawing and web authoring.
See screenshots at : http://www.openoffice.org/
Easy to install
Edubuntu is easy to download and install. Just access this website.
http://www.edubuntu.org/Download
You can try Edubuntu before installing it on your computer permanently. Choose the appropriate platform on the “Desktop CD ” option. Your computer will start to download a file named “edubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso” for Intel computers ( or edubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso for AMD)
Once the download is complete, burn the iso file to a CD, insert the CD in your CD drive then follow the instructions that appear. ( If you simply click on the downloaded file from your hard drive, the computer mounts the iso file but will not execute.)
You do not have to uninstall Windows to use Edubuntu.
Time to switch
If your school is thinking about upgrading to Windows Vista , think again. Why spend hundreds of thousands of pesos on proprietary software when you can have a high quality software made specifically for schools at no cost?
Schools have all to gain from making the switch from proprietary software like Windows to Edubuntu Linux. A major reason for this is the hardware requirement.
Proprietary software upgrades occasionally require hardware upgrades too. This requires money that schools are reluctant to shell out for due to budget constraints. Edubuntu Linux and open source alternatives do not require frequent hardware upgrades. In fact, will run on a computer with 500 MHz x86 processor,192 MB of system memory (RAM), 8 GB of disk space (although only 4 GB is required), Graphics card capable of 1024×768 resolution, Sound card (optional) , a network or Internet connection. If I had know this twenty years ago, I would have kept my i386 computer rather than let it waste away in the basement.
‘No Hardware left behind,’ was how an open source advocate describes Edubuntu’s hardware requirements. It will run well even on older machines that can not run Windows Vista. Schools are faced with a decision : stick to proprietary software, which requires hardware upgrades, or switch to open source, which runs on their old machines or those donated to them .
Even if your school has the budget, that money can be channeled to other areas of the education process, such as faculty incentives, facility improvements and training.
It is about time that school administrators shifted their attention to more viable alternatives such as Edubuntu Linux.
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