Skolelinux - You have to get them while they are young

Skolelinux is a custom Debian distribution with simple installation, preconfigured services and applications targeted for schools.

Petter Reinholdtsen
pere@hungry.com
eFoo Enchede, 2004-08-22

The Skolelinux/Debian-Edu project

Provide a software distribution with a complete IT platform for primary schools.

Project goals

ethical
- teach kids that sharing software can be legal and good
- teach kids how to tinker and improve the software they use
- demonstrate the quality of free software
- provide programs on all the native languages
practical
- reduce the computer-related expences in schools
- give schools a well-tested collection of services which reduce system administration needs
- increase computer availability

Build on Debian GNU/Linux
Based on Woody/Stable to get security updates
Simple installation
Translated to several local languages
Includes all the software needed in primary schools
Preconfigured services (syslog, dns, ntp, dhcp, ssh, ldap, nfs, smb, smtp, imap, ipp, http, web-proxy, ltsp and more)
No license administration
Admin friendly, remote administratable
Scalable
~900 pkgs, ~10 locally developed, ~10 patched, ~40 backports, ~10 from external sources

Simple (three questions and the root password)
Automatic
Using hooks in normal debian installer
Complete (everything work out of the box)
Very little skolelinux-specific code (one extra udeb, two magic debs installed by default)
Using debconf pre-seeding where we can
Rewriting the config of other packages to get the remaining services preconfigured out of the box (against debian policy?)