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Just curious to find out if anyone is using Edubuntu in a school or classroom in Ontario.

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Edubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with community based support.

The Edubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Edubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Edubuntu fundamentally different from proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you, and thousands of developers around the world, have the right to modify and build upon your software until it works exactly the way you want it to.

Many people around the world exercise this right. And you can expect many improvements with each new release of Edubuntu.

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Hi Quentin,

We are using Ubuntu for some of our video conferencing applications, but we have not tried edubuntu.  We have been attempting to use our video conference application on a live cd running ubuntu and it appears to work.  Edubuntu looks promising.

Every once in a while I get the itch to move over to Linux as my main OS (based more on curiosity and challenge than any real need). I've tried a few times to go "cold turkey" and drop Windows in favour of Linux. Within a week I'm back using XP.

One of the biggest barriers to moving over has always been having to re-partition my hard drive, and the need to linux to be the "primary" OS on the system. I could dual-boot my system if I wanted to, but if I wanted to scrap my Linux install (usually because I would botch it up by experimenting a little too much...) I would find myself in a real pickle as I would also end up losing my Windows installation. I've tried all the virtualization tools (VMware, VirtualPC), but I hate virtualization for daily use.

This week (via Lifehacker) I discovered WUBI - Windows Ubuntu Installer. It installs Ubuntu from within Windows without the need to partition the drive at all. Its nothing short of amazing and makes really trying to move to Linux very easy. This, coupled with great hardware support in Ubuntu 7.04 is making my latest Linux adventure quite fun!

Give it a try. You can't hurt your system and getting rid of Linux is as simple as uninstalling any other Windows program.

I have another solution...install Linux on an external drive, change the boot sequence to boot the computer using USB, and run Linux from the external drive. The advantage of doing this is that it allows for the installation of software and allows files to be saved; this can't be done when running Linux from a live CD.

I haven't tried this yet as I want to install Linux on a new external drive.  I'm going to get myself another external drive and try it out.

I've worked with Linux in my board for a few years.  It wasn't Ubuntu based but it was along the same idea. 

I worked with our technology teacher consultant to setup a K12LTSP (linux terminal server project) at one of our schools.  It had one main server and 8 desktops and each desktop would boot directly from the server (in this case Fedora linux).  There were no local hard drives in the desktops which helped save on energy and didn't generate as much heat.

The operating system was Fedora linux from Red Hat.  Edubuntu or any other Linux distro can be used as a ltsp.  

 The advantage of the ltsp was that an entire lab could be setup with older computers that don't meet Windows requirements but still run just as fast with Linux.

Teacher Tool was a program that allowed teachers to monitor and assist their students.  Several other open source programs are available such as a student information system that is web based.

It's unfortunate that it was removed a few years later when it still had so much potential.  Now a free lab of computers has been replaced by no computers.

Jason