Hi All, Over these last weeks I've been reading, and inside-my-head responding to these many posts on different lists about people's feelings about the condition and vision of Edubuntu. I feel quite an outsider as I've just started to use Ubuntu/Edubuntu just this school year. Regardless, as Jordan Mantha once said on an irc, one can be a developer of edubuntu w/out knowing a lick of code. I know I have a useful perspective to bring to this project and this discussion but can't contribute code and at this point I don't think I can contribute docs--though do look to helping out with this at some point.
I've spent many hours each week this school year trying to make a LTSP/Edubuntu 8.0.4 work in my classroom. I'm working in a 'real' situation w/challenges with limited/no on-site support. I can't say that I'm on my own though--many of you have provided me with real help in the form of encouragement, suggestions/answers and code and more encouragement :-) Thanks. While I'm not a programmer, nor sys admin--I'm a 20 year middle and high school teacher--I learn quickly in the area of technology. Speaking immodestly, I'm probably more tech capable than many of the teachers that the Edubuntu community would like to target as users of their wonderful products. So, if I'm techie-teacher, how come it took so many months to get my classroom thin client LAN up and running...and limpingly at that? For example, it takes me about an hour to start all 17 thin clients in my class because after the first 3 start, only 1 computer will pxe-boot every 4-5 minutes. Yes, I've read all forum stuff on this seeming bug but haven't really set to solve it yet. Why? I still need to set up Squid and SquidGuard, first, and I'm too exhausted at this point of the year and will work on it this summer... 'Nuff whining... I could delineate all the minor but important issues I've run into and currently have but that's not the point here. My point is that for Edubuntu to rival/surpass Mac and Windows in the schools it needs to have a core, semi-flawless, set of apps that will get the system up and running for a teacher. And I mean a teacher or tech person who doesn't have to understand "acl's and why that wierd-indentation and what does it mean and what do I have to do..." Again, I could write volumns but neither of us have time (you can check the tip of the iceberg of this project at http://groosd.blogspot.com if you do have the time ;-) My thoughts--and I'm concurring with things I've read in this discussion--this community needs to revisit it's vision, set some goals/mission and develop appropriate strategies. It needs to be a living document and while the strategies page that Jordan M refrenced on the wiki is probably the public face of that document, the development of these ideas ought to be on something more versitle w/potential for simultaneous editing such as a google doc. Here's a mock-up<http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgschn8x_1hmrmqvd8>I threw together to show the idea--Each person would have his/her own line but could comment on other's lines in the comment column. THANKS for your leadership, yours in education, David Groos PS if you want teachers to be able to participate in the online meeting it would need to take place over the week end--quite a challenge in 24 hours worth of world time zones. On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:47 PM, David Van Assche <dvanass...@gmail.com>wrote: > Cool, maybe we should meet up on irc and have a ltsp/edu/buntu discussion > concerning documentation, packaging, extra universe and multiverse packages > not officially supported by canonical both listed on the website and > included in meta packages, triaging, and of course more. If we set the irc > meeting and all these folks show up and can help with these elements, we > know that its for real and we can start getting work done. Interestingly, I > was just at Sugar Camp, where we did a workshop on the methodology of > autopackaging or distribution, ie, getting the software onto the computer > from the moment a upstream dev makes a commit. We've managed to automate the > entire process by using oBS which is actually an opensource project. We use > gitorious on the sugar side to get the activities in place. So what we've > done is, the minute a new gitorious commit is made, a new revision to that > package happens using some scripting, and a spec file is either created if > not already there and then uploaded to be built in the oBS cloud. So we go > automatically from git -> jhconvert (this creates various templates for > various distros and architectures) and finally to -> rpms, srpms and .xo > bundles for various architectures. > > We could certainly try the same for ubuntu, depending on how ubuntu policy > works with that. What I mean is, an open source based build service could > make .debs just fine, and that might all be whats needed to get up to date > with many of the activities.Funnily enough, the Sugar team has a similar > dynamic to what edubuntu has turned out to be. We call the base window > making elements and framework Glucose, and the activities that run within it > Fructose. Those are the supported big ones who we really want to make sure > work, the core activities are about 15-20 or so. The rest of the activities > we call honey, and those will also be available in rpm bundles based on > theme or whatever. So in edubuntu we have the edubuntu-extra packages, which > should really be universe and multiverse packages... any way a decision > should be made as to what to carry. I sent an email to laserjock some time > ago describing the tools I thought were good edu tools and had tested all of > these too, so I know they work. I shall paste that to the list, if movement > is really starting to happen. > > Anyway, first thing would be a irc meeting... when would be good for you > guys? Laserjock or Scott should probably set it, and whoever still considers > themselves part of the community and these new enthusiasts should attend. > > Then we could start hacking at stuff. Sugar on edubuntu is a real concern > at the moment. We are being held back due to debian policy. IE, debian is > still working on packaging the 0.84, so they only have 0.82 packages, which > are now ancient and pretty useless. This has made many users switch to > things like Mandriva and openSUSE, who have their acts together in the edu > market... lets see if we can't catch up. > > A live dvd/stick is the obvious way to go. CD too, no reason it cant be on > multiples... but I think it really requires thinking about edubuntu as a set > of ubuntu+educational packages. From what I've seen, no one understands the > addons only definition of edubuntu 6 months on.... I'm around, and can be > convinced to move some of my work from opensuse-edu to edubuntu, if things > really start happening again. > > It has to be mentioned finally that much kudos must go to Jordan Mantha for > working through these difficult times to even have an edubuntu to install... > if it wasnt for him, edubuntu would be totally and officially dead... > > so, irc meeting, when? > > David (nubae) Van Assche > > > > On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Scott Balneaves > <sbaln...@legalaid.mb.ca>wrote: > >> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 07:16:32PM -0400, David Van Assche wrote: >> > If this is real, then I'm up for helping. I wanna see the code first >> though >> > :-) It was me that ripped out the edubuntu ltsp handbook stuff and did >> the >> > ltsp upstream handbook creation, did most of the major rewriting along >> with >> > Scott, as well as editing the edubuntu.org site and updating the set of >> apps >> > available as the addons, fatclient for ltsp, and a fair set of other >> things. >> >> Good to see you again David. >> >> I'm reading through the manual again right now. >> >> Gadi's done a lot of work on the xrandr side of things in LTSP, I'm going >> to >> try to document it over the next week or two, and get it pushed up. >> >> Scott >> >> -- >> Scott L. Balneaves | Words are a wonderful form of communication, >> Systems Department | but they will never replace kisses and punches. >> Legal Aid Manitoba | -- Ashleigh Brilliant >> >> -- >> edubuntu-devel mailing list >> edubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com >> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-devel >> > > > -- > edubuntu-devel mailing list > edubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-devel > >
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