Skolelinux

Skolelinux (also known as Debian Edu) is an open source, free (libre) operating system based on the award winning Debian GNU/Linux distribution and specifically designed to be used on various educational institutions around the world.

Available for download as dual-arch installable-only CD and USB editions

The distribution can be downloaded via Softoware or directly from its official website as a installable-only CD, USB and USB Sources ISO images. While the USB edition has been designed to be deployed on a USB flash drive of 8GB or higher capacity, the CD flavor can be written to either a CD disc or a USB stick.

Boot options

From the boot screen, the user can start the installation process with support for 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (x86_64) computers. Both graphical and text-mode installers are available, along with support for speech synthesis and various advanced options, such as expert install and rescue modes.

Easy to use graphical installer

The graphical installer is easy to use and requires users to select a language and keyboard layout, choose a Debian Edu profile, partition the disk drive, enter a root (system administrator) password, setup users and passwords, as well as to select and install software packages.

Features the modern and productive KDE Plasma graphical environment with KDE-specific applications

The default and only desktop environment of Skolelinux is KDE Plasma, which provides users with a modern, familiar and productive graphical environment comprised of mostly KDE-specific applications suitable for educational institutions, such as schools or universities.

Bottom line

As mentioned above, Debian GNU/Linux and all the auxiliary software components included in Skolelinux are free software, free as in freedom.

What is new in this release:

• Plymouth is installed and activated by default, except for the 'Main Server' and 'Minimal' profiles.
• Icinga replaces Nagios as monitoring tool.
• LTSP now uses NBD instead of NFS for the root filesystem.
• A Japanese translation of the manual is now available.

What is new in version 8.0:

• If a system is installed via network boot the firmware for the hardware present is now installed automatically.
• MATE 1.8 is now available as optional desktop environment.
• In addition, a Dutch translation of the manual is available, and the Norwegian Bokmal one is now complete.

What is new in version 7.1.0 / 8.0 Beta 1:

• Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like Intel Pentium and AMD K5).
• Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
• new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
• KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of the others see the manual.
• the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
• LibreOffice 4.3.3
• GOsa 2.7.4
• LTSP 5.5.4
• CUPS print system 1.7.5
• new boot framework: systemd
• Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
• Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
• Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
• Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
• golearn 0.9
• tuxpaint 0.9.22
• New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.

What is new in version 7.1.0 / 8.0 Alpha 0:

• Linux kernel 3.16.x
• Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10, LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to choose one of the others see manual.)
• the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38
• LibreOffice 4.3.3
• GOsa 2.7.4
• LTSP 5.5.4
• CUPS print system 1.7.5
• new boot framework: systemd
• Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07
• Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
• Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
• Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
• golearn 0.9
• tuxpaint 0.9.22
• New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
• Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for installation.

What is new in version 7.1.0:

• Linux kernel 3.2.x
• Desktop environments KDE Plasma 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, Xfce 4.8.6, and LXDE 0.5.5 (KDE Plasma is installed by default; to choose GNOME, Xfce or LXDE: see manual)
• Web browser Iceweasel 17 ESR
• LibreOffice 3.5.4
• LTSP 5.4.2
• GOsa 2.7.4
• CUPS print system 1.5.3
• Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01
• Music creator Rosegarden 12.04
• Image editor Gimp 2.8.2
• Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1
• Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3
• Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6
• Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for installation.

What is new in version 7.1.0 Beta 2:

• The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This also gets Chromium to use this proxy.
• Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer understand ical/dav sources.
• Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the main server.
• A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.
• Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick (6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug (0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image (3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).

What is new in version 7.0.0 Alpha 2:

• Software updates:
• Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
• Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
• Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
• Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
• Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
• Other changes:
• The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
• Updated translation of the installation.
• New Romanian translation.
• Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
• Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
• Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
• New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
• Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
• More testsuite tests.
• Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
• Adjust GOsaA² GUI configuration.
• Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with LTSP in Wheezy.
• Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set them up with GOsaA².
• Update IMAP server setup.
• Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly entered password).

What is new in version 7.0 Alpha 0:

• Linux kernel 3.2.x
• Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4 (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see manual.)
• Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR
• LibreOffice 3.5.4
• LTSP 5.4.2
• GOsa 2.7.4
• CUPS print system 1.5.3
• Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01
• Music creator Rosegarden 12.04
• Image editor Gimp 2.8.2
• Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1
• Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3
• Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6
• New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see installation manual for more details.
• Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for installation.

What is new in version 6.0.4:

• LWAT was replaced with GOsa² as the LDAP administration interface;
• Artwork and the new Debian Edu / Skolelinux logo were updated;
• A new LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and GNOME is now available;
• A faster LTSP client boot was implemented;
• Handing of removable media on thin clients was improved;
• New roaming workstation profile for laptops are available;
• Full Samba NT4 domain support for Windows XP/Vista/7;
• Documentation updates added in the manual.

What is new in version 5.0:

• Skolelinux is based on Debian 5.0 "Lenny" and is therefore compatible with
• Linux Standard Base (LSB) 3.2. It uses kernel 2.6.26, KDE 3.5.10, and GNOME
• 2.22.2.
• This is first Debian Edu release which has been merged with the highly
• successful LinEx GNU/Linux based educational project from the region of
• Extremadura in Spain. The most visible result being the GNOME desktop now
• being supported in addition to KDE.
• The setup of terminal servers has been improved and now supports diskless
• workstations out of the box. A new customisable PXE startup menu allows users
• to choose between a diskless workstation, a thin client workstation, and even
• a PXE-installation of Skolelinux.
• The student desktop has also been improved with shortcuts to educational
• software like GCompris, Kalzium, KGeography, KMplot, KStars, Stopmotion and
• the OpenOffice suite.
• The documentation has been further improved and translated from English to
• German, Italian and Norwegian. Incomplete translations are available for
• Spanish, French and Chinese. Please consider helping by translating to your
• native language or by reviewing the English original!
• Browser plugin-support has been improved with free software products including
• Gnash, Java and other plug-ins.
• In addition to ALSA and OSS sound system, PulseAudio has been added for better
• audio and multimedia performance on workstations and diskless workstations
• machines.
• Improved and simplified user and machine administration tool known as LWAT
• (LDAP Web-based Administration Tool).
• Improved machine and network surveillance now reporting status on all machines
• added to the network.