Education Software was Re: Redhat/SuSE was Re: [Fsfe-uk] Upcoming Exhibitions

[Simon Waters]

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Chris Puttick wrote:
>
> Try freeduc from Ofset (http://www.ofset.org) - this is a
Knoppix CD with
> loads of school oriented software bundled. Primary schools in
particular
> think it's the bees knees.

I did, and I also tried the OSEF CD.

The OFSET one has the edge on polish at the moment dispite
apparently being based on a slightly earlier release of Knoppix
(and also fitting onto 650MB CD's - which I like as my
rewritables are only 650MB - the OSEF is 700MB).

The layout and software are that much more presentable, but I'm
biased as it loaded the right wireless network driver, and
didn't beep madly at me when it spotted the sound card in my
laptop, unlike the OSEF CD, it also has GNU Chess 5 on it (which
is a big plus from my perspective, as co-maintainer).

I would still be cautious of sending it out on spec, as a
miniscule amount of Linux know-how, or handholding, goes a long
way to people getting the most out of understanding the CD. But
perhaps after a brief demonstration/walk through I think it rocks.

The OFSET one does have a few packages that appear to default to
French - some progressive schools might see this as an
advantage, but that was the worst I could say about it. I didn't
see many language based software packages, mostly maths,
astronomy, and science (I'm assure Festival is loaded, as well
as Braille support if needed, I'd be interested in knowing
whether people are using these accessibility functions, it
certainly talks a lot).

Interesting they try to cover a big age range, so your 4 year
old might stray from Tux Paint (which is so cool you just have
to have a play) to Affine transformations, Differential
Calculus, or designing their own bespoke tour of the solar
system, then again it probably depends on the four year old.

No hesitation recommending this. More people should see this,
even hardened GNU/Linux users - why doesn't KDE look more like
this out of the box (more a return to CDE style uncluttered tool
bars than the cluttered "start" button imitation).

The games are okay too, and lets face it these are vital for
keeping interest.... What's the use of a computer without games
and flash animations, thought Simon.

Can we get more coverage - I'd be happy to write a review - hmm
it could even go on a magazine cover disk if we knew someone in
that line of work ;-)

 Simon
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