Let's get serious about Edubuntu's future

[David Van Assche]

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 <sbalneav at 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
>
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