[IAEP] Edubuntu clarification (was: squeak/etoys accepted into Debian main)

[Jecel Assumpcao Jr]

David Van Assche wrote:
> > What I meant is that this crowd normally doesn't get stuff from their
> > distribution which isn't pre-installed. So not only would you have to
> > put it into main but it would also have to appear in the "applications /
> > development" menu by default (supposing Edubuntu uses Gnome - I am not
> > familiar with it. Perhaps I should mention here that I design Smalltalk
> > computers for children and only deal with Linux as a normal user rather
> > than a developer).
> 
> Now there is a misunderstanding of what edubuntu us. It is _not_ a
> distribution, it is simply an add-on cd which contains all the
> educational applications that are currently supported by Canonical.
> This means, that when a user downloads this cd and puts it into the
> computer, a. he must have an ubuntu installation already, and b. the
> computer then asks him which packages he wants to install from a
> simplified menu. All packages always appear in the applications menu.

Thank you very much for this information. I am very familiar with Ubuntu
and once helped with a InstallFest where some people wanted Kubuntu
instead so I put that on their machine and briefly checked it out.
Someone also showed me Xubuntu. I had assumed that Edubuntu was a
variation similar to these.

> Edubuntu is also the name of the community, which chooses and manages
> the educational apps that should go into that cd. This is why edubuntu
> and not just debian are important in this discussion. It has been well
> documented now that squeak can go into debian, we know that now, but
> the question really is about it getting onto the edubuntu add-on cd,
> which teachers do use, in large classrooms the world over.

Besides all these legal discussions, it might be interesting to take a
look at the results that distributions such as Linex (in Extremadura,
Spain) have achieved to see what value it might have for your users.

-- Jecel