Stéphane Graber's website

As you may know, Edubuntu ships as a DVD.
While that’s a great thing because it gives us a lot of space for language packs, applications and content, it’s a bit of an issue for users who just want to try it out.

After thinking about it for a while and spending the weekend coding the infrastructure for it, I’m proud to announce the availability of Edubuntu Try it now!.

It’s basically a VM of the latest stable release running on some dedicated server where you can request a free test account.
The account will let you access the VM using NX for 2 hours.

A maximum of 10 users can connect at the same time. The VM cleaned up using the tools from LTSP-Cluster and reinstalled from scratch daily.

Future improvements include the availability of a Natty Narwhal VM as soon as it’s stable enough to be installed.

Edubuntu 10.10 is out !

Just like its big brother Ubuntu, Edubuntu 10.10 was released this morning, the 10/10/10 at 10:10 UTC.

Short list of what’s changed in that release (taken from the announcement):

• With version 10.10, Edubuntu builds on the work done in the previous version. Changes that occurred in Ubuntu 10.10 are also reflected in Edubuntu.
• LTSP installation as well as the Netbook interface are now installable directly from the installer, allowing a much more intuitive installation process. (see here)
• Unity now replaces the Ubuntu Netbook Launcher as the netbook interface, it is designed from the ground up to provide a superior user experience for smaller displays.
• Edubuntu Menu Editor has undergone bug fixing and now has documentation available.
• Gnome Nanny provides teachers and parents with a method of controlling how kids use a computer. It also includes basic content filtering.
• New wallpapers are included from various artwork communities.
• Language support has been expanded, allowing you to use Edubuntu in more than 142 languages.

Thanks to everyone involved in releasing Ubuntu 10.10 and all its derivatives.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Orlando, FL.

One of our goals for the Maverick development was to enhance our installation process.

Previously in 10.04 we introduced a way to test LTSP straight from the Live DVD and then install it or the Netbook-Edition interface at the end of the install.

It worked great but we then received reports from users telling us they didn’t see a way to install either LTSP or the Netbook interface during the install.

That was because we didn’t have the time to properly integrate it in Ubiquity (Ubuntu’s graphical installer), so you had to click on two icons on the Live desktop at the end of the install.

I’m very pleased to say that this time is over and that starting with today’s daily build, we probably have the easiest way to install LTSP or the Unity interface ever!

Here’s what it currently looks like:

So all you need to do now is to tick one or two tickboxes and wait for your system to install. After reboot you’ll have your Unity environment or LTSP or both !

That change was basically the last thing left on our Maverick roadmap, so we now have an updated installer slideshow, that additional installer step, a cleaned up look&feel and a few additional packages. We just need more testing and we’ll be ready for 10/10/10.

You can get that daily build here: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/dvd/20100910/maverick-dvd-amd64.iso

Back at UDS in Dallas, TX we decided that one of the focus for Edubuntu in Lucid would be to to make menu customization a lot easier.

So we wrote a specification covering most use cases for menu customization, editing and sharing.

After a few months of work, mostly done by my colleague at Revolution Linux, Marc Gariepy, we now have a working tool, that’s in Edubuntu’s default installation.

You can install it on a regular Lucid desktop by doing: sudo apt-get install edubuntu-menueditor
A PPA is also available here (Lucid and Karmic).

Or download Edubuntu’s latest daily build here.

It’ll install you two different tools:

• The menu editor itself in Applications => System Tools => Menueditor
• The Profile manager in System => Administration => Profile manager

The first can be run by any user, it shows you a window like this one:

There you can create new sub-menus, copy items in them and hide items from the existing menu. Then save it (as a .tar.gz archive).

With this archive, you can either share it with your friends/colleagues/general community or directly start the Profile manager to import it and assign it to a group.
On login, all users in that group will see that new menu you assigned them.

As every new open source projects, it’s not bug free, so if you find a bug or have suggestions, please go to Launchpad and report them here.

Now it’s your turn to start creating and sharing your menus for your region/country/school system or for your company.
And if you aren’t using Ubuntu in English, you can go on Launchpad and help us by translating it to your language !

NOTE: It’s currently “branded” as Edubuntu-specific, that’s done because it’s initially an Edubuntu project but it’ll work with every xdg-based menu (that’s why the Lauchpad project is called “menueditor”).