PCLinuxOS Edu : Request of a presentation and doc

[melodie]

Hello,

PCLinuxOS Education is almost ready, and I wish to present under it's best light, to the main team first and hopefully to a larger audience later. After I asked at the dedicated thread, djohnston (here) offers to take care of the presentation.

djohston, thanks to copy the presentation in a post in the present thread.

I would also like to ask a bit more, could we together create a basic documentation for the future newcomers who will put their hand on PCLinuxOS Education for the first time ?

* How to burn and boot to Live CD
* How to install to USB (with Unetbootin or Linux Live USB, or PCLinuxOS Live USB) and boot with a USB stick
* How to connect to the live session as "school"
* How to connect as root and install
...

This can come in a thread here and should be later shaped in a html page as well as in a pdf (through Libreoffice for instance).

We have a little doc for Gcompris as for now... It is here at the moment : http://tyruiop.eu/~melodie/Downloads/Documentations/PCLinuxOS_Education

and it is also easy to create light shortcuts to the website :
Manual - GCompris Wiki.desktop

Code: [Select]

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Icon=text-html
Type=Link
Name=Manual - GCompris Wiki
URL=http://gcompris.net/wiki/Manual
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://gcompris.net/wiki/Manual

[djohnston]

I would also like to ask a bit more, could we together create a basic documentation for the future newcomers who will put their hand on PCLinuxOS Education for the first time ?

* How to burn and boot to Live CD
* How to install to USB (with Unetbootin or Linux Live USB, or PCLinuxOS Live USB) and boot with a USB stick

Release Date: (Hopefully) July 2011
Size: 686MB
Md5Sum: 01748f6334b4fffa796507dc594b1d7f
Produced by: Melodie, Crow and the testers
User Level:  Children

Info: PCLinuxOS Education is constructed around the window manager Openbox and a few additional programs, to form what is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Openbox uses less CPU and less RAM than other environments. It runs especially well on computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers.

Features:
Kernel 2.6.38.8-bfs kernel for maximum desktop performance.
Full Openbox Desktop.
Nvidia driver support. ATI fglrx can be added later.
Multimedia playback support for many popular formats.
Wireless support for many network devices.
Printer support for many local and networked printer devices.
Addlocale allows you to convert PCLinuxOS into over 60 languages.
LibreOfficeManager can install Libre Office supporting over 100 languages.
OOo4Kids Manager can install OpenOffice For Kids in 17 languages.

Highlighted Applications:
GCompris - a high quality educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10
Some of the activities are game orientated, but nonetheless still educational. Below you can find a list of categories with some of the activities available in that category.

-  computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
-  algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
-  science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation ...
-  geography: place the country on the map
-  games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
-  reading: reading practice
-  other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon making, ...

Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.

Childsplay - a collection of educational activities for young children and runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux. Childsplay can be used at home, kindergartens and pre-schools. A fun and safe way to let young children use the computer and at the same time teach them a little math, letters of the alphabeth, spelling, eye-hand coordination etc.
Childsplay is part of the schoolsplay.org project.

Omnitux - The project aims to provide various educational activities around multimedia elements (images, sounds, texts)
Types of activities

    Associations,
    items to place on a map or a schema,
    counting activities,
    puzzles,
    card faces to remember,
    ...
Multiple languages support :

    German
    English
    French
    Italian
    Polish
    Portuguese
    Spanish

Available for Linux and Microsoft Windows.

Gamine - the game for the youngest. Starting age of 18 when your child starts climbing on your knees and messing around your desktop  with the mouse, hop ! Start Gamine,  and the child will have colorful shapes and music reacting to the moves of the mouse, leaving your desktop alone, and discovering that the move of the mouse has an action !

gTans - A tangram game offering plenty of possibilities, and very configurable
Tuxtype - to learn and improve typing while feeding Tux
Tux Paint - to draw and paint. A set of thumbs are installed, more can be installed later
TuxMathScrabble - a game to learn maths while playing scrabble with Tux

Scratch - An astounding programming language for everyone. While building stories and scenes, you will learn and teach development to young children, and many projects which can be downloaded for use can be found at the main site. Scratch: Create interactive stories, games, music and art - and share them online.

Okawix – Okawix is an offline reader that allow you to download the content of Wikimedia projects, with or without pictures, in order to then access it offline.
Okawix's library includes the 253 languages of the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks).

Other programs included
Firefox- Web Browser
PCmanFM - File and Desktop Manager

AbiWord – Word processor
Evince - Document viewer
Gnumeric - Spreadsheet
Galculator - calculator
Labyrinth - Mind mapping

VLC – media player for nearly any kind of multimedia format
DeadBeef – music player

MTPaint and MTPaint Screenshot – Painting and Screenshot Program
Viewnior – Graphic Viewing Program

File-Roller – Archive manager
Gnomebaker – CD/DVD Burning Program

Geany – Text Editor

PCLinuxOS Control Center
Synaptic package manager
Obconf – Openbox Configuration Manager

12,000 additional programs available from our Synaptic Software Manager after installation to your computer.

Hardware requirements
Processor
Modern Intel or AMD processor.
Memory & storage
RAM : 384 MB minimum, 1 GB recommended.
Hard disk : 3 GB minimum, 10 GB or more recommended if you plan to install additional software from our repository.
Video card
nVidia, ATI, Intel, SiS, Matrox, VIA.
3D desktop support requires a 3D instructions set compatible card.
Sound card
Any Sound Blaster, AC97 or HDA compatible card.
Other
CD/DVD drive required


Normal user is school and password is school.




To install to hard drive, login as user root at the login screen. Password is root.




NOTE: Melodie, PCLinuxOS Live USB is not installed on this remaster.
As far as burning and booting live CD, how about just including the same info as shown on KDE and LXDE pages?



PCLinuxOS Live USB Creator overview: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=82277.0

Linux Live USB User's Guide: http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/help/guide

Unetbootin installation instructions: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/#install

[melodie]

NOTE: Melodie, let me know if you see anything that needs correcting.

Yes, there are a few, but nothing that can't wait... a bit tired today, I'll come bring improvements later in the evening if I can. And for my other requests, I hope each chapter could be provided by different members and more ideas about what information needs to be provided, as well. It would be very nice.

Thanks a lot for this first shot !

[melodie]

Release Date: Sometime in 2011
Release Date: (Hopefully) July 2011
Size: 694.7MB
Size: 686MB
Md5Sum: 64a29399c24c2031e938c46ee6c10502
Md5Sum:  01748f6334b4fffa796507dc594b1d7f
Produced by: Melodie and the testers
User Level:  Children

Info: PCLinuxOS Education is constructed around the window manager Openbox and a few additional programs, to form what is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Openbox uses less CPU and less RAM than other environments. It runs especially well on computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers.

// Theses last statements need to be checked...

Features:
Kernel 2.6.38.8-bfs kernel for maximum desktop performance.
Full Openbox Desktop.
Nvidia driver support and ATI fglrx driver support.
Nvidia driver support. ATI fglrx can be added later.
Multimedia playback support for many popular formats.
Wireless support for many network devices.
Printer support for many local and networked printer devices.
Addlocale allows you to convert PCLinuxOS into over 60 languages.
LibreOffice Manager can install Libre Office supporting over 100 languages.
OOo4Kids Manager can install OpenOffice For Kids in 17 languages

Highlighted Applications:
GCompris - a high quality educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10
Some of the activities are game orientated, but nonetheless still educational. Below you can find a list of categories with some of the activities available in that category.

-  computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
-  algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
-  science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation ...
-  geography: place the country on the map
-  games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
-  reading: reading practice
-  other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon making, ...

Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.

Childsplay - a collection of educational activities for young children and runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux. Childsplay can be used at home, kindergartens and pre-schools. A fun and safe way to let young children use the computer and at the same time teach them a little math, letters of the alphabeth, spelling, eye-hand coordination etc.
Childsplay is part of the schoolsplay.org project.

Omnitux - The project aims to provide various educational activities around multimedia elements (images, sounds, texts)
Types of activities

    Associations,
    items to place on a map or a schema,
    counting activities,
    puzzles,
    card faces to remember,
    ...
Multiple languages support :

    German
    English
    French
    Italian
    Polish
    Portuguese
    Spanish

Available for Linux and Microsoft Windows.

Gamine - the game for the youngest. Starting age of 18 when your child starts climbing on your knees and messing around your desktop  with the mouse, hop ! Start Gamine,  and the child will have colorful shapes and music reacting to the moves of the mouse, leaving your desktop alone, and discovering that the move of the mouse has an action !

gTans - A tangram game offering plenty of possibilities, and very configurable
Tuxtype - to learn and improve typing while feeding Tux
Tux Paint - to draw and paint. A set of thumbs are installed, more can be installed later
TuxMathScrabble - a game to learn maths while playing scrabble with Tux

Scratch - An astounding programming language for everyone. While building stories and scenes, you will learn and teach development to young children, and many projects which can be downloaded for use can be found at the main site. Scratch: Create interactive stories, games, music and art - and share them online.

Okawix – Okawix is an offline reader that allow you to download the content of Wikimedia projects, with or without pictures, in order to then access it offline.
Okawix's library includes the 253 languages of the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks).

Other programs included
Firefox- Web Browser
PCmanFM - File and Desktop Manager

AbiWord – Word processor
Evince - Document viewer
Gnumeric - Spreadsheet
Galculator - calculator
Labyrinth - Mind mapping

VLC – media player for nearly any kind of multimedia format
DeadBeef – music player

MTPaint and MTPaint Screenshot – Painting and Screenshot Program
Viewnior – Graphic Viewing Program

File-Roller – Archive manager
Gnomebaker – CD/DVD Burning Program

Geany – Text Editor

PCLinuxOS Control Center
Synaptic package manager
Obconf – Openbox Configuration Manager


12,000 additional programs available from our Synaptic Software Manager after installation to your computer.

Hardware requirements
Processor
Modern Intel or AMD processor.
Memory & storage
RAM : 384 MB minimum, 1 GB recommended.
Hard disk : 3 GB minimum, 10 GB or more recommended if you plan to install additional software from our repository.
Video card
nVidia, ATI, Intel, SiS, Matrox, VIA.
3D desktop support requires a 3D instructions set compatible card.
Sound card
Any Sound Blaster, AC97 or HDA compatible card.
Other
CD/DVD drive required


Normal user is school and password is school.

Unetbootin? Point to directions?

And Live Linux USB, and... I'll be back and look closer...

[djohnston]

Okay. Updated.

It runs especially well on computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers.

// Theses last statements need to be checked...

You doubt that? That was shamefully "grabbed" from the LXDE 2011 description page.

[melodie]

Okay. Updated.

Crow did the first effort during lots of weeks. I wrote this above modification fast before dinner. So, Produced by: Melodie, Crow and the testers.

/fyi : the mypclos forum has closed, but there during many days, several weeks Crow started a thread and brought lots of informations about programs to choose and test, and thoses he is using with his children. I hope Crow will be back with us now that it's we can say, very near to ready.

[djohnston]

So, Produced by: Melodie, Crow and the testers.

Done and done.

[melodie]

So, Produced by: Melodie, Crow and the testers.

Done and done.

Thank you.

It will be soon available. I hope I thought about PCLinuxOS Live USB... :s

[djohnston]

You're welcome, Melodie. Thank you for the Openbox edition. My PIII loves it.

I didn't know about mypclos forum closing. But, I wasn't there very much. I was looking in the repository and saw we have unetbootin, as well as the PCLinuxOS Live USB creator. We really do need some good documentation on using both, if it hasn't been done already.

[melodie]

You're welcome, Melodie. Thank you for the Openbox edition. My PIII loves it.

I didn't know about mypclos forum closing. But, I wasn't there very much. I was looking in the repository and saw we have unetbootin, as well as the PCLinuxOS Live USB creator. We really do need some good documentation on using both, if it hasn't been done already.

+1. And Linux Live USB, for the Windows users, is a very good one too. I have tried it, it's not too difficult, and does a good job.

http://www.linuxliveusb.com

(I don't use Windows. I have it so I can do tests to tell the poor lost sheep how they can come in. )

[djohnston]

(I don't use Windows. I have it so I can do tests to tell the poor lost sheep how they can come in. )

I hear you loud and clear. I try not to use it, but occasionally get "sucked into it" (or suckered). I used it for years, and every time I use it now, I'm amazed at how clunky and unresponsive it is.

I'll add that url.

[melodie]

I used it for years, and every time I use it now, I'm amazed at how clunky and unresponsive it is.

Disclaimer : OT
Title : my Windows story

I used it during 3 months. That was my first PC back in 2004 and the day I received it the Earth shaked (real ! 5 on the Richter scale and my brand new computer furniture shivered while I was trying to type to the keyboard  /o\ ... f34r :!: )

During the first month I tried to do a few things and during the 2 following months I did my best to get to know how to switch to Linux ! ^^

The rest is really a long story, but to give just the start, I visited this website and wrote to it's owner. Had nice exchanges by mail and later asked for advise on howto start and got addresses in France such as "linux-france.org" and a pair of others where I found the path...

[djohnston]

That was my first PC back in 2004 and the day I received it the Earth shaked (real ! 5 on the Richter scale and my brand new computer furniture shivered while I was trying to type to the keyboard  /o\ ... f34r :!: )

Aren't you close to the Pyrenees?

[melodie]

That was my first PC back in 2004 and the day I received it the Earth shaked (real ! 5 on the Richter scale and my brand new computer furniture shivered while I was trying to type to the keyboard  /o\ ... f34r :!: )

Aren't you close to the Pyrenees?

I am now but at this time I was just 100 kms south from Besançon, which is in the east of France. (Look at "Franche Comté" in google images, and "Bresse").

[melodie]

Hi,

Today the upload of the newer Educational PCLinuxOS version has been done. It is up to date as of today August 31st, featuring

Openbox 3.5
openbox-menu 0.3.6.4

(do you have a relevant place to put this ?)

and a new setup in the configuration of the policy which prevents non priviledged users to gain access to internal storage.

(just for an idea, the screen here after... If needed for the presentation, it should be better taken from the PCLinuxOS Education in english, of course... this one was done while testing in Virtualbox, where I had both the  en and the fr installed, and switching from one to the other... )



Then I think it will be ok for an annoucement in the PCLinuxOS General News and Announcements section... maybe one or two more testers would want to give it a whirl ?

Download links:
pclinuxos-education-2011.08.iso 689MB
pclinuxos-education-2011.08.md5sum

Regards,
Mélodie