May 23rd, 2008

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

One of the aspects of migrating to Linux that puts many people off giving it a try is the idea of having to leave behind tried and trusted Windows applications and having to make the switch to something else. Sure, the Windows app cost money and the chances are good that a free open source replacement can be found, but migrating is a hassle, and making the switch when you don’t know what applications you’re going to switch to is unnerving.

With that in mind I’ve decided to put together a few posts that look at open source apps on Linux. These posts are aimed mostly at those people who are thinking about making the switch to Linux or who have started to but still rely on Windows a majority of the time (although if you are a veteran Linux user, feel free to chip in with hints and tips!).

In this first post I’m going to take a closer look at some of the applications that ship with Ubuntu 8.04 and which are ready to use as soon as you’ve installed and booted into Linux! See, after you’ve install Windows, you’ve got the OS, Notepad, Calculator and a few other bits and pieces. After installing a distro like Ubuntu you’ve cost of propecia per month got a whole raft of applications at your disposal.

OpenOffice.org 2.4

When you install Windows you don’t expect to be able to produce word processor documents, spreadsheets or presentations. For this you’d need to install an office suite. With Ubuntu that’s not the case as it comes complete with OpenOffice.org 2.4 pre-installed.

OpenOffice.org puts three applications at your disposal:

• Writer – Word processor
  
• Calc – Spreadsheet
  
• Impress – Presentation
  

So right there you have Linux-based replacements for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint – and it hasn’t cost you a penny!

I’m not going to kid you that these applications offer all the functionality that their Microsoft Office counterparts do, because they don’t. But, let’s face it, how many people really need all the functionality that Office offers? I’m guessing not many. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that OpenOffice.org drops a good 80% of features available in Office and only keeps the 20% that people find useful.

OpenOffice.org has some nice features that Office doesn’t have. For example, you can easily export documents to the PDF format without the need of a plug-in or converter.

Unless you’re already living neck-deep in Office documents, or you exchange Office documents with others, OpenOffice.org could be all the office suite you need.

OpenOffice.org

Evolution

One of the programs that keep me tied to Microsoft Office is Outlook. I have a pretty big chuck of both my work and family life contained in that single program. If I’m supposed to be doing something, going somewhere or thinking about something, then it’s probably in my Outlook. While I’m now happy to make the shift from Internet Explorer to Firefox as my browser, there’s no way I could get rid of Outlook and replace it with Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

Ubuntu ships with an application that, while it isn’t a total substitute for Outlook, handles many of the features that Outlook does. It handles you email, contacts, Calendar, memos and tasks in a single application.

Here’s a nice feature of Evolution – if you use Gmail or Google Calendar you can sync your data online with your desktop easily.

Evolution

GIMP

Adobe’s Photoshop is considered to be the apotheosis of image editing tools, but very few can afford (or truly needs) this behemoth. A decent Linux alternative to Photoshop (that will cost you nothing) is GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulator Program and this applications offers a whole raft of features to those looking to retouch photos or compose images.

To say that GIMP offers all the features that Photoshop offers would be going too far, but just as with OpenOffice.org, GIMP offers most of the features that most users will need. If you need additional features or functions then you can augment GIMP by downloading and installing plug-ins which are freely available for the application.

Some people claim that GIMP is difficult and confusing to use, while others (myself included) find GIMP to be pretty straight forward). Work your way through the user manual and you’ll quickly get to grips with the application. If you’re already a Photoshop user then you can make GIMP look and feel like the Adobe product by using GIMPshop, a version of GIMP which has been modified to look more like Photoshop.

Pidgin

Stay in touch with all you IM buddies with Pidgin. This is a simple-to-use yet flexible IM client.

Pidgin supports a whole host of protocols and as long as you know what protocol to choose and your username and password you can be online and chatting in seconds. Pidgin also allows you to make use of more than one IM account at the same time – handy of you have multiple IM accounts.

Pidgin

Rhythmbox

Moving over to Linux doesn’t mean that you have to leave your music behind. Rhythmbox an integrated music management application. The applications looks a little like Windows Media Player.

Not only is Rhythmbox an easy to use media player, but it also handles tasks such as ripping/burning CDs, downloading podcasts, Internet radio, album art and song lyrics, and also the transfer of music to and from iPods and other music players.

Rhythmbox

Brasero

While Windows comes with a token ability to burn discs, Ubuntu comes with the fully-featured Brasero. Using Brasero you can burn audio CDs, data CDs and DVDs, burn images to CD and DVD and do one-to-one copies of CDs and DVDs.

Again, one the aspects that I really like about Brasero is the fact that unlike a disc burning suite such as Nero, Brasero is a simple application to use. It’s an application that you can fire up and dive straight into without having to delve into the help files.

Brasero

Closing thoughts

Here I’ve looked at a small selection of the applications that ship as part of a standard Ubuntu install. There are a lot more applications that come pre-installed with Ubuntu. And Ubuntu is only one distro, and different distros come with different applications.

I guess that the message I’m trying to get across to those of you who like the idea of a free OS but worry that you’re not going to find applications to replace those you’re leaving behind on Windows is don’t be worried. The Linux open source ecosystem is both rich and well developed and there are plenty of applications available.

In part 2 I’ll look at open source applications for Linux that you can download and install to augment the applications that come pre-installed.

Check out the gallery accompanying this post here

By Scott Dunn Running applications from a USB flash drive on a public computer is convenient but exposes you to malware and other limitations of the host PC. By installing a Windows-like version of Linux on a flash drive, you can take a complete operating system wherever you go and work in a safe, secure environment, even in an Internet café.

Assessing your portable alternatives

Several months ago, in the Oct. 18, 2007, issue, I explained how to run free, portable applications from a USB flash drive (also known as a thumb drive, pen drive, memory stick) to simulate having a computer you can carry in your pocket.

Although keeping your favorite free applications and documents on a flash drive is handy, any use of a public computer (such as those found in a hotel business center or Internet café) exposes you and your data to risks from malware, which can threaten your security and privacy.

But what if your "pocket PC" included not just applications and data but an entire operating system, too? It would be even more like having a genuine computer in your pocket.

After my Oct. 18 article on flash-drive computing, some readers suggested using MojoPac as a way of carrying around Windows XP on a USB device. Unfortunately, MojoPac does not really give you an entire operating system.

Although MojoPac lets you take your own custom XP desktop with you — and helps keep your data and applications separate from the host PC — it's not a full installation of XP. MojoPac only works on a computer that's running Windows XP and then only if you have administrator access to that PC.

Some tools, such as BartPE (Bart's Preinstalled Environment) let you create a stripped-down version of XP that boots from either a CD or a USB device. However, these tools are usually designed to give you a way of booting a particular computer to troubleshoot it. They typically don't create a full version of XP that will run all your favorite applications on any PC.

A much simpler and more powerful solution is to install one of the many versions of Linux that are specifically designed to run from a bootable flash drive or CD.

Consider the advantages of carrying a portable Linux system in your pocket:

• Reduced risk from infected host systems. Booting a computer from a flash drive means you have no interaction whatsoever with the host computer's operating system. For that reason, your removable media is far less likely to be infected by any virus or other malware that may be running on an Internet café's. (This is true even if the host computer itself is running Linux.) Naturally, you can still inadvertently download malware via an e-mail attachment or a browser exploit, but you face that risk any time.

• Greater security. In part because there are fewer people trying to writing malware for it, Linux is considered a more secure operating system than Windows. Consequently, your removable drive is unlikely to face the same kinds of threats that you face when using a public machine running Windows.

• Document privacy. Running a system off your own flash drive usually means you don't need to write to or read from the host system's hard drives. You won't have to extract encrypted files onto the system's desktop or shred them afterwards.

• Computing your way. By running your own customize copy of an operating system, you don't have to put up with a different system configuration every time you use a different computer. All your customizations and settings go with you wherever you go.

Naturally, if you're traveling, you won't always be able to find a computer that can boot from a USB drive. If you find that you like running Linux on the road, it's easy to find versions of the OS that boot and run from a CD. However, reading programs and data from a CD is slower than it is from a flash drive.

Finally, if you're concerned about a flash drive catching a virus, install a free antivirus program that runs under Linux, such as Avast Linux Home Edition or AVG Anti-Virus. For further protection, you should consider buying a flash drive that has a read-only switch.

This is not your father's Linux

If the word Linux makes you cringe in fear at trying something new, relax. Despite its geeky reputation, today's versions of Linux sport a graphical user interface that's just as intuitive as the Windows you're used to. (See Figure 1.) In many cases, Linux can be customized to look even more like Windows.

Figure 1. The look and feel of Linux distributions such as Knoppix (shown here at reduced size) will seem familar to every Windows users.
__________

In most Linux builds, you'll find the equivalent of a Start menu, Task Bar, Control Panel, desktop icons, and more. You'll still have long filenames and move your files from folder to folder. You'll still be able to work with all the same spreadsheet, document, and graphics files as you do on your Windows machine.

If you already have a USB drive that you can spare, it won't cost you anything to try out this technique.

Here's what you need to get started:

1. A 1GB or larger USB flash drive. If you're going to be buying a new one, check out my advice in the Oct. 11, 2007, newsletter.

2. A computer capable of booting from a USB device or CD. Most computers built in recent years have this capability. If you find an Internet café PC that won't boot from external media, you can often press a key combination when the PC is booting that allows you to change the machine's BIOS options. A list of the key combinations used by more than 20 different manufacturers, and a short tutorial on changing the boot sequence, is provided at Andy Walker at his Cyberwalker site.

Next, you need to download and install a version of Linux suited for flash-drive computing. I installed and ran the latest builds of generic brands viagra online color=”#000099″>Knoppix, Slax, Puppy Linux, Pendrivelinux 2008, MCNLive Toronto, and gOS. Most of these distributions of the portable OS are available from the Pendrivelinux site.

My pick: Pendrivelinux 2008. From a user perspective, Pendrivelinux 2008 and MCNLive Toronto are nearly identical in look and feel. Both are very easy to install and, like many Linux variants, come with a considerable amount of software built in. Both include the KOffice suite of applications.

One difference in these two builds is that MCNLive includes the Opera browser, whereas Pendrivelinux includes Firefox and Thunderbird. The bundling of Firefox makes Pendrivelinux 2008 my Linux variant of choice (for now).

The best option for OpenOffice aficionados. If you're already using OpenOffice and want to stick with it, the Knoppix flavor of Linux includes that suite.

A word for Mac lovers. If you happen to be a Mac enthusiast, gOS provides an elegant imitation of the OS X interface.

The best way to set up your flash-drive OS

The Pendrivelinux Web site provides download and installation instructions for Knoppix, Pendrivelinux 2008, MCNLive Toronto, and gOS. Warning: Be sure to follow the steps carefully, as executing one of the batch files in the wrong way could damage your ability to boot from your PC's hard disk.

Once you have your flash drive set to boot up Linux, turn off your PC, insert the flash drive, and turn the power back on.

Many computers will display a boot menu when you press a function key such as F8, F9, or F12. To figure out which key triggers this menu on your PC, you may need to watch the startup screen carefully for information. On some systems, you may have to press Tab to clear your system's splash screen and get a list of keys for startup options.

The first time you boot from your flash drive, there may be some additional steps to take, as explained in the OS's installation instructions. These steps will ensure that your session settings are saved. You'll probably want to give the system a test run and verify that your configuration works before you take your drive traveling with you.

With all the software that comes with these installations, chances are you won't need to install any additional Linux applications at this point. This is especially true if you're accustomed to using online applications, such as Google Docs or Zoho.

One downside to using Linux on a remote computer is that you may have to boot from your flash drive on your main computer when you get home to transfer files. That's because Windows can't see the folders on your Linux desktop or its file structure.

Linux, on the other hand, will have no problem mounting your computer's hard drives. This enables you to copy files from your flash drive to a hard disk. Naturally, this quirk is not a problem if you're storing your documents online.

Although running a flash version of Linux is a safer, more secure way to do portable computing, you still need to exercise caution. Hardware keyloggers and network sniffers can capture passwords and other sensitive information you type using a public computer, regardless of your chosen operating system.

In addition, the small size of flash drives makes them easy to lose. Consequently, it's common sense to make a backup copy of your flash drive on a regular basis.

If you've been spending your computing life in the Windows world up until now, versions of Linux that run on removable media offer a great chance to explore some new possibilities. You may be surprised how convenient and simple it can be.

December 19th, 2007

Posted by Larry Dignan

Takeaway: If fear of a windowless environment has kept you from running Linux, KDE may be your answer. Jack Wallen explains what you'll find running a windowing environment such as KDE on your Linux workstation.

A task bar, a menu, clickable icons, a system tray, and a customizable look make up the standard operating system GUI. It's what you expect of an operating system's GUI; it's what you get with Windows, and exactly what you get with KDE running on Linux.

It's the same metaphor, layout, and methods; the biggest difference is the underlying system, which the average user never sees. Still, people seem to fear change. I'm going to alleviate those fears by showing you what you'll find running a windowing environment such as KDE on your Linux workstation.

Author's note

For the purposes of this article, I've installed a fresh version of Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), The Gimp, and OpenOffice on my test workstation. I've also run full updates (using Synaptic), but that's it. Little configuration has been done outside of a few window behaviors that better suit my working style.

It doesn't matter what distribution of Linux you're running KDE on. KDE pretty much works the same no matter what version of Linux is underneath the surface.

The system I'm working on contains the following specs:

• CPU: AMD 2800+
• RAM: 512 MB
• Video: VIA Technology Integrated VT8378

It isn't spectacular and is somewhat out-of-date, but is up to par with what many businesses would still be running on a desktop.

A quick look around

You probably already know your way around Windows pretty well, so I won't do a side-by-side comparison to a Windows GUI. Instead, I will simply illustrate the components of the GUI that will immediately be familiar with users who are familiar with the Windows GUI. Here are the components I will deal with:

1. Desktop
2. Pager
3. Panel
4. System Tray
5. Desktop Icons
6. Mouse Menus

The KDE Desktop

By default, Linux doesn't boot into a graphical environment. Operating systems that do often boot into GNOME. However, if you log off of a GNOME session, you can switch into KDE by making a selection from the Session menu. When KDE starts, you'll see a desktop like the one shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The default KDE desktop with three minimized windows.

What you see is a standard desktop. It's very basic, clean, and very similar to those desktops of the Windows operating systems. At the bottom is the Panel, where you'll see these items:

• The K Menu: Bottom left.
• The System Menu: Second from bottom left.
• The Show Desktop button: Third from bottom left.
• The Quick Launcher: Fourth from bottom left.
• Minimized windows: Labeled techrepublic_kde.doc, Layers, Channels, Paths…, and The Gimp, in our example.
• The Pager: Labeled "1" and "2".
• The System Tray: Marked with the Speaker icon, the Network icon, and the Klipper icon.
• The Clock applet
• The Trash Can

The Desktop is easily configured by pressing the right mouse button anywhere on the desktop above the panel. The resulting menu, shown in Figure B, will have an entry for Configure Desktop. This is very similar to pressing the right mouse button on the desktop in Windows and choosing Properties.

Figure B

From this menu you will also create clickable icons (more on that later.)

The resulting new window, shown in Figure C, is where you will configure the look and feel of your desktop.

Figure C

The biggest difference in the Background settings between KDE and Windows is that in KDE you can configure the background settings for one or more desktops.

You can add items and behaviors that can enhance the desktop experience by pressing the Behavior button. From this section, seen in Figure D, you can add a Menu Bar, edit the action of the mouse buttons, and configure Icons to show for various file types and device types.

Figure D

You can create your own mouse menu by selecting Custom 1 or Custom 2 from the Mouse Button Action cialis da 5 mg drop down lists and selecting Edit.

Suppose you want to configure the Desktop background; there are some interesting tricks for this. Go back to the Configure Desktop window and press the Background button. In the Change The Background window, you'll see a few things that vary from the Windows wallpaper configuration.

The first thing you'll see is the drop-down for which desktop you want your settings to apply to. If you click the drop down you will see that you can apply the settings to either All Desktops, Desktop 1, or Desktop 2. This setting refers to the Pager which we will discuss momentarily.

If you click on Advanced options you can configure KDE to use the kwebdesktop application to download various images from the web. If you select Get New Wallpapers, you can download various wallpapers from kde-look.org.

Pager

The pager is a desktop metaphor that has been with Linux for quite some time. Effectively, this system allows you to have far more screen real estate than you would normally have. Suppose in your office, you have two desks. On one desk, you do all of your bookkeeping chores; on another desk, you do all of your face-to-face chores. Having two desks keeps various paper work and jobs from getting confused with one another and it gives you far more space to work; that is how the pager works.

By default, the KDE desktop gives you two pagers: Desktop 1 and Desktop 2. You can have as many as twenty desktops.

To configure multiple desktops, you'll make changes in the Desktop properties screen. In the Desktop Properties window, press the Multiple Desktops button. You can take care of three configurations:

• Number of Desktops: The number of desktops you want to use.
• Desktop Names: The label you want to give each Desktop.
• Mouse Wheel: By enabling this, you can change desktops by moving your mouse wheel.

Naming the desktops is actually quite helpful. Most times I will name each desktop with the work I will be undertaking on that desktop. So, I will often have a desktop named Writing, another named Network, one named Graphics, and still another named System.

Panel

Let's move on from the Desktop and head toward the item that will be most familiar to the Windows user: the Panel. Sometimes referred to as the Kicker, the Panel will be the place from where many of your applications will be launched as well as where they are minimized. The panel is, to many, the heart of the desktop.

The Panel is a simple bar that runs across the bottom of your screen; it can also be set up to run on the sides or the top. The Panel can be highly configured: You can add applets and icons to it and change the look and feel of it.

Configuring the Panel is simple: Right-click anywhere on the Panel that doesn't house an icon, tray, menu, or minimized application. When you right-click the Panel, you will see a menu appear, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

Not only can you configure the existing panel, but you can add and remove panels as well.

Select Configure Panel from the menu. The Panel Configuration window, shown in Figure F, is very similar to the look and feel of the Desktop Configuration window.

Figure F

There are quite a few options to take care of here.

The first thing you will see is the placement and size of the Panel. My personal choice is to shorten the panel and center the placement, but this is outside of the norm, so we'll leave it as default. You can also change the size of the Panel.

As in Windows, you can set up your panel to auto-hide, consequently giving yourself even more screen real estate. One aspect of panel hiding that differs from Windows is the hiding buttons. If you enable the panel-hiding buttons, as shown in Figure G below, you will see a small arrow pointing in the direction the Panel will move. You can configure the Panel to hide to the left or right.

Figure G

You can enable both buttons to slide the panel either way.

Once you've hidden it, you can bring the Panel back by pressing the arrow once again. Of course, with the panel hidden, how do you get to your minimized applications? Simply press the middle mouse button (probably the mouse wheel). The resulting menu — the Window List — is shown in Figure H.

Figure H

This is a simple way to bring back your applications.

The window list is simply a clickable listing of the applications currently running. Even if an application is minimized, you can bring said application to the desktop by selecting it from the Window List.

You can also add more pagers to the desktop. There are five different types of panels you can add:

Dock Application Bar: This allows WindowMaker applications be docked.

External Taskbar: A bar that can take the place of the taskbar on the Panel so that there can be more room for minimized windows.

Kasbar: A replacement for the KDE panel with a totally different look and feel.

Panel: Add a second KDE Panel.

Universal Sidebar: This is a similar sidebar that used to belong to Konqueror. It holds clickable icons for applications, bookmarks, directories, and networks.

The Kasbar

The Kasbar is a very interesting tool that hearkens back to the look and feel of Next (or AfterStep). Take a look at Figure I; it illustrates one way the Kasbar is used. As you can see, I hovered over the minimized icon for OpenOffice, and a thumbnail of the window appeared.

Figure I

Click on the Kasbar minimized icon and the window will appear.

Although the Kasbar is a neat take on some old-school ways, it probably won't have much of a place with your users migrating from Windows.

System tray

The system tray, shown in Figure J, is exactly what you would think it to be. Here you will find tiny applets that offer up system information or tools. By default, KDE has the Sound Applet, the Klipper (the copy tool), and the KNetworkManager applet. These applets are the only available applets by default. There are certain applications (such as the personal time tracker KArm) which, when minimized, will go directly to the system tray.

Figure J

If you press the left mouse button on any of the three applets shown, a menu will appear.

The clock is not really a part of the system tray, but just an applet on its own. As with any of the panel applets, you can move the clock by hovering your mouse on the left edge of the clock until you see the vertical bar and arrow appear.

Desktop icons

Most users wouldn't know what to do without Desktop Icons. By default, KDE doesn't have any desktop icons. Creating icons is very simple: Right-click the desktop and select Create New. From the Create New menu select Link To Application. Once this entry is selected, a new window (Figure K) will appear that will allow you to create the necessary icon. The one possible drawback is that you will have to know the location of the command to run (or the name of the command, which must be in your user's $PATH.)

Figure K

Ensure you press the icon button (the button with the blue gear) in order to give the icon a unique graphic for the application icon.

There is, of course, another way to create a desktop icon. Select the System menu (located in the Panel to the right of the K Menu) and select Home Folder. The Konqueror browser will appear in the users home directory. Select the small red Root Folder icon to place the browser in the / directory. Navigate to /usr/bin and locate the application you want to add the icon for.

Click and drag the icon to the desktop and an icon will appear. The only change you will have to make is to right-click the icon, select Properties, and edit the icon button so you won't have a desktop full of blue gears. Once the icons are created, they will all be single-click icons.

Final thoughts

KDE shares so much familiarity to Windows. Some feel as if this was done intentionally because Microsoft just got the desktop metaphor right. Some, on the other hand, feel as if it was done because it was what users were accustomed to. At any rate, KDE did do many things correctly, and your users will feel right at home using the KDE GUI.

October 21st, 2007

 

Posted by Christopher DawsonMaybe not for the average corporation yet, or even the average home user, but every time Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu (and with it comes Edubuntu), Microsoft becomes a little less the default vendor of choice for educational computing.

 

I’m still 2 years from a major tech refresh, including server hardware and software. I have to say I wish I was a little closer, having just installed Edubuntu 7.10 on my test server at home. Not only did the install go even easier than it did when I installed version 7.04 6 months ago, but the performance once installed is significantly improved.

 

One of the aspects of Gutsy that feels much improved over previous versions is speed.

 

Everything feels faster and snappier, from loading up the OS to clicking on menus.

 

For Edubuntu, a derivative of Ubuntu incorporating packages of educational software, and, more importantly, a brilliant implementation of the Linux Terminal Server Project, this translates into faster boot times for thin clients as well as standalone workstations. For those of you who haven’t used Edubuntu before, at installation you have the opportunity to install either a workstation (basically Ubuntu with educational packages and a kid-friendly theme) or a server, which supports connection of thin clients. In it’s simplest form, the latter requires two network interfaces, one connected to the Internet (via a router or drop from a larger network) and one connected to a switch with thin clients attached.

 

As with 7.04, this setup really is incredibly simple. Edubuntu detects both interfaces and allows manual or automatic networking setup. The automatic setup is remarkably intelligent; one caveat:

 

if the automatic DHCP/DNS the installer performs fails, then switch the two network connections coming into the server. Most likely, the so-called gateway interface was simply connected to the thin clients instead of the outside network. The text-based installer (sorry, no live CD/graphical install for Edubuntu, although you don’t really miss it) guides you through the rest and various setup options for Edubuntu are well-documented here. Note that while the instructions linked here are cialis cheapest price for version 6.06, the actual installation hasn’t changed much. The look, feel, and performance of the installed system are significantly improved.

 

I installed Ubuntu on two other older PCs for comparison (Dell workstations with 256MB RAM and Pentium 3 Xeons) without any trouble and had my kids using all of their Flash and Java-based applications in less than an hour and a half (from the time I started the install). My youngest was logged into the Edubuntu server (also an aging old donation with 2GB RAM and a single Pentium 3 Xeon running at 700MHz) via his old desktop (set to boot from the network) while I opened and closed applications, switched users, and monitored his connection via a cool control panel on the server itself. While this is obviously a low-utilization, seat of the pants test, this is also a really old server by modern standards and slower than the server on which I tested Edubuntu 7.04 (a Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading, running at 3GHz with 2GB of RAM). Performance was definitely improved, even with the slower server hardware, particularly in terms of network boot times and responsiveness on the thin clients.

 

Which leads me back to my headline. Edubuntu (and the various incarnations of Ubuntu) are very good right now. Microsoft may bring us “Patch Tuesday,” but Canonical brings us a significantly upgraded operating system every 6 months. Many other major Linux developers follow a similar schedule. If the improvements between versions are immediately noticeable, imagine what a couple more generations will bring us. What will Edubuntu 8.10 look like and how much better will it be? For that matter, how will SUSE Linux and their Kiwi implementation of LTSP look (along with the promise of fully-functional library and student information system software out of the box in the coming months)? RedHat/Fedora aren’t exactly far behind either, to say nothing of the countless options represented by other distributions.

 

I’m itching for a tech refresh already, just so that I can logically roll out one of these distributions somewhere other than my own lab. Of course, it will probably take me the next two years to convince my users that we can do without Windows anyway. For now, I’ll content myself with building a group of champion users who can see first hand the value of software like Edubuntu, and who can be as impressed as I am at its incredibly speedy progress.

 

Pasted from <http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1280>