Idea for a remix: Ubuntu Student/Scholar Edition (Stubuntu)

[Jimleko211]

Lately I've been toying with the idea of making a Ubuntu remix that centers around what a student or a scholar might need. This would lend itself to ebook software and other educational tools.

Things that I've thought up of so far:
Calibre
A Periodic Table application
Gnome as the default DE

While this is a secondary goal, I'd like to remain as free as possible, while ultimately letting the user choose. Any remarks or suggestions anyone would like to make?

[TheNerdAL]

I think there is already one called Edubuntu that is sort of the same.

[Jimleko211]

I think there is already one called Edubuntu that is sort of the same.

From my understanding, Edubuntu is more for administering classrooms, and the educational software on it is for more elementary students. I'd like a more high school/college level remix.

[bryce123]

http://www.uberstudent.org/

[Jimleko211]

http://www.uberstudent.org/

Well that saved me a lot of time and energy. Thanks!

[PC_load_letter]

http://scibuntu.sourceforge.net/

[victor9098]

I read some time ago that it was always the intention to develop a version of Edubuntu to cater for third level eduction, but it is obviously something that they have not been able to get around to doing.

I have downloaded versions of Edubuntu for my niece and she has enjoyed playing the learning games, but would be great to see more development.

[standingwave]

Part of the reason for the lack of development might be that a college student's requirements really aren't that different from those of a regular user: office suite, browser, document reader, media player, etc. It's probably more efficient for the student to install specific apps (such as the periodic table) as needed than to try to anticipate the needs of all students with a one-size-fits-all approach.

[victor9098]

I agree completely standingwave, I just have been looking UberStudent (http://www.uberstudent.org/) and they have some great add-ons for Ubuntu, have already installed the Mendeley software. But citation/reference programmes like that and a plugin package for firefox would be a welcome start.

I think the problem is always going to be getting the good programmes to stand out, though we have great selection in the software store, unless they implement the ranking/star system the good stuff gets lost...ending rant now.

;)

[ewenss]

Hi all. I found a string of references to this thread from the uberstudent.org server logs and thought I'd pop in.

Students suffer when they function from what is typically nothing more than an office or home computer re-labeled as a computer for the educational sector and students. Windows-affiliated OEMs don't have a financial interest in providing real learning platforms. That's a huge opportunity for FOSS that UberStudent attempts to meet.

Uberstudent deliberately avoids being a one-size-fits-all OS for all students. It provides a set of what we call core programs and extras that are common to students of all academic disciplines. If you wish to extend it for your major in Chemistry, Creative Writing, Music, History, Computer Science, etc., that's what the Academic Software Explorer is for.

When finished, we think the Academic Software Explorer will be a significant advancement to the Linux world. It takes months full-time to even get a good handle on all that is available in these regards, and Ubuntu and Debian repos only scratch the surface. I'd not wish this task on any busy college student transitioning into Linux!

Peer rating systems are not necessarily the wisest indicator. For example, Semantik is very popular and is in the Ubuntu repos, but it has little future in academia because it is not cross-platform. VUE (http://vue.tufts.edu/), on the other hand, holds tremendous promise and a superior feature set (including interactivity with Zotero), although it's currently unknown to many people.

UberStudent exists because we found no other Linux distro appropriately aimed at the higher education and 21st century high school sectors. We need help bringing the distro to greater maturity so as to advance Linux into these very key sectors. :-)

UberStudent cannot exist as just an Ubuntu remix. It has far too many packages Canonical does not support.

UberStudent will likely undergo a name change for version 1.0. We own both the eduix.org and scholarlinux.org/com domains.

[ewenss]

I read some time ago that it was always the intention to develop a version of Edubuntu to cater for third level eduction, but it is obviously something that they have not been able to get around to doing.

I didn't want to let this leave an incomplete impression.

FYI, that's been done by the edubuntu folks since Jaunty, with a metapackage called ubuntu-edu-tertiary http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=ubuntu-edu-tertiary

While I appreciate the work of the packagers, it serves to me as a clarion proof of what cannot be done while delimited by the official Ubuntu repos. And those limitations are very severe for the purposes of a distro for higher ed, in my view.

Someone once thought Debian delimited the freedom they needed for a specific purpose and created Ubuntu. Someone later thought Ubuntu delimited the freedom they needed for a specific purpose and created UberStudent.

Each still builds upon the other.

That's just the way the Linux world advances, it seems. :-)

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