Edubuntu 7.10 Release Announcement

18 October 2007: Edubuntu 7.10 Released

The Edubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Edubuntu 7.10, codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon". This release includes both Installation CDs and installable Live CDs for several architectures.

About Edubuntu

Edubuntu is the education-focused variant of Ubuntu, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, and a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, including education and productivity applications. An incredible variety of packages is available with a few clicks from a global network of mirrors, and professional commercial technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about
support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support

Edubuntu 7.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers.

Get Edubuntu

Download Edubuntu 7.10 here:

http://www.edubuntu.org/Download

To burn these CD images, you will need 700MB media.

About Edubuntu 7.10

Highlights of this release include:

Edubuntu KDE Desktop

  • New meta package for easy setup

Improved Session Management Apps

  • Lockdown and profile management applications like sabayon and pessulus have recieved a lot of attention in Edubuntu during this release cycle

Easier Installation of Educational Applications

  • Through Edubuntu specific metapackages it is very easy to install even more educational applications based on their special field of usage
  • Additionally the Edubuntu Addon CD installer improves usability

Collaborative editing by default

  • Edubuntu now includes gobby the great editor for collaborative editing in its default installation

Thin Client - LTSP

The Edubuntu classroom server install builds on the functionality from the previous release simplifying common Linux classroom server deployment processes. It includes the very latest thin client software, LTSP-5. Thin client deployments offers clients a lower TCO (total cost of ownership), simpler installation and easier maintenance than typical IT deployments. With all data stored on the server, administrators have substantially eliminated the cost of updating individual workstations to ensure their security.

Installing from the CD will provide you with an out of the box working thin client environment, including sound and thin client block device support.

Features of the integration work for LTSP-5 in Edubuntu include for the thin client:

  • Incredible speed improvement of thin clients through usage of compressed images
  • New and faster detection of graphics hardware

Thin Client Login Manager

LDM (the LTSP login manager) now has:

  • autologin
  • unencrypted graphics transport on demand (speedup)
  • multiple server support and theming for all *buntu derivatives

From our Ubuntu 7.10 Base

Edubuntu 7.10 is based on Ubuntu 7.10, and enhancements in the Ubuntu desktop edition include the following new features:

Compiz Fusion

  • Really cool 3D desktop effects

Desktop Search

  • Quickly search through all your files, emails, photos, chat logs ...

Firefox Plugins

  • Automatic installation of Firefox plugins provided and validated by Ubuntu

gnash

  • Free software implementation of Flash, available for 64-bit platforms

NTFS writing

  • Read and write files on a Windows partition (including NTFS)

GNOME Deskbar Applet

  • Central place for all search operations (local and web)

GNOME Desktop Printer Installation

  • Just plug it in, configured fully automatically

Programming

  • New faster version of Python.
  • New version of gcc now supports OpenMP

"Tickless" Idle

  • Much reduced power consumption / heat emmission
  • Longer battery life

Find out what else is new in this release with a graphical tour:

As always, Edubuntu includes the very best of the 100% Free / Libre application software world, and each new release incorporates countless new features and bugfixes from the global development community. More detailed release notes are at:

Edubuntu release notes:

Ubuntu release notes:

Helping shape Edubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at:

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, try asking on the #edubuntu channel on IRC.FreeNode.net, on the Edubuntu Users or Edubuntu Developers mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

Edubuntu users:

Edubuntu contibutors:

Ubuntu forums:

More Information

To sign up for future Edubuntu related announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce