Chapter 1 - Introduction

Welcome to Edubuntu! You're about to embark on a journey of discovery and empowerment. This book will help you on your journey to running Edubuntu in a learning environment.

This book is meant for anyone who would like to set up a computer laboratory using Edubuntu. Edubuntu uses only free software, is easy to administer, and makes the best use of old or obsolete hardware. And because it is properly documented (for example, in the book you're reading now), there is a growing community of Edubuntu administrators and enthusiasts to whom you may turn for help if you get stuck.

Although Edubuntu is primarily aimed at schools, it is not only useful in a school environment. Any kind of community organisation may benefit from a secure and powerful computer laboratory, so feel free to pass on this book to anyone who can use it.

How to use this book

The Edubuntu Cookbook is a step-by-step guide in setting up Edubuntu in a learning enviroment.

Anyone with enough enthusiasm, as well as access to some old computers and the other equipment necessary, may use the Cookbook as a blueprint to install Edubuntu for their community.

The book is also meant to introduce to you the concept of a computer laboratory, and to give you some insight into what it takes to run one with Edubuntu. If you are in a hurry to get up to speed with Edubuntu, the following list may come in handy:

Why we wrote this book

TODO

This book is intended to help you to be self-sufficient, and to enable you to look for help effectively. It gathers together information about all the components that make up Edubuntu, and it tells the story behind the global, grass-roots free software movement that created all the software, millions upon millions of lines of code, that make it work.

Audience and Scope

TODO

Overview of the Edubuntu Project

How Edubuntu came to be

TODO

Edubuntu and Ubuntu

TODO

About Ubuntu

"Ubuntu", is an ancient African work meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Ubuntu is a complete open source operating system built around the Linux kernel. The Ubuntu community is made up of software developers, translators, folks who love to write documentation, and most importantly the people who use Ubuntu every day. We invite you to join this community and help to make Ubuntu the operating system your family and friends and office colleagues will love to use. Help to translate Ubuntu into your own language, test it on new laptops, servers and other exciting hardware, improve the web site with hints, tips and FAQ's, or help to define the set of software that is installed by default for future Ubuntu releases.

The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. For those reasons:

EdubuntuDocumentation/EdubuntuCookbook/Chapter_1_-_Introduction (last edited 2009-04-29 23:02:17 by adsl201-244131014)