For screenshots of Edubuntu check this out.
So, with all this talk about Edubuntu, I realized that maybe I should explain how to go about downloading and running it. In fact, there is a bit of a trick to it which I have messed up more than a few times because I am a ditz like that–enough so that I went ahead and made a few cd’s for people who want them instead of explaining to my less technically-minded friends how to go about it. (I have wasted plenty of cd’s because I “forget” how to burn an image.)
Before you download and run it there are two things you need to do. (It doesn’t take much space to run so most people will not have issues with that.)
- Reboot your computer. When it is starting up there will be a splash screen that tells you what type of processor you have. As long as it doesn’t say 64 somewhere in there you should be good with the regular install. (You can also check this by going into your control panel, system, and looking at your computer info. AMD 64 requires a different setup which is the second one listed.) Most people have a regular 32bit chipset and can run the first version. If you can’t tell I suggest downloading and running the first chipset (or if you aren’t sure, email me and I will be glad to make you a cd and send it to you or you can order one from their site.)
- You need a cd burning software that can burn a cd image. You are not burning data or an audio file you need to burn an .iso which is a disk image. Nero Burning Rom can do this as can Sonic. More than likely the program that came with your cd burner can burn a disk image but you need to tell it that is what you want. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try to burn it as a data cd. It won’t work. I know because I ALWAYS forget and mess this up several times before remembering that I need to “Burn Disk Image”.
Now you can go the website and download. You want the personal version, not the server.
Once you have downloaded and burned the cd all you do is put the cd in the cd/dvd player before rebooting. Reboot and if your computer can boot from CD then it should automatically take you to the Edubuntu screen. There it will give you several options but you likely won’t have to do a thing. It will auto start in 30 seconds. It will sit there a while–remember, you are running an entire OS from a cd, but it will start. Just wait (probably about 3-5 minutes, on older machines like ours it takes a bit longer). Once it boots you are good. The screen looks quite a bit like a Mac (at least what I remember Macs looking like–it has been a while.)
Now you can play the games and run the programs without needing to install the software. If you decide you love it you can install from there but I wouldn’t advise it unless you don’t mind losing what is already on computer or have everything backed up and I would recommend reading the docs on the site before doing so. You can’t run Microsoft programs on an Ubuntu machine and have to convert your mp3s to .ogg format. It is great if you don’t use Microsoft software and tend to use open source anyway or if you have a second computer for the kids (like us, we have 4 computers, two are old ones that belong to the kids.)
There are a few games that say they are missing bits. If you install, it is easy to update those–they use other software that is normally already installed on a Linux machine. If you don’t install you can’t update those but the rest is still well worth it.
I will talk a bit more about the games available in a future post.