The open SUSE Edu Li-f-e 12.2 Linux has been released. I confess that I have not heard of this distributino before, and I am a long time user (back to 7.0) of this operating system. Given what I have read and experimented with in the past, this distribution looks to be an almost ideal option for schools wishing to create low cost computer labs without the overhead and expense of separate client and server software. Edu Li-f-e includes the Linux LTSP server, which makes it possible to use older computer hardware as thin clients for use in the classroom. This means no licensing fees or upkeep for the software on the individual machines as the operating system is delivered acros the network from the server. That means that every client (individual machine) has a copy of SUSE remotely running on it. That reduces the maintenance needs for the client computers to hardware and network maintenance. That is a significant saving over time.
In addition to the large selection of K-12 software included in the distribution, there is also a copy of both Moodle and aTutor to create hybrid and web assisted courses with.
Given the state of the economy in many states right now, this potentially represents an excellent opportunity to update older computer labs with modern software, without having to invest in newer infrastructure in order to do so. The minimum client requirements for this distro (knowing of course that a more powerful machine will be needed for the server) is "Any PC or a Virtual Machine with 1G RAM. PC should have a DVD drive or
should be USB boot capable. For installation minimum 15GB partition is
required.
" That should not be difficult for just about any computer lab with machines less than ten years old to meet.
For more information, check out the wiki for the distribution here: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Education-Li-f-e
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