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Getting Started With Linux – the openSUSE Education Li-f-e Live DVD

 Project Kipling  8 Responses »
Dec 302009
 

I recently wrote two articles on getting started with Linux, featuring the openSUSE Education Linux for Education (Li-f-e) Live DVD. The first is called Best Linux software for new users, and the second is called The best Linux games for kids. Both are now available on the DownloadSquad blog. Comments are enabled on the DownloadSquad blog, so please feel free to leave comments or questions there, or here on this blog.

Li-f-e is an absolutely stunning collection of software. It has the openSUSE 11.2 32-bit platform, both the Gnome and KDE desktops, the usual Linux desktop / productivity software, and a comprehensive collection of educational software for students ranging from pre-school all the way up into graduate school. It also has a complete Linux / Apache / MySQL / PHP (LAMP) server stack, a Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) server stack and four integrated development environments (IDEs).

I can’t think of a better way to get started with Linux. All you need is a 32-bit Intel / AMD PC with at least 512 MB of RAM and a bootable DVD drive. You don’t even need a hard drive – since it’s a Live DVD, Li-f-e doesn’t touch the hard drive unless you explictly direct it to do so. If you want, you can copy the DVD to a USB drive and boot from that. The directions for that are here.

 Posted by Ed Borasky at 23:44

Is Citizen Journalism Becoming Citizen Historianship?

 Project Kipling  6 Responses »
Dec 262009
 

As I was following the unfolding of the story of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Twitter, I followed a link to a BBC News article. There I learned that the alleged attacker had been charged with attempting to destroy the aircraft, and that the alleged explosive device used the explosive PETN.

So, being my curious self, I looked up PETN on Wikipedia. And I discovered that the page for PETN, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaerythritol_tetranitrate, had been updated with links to a page for the “current event”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_253. And once I got there, I discovered a link to another page for the suspected attacker, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Farouk_Abdulmuttalab! I should add that the page for Abdulmuttalab “is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy.”

So there you have it. A story is unfolding in real time in real life, in the “more traditional media” like the BBC News, real-time social media like Twitter, and now, as a current event on Wikipedia. So I ask, “Is citizen journalism becoming citizen historianship?” I’ve opened up comments on this blog for the moment to allow discussion of this subject. Spammers will, of course, be dealt with.

 Posted by Ed Borasky at 15:54
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