New flavours of Ubuntu being developed in Ireland Posted

Galen

http://www.lczajkowski.com/2010/01/23/new-flavours-of-ubuntu-being-developed-in-ireland/

Recently I popped down to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition here in Dublin. This is for secondary school students/ High school junior students in Ireland. It’s pretty amazing to see the enthusiasm they show for science and technology at an early age.
The process starts months ago, students submit a one page proposal on a topic, if it’s accepted they research and come up with the results, prototype or something to show from it all. It also gives Industries who are based over here to come and show case their projects and encourage students into those areas. IBM, Google, Analog Devices to name a few all took part and all have offices here in Ireland.

Walking through the exhibition, I stumbled upon Zorin OS, which caught my eye. So I stopped and asked Kyrill and Artyom Zorin the developers behind it all a few questions and I thought I’d share them here. Firstly, Zorin OS is an OS they have developed based on Ubuntu, which is why it caught my eye.
Q: So where did you hear about Ubuntu ?

We first came across Ubuntu while watching videos on YouTube of Compiz and Kiba dock.
We were very impressed by Ubuntu and started using it since June 2008. However, we learnt that many Windows users found the Ubuntu interface unfamiliar and difficult to operate.
We decided to develop Zorin OS to make Ubuntu more friendly for Windows users. We started our project in September 2008. We added a Windows like start menu and theme, many applications to improve user experience and usability including WINE, which lets users run Windows programs on Zorin OS, and Ubuntu Tweak.
A preview of Zorin OS 1.0 was displayed at the BT Young Scientist And Technology Exhibition 2009 and was highly commended. The public beta was released on 5 May 2009. Zorin OS Lite beta, which was a stripped down version of the original beta, was released on 30 May 2009. We had a few bugs including a start menu bug and a bug with 64bit but we fixed these bugs.
The first stable version of Zorin OS was released on 1 July 2009. In summer 2009 Zorin OS was tested in Kenya by Camara, an Irish charity that ships used computers to Africa to educate the community there. We received very positive feedback. Zorin OS 1.0 was downloaded by estimated 3,000 users.
Based on the comments and feedback from the community we decided to improve Zorin OS even more. We decided to make Zorin OS as friendly for Windows users as possible. We made a new Windows 7 style look including a new theme and Windows 7 like task bar.
We improved stability, fixed bugs, included many updates, added many new wallpapers created by ourselves. We also added many new applications including PlayOnLinux to make it easier for Windows users to install Windows programs on Zorin OS.
We created five different Zorin OS flavours:

1. Zorin OS Core which is a free down loadable release
2. Zorin OS Educational which is also available to download for free
3. Zorin OS Gaming which includes over 40 games
4. Zorin OS Multimedia which has a host of multimedia processing programs
5. Zorin OS Ultimate which includes the best programs from the Gaming and Multimedia editions

Zorin OS Gaming, Multimedia and Ultimate can be purchased on a DVD from our website to support our project. Currently we have to sell our products in order to support our project due to a very small level of donations.
Zorin OS 2.0 was released on 1 January 2010 and currently has over 8000 downloads. Zorin OS 2.0 was displayed at the BT Young Scientist 2010. We got 3rd Intermediate group in the Technology section and also got into the BT Business of Science program.
Zorin OS is growing at a fast pace and we are constantly improving it. Currently Zorin OS has about 75,000 relevant web pages on Google. There are also several very positive reviews on the internet.
Zorin OS 3.0 will be released this summer and will have many new features. It will also be tested in Africa again. We also plan to develop Zorin OS Educational Lite for law spec computers which are widely used in third world countries and Zorin OS Educational for high spec computers. We hope that these products would be used by individuals and schools.

We were very impressed by all of the features of Ubuntu. We really enjoyed its openness and functionality, and were amazed by the stability and the incredible desktop effects. We found Ubuntu to be very robust and extremely fast. We’re looking forward to the new 10.04 release.
Kyrill and Artyom Zorin

I think it’s pretty amazing that a 4th year and a 2 year student came up with this idea, and implemented it. I’d still prefer to work on the idea of getting more people using Ubuntu, then having it themed to look more windows like, but I can see the reasoning behind it.
I also think it’s pretty amazing these developments are happening in my back yard, here in Ireland, and makes me rather proud, that if students can do this, what else we can do.

Johnboy1951

Thanks for the post ...... hadn't heard about those kids. Good for them!

I found something very strange when reading the above ....... is there even ONE mention of GNU or Linux?

I am seeing more and more of this ...... big mentions of "Ubuntu" but nothing about GNU/Linux ............ it is as if the only GNU/Linux in existence is Ubuntu.

It is a trend I fear and dislike.

In all the kids had to say not one mention of the fact that the Open Source model ALLOWED them to do what they have done.
A pity that. An opportunity missed IMO.

xsiborg

in fairness to them they do give linux and the open source community a fair mention on their own website (or the zorin website anyway), i might actually try this as I would fully encourage these guys to keep working on what might be the linux distro that I personally might find more useful and intuitive for me as a windows user.

http://zorin-os.webs.com/

and besides, they're only young and who knows how this might develop! bill gates dropped out of school at 15 was it? :rolleyes:

Stuxnet

did i read before linux mint origin's hails from these fair shores also

Naikon

^Yup

Good to hear though. I will be amazed the day schools realize the
amount of money than can save by switching from Microsoft products
to OSS. Not likely in this country though where 'computers' class = ECDL.

There are not many reasons as to why they should not be using OSS.

djmarkus

Zorin eh?

I wonder if they're any relation....

Galen

The two lads don't look to be neo-nazi in any way either :-)

I suppose any publicity is good publicity.

Johnboy1951

Yes their website is much more balanced and does give Open Source a good mention along with Linux. Dare I say it looks like it was not written solely by two schoolkids?

While not being a Win user I am d/loading the ultimate ISO to see what it is like. I hope to give it a run tomorrow.

The Mint dev is living in Ireland ... last I heard anyway ..... and was moving to full time dev on Mint.

There are other devs around the country too I am sure ........ Unity Linux -- a base for other distro devs to use -- whose main dev is also living in Ireland.

There used to be a Celtux distro ...... an Irish Sidux IIRC .....

and most likely many more.

regards.

Eliot Rosewater

Fair dues to the lads. It reminds me of the other computer child genius story whereby a few 17 year olds became millionaires off of a website they started up. Once kids are given the opportunities they will excel. I started to learn HTML at 14 or 15 and theres little reason why I couldn't have started earlier if I had been aware of it.

Naikon wrote: »

I will be amazed the day schools realize the
amount of money than can save by switching from Microsoft products
to OSS.

If Linux was adopted in all schools as a part of a nationwide strategy, it would literally open the floodgates for Linux adoption. Its my opinion one of the main reasons people continue to use Windows is because they're just used to it, not because of any specific needs.

If kids were getting used to Linux at school it would probably start to be installed in homes. Imagine a generation from whom Windows was the alien OS :cool:

But then, imagine the amount of Microsoft lobbying even the hint of such a move would generate :eek:

xsiborg

i think one of the main reasons why linux has not been adopted in schools is simply because of the multiple different "flavors" there are out there. there is no one standard, ie. "dont like this version of linux? try this one instead", granted that gives those out in the open market so to speak plenty of choice and so on, but if there were no one standard in an "organisation" (one school from another say), then chaos ensues and the whole thing becomes an administrative nightmare.

plus i suppose the majority of companies in the open market do use ms products more widely than linux or mac, and i think computer classes in schools are only to give the children a basic understanding of computers. whether they're a whizz at home on whatever OS they use, isn't particularly relevant to the other fifteen students in the class, or to the teacher that has to teach them all the same curriculum...

loldog

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

But then, imagine the amount of Microsoft lobbying even the hint of such a move would generate :eek:

Microsoft is a major employer in Ireland too, so the government would not want to ruffle their feathers.

.

MunsterCycling

loldog wrote: »

Microsoft is a major employer in Ireland too, so the government would not want to ruffle their feathers.

.

QFT

This is the main reason, brown nosing and fear of change for good.

MC

Dorsanty

xsiborg wrote: »

i think one of the main reasons why linux has not been adopted in schools is simply because of the multiple different "flavors" there are out there.

That is exactly the problem. Windows is a platform, Mac is a platform. Linux is eh...very hard to pin down.

I was thinking for even an advanced class, if a teacher gave out laptops to 10 students and said 'homework is to install Linux' 50% will come back with ubuntu no doubt and then there will be a fedora or two, and the class nerd not happy with Linux will turn up with FreeBSD. Good luck to the teacher being able to teach them a standardised course syllabus after that.

So if it was to work, the educational body would have to pick a distribution of Linux to teach in order to set a course which could have an exam or just a course where all students completing it will have had the opportunity to reach the same level. Then of course the moaning about which distro got picked and how it sucks will begin on the forums.

So in my own opinion I'm happy enough that windows is the platform that would be found in most schools. For those kids interested in computers it might kick off their interest and lead them to greater things at home and in college. For the rest it sets them up for office life where they will encounter and be expected to know their way around Windows and MS Office. You can save learning Linux for the CS courses in college.

Johnboy1951

Dorsanty wrote: »

That is exactly the problem. Windows is a platform, Mac is a platform. Linux is eh...very hard to pin down.

I was thinking for even an advanced class, if a teacher gave out laptops to 10 students and said 'homework is to install Linux' 50% will come back with ubuntu no doubt and then there will be a fedora or two, and the class nerd not happy with Linux will turn up with FreeBSD. Good luck to the teacher being able to teach them a standardised course syllabus after that.

.

You seem to be confusing the operating system with the desktop environment used.
There are very few differences between most of the available distros at the operating system level.

Dorsanty

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You seem to be confusing the operating system with the desktop environment used.
There are very few differences between most of the available distros at the operating system level.

Well I was trying to keep it at a level I'd expect a secondary schools to teach which is where I understood people where hinting it would be good to have Linux as the OS people are thought on. Last I checked secondary schools didn't go into the level of detail to describing things like the contents of /etc, /proc or /dev but instead needed to make people comfortable finding files and word processing etc in a desktop env.

Eliot Rosewater

I would imagine that if Linux was to be introduced into schools a standard distro would be chosen.

You say there will be moaning ... I don't see much moaning over on the Leaving Cert forum about how they have to use Windows

Bob_Harris

Great, another Linux distro.

How about fixing that ones that are already out there?

Mathiasb

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Great, another Linux distro.

How about fixing that ones that are already out there?

Isn't that what they did though? They took Ubuntu, adapted it to their own needs and released it with a new name.

This happens all the time. Nothing to see here, move along...