K12Linux: Fedora's Educational Technology Spin
K12Linux is Fedora's spin for educational technology. This was formerly known as K12LTSP , but we have decided to rename it to K12Linux because it is easier for the lay-person to write, say and remember. Since 2001 K12LTSP already enables thousands of schools worldwide with Linux thin client desktops, at a very low acquisition and maintenance cost. K12Linux for the first time integrates LTSP functionality directly within the Fedora Project.
Long before OLPC, Red Hat's greatest success in education was K12LTSP. K12Linux will further enable educators, with more features, greater predictability, more documentation, and a formalized development process within the Fedora Project.
Key Features
- Rapid setup of Linux terminal server.
- Install via yum groupinstall on any existing Fedora.
- Install directly from a single CD spin.
- Thin Clients
- Any hardware should boot with no configuration necessary
- Autoconfig network, X and sound devices
- Sound works over the network transparently.
- Local storage devices (USB stick, CDROM, floppy, etc.) work transparently over the network.
- Educational Desktop Software
- Typing tutors
- Math, chemistry, physics
- Basic office productivity
- Web browsing
- Other Educational Server capabilities:
- Web content filtering
- Moodle
Roadmap
| <#8080FF> Phase | <#8080FF> Target | <#8080FF> Description |
| One | (./) Nov 2007 | Reorganize LTSP upstream into a true upstream project |
| One | (./) Feb 2008 | Implement LiveCD tools based subclass ChrootCreator which creates the client chroot with a .ks file and uses mirrorlist |
| One | ??? | Bug #424591 Integrate minimal changes into mkinitrd to support PCI driver loading and NBD boot |
| One | Feb 2008 | Integrate Fedora bits into LTSP5 upstream |
| One | Mar 2008 | Clean up menu options on clients (e.g. do not show Suspend/Hibernate, etc.) |
| Two | Apr 2008 | Identify and organize educational software into yum groups |
| Two | Apr 2008 | Attempt to figure out a sane auto-migration process from K12LTSP |
| Two | Apr 2008 | Make sure Fedora's Moodle is well maintained |
| Two | Apr 2008 | Make sure Fedora's squidGuard is using a sane default source |
| Two | Mid-2008 | K12Linux 9 spin with Fedora 9 release |
Bug Tracker for issues needing to be solved for LTSP integration.
Source Repositories of LTSP5
- ltsp source repo
- ltsp-client - scripts for thin client chroot
- ltsp-server - scripts for terminal server
- ldm source repo - display manager for secure thin client authentication and sessions (uses SSH)
- ltspfs source repo - hotplug mount support for media (floppy, USB stick, CD's) over the network