SIGs/Education/Spin

Introduction

The purpose of the current spin is to create a ready-to-go development environment for contributing to educational packages within the Fedora ecosystem.

The next spin release date is July 19, 2009, planned to coincide with POSSE. Because of this date, it will be based on Fedora 11 for stability.

POSSE participants (professors teaching courses in open-source participation during the next school year) will serve as this spin's target user base; more broadly, our target users are professors teaching classes (not necessarily education classes) who want their students to contribute to open-source education efforts as part of their coursework. Note that this does not preclude pre-university learners from using this environment! We are just trying to solve the university-contribution problem first, since that's where we think we will have the most starting leverage.

Roadmap

Help: For ways to track issues, please refer to our documentation on trac [1]!

target date	milestone
2009-06-15	First snapshot of the spin is released; maintainers contacted, packaging frenzy begins.
2009-07-10	Last day to update packages. Anything not working will be removed.
2009-07-17	Feature freeze: no new features allowed without approval. Final testing begins.
2009-07-19	Final testing ends. Final image creation takes place.
2009-07-20	Media production and distribution starts at POSSE 2009.

Features

The features list is currently in the brainstorm phase.

What things would you like to see included in this spin? If a feature request maps to a specific package (or bugzilla ticket), please include a link. Wild ideas are fine! Please don't delete anything from this list (yet) - we're trying to generate ideas right now.

package	included	notes
sugar-desktop	x	sort additional dependencies out
gnome-desktop	x	remove unneeded stuff
kdeedu	x	tools to look good in gnome
firefox	x	bookmark package needed
xchat-gnome	x	default changes to be added
python	x	including pygame and numpy
openoffice	x	writer, math, calc and impress are in
inkscape	x
gimp	x
eclipse	x	whole eclipse group including python and rpm support
development tools	x	stuff like gcc, make, autoconf
latex	x	included the lyx editor
octave	x
gnuplot	x
virtualization	x	qemu and packages for hardware support
moodle	x	pulls php in
sugar-jhbuild		not included yet, needs to be packaged
dbus-sharp		dbus bindings for mono code
diffutils		A GNU collection of diff utilities
frysk		Frysk execution analysis and debugging tools
gcc		Various compilers (C, C++, Objective-C, Java, ...)
gcc-c++		C++ support for GCC
gforth		Fast and portable implementation of the ANS Forth language
git-core		essential - Git source control system
gtk-recordmydesktop		GUI Desktop session recorder with audio and video
gtk-sharp2		GTK+ and GNOME bindings for Mono
iputils		Network monitoring tools including ping
latencytop		analyse latency
m4		The GNU macro processor
make		A GNU tool which simplifies the build process for users
mono-core		The Mono CIL runtime, suitable for running .NET code
mono-devel		mono development tools
mono-extras		Provides the infrastructure for running and building daemons and services with Mono as well as various stub assemblies
nasm		Assembly language code compiler
nc		Reads and writes data across network connections using TCP or UDP
ncurses-devel		Development files for the ncurses library
netpbm-progs		Tools for manipulating graphics files in netpbm supported formats
pam-devel		Files needed for developing PAM-aware applications and modules for PAM
patch		The GNU patch command, for modifying/upgrading files
powertop		analyse power usage
pylint		Analyzes Python code looking for bugs and signs of poor quality
recordmydesktop		Desktop session recorder with audio and video
redhat-rpm-config		Red Hat specific rpm configuration files.
rpm-build		Scripts and executable programs used to build packages
clojure		New Lisp hotness
sbcl		Old Lisp hotness
screen		Indispensable: A screen manager that supports multiple logins on one terminal
strace		Tracks and displays system calls associated with a running process
unzip		A utility for unpacking zip files
usbutils		Linux USB utilities
xrestop		X Resource Monitor
yum-utils		Utilities based around the yum package manager
graphviz		Graph Visualization Tools
irssi		Modular text mode IRC client with Perl scripting
less		A text file browser similar to more, but better
rdesktop		remote desktop to windows machines
rsnapshot		Local and remote filesystem snapshot utility
totem-mozplugin		Mozilla plugin for Totem
vorbis-tools		The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec tools
at		Job spooling tools
emacs-git		Git version control system support for Emacs
emacs		GNU Emacs text editor without X support
gcstar		Personal collections manager
git-email		Git tools for sending email

Mel Chua made a bookmarks file for this spin. See SIGs/Education/Bookmarks.

Outreach plan

Who should we be asking to try this spin? Give specific names and contact information if at all possible.

• POSSE 2009 professors (via Mchua)
• TOS participants (via Mchua - will write a blog post)
• Sugar Labs developers (via their mailing list)

Resources

Guides on making spins or spin-related materials that may be helpful.

• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo
• How_to_create_an_RPM_package
• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Classroom/Creating_Fedora_Remix
• http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/fc6/en/sn-automating-installation.html