Re: RFA: The Debian Jr. project

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Holger Levsen <[email protected]>wrote:

> Hi Ben,
>
> On Monday 25 August 2008 11:38, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> > Thanks.  It's hard to let go, but it's really for the best if someone
> > else will carry on.
>
> Yup. Has something happened on this in the last month?
>
> > > Is that vision written down somewhere?
> > It is probably best expressed on http://wiki.debian.org/DebianJr quoted
> > below:
>
> Sounds good and compatible :)
>
> > > Because I often think, that Debian Jr. could be(come a) part of Debian
> > > Edu. In Etch Debian Edu came with one preconfigured desktop (which is
> KDE
> > > and rather aimed at older students), but now we are in the process of
> > > merging with Linex and they have used three (iirc) different gnome
> > > desktops (configurations), one for 1st+2nd grade, one for 3rd+4th grade
> > > and another one for older students. I'd say that Debian Jr fits in the
> > > 0th+1st grade "category" ;-)
> > >
> > > What do you think?
> >
> > While I would not have any problem with that if Edu cared for the
> > project and preserved the vision I described above, I have always
> > felt my own ideas for Jr had nothing to do with school and might indeed
> > by swallowed up by school concerns if we were an arm of the Debian Edu
> > project.  That is why I kept it a distinct project.
>
> /me nods.
>
> That said, I dont see much of a problem here, or maybe rather, an easy way
> out: Debian Edu provides two key features: customisation of the desktop for
> pupils/schools and providing a network infrastructure for schools. Debian
> Jr.
> doesnt need the latter at all (or? kindergarten network seems a bit far out
> to me atm, maybe its not), but thats no issue, as Debian Edu also already
> has
> standalone installs.
>
> And we even have different desktop profiles for standalone installs now:
> kde,
> gnome and sugar. And I would love to extend this to "kde for primary
> school,
> kde for middle classes, kde for high school and university" and the same
> with
> gnome. And then also kde & gnome for kids.
>
> I'd think this would boil down to provide a different installer image or
> installation type with the existing image. So basically, a Debian Edu
> install
> with "less overhead", which is not needed for a single^wstandalone kids
> machine.
>
> > But we're in poor
> > shape right now, and the most important thing is that the project go
> > forward.  How would you propose the distinctiveness of Jr be kept?
>
> See above :)
>
> > How
> > do you think children would view Jr if it were an arm of the Edu
> > project?  In Debian Jr, our focus is the child and the fun of
> > discovery.  While some progressive educationists claim to hold to these
> > values, I worry about how kids would view the Jr project if it were
> > absorbed into Edu.
>
> Hm. Honestly, I have no idea how kids see Debian Jr. now, maybe I wonder if
> they can see it, as currently afaik its "only" a packaging effort within
> Debian, so I dont think it's visible to them. Do you agree? ;)
>
> Basically, to keep Debian Jr. distinct, I would suggest branding :)
>
>
> regards,
>         Holger
>

So, Debian Jr will be included into Debian Edu?

-- 
Atte,
Maximiliano Marin
http://blogs.opensur.org/maximilinux