In today's open source roundup: Which Linux distro is best for schools? Plus: Wine 1.7.51 released released. And how Chromebooks have improved over the years The best Linux distribution for schools? Linux has much to offer students in any school. But choosing the right distribution can be a bit tricky as one redditor discovered when he was chosen to teach his school’s staff about Linux. Fortunately, he got a bunch of helpful suggestions from fellow Linux users. Hessesian asked his question in the Linux subreddit: I am about to teach about linux to school staff, which will come to contact with linux world for the first time. It is also my duty to recommend them system to be used, and because my individual knowledge isn’t end-all-be-all, I will take any good experience and advice. Have you installed linux en masse ? Do you have valuable insight that I don’t ? Please share, that’s what community is about 🙂 More at Reddit His fellow Linux redditors responded with their thoughts: Bjornoss: ”You should take a look at Debian Edu[1] “Debian Edu is a complete and free “out of the box” software solution for schools that reduces costs, prolongs the lifetime of hardware and covers almost every aspect of the schools’ IT needs.”” Sssam: ”You probably don’t want to be doing big updates every 6 months, so find something with several years of support. (Debian, Ubuntu LTS or Redhat/centos). You’ll want a deployment/management system. (Kickstart, puppet, Landscape). For a DE, something like GNOME or Unity will make it harder for users to break things. For example they can’t accidentally remove the menu bars.” Seminallyme: ”…Linux Mint does have a lot going for it. It’s based on Ubuntu with an easier use philosophy that supports proprietary software with the same level of LTS. It would be more useful out of the box, being able to support all the major codecs and Flash(for what it’s worth) and Java.” Gutigen: ”Considering this is for mass desktop deployment at school where kids are suppose to learn I would go with the most popular, solid, polished and stable desktop distro out there – Ubuntu LTS. Everything else is great in some areas, Ubuntu is really good at everything (not best, but good).” Korgtronix: ”Choose one with a familiar layout to windows. It will make life easier for you if you dont use something like unity as you will get inevitable “where is so so and so application” “windows is so much easier.” I would recommend start with something like debian with xfce (panel at bottom) to make it easier from a documentation point of view and ease of use” Headbite: ”I find the opposite to be true. By using a desktop that looks nothing like windows new users better understand that they are on a new system. I would go with gnome. It’s the most phone/tablet like which I think is what’s more familiar to people. People spend more time on their mobile devices.” ZombieWithLasers: ”Debian Stable with KDE or Cinnamon installed. Personally, I’d go KDE. With Debian, you have a large package repository, some third party package support, and a long stable release cycle with a clear upgrade path for future releases.” Omicronxi: ”If you install linux on 200 computers I would first think about how to rollout/provision them. There is a great project called “linuxmuster.net” which also has a good wiki for setting everything up. They recommend Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. https://www.linuxmuster.net/wiki/en:dokumentation:handbuch:start” More at Reddit Wine 1.7.51 released The Wine project is a helpful tool for folks who need to run Windows applications and games in Linux. The latest release of Wine is version 1.7.51 and includes better support for some Windows games and applications. Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia: Prominent features of the Wine 1.7.51 release include support for the new Universal C Runtime DLL, an XAudio2 implementation via OpenAL Soft, support for drop-down menus in the standard Open Dialog, the addition of a grayscale rendering mode in the DirectWrite implementation. According to the changelog, Wine 1.7.51 addresses a total of 37 issues with Windows apps and games that had been reported by users since the release of Wine 1.7.50. Among the Windows applications that received improvements, we can mention CNET Download App, 4th Dimension 6.5.4, Heredis 9, Project64, LTSpice, Microsoft Visual Studio 2015, PunkBuster, IVONA Voices, FlipViewer, Notepad, and TP Link CPL. Wine 1.7.51 also brings improvements to numerous Windows games, among which we can mention SimCity2000, Diablo 2, Sonic Generations, Afterburner 3D, Tales of Pirates II, Bioshock Infinite, Age of Mythology: Extended Edition, GRID, DARK (2013), El Matador, Exodus from the Earth, Stranded II, SpaceRace, O2Jam, Guild Wars, and Guild Wars 2. More at Softpedia How Chromebooks have improved over the years Chromebooks are more popular than ever, and they’ve improved quite a bit since they were first released. A writer at Lifehacker looks at how Chromebooks have gotten better over the years. Eric Ravenscraft reports for Lifehacker: Chromebooks have come a long way since they were first introduced. While they used to be laptop-shaped browser machines, they’ve grown capable enough to actually stand up to other laptops. I didn’t expect to love my Chromebook, but it’s replaced my laptop for most of my work. Chromebooks don’t stop working when you lose your internet connection (at least, not any more than your regular laptop will). Most of Google’s apps—including Docs, Sheets, Keep, Calendar, and Gmail—can work offline. In addition, many of the apps mentioned in the last section can work offline, including Evernote, Wunderlist, Sunrise Calendar, Pocket, and Kindle. Of course, you can’t do everything when you’re offline, but you can still work. In fact, I wrote this very section while disconnected from the internet in Google Docs. The only downside, however, is that Google requires you to manually enable offline access for some of its services. …they’re also amazing at what they do. Previously, when I wanted a device that I could sit on the couch and read on, or a device I could take with me to work on, I’d use a tablet. Tablets were lighter, they had much better battery life, and the apps were nicer. Now, I have a Chromebook that can serve this same purpose. It may not be able to replace my Windows desktop, but it has quickly superseded my laptop, tablets, and even occasionally my phone for most mobile tasks. More at Lifehacker Did you miss a roundup? Check the Eye On Open home page to get caught up with the latest news about open source and Linux. Software DevelopmentOpen SourceTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business