We bloggers each have our funny subjects of interest. One of mine — stumbled upon by accident — is reporting in English about Linux versions in Spain. It’s a fascinating subject as many of the regional governments (comunidades autónomas) have developed Linux versions, known as distributions, for schools, government, institutions and public use. And each one is a bit different.
I’ve written about these distributions from
- Andalucia
- Castilla-La Mancha (with references to others I’ve not investigated yet)
- Catalonia
Now the Canary Islands (English review) have their own version, based on the KDE-flavored version of Ubuntu Linux and called mEDUXa. (A play on the word for jellyfish.)
KDE? you might ask. Let me break it down this way, subject to correction from someone who might know better.
Linux is the operating system: the core under a large number of distribution, including Red Hat, Suse, Debian and more recently the wildly-popular Ubuntu. Ubuntu Linux is sponsored by Canonical, a for-profit company that includes tech support in its business plan. But the software is forever free to be altered and can be distributed free of charge. Its distinctiveness (and popularity) comes from its large and eager support community, ease of use and predicable release dates. (The next version comes on October 19.) It is also relatively easy to interface with software that is not intellectually free — like Adobe Acrobat Reader — a big intra-Linux controversy but something the casual user is likely to want.
On top of all that is the desktop environment: the user experience. If you have a Microsoft Windows computer, you have one choice for a desktop. (XP is different from Vista; I mean one version at a time.) If you have a Mac, you have one choice for a desk top. Linux, as usual, is full of choices, with two dominating: GNOME and KDE. I’ve used both, both have strong advocates and I have a slight, general preference for GNOME. Plain Ubuntu Linux is GNOME; Ubuntu with KDE is Kubuntu. And remember that intellectual freedom? That allows all these regionalized and specialized versions of Linux. Got it?
mEDUXa’s main use is for education, with a version each for primary and secondary school. OK, not much of a look, but it might inspire others who need to provide computing services to large numbers of people, at low cost, through labs or centers.
Hat tip: The Fridge (Ubuntu.com)