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.