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Review: Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon takes on Mac OS X Leopard for the OS of the Year |

Linux Magazine: “Today we have a technological cage match involving two operating systems, both UNIX- based, both mature, both with passionate detractors and even more passionate defenders, and both released just a week apart. I’m talking, of course, about Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), with its final release on October 18, and Apple’ s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which was available for purchase on October 26.

The stereotype for each OS is well known: Mac OS X is elegant, easy-to-use, and intuitive, while Ubuntu is stable, secure, and getting better all the time. Both have come a long way in a short time, and both make excellent desktops. So we have two great desktop operating systems out at roughly the same time. Let’s see how they stack up against each other.”

According to news out of Sweden [in Swedish only] some Swedish municipalities vote to go with Linux instead of Windows as their computer desktop environment. According to the article “Jönköping, Hallsberg, Luleå and Filipstad are the latest examples of municipalities and government organizations that have chosen to go with Linux-solutions as their IT-platform to build services around”. In the article an IT Manager for a municipality says that they save money on licensing fees, but the decision was also based on the importance of creating open, flexible and secure solutions which is important when they are to start offering electronic services 24 hours a day.

A piece on Slashdot points out that Linspire is free for download for a few days. I’ve tried it before and it’s a pretty decent distro I think (but I’m no Linux-expert certainly). It’s a bit “glossy” I think but for newbies it’s a good choice.

Apparently Novell is open-sourcing Suse Professional. Go Novell!

Picotux is the world’s smallest Linux computer. It’s amazingly small.

Are you considering moving to Linux from Windows, or have you already made the leap and want to find software? This is a good list which will show you some common Windows software/tasks and the options you have in Linux.

Desktoplinux.com:

In this tutorial-style article, Michael C. Barnes outlines a strategy to avoid costly upgrades from Windows 98 to Windows XP — in terms of both hardware and software — by upgrading to Linux, instead. Barnes reviews the typical requirements of computers used for relatively generic purposes, and shows how to give a new lease on life to aging laptops and PCs by replacing obsolete OSes such as Windows 98 with a combination of Linux, free open source applications, and inexpensive commercial software.

ZDNet:

Debian has got the nod from the city of Munich for its trail-blazing migration from Windows to Linux on the desktop

The City of Munich has chosen to migrate its 14,000 desktops to a free Linux distribution, rather than a commercial version of the open source operating system.

The City’s administration said on Thursday that it will use the Debian distribution, which will be customised to meet the needs of the city administration. It has awarded a contract to two German consultancies, Gonicus and Softcon, to help with the migration.

We made a presentation at the Horry County First Steps/SCAEYC conference in Myrtle Beach today. The presentation [PDF] had the title “Free and open-source software in education”. We gave a handout with some sites on it, here are the sites:

http://www.earlychildhood.com/: A great website where you can find many free resources and articles. You can also receive the site’s free magazine.

http://www.drjean.org: Dr. Jean gives ideas for activities; you can find all of her neat cd’s and other things.

http://www.rif.org/: A cool website for ideas and games for reading. This website also has a neat coloring book section.

http://www.abcteach.com/: A website with a lot of templates and activities for the teacher. All free…

http://www.teach-nology.com/: A website just for teachers. They have over 23,000 lesson plans and ideas. All free…

http://www.familyeducation.com/: This website is geared toward families and students of all ages.

http://www.dltk-teach.com/: Great website for templates. This website also has a favorite character page where you can print coloring pages of the students’ favorite storybook characters, make birthday cards, or just play games with their favorite character.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/: A website for teaching ideas in many areas. They also have ideas on special needs activities. This is a UK website.

http://www.ncrel.org/: Literacy activities for Kindergarten.

http://www.ed.gov/: A government website for teachers, parents, & students.

http://www.tlsbooks.com/: A website that is trying to sell you things, but it does have free “printables” (as they call it).

http://www.reviewcorner.com/: This website reviews educational products, including computer software, books, music, videos/DVDs, and games. You can find out what other people think of something, before you buy it for your classroom.

http://readyweb.crc.uiuc.edu/: An article called “Helping children learn about reading” by NAEYC.

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/: Many ideas at this website for reading and reading activities.

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/: Ideas for kindergarten classrooms.

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/: This site is for teachers and directors of centers. The website has ideas for classrooms to have to get grants for your program.

http://www.kidscom.com/: A wonderful website that students can use themselves.

http://www.child.net/: National Children’s Coalition website that has a lot of links to other website for students.

http://www.telenaut.com/: Show and Tell website that shows children’s artwork from around the world.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/: Students can check out the White House and other neat things at this website.

http://www.ed.gov/: Ideas for learning science.

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/: Checkout the nine planets at this website. It will show you the planets and all the info on the planets.

http://www.worldvillage.com/: Another good site for free-ideas and templates for teachers.

http://kidshealth.org/: A good website that promotes good health for students.

http://www.monarchwatch.org/: Great for a science unit.

http://www.fi.edu/: Another great website for science where teachers and students can go explore.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/: Picture Dictionary for English and with English names and other Languages.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/l: Maps of the World.

http://www.sass.ca/: Games and Activities about staying safe for children.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/: Web site about space, with different activities for children.

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/: Web site about rainbows, and all the questions that come from seeing a rainbow.

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/: A website for children, that is filled with fun activities for them.

http://www.funschool.com/: A fun website for children

http://richmond.k12.va.us/: Free activities and lesson plans for teachers.

Linspire (formerly Lindows) has a feature called CNR (Click-N-Run) which serves as a sort of Windows Update for the Linspire operating system combined with a one-click-download spot for all kinds of software. I was browing through a minute ago and noticed that under anti-virus there is nothing!