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Education Software Linux

LiveLinux CD for Computer Summer Camps? 16

Posted by Cliff from the reminders-from-summer-camp dept.
MCS asks: "I've been working at a summer computer camp for the past eight years, and there has been one recurrent concern -- the software we use. In the past we have used 3D Studio Max, Macromedia Dreamweaver/Flash and the Adobe Premier/AfterEffects. At the end of the week, campers are excited to use these programs and want to continue to learn with these products--- But as we all know, these commercial products are not cheap. My hope this year is to make a live Linux CD (ala Knoppix) with GNU/Opensource software that campers can use at the camp. At the end of the week, the campers can take home their live Linux CD and continue to use it at home. So I ask you, what software should be on a disc like this?"
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LiveLinux CD for Computer Summer Camps?

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  • The summer camp you describe sounds VERY VERY cool. I wish something like this had been around when I was growing up.

    Of course Gimp would be useful. Along with OpenOffice and Blender.

    As for the macromedia shockwave stuff, perhaps you could get a group discount on the student edition, and get codeweavers to donate some copies of their version of wine for you to run the apps on.
  • My suggestion would be nix (no pun intended) the whole linux angle to this. The kids are going to be learning difficult apps, and having to deal with an operating system that functions differently (think stuff like cut/paste) will just be frustrating. You also don't know about the hardware the kids are using at home, so a LiveCD that may or may not detect their hardware correctly could end up being more of a hassle than a bonus.

    Second, LiveCDs have very subpar performance compared to a hard-disk install, d

    • Lastly, if this is a summer (read fun) camp, there will be some time for gaming. I obviously wouldn't recommend a live CD for this, but if you are looking for free(beer) software that is multiplatform, I'd recommend America's Army and Enemy Territory

      Lol, you wouldn't happen to work for the DoD, would you? Those are some heavy duty shoot-em-ups.

      I don't know all that much about risk managment, or political correctness, but there is no way that kids should be playing those games. Stick with tux racer

      • Enemy Territory I can agree on, but America's Army is rated T. The author didn't say the age of the kids, but he indicated that they might be learning blender, and that he wants to give them a LiveCD to use at home so I am guessing they are teens (perhaps early). If they are younger than that, then neither of those games would be appropriate, but that wasn't apparent in the article.
    • My suggestion would be nix (no pun intended) the whole linux angle to this. The kids are going to be learning difficult apps, and having to deal with an operating system that functions differently (think stuff like cut/paste) will just be frustrating.

      Around 18 years ago, I was a kid and some of the other kids in my school mocked me for using a "hard-to-learn-and-use" IBM computer instead of a Mac or a IIe. There was a not-so-user-friendly operating system called DOS 3.3. You had to edit files without

  • I would recommend include lots of Open Source games, since we are targeting kids here. If they get hooked on the games, they are likely to pull the CD out again when they get home. Also, I would include OpenOffice with the hope they may try to use it with their homework too.

    Also, since many of these kids probably have AOL at home, I would include pengaol [sourceforge.net] so they can connect to the internet. I've never used it myself, as I have a REAL ISP, but you may want to look into it.

    Emacs would be a good choice

  • ...

    Whatever you choose, also try a few of teh Gentoo live cds with the game demos on them - One of the UTs, AA, drop-n-play. And if you've got the blanks, perhaps a copy of the latest OpenCD as well?
  • ...I feel the need to add my $0.02.

    Firstly, as another poster said; a bloody good idea for a summer camp.

    Secondly; Gimp, Openoffice are all good suggestions, as is Blender. I would include Cinepaing (used to be filmgimp, *serious* digital video editing software used by many movie houses); Naturally throw in POVray and some other modellers to play with.

    Gentoo (www.gentoo.org) has some good tools now available to make custom liveCD's which may help.

    Throwing on Americas Army and UT2003/4 demos adds the fu
  • Morphix is a LiveCD based on Knoppix hardware detection, but you can customize it.

    You start with a base install, insert the mini-modules, build ISO and burn. This means:

    1) You don't have to worry about the underlying Linux, harware detection, etc.
    2) You can use other people's modules for the basics (KDE, Gnome, xfce4.0, etc)
    3) You can use other peoples modules for programs (OpenOffice, Gimp, Cinerella, etc.)
    4) You can build your own module for programs. Like a "Graphix-mod" or something.
    5) There i
  • It almost goes without saying that you should look at the GIMP [gimp.org] and perhaps also look at CinePaint [sourceforge.net]. Make sure to compile and inlude more extra plugins. Also make absolutely sure to set the gimp to run using the --no-data and other options to make it as fast as possible.

    I would aslo highly recommend Inkscape [inkscape.org] for Vector Graphics. Inkscape is a recent fork of the Sodipoid codesbase and has a much more user friendly interface.

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