After attending the first of the Edubuntu summits back in 2005, I'm delighted to say that our network manager, David Hicks, and I have made a start on moving the prep school ICT lab over to Edubuntu for the new year.

We have in fact had an Edubuntu server up and running since last October, doing stirling service as our webserver, providing our public website via drupal, together with a photo gallery through gallery2, as well as Moodle, which we're about to start using with the pupils. All this has, of course, been running like a dream on fairly bog-standard desktop hardware.

The new lab though is going to be running as a thin-client network, using some decidedly past their best machines from the senior school as LTSP clients providing 18 pupils at a time with access to edubuntu desktops from a very nice dual quad-core server. Early days yet, but the server installation went like a dream. I was expecting all sorts of complications with config files to get the clients working, but, after resetting a long forgotten bios password and burning the appropriate rom-o-matic boot disk, our first client machine network booted up straight away. Very cool indeed!

OK, we've a way to go before term starts, and it'll be interesting to see how the lab functions under load, but first impressions are very positive. We're particularly impressed by the Thin Client Manager running on the server, which lets the teacher start and stop processes on the clients, blank screens, send messages and view activity on the client screens - very useful.

So, this weekend I've been spending some time exploring the available software, on a six year-old laptop, on which gnome, all the following, and some wobbly windows screen candy work perfectly. Installing programs really couldn't be easier than with synaptic - search for what you're trying to do, read throught the descriptions and click on the programs you want to try - this is so much easier than Windows, particularly as there's none of that spending money inconvenience involved! A few applications I've been playing with:

• GCompris: very nice collection of educational activities and games, of variable quality, but very accessible for our younger pupils
• KTouch: touch typing tutor, providing fairly detailed statistics on progress and levels of increasing difficulty. Still not sure what I feel about teaching typing in school - still an important skill, many parents think it a great idea, and makes it easier to use the machines for text based work later, but somehow it doesn't really feel like teaching.
• LinCity-NG: not dissimilar to Simcity - I'm fairly convinced on the whole learning through games issue, at least with those involving creativity and problem solving, but I've no intention of installing any first-person shooters!
• On a similar theme, Gnu Backgammon, which is very strong and feature rich - don't know if we'll install it at school, and Clare was most intrigued by the sound effects!
• Inkscape, vector graphics, which I really like, and will be using for some Bridget Riley inspired work
• The GIMP: which, despite what any open source advocates may tell you, is no where near photoshop :-(
• Freemind, for mind-mapping, which has been the only thing I've had trouble with installing, as it prefers a different java run-time from the one that comes as standard, however it was worth the hassle, as makes it too difficult to move nodes around the tree.
• BloGTK, a blogging client from which I'm posting this!

I am so impressed by the way this all fits together, the quality of the desktop, the end-user's experience and how easy the system is to use. Looking forward now to getting the lab finished, and letting the children loose on this