Ive installed Edubuntu on an old laptop. So far, so good. I have managed to get the additional drives on there needed for the wireless to work etc.

BUT

It seems to be just a Ubuntu desktop. I can find the Edubuntu package applications by searching for them by name in the Dash home, but I have no idea how to get Edubuntu to launch as the desktop interface or indeed to show a list of the educational apps that come in the bundle. WHat am I doing rong?

Usually on the login page there’s a gear wheel icon, click on it to select the desktop you want to load. It’s then set as default and doesn’t need to be selected again.

thanks, but there doesnt seem to be that option.

Ive looked in system settings etc, but nothing on which desktop to use.

Ive found that if I use the software centre to show me all the applications in the education bundle (it wont let me launch them from there though which seems mad), I can then type the first few letters of the ed app in the dash home search and then launch the application. I can then pin it to the launch bar so that Jr can launch relevant apps easily. But that seems exceptionally convoluted and silly, EVEN FOR LINUX (!)

Isn’t Edubuntu just “normal” Ubuntu, but with some educational programs installed by default?

I thought it was supposed to have age appropriate desktop (pre-skool, primary, secondary)?

it says on the site it ships with “unity”, which Im guessing is this, which is familiar

Maybe I mis-understood what they meant by “Edubuntu Desktop”, and they dont really mean “edubuntu-desktop”. How very Linux of them 🙄

Can’t believe no one has taken the opportunity to say “you should have installed Windows” 😉

(PS OT but I have a Chromebook waiting for me at Tesco. If it’s not as good as you claim, Stoner, I’ll be blaming you 🙂 )

never used itmy self, what what happens if you type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get -y install edubuntu-desktop

As this should setup the desktop environment for you

when you installed it you should have been given the options to not install unity, that’s what you should have done I think.

“(PS OT but I have a Chromebook waiting for me at Tesco. If it’s not as good as you claim, Stoner, I’ll be blaming you ) “

I’ve bought one for my son, largely for the same reasons. It’ll be my son who comes looking for you. 😉

I can vouch that it’s a damn-sight better thought out than Edubuntu, if that helps! 🙂

On CB – dont forget to set up offline function in Google Drive to be able to sync docs when offline. New Google sheets launched last week – now they are offline editable and slicker running when online too.
Also install gmail offline

and use ctrl+alt+? for key shortcut info

TBH I woul dhave got one for my son too, but at 7, I think I’ll just give him tan old dell with some kids linux apps and a shortcut to CBBC on it for now. Coz Im tight like that,

cheers rich, will try that.

dont recall getting an option Re unity on installation. I just slung a disc in that I made from the curent edubuntu ISO download

nothing different there rich, it just says that its already installed.

SO I think I probably have misunderstood what they mean by edubuntu-desktop, and it’s actually just a suite of educational applications that are sideloaded with ubuntu. No matter, I can stick them on the launch bar for Jr so he can find them easily enough.

Just need to work out how to put a bookmark on the desktop now…

the OS itself runs very nicely on the Dell Vostro. Driver compatibility looks pretty good although theres a trackpad glitch fix I just need to do according to some blog posts.

Hopefully it means that within a few months Jr will be a Linux god, coding monkey, and I can retire and live off his huge earnings….

Hopefully it means that within a few months Jr will be a Linux god, coding monkey, and I can retire and live off his huge earnings..

Have you ever met any Linus gods or coding monkeys?

Not yet, but I have faith in The Penguin.

You’re off the hook stoner – so far at least 🙂

Just working out the best way to edit MS documents but it seems great so far and £250 for a 14″ laptop is a bit of a bargin.

best approach for editing MS docs is to use the auto conversion setting on the upload to google drive. (if you just upload to drive, you need to RHC (two finger tap) on the file and use “open with” google docs – this creates a converted copy on the google drive – it retains the original word doc though)

once converted, you can edit away.

If you need to send the file on to someone, you can use the “Email as attachement” function in the file menu where you can sepcify whether it should convert it back to a word doc, or pdf or open doc formate or rtf etc etc.

Much of the time if you think about it, pdfs are the best as there’s no need to send someone an editable doc.

However if it needs to be editable then sending them a link share to the google doc is a good idea as you can then collaborate on the same doc.

Yeah, that’s what I got round to and it seems to work well. Initial confusion as opening the files for editing directly seemed to be very restricted (it was opening in quickview) which was a concern.

quick view now works really well in gmail too. with direct download to google drive as well.

New version of google sheets rolling out right now (one of my domains got it last weekm the other hasnt yet) which brings offline spreadsheet editing and also slicker running. Really good development.

Something to bear in mind that features are always a work in progress – life without tham can be a pain, but you work around. Then you wake up one morning and suddenly a feature is deployed. Its a bit like not getting punched in the face sometimes 😉

Offline isn’t really an issue as this is a home laptop and I can’t really think when we’d need to edit anything outside of that.

I seem to have the upgraded sheets already. Certainly seems to work fine and manages all the interest type calculations on my mortage calcuator spreadsheet ok. And I can use it on my phone which is great.