ReactOS Edu distribution

[aldnoah]

I propose to make the educational distribution of ReactOS, which is aimed at 10-15 year-old computers that are used in the education system.

The education system is changing slowly and in many schools and even universities are taught assembler, C, Pascal, based on the old or free software.
This is a big problem, because free software comes understaffed(without usable IDE or additional utilities(ex. code formatting utilities)), and the old is very difficult to run on modern PCs - all it requires qualification.
I suggest not just include free Assemblers, C, Pascals, but to create an infrastructure - put in the distribution free textbooks (including general education - CK12 [1], wikibooks [2], Project Gutenberg [3], etc).

As a result, should get a distribution:
1) easy to install and run on older hardware
2) immediately comprising a set of open tools for teaching programming, textbooks and reference books. As well as video tutorials
3) a set of programs for teaching basic computer skills (Open / LibreOffice primarily)
4) includes a simple way to feedback for students and teachers

It is not necessary to supply a universal distribution that people will have to guess how to apply.

The main customer - the education system, which is slowly changing and trains on the basis of old and it's free replacement software.

[1] Free Online Textbooks, Flashcards, Practice, Real World Examples, Simulations | CK-12 Foundation
http://www.ck12.org/
[2] Wikibooks
http://www.wikibooks.org/
[3] Project Gutenberg
https://www.gutenberg.org/

[oldman]

How do you propose doing this, or are you saying 'this is a good idea, will somebody please do it!', or are you asking for volunteers?

The developers are busy implementing missing functionality, and they have a commitment to the Indiegogo backers.

What you could do, is to make a list of required software for your proposal, then test them with trunk builds on real hardware, making bug reports where necessary.

Your "CK-12 Foundation", "Wikibooks" and "Project Gutenberg" all work in Firefox with an Addon for E-books, so Firefox is one app; you have mentioned OpenOffice/LibreOffice; so now you have three apps for your testing list.

[aldnoah]

Just an idea. I'm not asking someone to do it.

The developers are busy implementing missing functionality, and they have a
commitment to the Indiegogo backers.

Hyppoteticaly, they will have additional stimulus, feedback and testers)
I see that moment chosen wrong, nonetheless.

It's easy, but very time consuming task to:
1) collect useful programs and books
2) test programs
3) make vote for programs and books

There are some doubts about the usefulness, so I have to ask some people.

[Pi_User5]

It seems like a good idea. I would be willing to help test the software needed.

[DOSGuy]

Every school will have different needs. I'm not sure that it's possible to predict what software would be useful to schools, other than universally important software like office suites and browsers, and possibly programming languages. (Don't start about VB6.) It sounds like the issue is more that schools tend to have older hardware but, again, who can predict what hardware they'll need? If we just need ROS to support old hardware, well, old hardware is already more likely to work than newer hardware. What are the unique software and hardware requirements of an educational institution?

[dizt3mp3r]

VB6 might be useful.

[karlexceed]

This may be a good Idea for some cases, but what I've seen in working with schools is a move toward the cloud. Chromebooks are the hot thing now it seems.

Not doubting the usefulness,just throwing in my two cents.

I think the real question is exactly what specifically would make ROS ideal for this use case?
to my mind, it's the same for the general public; is free and windows compatible. Maybe that alone is enough?

[middings]

Just an idea. I'm not asking someone to do it.

You didn't even offer to hold someone's coat while he does it.

ReactOS 0.3.17 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

ReactOS 0.4 will also be alpha stage software and the same warning will apply to it.

Alpha stage software is not appropriate for regular classroom use.

[DOSGuy]

He meant in ten years! Some people like to plan ahead.

[erkinalp]

Alpha stage software is not appropriate for regular classroom use

Except for CS/Software departments of schools/universities. They may use the experience collected via this way in order to fix issues in ReactOS.

[karlexceed]

Speaking of, is there a bundled build environment for ROS? I like the idea of appealing to Computer Science profs/students. Plug and play ISOs and/or VMs could probably go a long way.

[PurpleGurl]

I know that Fireball is presenting this to students, but I haven't heard any more about this in a while.

[oldman]

Speaking of, is there a bundled build environment for ROS? I like the idea of appealing to Computer Science profs/students. Plug and play ISOs and/or VMs could probably go a long way.

They made an hybrid cd which was given away at FOSDEM'15, which I think contained the Ros build environment and the source code.

[erkinalp]

LCM software set for educational distribution:
-Mozilla Firefox
-Media player(preferring VLC personally as it has playback, recording and editing together)
-Classroom communication software
-Student and teacher/instructor policies(for classroom installation)
-Office productivity suite(LibreOffice)
-RosBE,GCC 5(C,C++,FORTRAN compilers), python3,rustc,VB6(Reverse engineered)
-Enhanced text editor
-E-learning suite(is there any FOSS one?)
-WYSIWYG wiki editor
-Richer game gamut especially suited at memory and being fun
-HTML and RosBE reference manuals
-Dictionary search in a suitable place
-Sophisticated backup software other than NTbackup(any user more competent than a grandma will need it)
-Virtual desktops(Children deserve privacy,too)

[aldnoah]

Did some research:
[ external image ]

1. Probably, FreeBasic can be added too, because of easy and working graphics library(but as a programmer i don't like awkward syntax that has no use in the real world).
2. Media Player should be patent friendly ogg/vorbis only.
3. Include simple or enhanced text editor or choose only IDE for each language or universal IDE?
4. Can LibreOffice now work and will it work in the next few years?
5. As a graphics library, there are old compatible ones - some don't work. Maybe, it is a good idea to write simple unified one(pixel,line,arc - the most minimal kit).
Based on this:
http://freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/graph/index-5.html
http://www.freebasic.net/wiki/wikka.php ... CatPgGfx2D

PyGame is more image-moving-game-programming library.
Qt,GTK+,WxWidgets internal graphics can be used, but this is way too specific. Cairo is complex and vector-only.