Sugar on a Stick and Lernstick

Sugar on a Stick and Lernstick

I learned about Lernstick from Linux Magazine.

It is probably based on Sugar on a Stick base and they are selling it at an exorbitant price per USB, which is unbecoming of the developers involved in corporate businesses, using open software and selling it and making money.

Thank you Linux Magazine for exposing the facts, without expressly, implying what (that is pretty diplomatic) I am saying NOW.

It is OK this is done in Switzerland and if they do it in the developing world, they will receive Bricks and Bats (not cricket bats of course) and could not do so.

It gives a bad taste in my mouth.

I tried to download the image from the sites (mentioned in the magazine) and was unable to do so.

That is also a pretty awkward / ugly violation of the Free Software Foundation, “spirit and enterprise”.

USB flash drives with Live Lernstick distro deliver educational software in schools.

This what (not the magazine) a web site says about it and would not mention the above remarks.

I am amazed.

The Lernstick is a Debian live-image based distribution which can be booted off a DVD or USB stick. It is being developed by the School for Teacher Education at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland specifically to support computing applications in schools. The standard distribution includes a lot of applications useful for this educational context, both learning apps and standard productivity tools.

The idea behind Lernstick is to give students a personalized and customizable Linux system they can carry with them (even if it's only the disk) and use it on any standard PC hardware available to them. Switzerland having one of the highes per-capita penetration of PCs (over 85% as of 10 years ago), chances are, that most students would have access to a PC either at school, at home or both. However these PCs would most likely be running windows, be locked down and not allow or encourage tinkering and experimentation with the computing platform itself which is so important to get students beyond being simply users.