The Kerala State of India has done excellent work by implementing the computer learning with open source applications. The goverment body of Kerla started the migration into open source technologies in early 2006. The migration includes the use of ORUMA Software by the state electricity board, free software migration in Khadi Board, and the use of free software for IT operations of Kerala Legislative Assembly.

KITE Linux 20 LITE featured image

Open Source in Education

Kerala government’s education curriculum includes computer education from the primary school itself. From the beginning itself the students are encouraged to use open source applications. Also, the curriculum teaches the use of open-source software for performing day-to-day activities such as painting, listening to music, watching movies, browsing the internet, preparing office documents, etc. Also, python is part of the curriculum in the 10th standard. Students will be making their utility applications on python in the 10th standard. The inclusion of python will help them to identify their taste in programming from the early stages itself.

The evolution of KITE GNU/Linux

In the mid of the 2000s, the goverment came up with the idea of developing a custom GNU/Linux distribution for the educational institutions. This concept became a reality in 2006 when the first version of IT@School GNU/Linux was released. The first version of IT@School GNU/Linux was based on Debian and included a set of applications for education. The first release of IT@School Linux was in collaboration with a private agency. Later, the IT@School wing of the Kerala Education Department took control over this. The project is now popularly known as KITE GNU/Linux. KITE stands for Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education.

In 2008, the first batch completed their 10th standard IT practical public exam in GNU/Linux.

Later, there were multiple releases of IT@School with the Ubuntu LTS base. The latest one in this series is KITE GNU/Linux 20.04. Also there is one LITE edition for the computers with limited resources.

Download KITE GNU/Linux 20.04 ISO

Download KITE GNU/Linux LITE 2020 ISO

KITE Linux 20 Lite screenshots

The following section showcases some screenshots captured in KITE Linux 20 Lite.

01 KITE School Desktop01 KITE School Desktop02 Application Menu02 Application Menu03 Places Menu03 Places Menu04 Nautilus04 Nautilus05 Terminal05 Terminal06 Window switching06 Window switching07 Firefox07 Firefox08 GCompriss08 GCompriss09 Theeram dictionary09 Theeram dictionary10 GeoGebra10 GeoGebra11 ScriBus Publishing11 ScriBus Publishing12 Drawing App12 Drawing App13 ViCTORS Live Streaming13 ViCTORS Live Streaming14 LibreOffice Impress14 LibreOffice Impress15 GamPus IDE15 GamPus IDE16 Educational Resources16 Educational Resources17 Background selectoin17 Background selectoin18 Underlying system18 Underlying system19 App Center19 App Center20 System Resources20 System Resources21 System Menu21 System Menu22 Shutdown confirmation22 Shutdown confirmation