KITE GNU/Linux 20.04 - Kerala model of open source education
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.
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 Desktop
02 Application Menu
03 Places Menu
04 Nautilus
05 Terminal
06 Window switching
07 Firefox
08 GCompriss
09 Theeram dictionary
10 GeoGebra
11 ScriBus Publishing
12 Drawing App
13 ViCTORS Live Streaming
14 LibreOffice Impress
15 GamPus IDE
16 Educational Resources
17 Background selectoin
18 Underlying system
19 App Center
20 System Resources
21 System Menu
22 Shutdown confirmation