Obviously work continues and the list of desired features and optimizations continues to grow. However, it has been an encouraging test. The feedback from both staff and students alike has been positive and I am currently looking for more help to take this program to the next level.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all those that have helped make this first roll-out a success.

{:> Tom

I have come up with basically 2 alternatives for those that are faced with this problem.

Stand Alone Versions of QuickFrame

Stand Alone versions of QuickFrame are basically little web servers all configured for running QuickFrame that you can download, unzip, and run on your computer. Once you have downloaded the package you do not need to use the Internet at all to create chart frames with QuickFrame. These packages are available for Mac and PC platforms.

Pros

• Your version of QuickFrame is self contained on your computer and you do not need an Internet connection.

Cons

• Your version of QuickFrame is self contained on your computer and if your computer fails you loose your data.

QuickFrame Virtual Server

This package is more for a school leader that would like to provide a local network setup of QuickFrame. This package includes a grading program and allows any kind of computer to connect to the local network and have access to QuickFrame and this also allows central backups to be made. This is a great way to set up a computer lab for your students to safely use QuickFrame even when a good high speed Internet connection is not possible or economical.

Where to Download

The main download page is located here.

Locate the package you need, download them, and unzip them.

Getting Started:

First Impressions:

My first attempt at booting into this live CD edition of Ubuntu ended in a hung machine. This was disappointing. However, when I tried again with the safe video mode it booted perfectly. Since this probably had more to do with my old twitchy test hardware than the distro I give them a pass on this one.

On with the install:

Upon booting up I was taken to a nice looking albeit brownish (not a big fan of brown) desktop. The desktop contained a single icon named Install. So a gave it a click.

The first series of screens are very familiar keyboard, time, and user account screens followed by a pretty straight forward partitioner. I chose the defaults and let it do its thing to see what a vanilla install produces. It promptly erased my hard disk and installed the basic desktop package and asked me if I wanted to reboot.

All in all very quick a painless.

Whats in the Basic install:

The out of the box menu selections included just the basics which is something that I really like. The last choice on the menu under system was automatix which simplified the installation of common free and non-free software like adobe acrobat, mp3 codecs, gnucash, Java and many other common addons. I had never used automatix before and I have to say, as simple as synaptic is, automatix is even easier. I loved it.

While I am on the subject of non-free things I would make one request of the Ubuntu CE people.

Find a way to provide dvd playback codecs legally.

Linspire for example, has purchased the required licenses and although it means that you have to pay for the software with the non-free codecs, I think it is a more responsible position to fight for change from than from the position of taking it, using it, then demanding it be free. I wish things worked differently in this world but this is the reality of the law right now. I would like to see legitimate alternatives provided for those that want these abilities legally. At this point a Christian is left with the choice (stated in big red letters when you open Automatix) of either breaking the law or not watching DVDs. This is not a very attractive set of choices for a Christian. I hope that the Ubuntu CE people and others in the Linux community figure out a way to resolve this issue. While I think we all would like to see sanity brought into the area of codecs, patents, copyright, and fair use I would prefer to fight that fight from the moral high ground.

What’s special about Ubuntu CE:

Once you have the software you wish to use installed and up to date it’s time to look at the things that make this distribution different from a standard installation of Ubuntu.

Parental Controls:

This is probably the main feature that sets this version of Ubuntu apart from all the others that I have tried. The Parental Controls panel is really just a front end for Dansguardian. Although it is not as refined as it could be, compared to installing and configuring these packages from scratch, this is like a miracle. Without doing anything, it is set to filter web content at the strictest level and this is probably the setting that a Christian parent (who I assume is the target audience) would want. And if not, adjusting and even disabling the filter is relatively easy in the new control panel.

I said relatively. This kind of front end makes it possible for non-technical people to filter content on their computer and this is highly desirable especially in the Christian community. However, this control panel is still very raw and in need of a lot of polish both functionally and cosmetically. And until that polishing is accomplished I think there should be a big obvious button somewhere for returning all the settings back to the default setup. I am guessing it would not be too hard to get things fairly well fouled up with the current interface and leave the user unable to get back where he or she started.

As far as how well the filtering worked it was basically what I expected. You will still be searching the images pages on Google and other places at your own risk. But this software will not let you search Google with Google’s own filtering turned off. This product is no substitute for parental supervision and a healthy dialog between parents and children. On the up side though it did block the majority of inappropriate material and provided a very useful log of blocked sites to help parents understand what their kids are doing on the Internet. Furthermore, sites and filtering rules can be easily added or subtracted from the parental control panel. This protection coupled with healthy parental supervision will help parents keep an eye on what their kids are doing on the Internet. Armed with this knowledge parents should be able to dialog with their child about their behavior on the Internet and take appropriate action.

Overall I would give this filtering setup a C+ to B- but all filtering solutions that I have used have similar weaknesses and I would rate none of them much higher than this. Compared to the unfiltered Internet it is a huge improvement and given the current state of Internet content, a necessary inconvenience for anyone with a family online in my opinion.

Ubuntu Christian Edition Installer:

It could be argued that this is really an unnecessary feature however for those new to Ubuntu and Linux I think it is a great way to get people started installing Bible study and educational software and even a complete alternative desktop. Ichthux Desktop (Ichthys is the little fish symbol) is basically Kubuntu CE for those that prefer a KDE environment.

Overall I found this installer to be simple and logically organized for home users to install and remove common software easily. For those that prefer more control it is still Ubuntu and all the tools Ubuntu has, Ubuntu CE has as well.

Overall Impressions:

I have to be honest and say that I expected a lot of cheesy artwork and campy Christian doodads. I am very pleased with the focus on usability and tools for Mom and Pop type users. I have been a fan of Ubuntu and Kubuntu from the beginning but the small helper programs added by this package coupled with the easy install and simple un-cluttered menus give this version of Ubuntu a lot to crow about.

In fact I hope that the core Ubuntu team looks at some of these ideas and incorporates them into Ubuntu. I think there are some good proof of concept ideas here for making the Linux desktop more accessible to the non-technical audience. While at the same time not reducing its power for those that are more savvy.

Bottom line assessment:

When asked by the readers of this site, this is the distribution that I will recommend hands down for anyone wanting a desktop replacement for their computer.

You can download a copy for yourself here.

My Ratings:

Install : 9

Would have been a 10 except for the failed first attempt at handling my video setup.

Usability : 9

Stills needs polish on the parental control panel but I think it was the easiest overall for setup, installation, and updating of any distro I have used so far. The clean menus and selection of apps gave a strong first impression of an environment that is clean, clear, and easy to use.

Apps : 8

Big plus for the idea of a parental control panel but it still needs polish. The other negative is that it is built on Dapper which means that it uses OOo 2.02 which is noticeably weaker than 2.04 in speed and PDF features and other small idiosyncrasies. My not so secret wish is that major apps like OOo would update independently of the distribution especially for a distribution that is going to be supported as long as Dapper is slated to be.

< - Previous: Why Free and Open Source Software is important to a global organization

This sentiment is very common today and is often repeated in one form or another as a justification to use Microsoft Products exclusively.

To be fair there are organizations where this may in fact be the path of least resistance and in some cases may even be the right answer.

However…

In any GLOBAL organization there are several other factors that need to be considered before you decide it is just more convenient to use “Word”. This is particularly true in a global organization dedicated to teaching the Bible. Why?

Because by using the Word format you are indirectly forcing people to either spend money they do not have for MS Word licenses, or you are encouraging them to steal software from Microsoft by using pirated copies.

Obviously both of these choices are unacceptable.

There are several directions I could go with this conversation. I could talk about operating systems, server software, or Internet Browsers but all of these are minor issues compared to word processing.

Word processing dominates the bulk of all computer usage, at least in the organizations I have been involved in. And for the International Bible teacher it is the first of two of our primary tools. The other being presentation software (PowerPoint) of course.

I am not going to try and argue features or ease of use with anyone. Because I have never seen anything handed out in class that was so amazing or complex that it could not be easily produced by any number of word processor packages, or even thoughtfully formatted plain text for that matter. The same is true arguably for PowerPoint.

As for ease of use. In my experience people tend to think the program they are most familiar with is the “easiest” to use no matter what it is. I recently talked to someone who was given a free laptop that had Windows XP on it but had OpenOffice for its office package. After using the machine for over 6 months this person referred to OpenOffice Writer as “Word” not even realizing that MS Word was not installed on their computer. It seems that “Word” has reached “Kleenex” status and every word processor has become MS Word.

The Two biggest issues

File formats

The biggest issue by far when sharing documents and working together with people from all over the world after language is the file format of the document. As I mentioned in the introduction, handing a closed format like MS Word .doc to people will virtually force them to buy or steal a copy of MS Word. Ethically, this is indefensible for a Bible teacher in my view. Because we are either constructing barriers to our own messages (at best), burdening our students with unnecessary financial obligations (present and future license fees), or actually encouraging behavior that we are teaching against (theft).

Another consideration with file formats is portability. If print/viewing quality is a primary concern with your shared documents (handouts for example). The Adobe PDF (acrobat reader) format is the best. While Adobe is by no means inexpensive the PDF file format is a well documented format that many people have written creation tools for. The reader is free from Adobe and many others and most importantly the document will look exactly right no matter what kind of machine or software it is opened on. Only if the document you are sharing needs additional editing is sharing things in a word processor format necessary or even desirable.

Cost, language, availability

Free and Open Source software has other obvious advantages, particularly in the developing world.

• Most of all it is free of cost. Due to its development model most of this software is available for free including all future upgrades.
• Because it is open, languages that are not used by a large portion of the worlds population can be added to the various projects by anyone with the necessary skills. Therefore projects like OpenOffice have a huge collection of languages available and more are being added every day, even relatively obscure ones. Since the determining factor is not profitability for the corporation but interest among the developers and users. This model is increasingly being adopted by developing countries as they see an opportunity in it to be far more self-sufficient, and self-determining, and far less dependent on foreign corporations.
• Open Source software like OpenOffice is widely available both on CD (for not much over the cost of media) and for free download on the Internet. OpenOffice reads and writes its own open format plus all major MS formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) and creates nice PDF documents with the click of a button. Word on the other hand does little beside create word documents. And the Word format is notoriously closed, convoluted, and constantly changing.

In summary

As international teachers we work hard to bridge the cultural, language, and economic gaps that divide us. Lets not allow our personal preference for a simple tool like a word processor exacerbate the problem. Encouraging the free options by our example will help them participate with fewer economic hurdles and less temptation to steal what they feel they “need” in order to participate on an equal footing. The challenges of hardware and connectivity cost are more than enough without our adding another layer of burdens on them by our refusal to use free and open software.

Am I saying that Microsoft is evil and should be avoided at all costs? No, there are circumstances where I would say that Microsoft Office should be at least considered. I question the wisdom of a defacto endorsement/requirement of this platform by global organizations however, given the excellent no cost alternatives available today. Every teacher is the organization to the class he or she teaches so our choices represent an endorsment of sorts by the organization.

Please consider your choices carefully.