Recently, We have published articles focusing on education with titles including 10 best Linux educational software for your kids, and QupZilla – An Educational Lightweight Qt Web Browser.
Today, we have a Linux distro that even though you may not have heard about, is doing a lot of great work for learners in various parts of the world and it goes by the name of Academix GNU/Linux.
Academix GNU/Linux is a Debian-based distro that was created specifically for teaching. All of the bundled software that it ships with is free, open-source, and targetted at education fields ranging from primary to university level.
Before a super brief overview of the distro, check out the video below:
Desktop Environment
Academix GNU/Linux uses a Mate-based GUI which offers a compromise between low memory usage and a beautiful UI. If you’ve used any distro with the Xfce DE then Academix will not feel strange to you at all as most such distros feature a not-so eye-candy UI but are able to run on “archaic” hardware.
Bundled Applications
Academix GNU/Linux comes bundled with apps specific to Mathematics, Biology, Geography, Statistics, Graphics, audio and video editing, etc. The default applications also include virtual labs, robotics Laboratories, and virtual microscope.
What’s Unique About Academix GNU/Linux?
Academix GNU/Linux gives teachers the ability to curate lists of applications for students to use and for online publication with the installation module allowing students to install all the software with a single click.
Installation of Academix Linux
As you would expect, you can try Academix directly from your installation media LIVE. If you don’t want to install it on your hard drive you can use its experimental option and install it in an aule.
It supports both 32 and 64-bit architectures and you are free to download the stable or beta release. I advice you to grab the stable version unless you want to try out the latest updates or are considering contributing to its source code.
I imagine Academix GNU/Linux being used by mostly users and students of Unix or GNU/Linux since it comes with features that enable teachers educate better, and students learn more conveniently.
If you like, you can download its singly converted .deb packages from here. They include Virtual Microscope, Cytoscape, V-REP FOR EDU, PhEt, Kiwix, Virtual Genetics Lab, and Molecular Workbench.
