The 20th Anniversary of Edubuntu
Can you believe Edubuntu has been around for 20 years?! Oliver Grawert @ogra released the first version of Edubuntu in 2005. The initial goal: to gather the best free software in education and make it easy for people to use. It continued until 2014 when it took a bit of a hiatus until 2023.
During our trip to Ubuntu Summit 2022 in Prague, Czechia, I was sad to learn that Edubuntu was no more. So I asked my husband Erich (@eeickmeyer) what we could do to bring it back, and off we went!
Now Edubuntu is back and it’s committed to enhancing all ages of education for all people. We are happy and proud to release the 25.10 version of Edubuntu for your continued enjoyment and learning. We hope that it sparks joy and curiosity for many years to come.
Desktop (amd64) and Raspberry Pi 5 (arm64+raspi) Images may be downloaded from https://cdimages.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/25.10/release .
New Features
- This release includes GNOME 49.
- Geary has been replaced with Thunderbird. Thunderbird is used in Ubuntu as a feature-complete email, calendar, and contacts suite. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t integrate well with the GNOME desktop via GNOME Online Accounts, however, during testing, we ran into problems with the latest versions of Geary and Evolution when it came to Microsoft 365 accounts, which are in use in a great deal of schools.
- GNOME Music has been replaced with Rhythmbox. This is because GNOME Music has ceased development.
- This release includes some additional educational games. We worked with Jonny Eickmeyer, our lead student advisor, to research games that already existed within our repository, and added them to the default installation!
- You may even notice
gm-assistanthas been added. This is an application to assist, for example, “Dungeons & Dragons” dungeon masters with facilitating a game! We noticed, and received recommendations from teachers and school psychologists, that Dungeons & Dragons is excellent for applied math, storytelling, and socialization. That, and as a family, we have become huge fans of the genre.
- You may even notice
Known Issues
- The Ubuntu welcome app branding does not match Edubuntu. We’re working on ways to resolve this .
- Artha has difficulty being launched, but can be launched from the terminal. We may consider replacing this application for next release.
- As Edubuntu shares a desktop with and is based on Ubuntu Desktop, any known issues can be found in the official Ubuntu Release Notes .
- Individual applications included with Edubuntu may have their own known issues. Please consult upstream release notes for those applications before filing bug reports.
How To Contact
Leave us a note here on Ubuntu Discourse!
To get support, we encourage using Ubuntu Discourse for support, and for community clicking the notification bell in the Edubuntu category there
Social Media
We Have a Merchandise Shop!
Buy a t-shirt, coffee mug, hat, teddy bear, or anything available! Browse and find something you like! Commissions support ongoing development!
Special Thanks
Huge thanks for this release go to:
- Aaron Prisk (@aaronprisk): Website, Website Maintenance
- Jeremy Bicha (@jbicha): GNOME Desktop Guidance, application suggestions
- Oliver Grawert (@ogra): Project Founder, encouragement
- Jonny Eickmeyer: Testing and Application Selection Advisor
- Erich Eickmeyer (@eeickmeyer) : Technical Leader, Merch Store
- Amy Eickmeyer (@amypenguin) : Project Leader
- Steve Langasek (@vorlon ): You are missed