Debian Edu 100% in main

This talk will briefly explain what Debian Edu is, how we develop our distribution, how we differ from Debian, how we work on bridging the gaps that still exist and what our plans for the future are.

In July 2007 the Debian Edu project released its third release, codename "Skolelinux 3.0 Terra". Debian Edu is probably the most widely known and most widely used Custom Debian Distribution - at least if you follow the official criteria for a CDD, which we aim to finally fulfill 100% for Lenny: all packages are taken unmodified from Debian main.

This talk will explain the development process of Debian Edu and the various differences to a default Debian install. An overview of the planned features for Lenny will be given as well as a list of current showstoppers will be presented. To explain to the audience, what challenges have been overcome since Debian Edu was started, the history of how 100% inclusion in Debian was achieved, will also be explained. (Debian Edu used to be a seperate distribution! Now we have become a part of Debian!)

Using wiki.debian.org to write a fine manual will be explained briefly too: our documentation is written in a wiki, then exported as docbook and translated using .po files, then transfered back into docbook, to generate html and PDFs versions, which are made available in the debian-edu-doc package, which is installed on a webserver again.

In the end, releasing with Lenny will not be the end of the process of becoming part of Debian. Currently it looks like we might release with Lenny, but then do point releases on our own. Whether this is a sensible strategy or if there are others, will (hopefully) become clearer in future. Until & after the talk - it's a long and winding road!