It’s no secret that there are countless Linux distributions. Counting only Ubuntu and all its official flavors, we have 10 distros available, not counting all the unofficial. I remember years ago I installed Ubuntu Studio as my main system, a distribution that is designed for musicians and to create multimedia content. And, although we arrived a little late for the “back to school”, an official version is also available for students. In this article we will put face to face this official version for students with another Ubuntu-based distribution that has a lot to say in this regard: Edubuntu against UberStudent.
Both systems they are based on Ubuntu, So there are very few differences inside. The differences are in other aspects such as the programs installed, how everything is organized or the image. There’s also a performance difference between the two systems, but it’s not something we’re going to notice too much if the computer isn’t a small laptop.
Table of Contents
Download and installation
The two distributions are installed in a simple and similar way. You just have to download the ISO of one of the versions (from HERE that of Edubuntu and since HERE UberStudent), create an installation flash drive (Recommended) or burn to a DVD-R, start the PC where we want to install it with the DVD / Pendrive sites and install the system as we would with another version of Ubuntu. In general, any computer reads the CD first and then the hard drive, so if our choice is to use a flash drive, we will have to change the boot order from the BIOS. In both cases we can test the system or install it.
installed programs
Both distributions have a good number of education programs installed by default. When we download the disk images, the approximately 3GB of the two ISOs already make us think that we have not downloaded a simple distribution. If we go down among the applications on education of both systems, we can see that Edubuntu has more programs preinstalled than UberStudent. In fact, UberStudent links us to some websites as if they were programs. I prefer that the programs, of education in this case, be installed by default, but I understand that we will not all think the same. Anyway, whoever disagrees with me and one day runs out of connection that allows him to consult the information, will already tell me.
It is important to mention some programs that Edubuntu has that UberStudent does not have, such as KAlgebra, Kazium, KGeography or Marble. Instead, UberStudent has a smaller collection, but includes some text editing tools that Edubuntu doesn’t have. In short, Edubuntu includes more programs that contribute a lot information to students and UberStudent includes more tools that can help you study, But without providing this information. I think Edubuntu is better for science and math students and UberStudent is more focused on users who prefer texts, especially writing them.
winner: Edubuntu.
organization
All applications, of course, must be organized in some way. It is useless to have many applications if we are not able to find them (as happened to me when I used some version of Linux Mint). For newer users, exiting Windows to get into Linux can be quite confusing, especially for not knowing the names of the apps (as has happened to my siblings when grabbing my computers).
In that sense, Unity is not about having hidden apps, but how to show them off UberStudent is much more natural and intuitive, as you can see in the previous section. In Unity it can be more complicated to find applications that are sorted by more general categories. That’s exactly what happened to me the first time I used it: I didn’t know where to look. This has not happened to me in other graphical environments. In short, it’s not that one shows it much better than the other; is that the other shows it less well.
winner: UberStudent
Image and design
UberStudent uses environment Xface, Which allows it to work better on less powerful computers, But this has a price that we will pay in a less attractive image. One thing that stood out in previous versions were the minimize, close, and restore buttons. They were in different colors and it just didn’t look good. But, as you see in the screenshot above, this is something that has changed in the latest version and only the button to close the red windows is kept.
I find it important to mention that in a Live Session UberStudent has no Spanish language. It needs to be installed.
On the other hand, Edubuntu maintains the environment unity in full using the official version of Ubuntu. Unity, which has been heavily criticized by many users (myself included) since it first came out in Ubuntu 11.04, may seem a little strange the first time we use it, but it’s much more appealing than almost any environment, including Gnome (which I usually use, specifically Ubuntu Mate). The main problem with Unity is that it goes a little worse on computers with few resources, but visually it is very attractive.
winner: Edubuntu
conclusion
At points, Edubuntu wins 2-1. Nor is it something that should surprise us, it is not in vain that we are talking about one official taste of Ubuntu against one that is independent. Once we get used to using the system, Unity is much nicer than Xface and all the applications available in Edubuntu make us give it the champion belt on its own merits.
Anyway, being free and easy to install systems, it’s best to try both systems to see which one best fits your needs. If you did, which of these two distros do you prefer to study: UberStudent or Edubuntu?
