UNESCO supports the development of FREEDUC
Paris, Mont-de-Marsan, the 30 of October 2003 — OFSET, the organization for the development of free software for education and teaching, is working with UNESCO to set up an international version of its FREEDUC distribution.
FREEDUC is a GNU/Linux distribution which can be used without installation. It is specifically dedicated to the world of education and it enables an easy introduction for stakeholders of education to the 40 free software packages included on the cd-rom. The software was selected for its pedagogical values and ergonomic qualities.
This special version of FREEDUC comes with printed documentation in English, French and Spanish. This documentation includes a "quick-start" guide and details about the applications available.
As with other free software distributions, it can be directly downloaded in the form of 3 cd-roms; 1 cd-rom for the binary auto-boot version plus 2 cd-roms containing the source code. The documentation included with FREEDUC is released under the GNU Free Documentation License.
FREEDUC therefore is at the disposal of UNESCO to facilitate the use of free software in education and teaching. The gratis distribution of this international version of FREEDUC to teachers will help to promote access to information & communication technologies for education and teaching.
This version of FREEDUC will be available starting from the 30th of October 2003 from the OFSET web site.
About UNESCO
UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The main objective of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.
The Information for All Programme is a key element in the fulfilment of UNESCO's mandate to contribute to "education for all", to the "free exchange of ideas and knowledge" and to "increase the means of communication between peoples".
About OFSET
OFSET is an organization dedicated to the development of free software
for education and teaching. To achieve this object, it has already developed
software such as Dr. Geo (1st prize in a contest organised by the AFUL
in 2000) or GCompris (1st prize in the education category at the Trophées
du Libre contest in 2003). OFSET is also working on documentation to support
the development and use of free software. Recently it has developed FREEDUC
to facilitate access to free software in education and teaching.
Press Contact: Hilaire Fernandes 
