[Edu-sig] Donated computers, Linux, and IDLE problems.

[Atul Varma]

Hi Richard,

Have you considered using Ubuntu?  The latest version of the distro
comes with Python 2.5 installed, and IDLE can be easily installed
using the built-in package management system.  I've also found that
installing Ubuntu is easier than installing Windows, and its base
configuration is reasonably minimalistic.

- Atul

On 7/18/07, Richard Guenther <heistooheavy at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this question, but it
> certainly fits into the edu-sig realm ;-)
>
> I will be sponsoring a high school computer programming club again this
> year.  I get older computers donated to me quite often, most in the Pentium3
> range.  Often they have a crippled version of Windows on them, but no
> restore disks, etc.  Also, most of these computers will NOT be hooked up to
> the internet.
>
> What I'd like to do is put a simpler LINUX distro on them (MepisLite is my
> current favorite for these situations), and then get Python up and running
> with IDLE working.
>
> But it's not easy!  I don't know of a distro yet that comes with a working
> IDLE installed.  Whenever I've done the source file dance ("./configure,
> make, make install") with newer versions of Python, I get the common
> PYTHONHOME and PYTHONPATH problems and also can't get IDLE to work.
>
> Any suggestions or advice?
>
> Richard
>
> P.S.  I know this sounds like a technical question for a n00b forum, but the
> context of this problem (I'm a teacher trying to set up some convenient
> Python boxes for my students to use) made me think it might be appropriate
> here.  If not, I apologize in advance.  I am, btw, getting our PCs in the
> computer lab set up with Python (and IDLE) running on Windows, I just wanted
> to put these donated comps to good use....
>
>
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