Lliurex is the open source education software developed by the Valencia regional government (Generaliat Valenciana) since 2005. Starting with limited features and applications, the Lliurex community has managed to further develop it, and today its LliureX23 version offers a dynamic and accessible operating system and a set of applications that cover most of the needs in education.  

The road so far

In May 2005 the Conselleria d'Educació of Generaliat Valenciana launched LliurexX 5.09 based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution system and offering only desktop adaptation. However, Illurex continued to develop, with new versions being released almost every year from 2009 to 2021. The new versions soon changed its operating system from Debian GNU/Linux to Ubuntu operating systems, which remain functional to this day. In this 20 years development process, Illurex has included new adaptations for classrooms, Educational centres, Music and Library; as well as new features such as languages lab (LliureX Lab), MyPaint, TuxType, LibreOffice, Casimir Editor for students with dyslexia, etc. By 2019, Generalitat Valencia had implemented Lliurex on more than 120,000 workstations and the switch to LibreOffice saved 1.5 million euro per year on proprietary software licences. In 2024, the Conselleria launched the latest version Lliurex23 which represents the peak of this open source initiative. 

LliureX23 launching

The Valencia education system has been benefiting from Lliurex since 2005, and Lliurex remains quite active and offers dynamic services and IT solutions. In February this year, the government launched the latest version: LliureX23. 

Regarding its general characteristics, Lliurex23 operating system is based on Ubuntu LTS 22.04, which guarantees updates and security patches until April 2027, and includes KDE Plasma (5.27) desktop and LibreOffice 7.5.6 with its own word processor (Writer), spreadsheet editor (Calc), presentation editor (Impress), drawing programme (Draw), database (Base) and mathematical formulas' editor (Math). Additionally, lliurex23 comes with important updates in the following LliureX  applications: OneDrive, BellScheduler, CDC control, and Wi-Fi GVA Control.

As well as new applications that are available in Zero-Center:

•  KeePass. A password manager for the Web browser, which allows users to securely protect the different passwords they need in day-to-day life.

• Tracker. A physics application for video analysis and modelling.

• Support for the WemosD1R32 development plate.

• Improvements in the support of digital interactive slates Promethean.

Lliurex23 maintenance and update 

Since its launch, LliureX23 has undergone several improvements and updates which shows how active and considered it is as the operating system for Valencia Educational system. In total, there have been seven announcements on Lliurex23 which range from Ubuntu operating system to web browser updates. The first one dated in July carried out non-specified updates on KDE Neon, and Ubuntu operating system. Later in the same month, Conselleria d'Educació announced new changes related to privacy concerns, mainly the setup of DuckDuckGo as default search engine, in replacement of Qwant. DuckDuckGo was completely installed as the default feature. The following updates came in September and October to install additional packages, interface optimisation, and libraries migration.  

The success of Illurex has brought substantial benefits to Spanish public administration. According to the Spanish e-government portal, the use of Lliurex saves the public administration 3.5 million euros a year for the 110,000 computers in the education centres owned by Generalitat Valenciana.

Lliurex detailed information is accessible on GitHub, and the dedicated website