Valencia continues its support for Linux school distro

120,000 LliureX desktops

Published on: 17/08/2019 News Archived

The government of Valencia, one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, is continuing to support the use of open source in schools. LliureX, a collection of open source software solutions tailored for use in schools and based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is implemented on more than 120,000 workstations, reports the region’s finance ministry.

The LliureX educational distribution is a success, says José Manuel García Duarte, the newly-appointed Director General for Information Technology and Communications, in a statement published in July.

This blue image shows a female - with the head and tail of a mouse - looking back over her shoulder to the word “ll!urex” — Version 19 of LliureX was made available in July.

LliureX includes some 450 applications for use in classrooms and at home. They range from tools that help students learn languages, create web pages and edit audiovisual files, to standard office productivity tools (LibreOffice). In June, LliureX was awarded a prize at the OpenExpo conference for its innovation in the field of education.

“LiureX shows how Valencia’s commitment to free software improves people’s lives”, said the then-Director General for ICT, Pedro Pernías. “Thanks to this project we bridge the digital divide and provide users with quality software for free.” In addition, the DG praised the way LliureX extends the lifespan of school computer equipment. Up-to-date versions of the distribution perform well on PCs that would not be powerful enough for the latest proprietary alternatives.

LliureX project leader David Montalva explained in 2017 in an interview with Muy Linux that over the past decade schools have been equipped with computers that have Lliurex preinstalled. Mr Montalva confirms to the European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) that schools in Valencia do not get budget for proprietary software licences, except for about ten schools in the region that have special needs.

More information:

Announcement by the Finance Ministry (in Spanish/Valencian)
Announcement by the Finance Ministry (in Spanish/Valencian)
MuyLinux interview with LliureX project leader (in Spanish - from 2017)
Announcement by the city of Puçol (in Valencian)
The LliureX portal (in Spanish/Valencian)

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