Class of 2018

To quote Natalie Portman, “Learning is beautiful.” Isn’t that the truth? If you’re reading LinuxFormat, you undoubtedly have the same sentiment; that’s the beautiful thing about using Linux and open source – the continuous learning curve. Just as you think you’ve mastered one area, a whole new technology appears for you to tackle.

With the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s mission to push coding into the curriculum, Linux powering more areas within schools, and open source becoming an increasingly important area, we’re dedicating our back-to-school issue to explaining how you can use Linux, open source and low-cost single-board PCs to power your own and children’s education at school.

We’ll look at how you can outfit a laptop with the ideal selection of educational FOSS tools that’ll stay with you for life, get all the resources you need to start becoming an ace coder, and finally look at the hardware kit you might use in class, with a few cool hardware projects you can try out. So, if you’re just interested in expanding your mind, want to help your children, or get involved in a user group and Code Club, this issue is the perfect place to start.

But we know study, study, study makes Jane a dull girl, so we’re also looking at the exciting world of mobile phones and what the heck happened to the open source mobile OS dream? How did Canonical mess up so badly with the Ubuntu Phone, and what projects are picking up its mantle? We have a tutorial on installing the Cyanogenmod replacement Lineage OS, too.

Roundup looks at all the file sync tools you need to keep your documents consistent everywhere and everywhen. While our tutorials cover using the Terminal, Vagrant automation, music in the Linux Multimedia Suite,recovery with Scalpel, podcast recording in Audacity and even more! Enjoy!