USU Linux Desktop For Linux

USU Desktop (formerly Learn free with Ubuntu) is an open source desktop operating system built around the KDE desktop environment and based on the world’s most popular free Linux distribution, Ubuntu. It has been designed from the ground up as a starting point for learning how to use Linux.

The project is distributed into multiple flavors, Desktop, Mini and Netbook, each one with its own features and target audience. All of them are available for download for free, as Live CD/DVD ISO images, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

The default language is Bulgarian, but it can be easily changed to English using the F2 key. Only three options are available on the boot menu, to try USU without installing, to check the disc for error (if using an optical media), and boot an existing operating system installed on the first disk drive.

Being designed to be used as a learning tool, the Desktop edition of USU includes a wide range of educational applications, such as Celestia space simulator, MuseScore music score typesetter, Blender 3D rendering software, Kalgebra mathematical calculator, and Fritzing electronics designer.

It also includes Marble virtual globe, TuxPaint interactive paint tool, Kalzium periodic table of elements, LibreCAD 2D CAD (Computer-aided design) application, Gobby collaborative text editor, Step interactive physics simulator, and many others.

Users will be able to send emails with Mozilla Thunderbird, write documents and do office tasks with LibreOffice, manage their financial information with HomeBank, manage their projects with OpenProj, browse the web with Mozilla Firefox, as well as to chat with their friends using Pidgin.

It is possible to download torrent and magnet files using Transmission, transfer files with FileZilla, listen to music with Clementine, watch movies with VLC Media Player, edit videos with Kdenlive, edit images with GIMP, organize photos with digiKam, and edit diagrams with Dia.

USU also comes with a great collection of games, among which we can mention Solitaire, Sudoku, Mahjong, КAtomic, Mines, Tetris, Frozen-Bubble, Hedgewars, TuxType, TuxMath, as well as the GCompris suite of educational apps and games.

USU Desktop edition is a really great Ubuntu-based operating system that can be used as a starting point to use Linux. It can be easily deployed on educational environments and supports English and Bulgarian languages.