A Linux distribution for primary school teachers

teacher tools
teacher tools

Last updated: September 3, 2023

Are you a teacher and you supervise children in primary school? There PrimTux distribution may well help you with its tools and educational resources.

What is PrimTux?

PrimTux is a tool for primary school teachers. Free et Royalty-free, It's about a full educational distribution specialized for primary school in France. It's about giving new life to classroom computers.

Developed by a small team of school teachers and IT enthusiasts, PrimTux is customizable from the administrator session.

The teacher is free to choose his tools, to delete some of them or to grant more or less rights here and there (access to files, networks, etc.). As if that were not enough, we can also add non-free (but free) software with an already well-stocked catalog.

Applications available on PrimTux

PrimTux contains a large number of educational applications. There are software for calculation, French, geometry, music, astronomy, etc.

Of course the distribution also includes tools to allow teachers to use it like a real PC: OpenOffice, Audacity, VLC Media Player, GIMP, Filezilla etc.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of installed applications:

  • Geometry: DrGeo, GEONExT, GCompris
  • Mathematical: TuxMath,
  • Algorithm: scratch,
  • Planetarium: Stellarium,
  • Other education software: TuxGuitar, MuseScore, ToutEnClic, Tux Paint, TuxType
  • Office : LibreOffice with the schools interface
  • Web browsers Firefox, SeaMonkey, the Qwant Juniorle search engine
  • Graphic : Pinta, GIMP, Krita
  • Leisure : SuperTux, Ri-li, Frozen Bubble
  • Maintenance tools : GParted, Htop, Hardinfo,
  • Interactive whiteboard : OpenBoard

How to install and use PrimTux?

Install PrimTux

To use PrimTux, you must first download iso image directly on the site of its authors.
Once the ISO file is downloaded, you need to create your bootble USB drive. For this, you will need the free rufus software and the PrimTux ISO disk image.
See you on the Rufus site in order to download the software that will help you put PrimTux on a USB stick. Launch the rufus utility then choose the ISO image on your computer and click Start.

PrimTux is now installed on your USB stick. You will be able to use the educational applications and games of the linux distro.

Using PrimTux

Start your computer on the USB key, the boot menu appears for a few seconds. Do not touch anything or press the Enter key to speed up the process.
The PrimTux home screen is displayed. You will have 4 choices:

  • Mini (kindergarten), pink color;
  • Super (CP, CE1), light green color;
  • Maxi (CE2, CM1 and CM2), sky blue color;
  • Admin (for teachers or parents), navy blue color.

After clicking on one of the icons, the corresponding desktop is displayed. The different tools adapted to children are grouped in tabs: calculation, geometry, games... It's up to you!