this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
165 points (98.2% liked)

Linux

58716 readers
313 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
nooter692@lemmy.ml
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
165
The Finnish Marticulation Examination to move away from Linux-based exam enviroment due to perceived threat of dwindling support on student devices (www.ylioppilastutkinto.fi)
submitted 1 week ago by uint@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Context: The Finnish Marticulation Examination is a national examination required to qualify for entry into a university in Finland (not strictly required, but the vast majority will have passed the exam before university). These are basically the final exams of Finnish "high school". The current digital system used for the exams is called "Abitti", which is a Debian-based OS. The students boot into the system with provided USB-sticks.

In the linked article, there is the following statement (in Finnish):

Computer technology advances quickly, and the current Abitti works in fewer and fewer computers. The threat is that computers that can run the current Linux-environment won't be available in the near future.

The new system ("Abitti 2"), which is planned to be used by Autumn 2026, uses locked-down Web-apps written for each supported OS. Support is planned for Windows, Mac, and ChromeOS. Linux support "needs further investigation". As I understand it, the current situation is that the old Linux USB-stick method (now called "Abitti 2 student-stick") is still used as a backup for those without Windows, Mac, or ChromeOS.

I think the main premise of Linux-bootable computers not being available in the near future is extremely dystopian. Thoughts?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FishFace@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I mean if the current system is truly ancient and doesn't support UEFI I could imagine it ceasing to work, or something like that. But that should be easy enough to fix.

[–] BlessedDog@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

UEFI support would be such a trivial feature to add

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 17 points 1 week ago

It would be disappointing if the county where Linux was born moved away from it out of ignorance.

It may be that when they say newer hardware “cannot run Linux” they actually mean that their system, that requires a BIOS, will not run.

[–] SteveTech@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It could also be that some students have ARM laptops, and they've got an x86 version of Debian.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

ARM laptops, and they’ve got an x86 version of Debian.

I feel like Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) a lot of that is already addressed, including package availability. Few years ago it was tricky but now, a LOT is available due to the success of ARM on phones, tablets, etc.

[–] SteveTech@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago

Oh I'm aware, I just wanted to add to the trivial list of issues. But I think there might still be issues with some Snapdragon CPUs.