apt-get install schooltool-2008

Today, SchoolTool has its first easily installable release in, well, a while. Announcing it and documenting its many new features will keep me occupied for a few days, but if you want to be the first on your block to try it, and you've got an Ubuntu box, just add a couple lines to your apt sources.list. Either manually edit /etc/apt/sources.list or go to System > Software Sources and select the Third-Party Software tab and add these lines that way.

If you're running gutsy:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main

If you're running hardy:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main

Then do sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install schooltool-2008, say "y" a couple times, and soon you'll have a SchoolTool server running on http://localhost:7080.

The really nice thing now is that using Launchpad's personal package archive feature, we've got an automated process to push out updates to schools less than two hours after we make an important fix.

At this point, SchoolTool is still "alpha." We've got a number of essential features to add before we go beta in October.

Much more to follow...