- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a></div>
- <div class="date">10th January 2012</div>
- <div class="body"><p>In the Squeeze version of
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
-to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
-start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
-all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP. In
-addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
-are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
-first time.</p>
-
-<p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
-labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
-default content. By changing this value to another URL, all users get
-to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
-
-<p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool. It can be
-called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
-new setting.</p>
-
-<p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
-the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
-from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
+ <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a></div>
+ <div class="date">27th May 2012</div>
+ <div class="body"><p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
+up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils. His name was Ralf
+Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
+since then, helping to make sure the
+<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
+Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
+Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
+years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
+also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
+O- or A-level ("Abitur"). For quite as long, I've been taking care of
+our computer network.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
+spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
+(4 months).</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
+my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
+very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
+("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
+to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
+months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
+(Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others. For more
+than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
+our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
+approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
+locally installed Skolelinux image. As a consequence, I joined quite
+a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
+(Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
+one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
+project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
+the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
+computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
+free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
+up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
+labs). Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
+administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
+might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
+budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
+supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
+office packages or desktop environments. These schools have the
+option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
+capacity to do so. Another issue is that Debian release cycles
+include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
+power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
+within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
+the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
+i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
+KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
+PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p><ol>
+
+<li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
+people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
+difference between proprietary software products, and free software
+developing.</li>
+
+<li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
+there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
+licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
+privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
+share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
+
+<li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
+trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
+decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
+
+<li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
+free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
+general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
+shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
+
+<li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
+office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
+need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
+
+<li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
+
+<li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
+for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
+Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials. And
+keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
+
+</ol></p>