- <title>What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
-mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
-desktop to be useful for more people. The use case for this is my
-parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
-issues.</p>
-
-<p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
-implement. After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
-do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
-
-<ol>
-
-<li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
-are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
-indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
-tool to handle it. I have no problem guiding both of my parents
-through the process over the phone. If a kernel reboot is required,
-this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool. Last
-time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
-Debian.</li>
-
-<li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
-plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
-currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
-should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
-and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
-advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
-Packages file in the APT archive). If one or more packages are found,
-it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
-type. If the package require the user to accept some non-free
-license, this is explained to the user. The entire process make it
-more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
-make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
-not the browser for any missing features.</li>
-
-<li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
-handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
-it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
-should search for a package that would add support for it. This
-happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264. The selection
-and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
-plugin handling. This is as far as I know implemented using a
-gstreamer hook. The end result is that the user easily get access to
-the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
-explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
-
-<li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
-displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
-start emacs to show it. If I remember correctly, when doing the same
-in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser. At least I
-know Opera will show text files within the browser. I much prefer the
-latter behaviour.</li>
-
-</ol>
-
-<p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
-upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
-it do not matter much.</p>
-
-<p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
-Debian release. It would require the coordinated effort of several
-maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Germany is a core area for the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
+Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
+Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
+"<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
+Dortmund</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
+the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
+examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
+second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
+or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
+
+<p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
+blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
+information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
+teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
+school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
+the end of April this year.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
+attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
+Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
+using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
+2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
+clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
+reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
+Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
+two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
+known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
+Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
+better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
+clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
+was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
+and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
+the admin teachers.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
+Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
+So it was a perfect choice.</p>
+
+<p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
+possible to point teachers and students to programs like
+OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
+high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
+a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Nothing yet.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
+Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
+Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
+LibreOffice.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
+that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
+interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>