+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <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>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 26th May 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
+claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
+government. I just sent him an email to let him know that his
+assumption are most likely wrong. Sharing it here in case some of my
+blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
+
+<p><blockquote> <p>Hi. I just noted your
+<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm</a>
+comment:</p>
+
+<p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
+with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
+savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
+Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
+it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
+</blockquote></p>
+
+<p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated. I believe it is
+the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
+and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
+at the content. In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
+will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
+existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
+formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
+ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
+10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver. In
+reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
+receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
+would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
+of wasted effort.</p>
+
+<p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
+transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
+minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
+
+<p>See
+<a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
+and
+<a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
+for background information. Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
+</blockquote></p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenOffice_org_fungerer_da_fint_for_blinde_.html">OpenOffice.org fungerer da fint for blinde?</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 21st May 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>De siste dagene har høringsuttalelsene om DIFIs forslag til
+standardkatalog v3.1 blitt
+<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder?tab=comments">publisert
+på DIFIs nettside</a>, og jeg kunne der glede meg over at
+<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">NUUGs</a>
+uttalelse er kommet med. En uttalelse som overrasker og forvirrer meg
+er
+<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/filearchive/norges-blindeforbund.pdf">den
+fra Norges Blindeforbund</a>, som 5 år etter at Klaus Knopper sammen
+med sin blinde kone blant annet
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20071211-accessibility/">demonstrerte
+høyttalende OpenOffice.org på nynorsk for blinde</a> på et NUUG-møte.</p>
+
+<p><a href="https://www.blindeforbundet.no/">Norges Blindeforbund</a>
+skriver følgende, som for meg virker å være formulert på sviktende
+grunnlag:</p>
+
+<p><blockquote>
+<p>Bruk av fri programvare
+
+<p>I FRIPROGSENTERET, RAPPORT 2009-02: Universell utforming
+<a href="http://www.kunnskapsbazaren.no/filer/Friprogsenteret-Rapport-Universell_utforming.pdf">http://www.kunnskapsbazaren.no/filer/Friprogsenteret-Rapport-Universell_utforming.pdf</a>
+sies det "Det finnes i dag ikke mange fri programvare-rammeverk eller
+generelle løsninger som støtter tilgjengelighet eller som er
+universelt utformet."</p>
+
+<p>Til tross for at det gjennom prinsippene i fri programvare åpnes
+for større frihet til selv å påvirke programvareløsninger i retning av
+universell utforming viser praksis at virkeligheten er en annen.
+Mange av de mest alminnelige frie programvarepakkene mangler delvis
+eller fullstendig tilgjengelighet for mennesker med nedsatt
+syn. Eksempler på dette er OpenOffice og LibreOffice m.fl.</p>
+
+<p>En annen utfordring ved bruk av fri programvare kan være manglende
+kundestøtte og muligheter til opplæring i bruk av løsningen. Svaksynte
+og blinde har et høyere behov for denne typen støtte enn andre brukere
+ettersom mange av dem har behov for tilleggsprogramvare som skal
+fungere sammen med den opprinnelige programvaren, og ettersom man ikke
+har de samme muligheter for overblikk over grensesnittet som en seende
+bruker. I tillegg til dette kommer de mer tilgjengelighetstekniske
+utfordringene som ofte må løses i samarbeid med
+programvareleverandør/produsent.</p>
+
+<p>Fri programvare er ikke på samme måte underlagt lovgivning gjennom
+for eksempel diskriminerings og tilgjengelighetsloven ettersom det
+ikke alltid finnes en produsent/tilbyder av tjenesten eller produktet.</p>
+
+<p>Norges Blindeforbund krever at universell utforming og
+brukskvalitet tas med som viktige hensyn i utredninger som ligger til
+grunn for valg av standarder som primært leder brukeren mot fri
+programvare. Et eksempel på dette er bruk av dokumentformatet ODF som
+leder brukeren i retning av OpenOffice, som er helt eller delvis
+utilgjengelig for svaksynte og blinde – noe avhengig av plattform og
+hjelpemiddelprogramvare.</p>
+
+</blockquote></p>
+
+<p>Jeg håper noen involvert i OpenOffice.org og/eller LibreOffice tar
+kontakt med Norges Blindeforbund og oppklarer det som for meg virker å
+være en misforståelse, i og med at OpenOffice.org så vidt jeg vet
+fungerer fint også for blinde.</p>
+
+<p>Jeg ble minnet på problemstillingen da jeg leste Slashdot-saken om
+"<a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/05/21/1417221/the-state-of-linux-accessibility">The
+State of Linux Accessibility</a>", som også hevder at Linux fungerer
+utmerket for blinde.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
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