X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/0a13beb99aa31f15b94b4bc23e6c98ebc1925624..a77c98a4e5c8c043ad9f17f6bd050029dec1a6fc:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index c0a16e8ea9..0b33332e39 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,6 +6,216 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html + Sun, 8 Apr 2012 10:50:00 +0200 + <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution +like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, +and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big +contributor to the +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian +Edu Squeeze release manual</a>. + +<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> + +<p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has +occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p> + +<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu +project?</strong></p> + +<p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only +reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang +around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things +they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep +through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of +"localisation".</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I +had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the +education system.</p> + +<p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up +as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do +everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend +money on the latest hardware.</p> + +<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> + +<p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the +software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other +words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p> + +<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?</strong></p> + +<p>Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning +with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked +you would hardly need a strategy.</p> + + + + + Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html + Fri, 6 Apr 2012 22:40:00 +0200 + <p>Recently I have spent time with +<a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding +up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> +Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the +process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE +menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly +due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing +the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be +passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were + +NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the +ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20 +ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in +Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that +the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for +non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find +one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required +around 230 access(2) calls.</p> + +<p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon +directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In +(almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg +and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS +mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS +requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a +<a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report +from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p> + +<p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package +kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files +used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths +for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the +icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to +these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look +for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find +one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu +almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package +publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p> + +<p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu +and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to +speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and +that is not really an option at the moment.</p> + +<p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu +(at) lists.debian.org.</p> + + + + + Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html + Thu, 5 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0200 + <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about +<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by +Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for +non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution +for schools. Check out his article +<a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A +distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p> + + + + + Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html + Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200 + <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> + + + 56 kommuner omfavner FiksGataMi http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/56_kommuner_omfavner_FiksGataMi.html @@ -373,247 +583,5 @@ Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.</p> - - Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html - Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100 - <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> -users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the -Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and -long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p> - -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings -Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical -author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also -contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of -encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six -years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we -weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable -installations.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in -London which I attended. However at that time our school network had -just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came -along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a -mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as -well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems -have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the -LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all -these things we decided to try it.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart -from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing" -goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which -would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and -low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know -that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25 -Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had -proprietary software everywhere.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and -how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with -various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only -English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as -users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba, -OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the -desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I -use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if -that counts...)</p> - -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> - -<p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed -and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels -the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office -applications". However, schools today are experiencing budget -constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows -XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use -iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no -longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last -realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're -putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the -first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p> - -<p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use -free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p> - - - - - Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html - Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0100 - <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and -it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the -translated versions in sync. To do this we have come up with what we -believe is a very efficient work flow.</p> - -<ol> - -<li>The documentation is written in a -<a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example -<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the -Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as -docbook XML.</li> - -<li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style -.pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files -with the translated text.</li> - -<li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell -which part of the original wiki document is new or changed. They can -use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write -the translation. There is even a system in place to handle translated -images.</li> - -<li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook -XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li> - -<li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and -create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li> - -</ol> - -<p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues. The biggest -issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support -we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained. The docbook -support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to -make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p> - -<p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc -package</a>.</p> - - - - - NUUG-presentasjon: Skolelinux - ferdig oppsatt skolenettløsning - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html - Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0100 - <p>I dag presenterte jeg ny versjon av Skolelinux for NUUGs medlemmer. -<a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/mypapers/20120313-skolelinux-squeeze.html">Lysark</a> -er tilgjengelige allerede og -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">video-opptak</a> -kommer så snart videogruppa til NUUG får publisert den. Jeg kom på -endel punkter om nye ting i Squeeze-utgaven under veis som jeg burde -hatt med, og har sikkert skrevet noe tull på lysarkene som jeg ennå -ikke har oppdaget. Denne presentasjonen ble smurt ihop på veldig kort -tid, og jeg rakk ikke finpusse den. Håper den kan være lærerik -likevel.</p> - - - - - Skolelinux-intervju: Kåre Nordby - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html - Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0100 - <p>Første ut i serien med intervjuer av folk i -<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>-miljøet etter at -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">ny -versjon av Skolelinux</a> ble lansert i helga, er nylig valgte -styremedlem i foreningen -<a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/">Fri programvare i -Skolen</a> (FRiSK) som organiserer -Skolelinux-utviklingen og daglig leder i -<a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a>, selskapet -prosjektet opprettet som et tilbud til skoler som ønsket en -kommersiell samarbeidsparter. Det bør nevnes at jeg er styremedlem i -Skolelinux Drift AS og styreleder i selskapets hovedeier stiftelsen -<a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/">SLX Debian Labs</a> -som beskytter verdiene til Skolelinux-prosjektet, og kjenner Kåre den -veien.</p> - -<p><strong>Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?</strong></p> - -<p>Jeg har siden januar 2010 vært daglig leder i Skolelinux Drift AS, -som leverer support, installasjon, tilpasning, drift, og opplæring på -Debian Edu / Skolelinux. Fra 2012 er jeg valgt inn som styremedlem i -FRiSK. Min forrige jobb var som KAM i Redpill Linpro (som er en av -eierne i Skolelinux Drift). Før det var jeg daglig leder i et eget 7 -manns konsulent selskap som også startet med fri programvare mot -slutten.</p> - -<p><strong>Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?</strong></p> - -<p>Jeg hørte om det først når jeg jobbet i Redpill Linpro. Men jeg -har også en datter som går på en friskole, som også bruker Skolelinux. -Som kjent har ikke friskoler de samme økonomiske rammebetingelsene som -offentlige skoler, så for dem var det det absolutt beste alternativet. -De anser også Skolelinux som et stabilt system, som bare går og går (i -motsetning til det lille Windows-baserte nettverket de har på -admin-siden).</p> - -<p><strong>Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p> - -<p>Sentralisert drift av tynne og diskløse arbeidsstasjoner. Således -lydløse og raskere arbeidsstasjoner som er bedre i klasserommet. -Lengre levetid på PC'er. Store besparelser på maskinvare og drift. Og -så klart fjerning av alle lisenskostnader. Personlig synes jeg også at -mange av programmene er bedre enn alternativene. Men dette er ofte en -smakssak og avhengig om man må ha det man er vant til fra før.</p> - -<p><strong>Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p> - -<p>For lite kjentskap til løsningen. Noen ganger for dårlig -kompatibilitet med arbeidsstasjoners/bærbare maskiner sine -nettverksdrivere eller skjermkort. Men dette løser vi i skolene ved -standardisering. Ellers er det få, om nesten ingen, av de kjente -maskinvare / infrastruktur leverandørene til fylkes- / kommuner som -tilbyr denne plattformen. Skal dette endre seg så må kommunene selv -sette slike krav til leverandørene.</p> - -<p><strong>Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?</strong></p> - -<p>Har brukt OpenOffice.org siden starten (2001 ?), Kun Linux på -desktop siden 2005. Bruker i dag Kubuntu, Libreoffice og ymse annet -programvare til ulik kontorbruk som er lett å installere / teste via -alle programarkivene som finnes.</p> - -<p><strong>Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få -skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?</strong></p> - -<p>Fortsette å presentere flere av de gode eksemplene hvor Debian Edu -/ Skolelinux brukes i kommuner og enkeltskoler. Vi må få bedre frem -at det er mulig tilknytte både Windows og Mac klienter på denne -plattformen (selv om det vil øke driftskostnadene). Dette gjøres -mange steder. Spesielt er det mange lærere som ønsker å bruke -Windows/Mac-bærbare, gjerne som sin private PC også. Det er også mulig -for kommunen å integrere med Active Directory i stedet for OpenLDAP -som kommer med ut av boksen (selv om også dette øker kostnadene). -Dette vil muligens bidra til å fjerne noe motstand hos noen -potensielle brukere / driftpersonell for å ta i bruk noe -nytt. Fremveksten av mobile brukere og nettbrett går i vår favør. -Brukerne blir kjent og vant til flere nye operativsystemer / -brukergrensesnitt. Så utviklerfellesskapet bør jobbe videre med å -integrere flere nye klienttyper, som ultra lav-kostklienter og -nettbrett (blant annet fri programvare-alternativet -<a href="http://makeplaylive.com/">Spark</a> med -<a href="http://www.merproject.org/">Mer OS</a> og -<a href="http://plasma-active.org/">KDE Active Plasma</a>).</p> - - -