About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about -Debian Edu and Skolelinux 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 -Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A -distribution for education if you want to learn more.
-Germany is a core area for the -Debian Edu and Skolelinux -user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang -Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany. - -
Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
- -I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in -Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school -"Westfalen-Kolleg -Dortmund", 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.
- -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.
- -How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu -project?
- -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.
- -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.
- -What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?
- -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.
+ +Via Skepsis-bloggen kom jeg i dag over en skremmende og interessant +historie om hvordan norske selgere av sjokoladen Xoçai legger frem +helsepåstander de ikke kan støtte opp med beviser, og kommer med +trusler for å stilne sine kritikere. Her er et knippe bloggposter som +forteller historien:
-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.
+What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?
+Nothing yet.
+Which free software do you use daily?
+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.
+Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?
+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.
+Historien er så interessant at selgerne fortjener +Streisand-effekten
I dag omfavnet nok en kommune NUUGs -FiksGataMi. Med 56 kommuner -som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er "markedsandelen" -oppe i 13% (av 429 kommuner). Sist ut er Sel kommune, som slår følge -med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Bærum, Eide, Farsund, -Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, Halden, Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, -Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, Kongsberg, Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, -Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, Luster, Lyngdal, Lørenskog, Løten, -Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, Nordreisa, Randaberg, -Rindal, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, Spydeberg, Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, -Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, Tynset, Tysvær, Ullensvang Herad, Vennesla, -Verdal, Vågan, Vågå og à seral.
- -I snitt rapporteres det nå 150 meldinger fra innbyggerne i uka via -FiksGataMi.
+ +For ca. en måned siden så jeg på tjenester som forsøker å gjøre det +enklere å ta informerte valg om hvor en skal kjøpe drivstoff, for å +bedre konkurransesituasjonen i drivstoffmarkedet. Det er tre aktive +tjenester jeg kjenner til. NAF Bergens +Drivstoffpriser.no, +Bitfactorys +Bensinpris-app, +og Dinsides +prisliste. +Nå har jeg holdt øye med alle disse i over en måned, og kan fortelle +hvor mange priser for 95-oktan bensin de har klart å samle inn i juni +2012:
+ +| Tjeneste | Antall målinger i juni 2012 |
|---|---|
| Bitfactorys bensinpris-app | 7687 |
| Drivstoffpriser.no | 1788 |
| Dinsides prisliste | 322 |