X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/45b792f23879c16a678d7c805d2ae1c55b55648b..6827c20a65667b2d54f665b5c49539dd75f228c0:/blog/archive/2012/04/04.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2012/04/04.rss b/blog/archive/2012/04/04.rss index 45c1b33b02..846b592ece 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2012/04/04.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2012/04/04.rss @@ -7,306 +7,199 @@ - 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> + Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html + Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:30:00 +0200 + <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG --> +<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p> + +<p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a +common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway. +But the last ones have not really been up to the task. My last +cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the +time, and cutting my head took forever. And the one before that did +not work very well either. We have looked for something better for a +while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we +discovered that there are indeed better tools available. But these +are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers". The hair saloons +can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell +companies. The models they sell, are very different from the ones +available from Elkjøp and Lefdal. The main difference is their +efficiency. It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40 +minutes required by my impotent Braun. The hairdresser I visited had +a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the +producer. But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p> + +<p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it. This was not +straight forward. The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser +did not want to sell anything to me. But searching for the model on +the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for +around NOK 4000,-. This was a bit much. We kept searching and +finally found a Danish supplier +<a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling +it for around NOK 1800,-</a>. We ordered one, and it arrived a few +days ago.</p> + +<p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started +to use it, so we left it charging over night. Normally it will only +need one hour to charge. The following evening we successfully tested +it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair +cutter. The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter +toys.</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> + NUUGs leverer høringsuttalelse om v3.1 av statens referansekatalog + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html + Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:30:00 +0200 + <p>NUUG-styremedlem Hans-Petter Fjeld +<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110394259537201279374/posts/AGzRmAuFdW1">meldte +nettopp</a> at han har sendt inn <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s +høringsuttalelse angående Difi sin standardkatalog v3.1. Jeg er veldig +glad for at så mange bidro og sikret at vår stemme blir hørt i denne +høringen. Anbefaler alle å lese våre +<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">to +sider med innspill</a>.</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> + HTC One X - Your video? What do you mean? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html + Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:20:00 +0200 + <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an +article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer +<a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports +that the video editor application included with +<a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One +X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use. The article is mostly +based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating: -<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><blockquote> +"<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy +brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv +kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>" +</blockquote></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>I quickly translated it to this English message:</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><blockquote> +"Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos +commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately." +</blockquote></p> -<p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu -(at) lists.debian.org.</p> +<p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but +suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered +with my Canon IXUS 130</a>. The HTC One X specification specifies that +the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for +video. AMR is +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive +Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the +Wikipedia article require an license agreement with +<a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>. MP4 is +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with +H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement +with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p> + +<p>I know why I prefer +<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open +standards</a> also for video.</p> - 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> + Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html + Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:45:00 +0200 + <p>I +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar +i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem +som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a> +enklere tilgjengelig. I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med +organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a> +som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p> -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> +<p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om +hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til +stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i +dag. Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men +datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk. Begge datasettene er +tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via +git</a>.</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> - - - - - Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012 - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html - Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0200 - <p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go -Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april. -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri -programvare i Norge</a> der i år. Kommer du?</p> +<p>På +<a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer +NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en +test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og +hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor. Du får herved mulighet +til å ta en sniktitt.</p> - Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html - Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:10:00 +0200 - <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and -Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of -setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas -Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several -years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set -up in the recently released -<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian -Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p> + RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html + Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0200 + <p>Here in Norway, the +<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of +Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind +a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of +standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the +government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made +an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the +standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions +to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete +on the same level.</p> -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany. After -studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in -Quantum Optics. After that I worked some years in an optics company. -Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started -teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school. I teach math, physics, -information technology and science/technology.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu -project because of my interest in education and Debian. Within the -qualification/training period for the teaching, I started -contributing.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the -out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the -Debian Project!</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its -downside, too. In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the -setup, if you need or want that. Further more, it is not easily -possible to upgrade the system to a new release. It takes much too -long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps -because the number of developers working on the core of the code is -rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p> - -<p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a> -project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian -on all my machines. For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then -mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing. At school I -have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p> +<p>But recently, some standards with RAND +(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable +And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the +directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that +standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from +implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per +user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone +willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In +practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and +be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By +definition, users of free software do not need to register their use. +So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects. +And given that people will use the software without handing any money +to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free +software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights +to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result +in these situations is that free software are locked out from +implementing standards with RAND terms.</p> -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> +<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a +standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is +how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free +software developers are working in a global market, it does not really +help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable +in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here. +I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more +attention to these issues in the future.</p> -<p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom: -Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and -politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader". The school -administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor. -Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats. Even -free browsers do not work for the school administration. Publishers -of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p> +<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms +from Simon Phipps +(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND: +Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p> -<p>To change this, political work is very important. Parts of the -political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years. -However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free' -the system. There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and -"Free/Open Standards". I am not sure if all the involved parties have -a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a -fraction takes them seriously. However it might slowly make free -software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p> +<p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a +<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog +post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the +same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I +can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for +<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the +hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27). +It proposes to require video conferencing standards including +specifications with RAND terms.</p> @@ -389,93 +282,311 @@ til DUO...</p> - RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html - Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0200 - <p>Here in Norway, the -<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of -Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind -a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of -standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the -government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made -an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the -standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions -to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete -on the same level.</p> + Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html + Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:10:00 +0200 + <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and +Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of +setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas +Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several +years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set +up in the recently released +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian +Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p> -<p>But recently, some standards with RAND -(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable -And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the -directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that -standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from -implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per -user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone -willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In -practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and -be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By -definition, users of free software do not need to register their use. -So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects. -And given that people will use the software without handing any money -to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free -software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights -to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result -in these situations is that free software are locked out from -implementing standards with RAND terms.</p> +<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> -<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a -standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is -how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free -software developers are working in a global market, it does not really -help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable -in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here. -I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more -attention to these issues in the future.</p> +<p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany. After +studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in +Quantum Optics. After that I worked some years in an optics company. +Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started +teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school. I teach math, physics, +information technology and science/technology.</p> -<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms -from Simon Phipps -(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND: -Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p> +<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu +project?</strong></p> -<p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a -<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog -post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the -same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I -can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for -<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the -hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27). -It proposes to require video conferencing standards including -specifications with RAND terms.</p> +<p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu +project because of my interest in education and Debian. Within the +qualification/training period for the teaching, I started +contributing.</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the +out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the +Debian Project!</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its +downside, too. In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the +setup, if you need or want that. Further more, it is not easily +possible to upgrade the system to a new release. It takes much too +long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps +because the number of developers working on the core of the code is +rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a> +project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p> + +<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> + +<p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian +on all my machines. For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then +mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing. At school I +have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p> + +<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?</strong></p> + +<p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom: +Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and +politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader". The school +administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor. +Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats. Even +free browsers do not work for the school administration. Publishers +of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p> + +<p>To change this, political work is very important. Parts of the +political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years. +However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free' +the system. There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and +"Free/Open Standards". I am not sure if all the involved parties have +a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a +fraction takes them seriously. However it might slowly make free +software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p> - Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html - Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:45:00 +0200 - <p>I -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar -i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem -som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a> -enklere tilgjengelig. I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med -organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a> -som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p> + Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012 + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html + Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0200 + <p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go +Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april. +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri +programvare i Norge</a> der i år. Kommer du?</p> + + + + + 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>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om -hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til -stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i -dag. Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men -datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk. Begge datasettene er -tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via -git</a>.</p> +<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> -<p>På -<a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer -NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en -test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og -hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor. Du får herved mulighet -til å ta en sniktitt.</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> + +<p>Update 2015-08-04: The +<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-edu/upstream/kde-icon-cache.git/">source +of the scripts and associated Debian package</a> is available from the +Debian Edu github repository.</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>