<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
<p>I am Klaus Knopper. I have a master degree in electrical
-engineering, and is currently professor for information management at
+engineering, and is currently professor in information management at
the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and
freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.</p>
<p>All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart
from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental
-projects like the Knoppix GNU/Linux live system (Debian-based like
-Skolelinux), ADRIANE (a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
-LINBO (Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and
-repair system supporting various operating systems).</p>
+projects like the <ahref="www.knoppix.org">Knoppix GNU/Linux live
+system</a> (Debian-based like Skolelinux),
+<ahref="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html">ADRIANE</a>
+(a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
+<ahref="http://www.knopper.net/linbo/index-en.html">LINBO</a>
+(Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair
+system supporting various operating systems).</p>
<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?</strong></p>
-<p>Credits for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the german
-coordinator for Skolelinux. We were looking for an all-in-one open
+<p>The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German
+coordinator for Skolelinux. We were looking for an all-in-one open
source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt
introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.</p>
Edu?</strong></p>
<ul>
- <li>Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to the next
- version. Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to a new version
- means a full new installation from scratch to get it working again
- reliably.
+ <li>Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to
+ the next version. Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to
+ a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it
+ working again reliably.
- <li>Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a little
- outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or similar
- educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing as their base.
+ <li>Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a
+ little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or
+ similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing
+ as their base.
<li>Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default
- configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is not
- always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network configuration is
- actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux and not easy to change,
- so schools sometimes have to change their network configuration to make
- it "Skolelinux-compatible".
-
- <li>Some proposed extensions, which were made available as contribution,
- like secure examination mode and lecture material distribution and
- collection, were not accepted into the mainline Skolelinux development
- and are now not easy to maintain in the future because of Skolelinux
- somewhat undeterministic update schemes.
-
- <li>Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers compared to
- Debian.
+ configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is
+ not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network
+ configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux
+ and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their
+ network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible".
+
+ <li>Some proposed extensions, which were made available as
+ contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material
+ distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline
+ Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the
+ future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update
+ schemes.</li>
+
+ <li>Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers
+ compared to Debian.</li>
</ul>
<li>
- <li>knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
+ <li>Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
teaching and learning.</li>
- <li>students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
+ <li>Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
home, and at their working place without running into license or
conversion problems.</li>
- <li>closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
+ <li>Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind
customers to certain products. But teachers need to teach
science, not products.</li>