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        <channel>
                <title>Petter Reinholdtsen</title>
                <description></description>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
                <atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
        
        <item>
                <title>Faktasjekk: Trond Giske hevder Henry Ford sa at hvis du spør folk hva de vil ha så svarer de ”en større hest”</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Faktasjekk__Trond_Giske_hevder_Henry_Ford_sa_at_hvis_du_sp_r_folk_hva_de_vil_ha_s__svarer_de__en_st_rre_hest_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Faktasjekk__Trond_Giske_hevder_Henry_Ford_sa_at_hvis_du_sp_r_folk_hva_de_vil_ha_s__svarer_de__en_st_rre_hest_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:06 GMT</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Næringsminister Trond Giske er av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dn.no/forsiden/naringsliv/article2361916.ece&quot;&gt;Dagens
Næringsliv&lt;/a&gt; i dag sitert på å ha sagt følgende:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
Henry Ford sa at hvis du spør folk hva de vil ha så svarer de ”en
større hest”
&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det syntes jeg var en så merkelig ting for Henry Ford å si at jeg
sjekket litt rundt sitatet.  Det Giske ser ut til å feilsitere, er et
sitat kreditert Henry Ford som lyder &quot;If I had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said faster horses&quot;.  Altså ikke større hest,
men raskere hester.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I følge
&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/henry_ford_never_said_the_fast.html&quot;&gt;Patrick
Vlaskovits i en blogg&lt;/a&gt; i Stanford Business Review, har Henry Ford
aldri sagt dette, og den tidligste referansen han klarte å finne til
sitatet er en bok fra 2009.  Jeg finner også
&lt;a href=&quot;http://280group.com/blog/?p=1443&quot;&gt;andre kilder&lt;/a&gt; som også
hevder at det ikke er påvist at Henry Ford faktisk har uttalt at
kundene ville bedt om raskere hester .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Konklusjonen min blir at Trond Giske ikke har fakta på sin side når
det gjelder dette sitatet.  Med forbehold om at journalisten i Dagens
Næringsliv skrev det som ble sagt, og ikke det journalisten hørte.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
allowing users to check their local email account without providing
any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
and also available from &lt;a href=&quot;https://vimeo.com/38601767&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt;
and download as a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;kmail-kerberos-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
  &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Download video as
      &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Større PC-tetthet i skolen med Skolelinux?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Den siste uka har det vært en del skriverier om hvor store
forskjeller det er mellom skolene når det gjelder digital kompetanse.
Et eksempel er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/891660/bekymret-for-it-i-skolen&quot;&gt;oppslaget
i Digi&lt;/a&gt;.  Diskusjonen fikk meg til å bli litt nysgjerrig på om
Linux-skoler har større PC-tettet enn snittet i landet.  Grunnlaget
for diskusjonen har vært undersøkelsen
&lt;a href=&quot;https://iktsenteret.no/ressurser/monitor-2011-skolens-digitale-tilstand&quot;&gt;Monitor
2011&lt;/a&gt;, som bruker informasjon fra
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wis.no/gsi&quot;&gt;Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem&lt;/a&gt;
(GSI).  GSI-data kan lastes ned fra web og jeg lastet ned en Excel-fil
(intet åpen standard-valg tilgjengelig) med navn på alle skoler,
hvilke kommune de befinner seg i og hvor mange elever pr. elev-PC de
har rapportert inn.  For å få en ide om svaret trenger jeg deretter å
vite hvilke skoler i landet som bruker Linux, slik at jeg kan slå dem
opp i GSI og finne ut hvor stor PC-tetthet de har.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg vet om skoler i Balsfjord, Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik,
Nittedal, Nord-Odal, Randaberg og Sunndal som bruker Skolelinux eller
andre Linux-varianter.  Jeg tror det er flere enn de 56 skolene jeg
har klart å identifisere de siste dagene, men har ikke klart å få det
bekreftet med offentlige kilder.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Monitor 2011-rapporteres side 95 forteller at det &quot;ifølge GSI
(20120-2011) er det 3,11 elever per datamaskin når vi tar med alle
grunnskoler (1.-10.trinn)&quot;.  For de 56 Linux-skolene jeg har klart å
koble mot informasjon i GSI er det 2,28 elever per elevdatamaskin,
hvilket betyr at det er 36% høyere PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler enn
landsgjennomsnittet.  Linux-skolen med høyest tettet blant de jeg har
notert -skole er Flora ungdomsskule i Flora kommune med 0.82 elev
pr. PC (482 elever, 588 elevdatamaskiner).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux gir datamaskiner lengre levetid, og en kan dermed få
flere operative datamaskiner for samme budsjett, i tillegg til en
rekke andre fordeler.  Kan det være forklaringen på forskjellen?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tallene må tas med en liten klype, da GSI ser ut til å ha endel
feilføringer.  Jeg synes i hvert fall en skole med 423 elever og 9
elevmaskiner ser mistenkelig ut.  Eller en skole med 346 elever, 0
elevmaskiner, som er et annet ekstremt eksempel jeg fant.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Takk til Sturle Sunde, Klaus Ade Johnstad, Ole-Anders Andreassen og
Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
Squeeze release&lt;/a&gt; was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
long time Linux user in United Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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&#39;t able to convert many of them into sustainable
installations.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
from that I have always believed in the same &quot;sustainable computing&quot;
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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As a newcomer I&#39;m just finding out who&#39;s who in the community and
how you&#39;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!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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&#39;m not sure if
that counts...)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That&#39;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 &quot;computer&quot; means simply &quot;proprietary office
applications&quot;.  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&#39;re
putting coding back in the curriculum! And it&#39;s encouraging that the
first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;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.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The documentation is written in a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in&quot;&gt;moinmoin wiki&lt;/a&gt; (see for example
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;the
Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;) with support for exporting the content as
docbook XML.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;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.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;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.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
issue is that &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in/DocBook&quot;&gt;the docbook support
we use in moinmoin&lt;/a&gt; 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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc&quot;&gt;debian-edu-doc
package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>NUUG-presentasjon: Skolelinux - ferdig oppsatt skolenettløsning</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag presenterte jeg ny versjon av Skolelinux for NUUGs medlemmer.
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hungry.com/~pere/mypapers/20120313-skolelinux-squeeze.html&quot;&gt;Lysark&lt;/a&gt;
er tilgjengelige allerede og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;video-opptak&lt;/a&gt;
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.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Kåre Nordby</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Første ut i serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet etter at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;ny
versjon av Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; ble lansert i helga, er nylig valgte
styremedlem i foreningen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
Skolen&lt;/a&gt; (FRiSK) som organiserer
Skolelinux-utviklingen og daglig leder i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt;, 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
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/&quot;&gt;SLX Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;
som beskytter verdiene til Skolelinux-prosjektet, og kjenner Kåre den
veien.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sentralisert drift av tynne og diskløse arbeidsstasjoner. Således
lydløse og raskere arbeidsstasjoner som er bedre i klasserommet.
Lengre levetid på PC&#39;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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
&lt;a href=&quot;http://makeplaylive.com/&quot;&gt;Spark&lt;/a&gt; med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merproject.org/&quot;&gt;Mer OS&lt;/a&gt; og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://plasma-active.org/&quot;&gt;KDE Active Plasma&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; based
on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
you have not done so already.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I plan to present the new version at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;a NUUG
meeting&lt;/a&gt; on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
in Oslo, Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Inspired by &lt;a href=&quot;http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/&quot;&gt;the
interview series&lt;/a&gt; conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
more international audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
and am happy to share the response with you. :)


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn&#39;t really improve my setup. I
did various desperate searches for things like &quot;school Linux server&quot;
and ended up in a document called &quot;Drift&quot; something or other. Reading
there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
doesn&#39;t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
Japan.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
who don&#39;t need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
multiplies. For example, backup wasn&#39;t working properly in Lenny. It
took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
help.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
(customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
house, that&#39;s very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
are not impressed when their USB drive doesn&#39;t work, or their browser
doesn&#39;t play flash, for example.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 7 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
also available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/37675399&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt; and
download as a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;gosa-mass-user-create-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
  &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Download video as
      &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        </channel>
</rss>