1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
3 <html xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir=
"ltr">
5 <meta http-equiv=
"Content-Type" content=
"text/html;charset=utf-8" />
6 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter
</title>
7 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
8 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" media=
"screen" href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
15 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen
</a>
23 <div class=
"title">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter
</div>
24 <div class=
"date">27th May
2012</div>
25 <div class=
"body"><p>In
2003, a German teacher showed up on the
26 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
27 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
28 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils. His name was Ralf
29 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
30 since then, helping to make sure the
31 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
32 Squeeze
</a> release became as good as it is..
</p>
34 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
36 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
37 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past
12
38 years (since
2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
39 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
40 O- or A-level ("Abitur"). For quite as long, I've been taking care of
41 our computer network.
</p>
43 <p>Now, in my early
40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
44 spare time together with my wife, our son (
3 years) and our daughter
47 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
50 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
51 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
52 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
53 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
54 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt,
2005 (IIRC). Few
55 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
56 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others. For more
57 than
7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
58 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
59 approximately
50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
60 locally installed Skolelinux image. As a consequence, I joined quite
61 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
62 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
63 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.
</p>
65 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
68 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
69 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
70 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
71 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
72 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
73 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
74 labs). Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
75 administration costs tend towards zero.
</p>
77 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
80 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
81 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
82 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
83 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
84 office packages or desktop environments. These schools have the
85 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
86 capacity to do so. Another issue is that Debian release cycles
87 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
88 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
89 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
90 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
91 i.e. harder to understand for novices.
</p>
93 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
95 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
96 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
97 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)
</p>
99 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
100 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
104 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
105 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
106 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
109 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
110 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
111 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
112 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
113 share among German Skolelinux schools.
</li>
115 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
116 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
117 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.
</li>
119 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
120 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
121 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
122 shared world wide (school books e.g.).
</li>
124 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
125 office suites is much above
20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
126 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.
</li>
128 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.
</li>
130 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
131 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
132 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials. And
133 keep sending documents in ODF formats.
</li>
138 <div class=
"tags">Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
</div>
156 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (
3)
</a></li>
158 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (
2)
</a></li>
160 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (
3)
</a></li>
162 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (
5)
</a></li>
169 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (
7)
</a></li>
171 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (
6)
</a></li>
173 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (
1)
</a></li>
175 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (
4)
</a></li>
177 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (
3)
</a></li>
179 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (
4)
</a></li>
181 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (
6)
</a></li>
183 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (
2)
</a></li>
185 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (
2)
</a></li>
187 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (
9)
</a></li>
189 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (
6)
</a></li>
191 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
198 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (
2)
</a></li>
200 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (
3)
</a></li>
202 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (
8)
</a></li>
204 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (
7)
</a></li>
206 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (
1)
</a></li>
208 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (
2)
</a></li>
210 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (
2)
</a></li>
212 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (
2)
</a></li>
214 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (
5)
</a></li>
216 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (
6)
</a></li>
218 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
220 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (
5)
</a></li>
227 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (
11)
</a></li>
229 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (
9)
</a></li>
231 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (
9)
</a></li>
233 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (
6)
</a></li>
235 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
237 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (
10)
</a></li>
239 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (
7)
</a></li>
241 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (
3)
</a></li>
243 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (
5)
</a></li>
245 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (
7)
</a></li>
247 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (
9)
</a></li>
249 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
256 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (
7)
</a></li>
258 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (
10)
</a></li>
260 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (
17)
</a></li>
262 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (
12)
</a></li>
264 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (
12)
</a></li>
266 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (
20)
</a></li>
268 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (
17)
</a></li>
270 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
272 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (
9)
</a></li>
274 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (
17)
</a></li>
276 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (
10)
</a></li>
278 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
285 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (
16)
</a></li>
287 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (
6)
</a></li>
289 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (
6)
</a></li>
291 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (
7)
</a></li>
293 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (
3)
</a></li>
295 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (
2)
</a></li>
297 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (
7)
</a></li>
299 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (
6)
</a></li>
301 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (
4)
</a></li>
303 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
305 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
307 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (
1)
</a></li>
314 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (
2)
</a></li>
316 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (
1)
</a></li>
318 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (
3)
</a></li>
320 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (
3)
</a></li>
322 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
324 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (
14)
</a></li>
326 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (
12)
</a></li>
328 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (
13)
</a></li>
330 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (
7)
</a></li>
332 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (
9)
</a></li>
334 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (
13)
</a></li>
336 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (
12)
</a></li>
343 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (
8)
</a></li>
345 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (
8)
</a></li>
347 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (
12)
</a></li>
349 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (
10)
</a></li>
351 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (
9)
</a></li>
353 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (
3)
</a></li>
355 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (
4)
</a></li>
357 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (
3)
</a></li>
359 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (
1)
</a></li>
361 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (
2)
</a></li>
363 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (
3)
</a></li>
365 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (
3)
</a></li>
372 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (
5)
</a></li>
374 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
385 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (
13)
</a></li>
387 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (
1)
</a></li>
389 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (
1)
</a></li>
391 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (
4)
</a></li>
393 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (
9)
</a></li>
395 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (
15)
</a></li>
397 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (
2)
</a></li>
399 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (
2)
</a></li>
401 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (
124)
</a></li>
403 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (
154)
</a></li>
405 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (
10)
</a></li>
407 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (
15)
</a></li>
409 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (
21)
</a></li>
411 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (
4)
</a></li>
413 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (
309)
</a></li>
415 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (
23)
</a></li>
417 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (
12)
</a></li>
419 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (
26)
</a></li>
421 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (
9)
</a></li>
423 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (
16)
</a></li>
425 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (
20)
</a></li>
427 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (
42)
</a></li>
429 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (
11)
</a></li>
431 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (
19)
</a></li>
433 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (
9)
</a></li>
435 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (
8)
</a></li>
437 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (
2)
</a></li>
439 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (
1)
</a></li>
441 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (
8)
</a></li>
443 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (
37)
</a></li>
445 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (
7)
</a></li>
447 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (
274)
</a></li>
449 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (
178)
</a></li>
451 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (
23)
</a></li>
453 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (
2)
</a></li>
455 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (
58)
</a></li>
457 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (
92)
</a></li>
459 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (
1)
</a></li>
461 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (
1)
</a></li>
463 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (
11)
</a></li>
465 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (
3)
</a></li>
467 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (
9)
</a></li>
469 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (
1)
</a></li>
471 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (
4)
</a></li>
473 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (
2)
</a></li>
475 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (
46)
</a></li>
477 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (
4)
</a></li>
479 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (
4)
</a></li>
481 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (
49)
</a></li>
483 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (
3)
</a></li>
485 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (
10)
</a></li>
487 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (
36)
</a></li>
489 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (
2)
</a></li>
491 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (
2)
</a></li>
493 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (
8)
</a></li>
495 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (
55)
</a></li>
497 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (
4)
</a></li>
499 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (
38)
</a></li>
505 <p style=
"text-align: right">
506 Created by
<a href=
"http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6
</a>