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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2 <rss version='2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/1.0/' xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
3 <channel>
4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen</title>
5 <description></description>
6 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
7 <atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
8
9 <item>
10 <title>Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</title>
11 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</guid>
13 <pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
14 <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;
15
16 &lt;p&gt;The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
17 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
18 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
19 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
20 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
21 and also available from &lt;a href=&quot;https://vimeo.com/38601767&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt;
22 and download as a
23 &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
24 Theora&lt;/a&gt; file. Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;
25
26 &lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;kmail-kerberos-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
27 &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;
28 &lt;p&gt;Download video as
29 &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;
30 &lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
31 </description>
32 </item>
33
34 <item>
35 <title>Større PC-tetthet i skolen med Skolelinux?</title>
36 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</link>
37 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</guid>
38 <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
39 <description>&lt;p&gt;Den siste uka har det vært en del skriverier om hvor store
40 forskjeller det er mellom skolene når det gjelder digital kompetanse.
41 Et eksempel er
42 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/891660/bekymret-for-it-i-skolen&quot;&gt;oppslaget
43 i Digi&lt;/a&gt;. Diskusjonen fikk meg til å bli litt nysgjerrig på om
44 Linux-skoler har større PC-tettet enn snittet i landet. Grunnlaget
45 for diskusjonen har vært undersøkelsen
46 &lt;a href=&quot;https://iktsenteret.no/ressurser/monitor-2011-skolens-digitale-tilstand&quot;&gt;Monitor
47 2011&lt;/a&gt;, som bruker informasjon fra
48 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wis.no/gsi&quot;&gt;Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem&lt;/a&gt;
49 (GSI). GSI-data kan lastes ned fra web og jeg lastet ned en Excel-fil
50 (intet åpen standard-valg tilgjengelig) med navn på alle skoler,
51 hvilke kommune de befinner seg i og hvor mange elever pr. elev-PC de
52 har rapportert inn. For å få en ide om svaret trenger jeg deretter å
53 vite hvilke skoler i landet som bruker Linux, slik at jeg kan slå dem
54 opp i GSI og finne ut hvor stor PC-tetthet de har.&lt;/p&gt;
55
56 &lt;p&gt;Jeg vet om skoler i Balsfjord, Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik,
57 Nittedal, Nord-Odal, Randaberg og Sunndal som bruker Skolelinux eller
58 andre Linux-varianter. Jeg tror det er flere enn de 56 skolene jeg
59 har klart å identifisere de siste dagene, men har ikke klart å få det
60 bekreftet med offentlige kilder.&lt;/p&gt;
61
62 &lt;p&gt;Monitor 2011-rapporteres side 95 forteller at det &quot;ifølge GSI
63 (20120-2011) er det 3,11 elever per datamaskin når vi tar med alle
64 grunnskoler (1.-10.trinn)&quot;. For de 56 Linux-skolene jeg har klart å
65 koble mot informasjon i GSI er det 2,28 elever per elevdatamaskin,
66 hvilket betyr at det er 36% høyere PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler enn
67 landsgjennomsnittet. Linux-skolen med høyest tettet blant de jeg har
68 notert -skole er Flora ungdomsskule i Flora kommune med 0.82 elev
69 pr. PC (482 elever, 588 elevdatamaskiner).&lt;/p&gt;
70
71 &lt;p&gt;Skolelinux gir datamaskiner lengre levetid, og en kan dermed få
72 flere operative datamaskiner for samme budsjett, i tillegg til en
73 rekke andre fordeler. Kan det være forklaringen på forskjellen?&lt;/p&gt;
74
75 &lt;p&gt;Tallene må tas med en liten klype, da GSI ser ut til å ha endel
76 feilføringer. Jeg synes i hvert fall en skole med 423 elever og 9
77 elevmaskiner ser mistenkelig ut. Eller en skole med 346 elever, 0
78 elevmaskiner, som er et annet ekstremt eksempel jeg fant.&lt;/p&gt;
79
80 &lt;p&gt;Takk til Sturle Sunde, Klaus Ade Johnstad, Ole-Anders Andreassen og
81 Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.&lt;/p&gt;
82 </description>
83 </item>
84
85 <item>
86 <title>Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</title>
87 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</link>
88 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</guid>
89 <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
90 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
91 users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after
92 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
93 Squeeze release&lt;/a&gt; was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
94 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;
95
96 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
97
98 &lt;p&gt;I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
99 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
100 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
101 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
102 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
103 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
104 weren&#39;t able to convert many of them into sustainable
105 installations.&lt;/p&gt;
106
107 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
108 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
109
110 &lt;p&gt;Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
111 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
112 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
113 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
114 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
115 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
116 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
117 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
118 these things we decided to try it.&lt;/p&gt;
119
120 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
121 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
122
123 &lt;p&gt;By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
124 from that I have always believed in the same &quot;sustainable computing&quot;
125 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
126 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
127 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
128 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
129 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
130 proprietary software everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;
131
132 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
133 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
134
135 &lt;p&gt;As a newcomer I&#39;m just finding out who&#39;s who in the community and
136 how you&#39;re organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
137 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
138 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
139 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!&lt;/p&gt;
140
141 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
142
143 &lt;p&gt;Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
144 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
145 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
146 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I&#39;m not sure if
147 that counts...)&lt;/p&gt;
148
149 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
150 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
151
152 &lt;p&gt;That&#39;s a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
153 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
154 the notion of &quot;computer&quot; means simply &quot;proprietary office
155 applications&quot;. However, schools today are experiencing budget
156 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
157 XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
158 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
159 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
160 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they&#39;re
161 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it&#39;s encouraging that the
162 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.&lt;/p&gt;
163
164 &lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
165 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
166 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.&lt;/p&gt;
167 </description>
168 </item>
169
170 <item>
171 <title>Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</title>
172 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
173 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
174 <pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
175 <description>&lt;p&gt;Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
176 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
177 translated versions in sync. To do this we have come up with what we
178 believe is a very efficient work flow.&lt;/p&gt;
179
180 &lt;ol&gt;
181
182 &lt;li&gt;The documentation is written in a
183 &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in&quot;&gt;moinmoin wiki&lt;/a&gt; (see for example
184 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;the
185 Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;) with support for exporting the content as
186 docbook XML.&lt;/li&gt;
187
188 &lt;li&gt;This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
189 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
190 with the translated text.&lt;/li&gt;
191
192 &lt;li&gt;The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
193 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed. They can
194 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
195 the translation. There is even a system in place to handle translated
196 images.&lt;/li&gt;
197
198 &lt;li&gt;The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
199 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.&lt;/li&gt;
200
201 &lt;li&gt;The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
202 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.&lt;/li&gt;
203
204 &lt;/ol&gt;
205
206 &lt;p&gt;This setup work very well, but have a few issues. The biggest
207 issue is that &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in/DocBook&quot;&gt;the docbook support
208 we use in moinmoin&lt;/a&gt; is not actively maintained. The docbook
209 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
210 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.&lt;/p&gt;
211
212 &lt;p&gt;If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
213 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc&quot;&gt;debian-edu-doc
214 package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
215 </description>
216 </item>
217
218 <item>
219 <title>NUUG-presentasjon: Skolelinux - ferdig oppsatt skolenettløsning</title>
220 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</link>
221 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</guid>
222 <pubDate>Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
223 <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag presenterte jeg ny versjon av Skolelinux for NUUGs medlemmer.
224 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hungry.com/~pere/mypapers/20120313-skolelinux-squeeze.html&quot;&gt;Lysark&lt;/a&gt;
225 er tilgjengelige allerede og
226 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;video-opptak&lt;/a&gt;
227 kommer så snart videogruppa til NUUG får publisert den. Jeg kom på
228 endel punkter om nye ting i Squeeze-utgaven under veis som jeg burde
229 hatt med, og har sikkert skrevet noe tull på lysarkene som jeg ennå
230 ikke har oppdaget. Denne presentasjonen ble smurt ihop på veldig kort
231 tid, og jeg rakk ikke finpusse den. Håper den kan være lærerik
232 likevel.&lt;/p&gt;
233 </description>
234 </item>
235
236 <item>
237 <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Kåre Nordby</title>
238 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</link>
239 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</guid>
240 <pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
241 <description>&lt;p&gt;Første ut i serien med intervjuer av folk i
242 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet etter at
243 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;ny
244 versjon av Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; ble lansert i helga, er nylig valgte
245 styremedlem i foreningen
246 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
247 Skolen&lt;/a&gt; (FRiSK) som organiserer
248 Skolelinux-utviklingen og daglig leder i
249 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt;, selskapet
250 prosjektet opprettet som et tilbud til skoler som ønsket en
251 kommersiell samarbeidsparter. Det bør nevnes at jeg er styremedlem i
252 Skolelinux Drift AS og styreleder i selskapets hovedeier stiftelsen
253 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/&quot;&gt;SLX Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;
254 som beskytter verdiene til Skolelinux-prosjektet, og kjenner Kåre den
255 veien.&lt;/p&gt;
256
257 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
258
259 &lt;p&gt;Jeg har siden januar 2010 vært daglig leder i Skolelinux Drift AS,
260 som leverer support, installasjon, tilpasning, drift, og opplæring på
261 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. Fra 2012 er jeg valgt inn som styremedlem i
262 FRiSK. Min forrige jobb var som KAM i Redpill Linpro (som er en av
263 eierne i Skolelinux Drift). Før det var jeg daglig leder i et eget 7
264 manns konsulent selskap som også startet med fri programvare mot
265 slutten.&lt;/p&gt;
266
267 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
268
269 &lt;p&gt;Jeg hørte om det først når jeg jobbet i Redpill Linpro. Men jeg
270 har også en datter som går på en friskole, som også bruker Skolelinux.
271 Som kjent har ikke friskoler de samme økonomiske rammebetingelsene som
272 offentlige skoler, så for dem var det det absolutt beste alternativet.
273 De anser også Skolelinux som et stabilt system, som bare går og går (i
274 motsetning til det lille Windows-baserte nettverket de har på
275 admin-siden).&lt;/p&gt;
276
277 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
278
279 &lt;p&gt;Sentralisert drift av tynne og diskløse arbeidsstasjoner. Således
280 lydløse og raskere arbeidsstasjoner som er bedre i klasserommet.
281 Lengre levetid på PC&#39;er. Store besparelser på maskinvare og drift. Og
282 så klart fjerning av alle lisenskostnader. Personlig synes jeg også at
283 mange av programmene er bedre enn alternativene. Men dette er ofte en
284 smakssak og avhengig om man må ha det man er vant til fra før.&lt;/p&gt;
285
286 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
287
288 &lt;p&gt;For lite kjentskap til løsningen. Noen ganger for dårlig
289 kompatibilitet med arbeidsstasjoners/bærbare maskiner sine
290 nettverksdrivere eller skjermkort. Men dette løser vi i skolene ved
291 standardisering. Ellers er det få, om nesten ingen, av de kjente
292 maskinvare / infrastruktur leverandørene til fylkes- / kommuner som
293 tilbyr denne plattformen. Skal dette endre seg så må kommunene selv
294 sette slike krav til leverandørene.&lt;/p&gt;
295
296 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
297
298 &lt;p&gt;Har brukt OpenOffice.org siden starten (2001 ?), Kun Linux på
299 desktop siden 2005. Bruker i dag Kubuntu, Libreoffice og ymse annet
300 programvare til ulik kontorbruk som er lett å installere / teste via
301 alle programarkivene som finnes.&lt;/p&gt;
302
303 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
304 skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
305
306 &lt;p&gt;Fortsette å presentere flere av de gode eksemplene hvor Debian Edu
307 / Skolelinux brukes i kommuner og enkeltskoler. Vi må få bedre frem
308 at det er mulig tilknytte både Windows og Mac klienter på denne
309 plattformen (selv om det vil øke driftskostnadene). Dette gjøres
310 mange steder. Spesielt er det mange lærere som ønsker å bruke
311 Windows/Mac-bærbare, gjerne som sin private PC også. Det er også mulig
312 for kommunen å integrere med Active Directory i stedet for OpenLDAP
313 som kommer med ut av boksen (selv om også dette øker kostnadene).
314 Dette vil muligens bidra til å fjerne noe motstand hos noen
315 potensielle brukere / driftpersonell for å ta i bruk noe
316 nytt. Fremveksten av mobile brukere og nettbrett går i vår favør.
317 Brukerne blir kjent og vant til flere nye operativsystemer /
318 brukergrensesnitt. Så utviklerfellesskapet bør jobbe videre med å
319 integrere flere nye klienttyper, som ultra lav-kostklienter og
320 nettbrett (blant annet fri programvare-alternativet
321 &lt;a href=&quot;http://makeplaylive.com/&quot;&gt;Spark&lt;/a&gt; med
322 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merproject.org/&quot;&gt;Mer OS&lt;/a&gt; og
323 &lt;a href=&quot;http://plasma-active.org/&quot;&gt;KDE Active Plasma&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
324 </description>
325 </item>
326
327 <item>
328 <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</title>
329 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</link>
330 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</guid>
331 <pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
332 <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
333 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; based
334 on Debian/Squeeze. The full announcement is
335 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
336 from the project announcement list. Now is a good time to test if it
337 you have not done so already.&lt;/p&gt;
338
339 &lt;p&gt;I plan to present the new version at
340 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;a NUUG
341 meeting&lt;/a&gt; on tuesday. I look forward to seeing you there if you are
342 in Oslo, Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
343 </description>
344 </item>
345
346 <item>
347 <title>Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</title>
348 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</link>
349 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</guid>
350 <pubDate>Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
351 <description>&lt;p&gt;Inspired by &lt;a href=&quot;http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/&quot;&gt;the
352 interview series&lt;/a&gt; conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
353 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
354 community. This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
355 more international audience.&lt;/p&gt;
356
357 &lt;p&gt;While &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
358 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
359 Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away
360 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
361 and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
362 work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions,
363 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
364
365
366 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
367
368 &lt;p&gt;My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
369 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
370 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
371 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
372 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
373 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
374 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
375 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
376 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
377 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
378 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
379
380 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
381 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
382
383 &lt;p&gt;In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
384 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
385 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
386 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn&#39;t really improve my setup. I
387 did various desperate searches for things like &quot;school Linux server&quot;
388 and ended up in a document called &quot;Drift&quot; something or other. Reading
389 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
390 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
391 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
392 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
393 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
394 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
395 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.&lt;/p&gt;
396
397 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
398 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
399
400 &lt;p&gt;For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
401 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
402 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
403 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
404 doesn&#39;t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
405 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
406 Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
407
408 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
409 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
410
411 &lt;p&gt;The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
412 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
413 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
414 who don&#39;t need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
415 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
416 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
417 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
418 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
419 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A
420 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
421 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
422 multiplies. For example, backup wasn&#39;t working properly in Lenny. It
423 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
424 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
425 help.&lt;/p&gt;
426
427 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
428
429 &lt;p&gt;Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
430 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
431 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
432 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
433 house, that&#39;s very useful for the family photos and music. At school
434 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
435 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
436 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
437 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also
438 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
439 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.&lt;/p&gt;
440
441 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
442 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
443
444 &lt;p&gt;Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
445 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
446 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
447 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
448 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago. The Edu aspect is
449 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
450 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is
451 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
452 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
453 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
454 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn&#39;t work, or their browser
455 doesn&#39;t play flash, for example.&lt;/p&gt;
456 </description>
457 </item>
458
459 <item>
460 <title>Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</title>
461 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</link>
462 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</guid>
463 <pubDate>Wed, 7 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
464 <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;
465
466 &lt;p&gt;One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
467 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
468 Debian Edu Squeeze. The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
469 also available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/37675399&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt; and
470 download as a
471 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
472 Theora&lt;/a&gt; file. Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;
473
474 &lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;gosa-mass-user-create-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
475 &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;
476 &lt;p&gt;Download video as
477 &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;
478 &lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
479 </description>
480 </item>
481
482 <item>
483 <title>Hamar kommune imponerer i FiksGataMi-rapportert problem i dag</title>
484 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hamar_kommune_imponerer_i_FiksGataMi_rapportert_problem_i_dag.html</link>
485 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hamar_kommune_imponerer_i_FiksGataMi_rapportert_problem_i_dag.html</guid>
486 <pubDate>Mon, 5 Mar 2012 21:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
487 <description>&lt;p&gt;Tok nettopp en titt på listen over løste problemer i
488 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;FiksGataMi&lt;/a&gt; (hentet via
489 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/open311&quot;&gt;Open311-søkegrensesnittet&lt;/a&gt;),
490 og lot meg imponere over Hamar kommunes raske respons. Sjekk
491 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/report/10791&quot;&gt;rapport #10791&lt;/a&gt;, der
492 Hamar kommune kl. 10:19 i dag får beskjed om at det er dårlig
493 brøyting, allerede 10:50 melder kommunen tilbake at de er på saken.
494 18:26 samme dag melder så innsender at problemet er løst. Hatten av
495 for folkene i Hamar kommune!&lt;/p&gt;
496
497 &lt;p&gt;Apropos bra respons. En bruker sendte for noen dager inn følgende
498 tilbakemelding til oss som står bak tjenesten.&lt;/p&gt;
499
500 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Rapporterte inn slukte gatelys på Torsnesveien, og to
501 uker etterpå er lysene tilbake. Flott service!&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
502
503 &lt;p&gt;Det er veldig hyggelig å høre at FiksGataMi fungerer bra for
504 innbyggerne. Måtte alle landets innbyggere få samme gode erfaring med
505 FiksGataMi og det offentlige. I dag er det 52 kommuner som har lenke
506 til FiksGataMi fra sine nettsider, og dermed indikerer at de liker vår
507 tjeneste. Måtte de få følge av resten av landets kommuner snart. :)&lt;/p&gt;
508 </description>
509 </item>
510
511 </channel>
512 </rss>