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  12     <div class="title">
  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html">NUUGs leverer høringsuttalelse om v3.1 av statens referansekatalog</a></div>
  24       <div class="date">27th April 2012</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>NUUG-styremedlem Hans-Petter Fjeld
  26 <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110394259537201279374/posts/AGzRmAuFdW1">meldte
  27 nettopp</a> at han har sendt inn <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s
  28 høringsuttalelse angående Difi sin standardkatalog v3.1.  Jeg er veldig
  29 glad for at så mange bidro og sikret at vår stemme blir hørt i denne
  30 høringen.  Anbefaler alle å lese våre
  31 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">to
  32 sider med innspill</a>.</p>
  33 </div>
  34       <div class="tags">
  35
  36
  37         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
  38
  39
  40       </div>
  41     </div>
  42     <div class="padding"></div>
  43
  44     <div class="entry">
  45       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a></div>
  46       <div class="date">26th April 2012</div>
  47       <div class="body"><p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
  48 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
  49 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
  50 that the video editor application included with
  51 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
  52 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
  53 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
  54
  55 <p><blockquote>
  56 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
  57 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
  58 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
  59 </blockquote></p>
  60
  61 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
  62
  63 <p><blockquote>
  64 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
  65 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
  66 </blockquote></p>
  67
  68 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
  69 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
  70 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
  71 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
  72 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
  73 video.  AMR is
  74 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
  75 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
  76 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
  77 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
  78 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
  79 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
  80 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
  81
  82 <p>I know why I prefer
  83 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
  84 standards</a> also for video.</p>
  85 </div>
  86       <div class="tags">
  87
  88
  89         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
  90
  91
  92       </div>
  93     </div>
  94     <div class="padding"></div>
  95
  96     <div class="entry">
  97       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html">Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon</a></div>
  98       <div class="date">22nd April 2012</div>
  99       <div class="body"><p>I
 100 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar
 101 i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem
 102 som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a>
 103 enklere tilgjengelig.  I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med
 104 organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>
 105 som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p>
 106
 107 <p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om
 108 hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til
 109 stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i
 110 dag.  Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men
 111 datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk.  Begge datasettene er
 112 tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via
 113 git</a>.</p>
 114
 115 <p>På
 116 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer
 117 NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en
 118 test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og
 119 hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor.  Du får herved mulighet
 120 til å ta en sniktitt.</p>
 121 </div>
 122       <div class="tags">
 123
 124
 125         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>.
 126
 127
 128       </div>
 129     </div>
 130     <div class="padding"></div>
 131
 132     <div class="entry">
 133       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a></div>
 134       <div class="date">19th April 2012</div>
 135       <div class="body"><p>Here in Norway, the
 136 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
 137 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
 138 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
 139 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
 140 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
 141 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
 142 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
 143 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
 144 on the same level.</p>
 145
 146 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
 147 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
 148 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
 149 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
 150 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
 151 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
 152 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
 153 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
 154 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
 155 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
 156 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
 157 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
 158 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
 159 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
 160 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
 161 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
 162 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
 163 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
 164
 165 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
 166 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
 167 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
 168 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
 169 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
 170 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
 171 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
 172 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
 173
 174 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
 175 from Simon Phipps
 176 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
 177 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
 178
 179 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
 180 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
 181 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
 182 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
 183 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
 184 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
 185 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
 186 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
 187 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
 188 </div>
 189       <div class="tags">
 190
 191
 192         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 193
 194
 195       </div>
 196     </div>
 197     <div class="padding"></div>
 198
 199     <div class="entry">
 200       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html">Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"</a></div>
 201       <div class="date">15th April 2012</div>
 202       <div class="body"><p>Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
 203 <a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309">en
 204 hovedfagsoppgave</a> ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
 205 av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer.  Jeg ble fascinert
 206 over det som presenteres der.  Her er sammendraget:</p>
 207
 208 <p><blockquote>
 209
 210 <p>Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring
 211 over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det
 212 økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg
 213 for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på
 214 fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover
 215 økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri
 216 programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.</p>
 217
 218 <p>Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert
 219 programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid
 220 programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning,
 221 disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de
 222 manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven
 223 er:</p>
 224
 225 <ul>
 226 <li>Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?</li>
 227 <li>Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere? </li>
 228 </ul>
 229
 230 <p>Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og
 231 modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom
 232 kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med
 233 frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i
 234 dialog med informantene.</p>
 235
 236 <p>Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige
 237 ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen
 238 for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus
 239 fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske
 240 delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler
 241 operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken
 242 OpenOffice.org.</p>
 243
 244 <p>Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling
 245 av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom
 246 begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt
 247 vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de
 248 økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og
 249 stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som
 250 omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien
 251 til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall
 252 eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken
 253 inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og
 254 formater.</p>
 255
 256 <p>Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er
 257 laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av
 258 OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i
 259 skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt
 260 symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i
 261 Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode,
 262 mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske
 263 friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også
 264 slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».</p>
 265 </blockquote></p>
 266
 267 <p>Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke
 268 komplett oppgave tilgjengelig.  På tide å holde et øye med
 269 <a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/search.html?q=skolelinux">Skolelinux-søket</a>
 270 til DUO...</p>
 271
 272 </div>
 273       <div class="tags">
 274
 275
 276         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
 277
 278
 279       </div>
 280     </div>
 281     <div class="padding"></div>
 282
 283     <div class="entry">
 284       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a></div>
 285       <div class="date">15th April 2012</div>
 286       <div class="body"><p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
 287 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
 288 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
 289 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
 290 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
 291 up in the recently released
 292 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
 293 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
 294
 295 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 296
 297 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
 298 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
 299 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
 300 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
 301 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
 302 information technology and science/technology.</p>
 303
 304 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 305 project?</strong></p>
 306
 307 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
 308 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
 309 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
 310 contributing.</p>
 311
 312 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 313 Edu?</strong></p>
 314
 315 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
 316 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
 317 Debian Project!</p>
 318
 319 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 320 Edu?</strong></p>
 321
 322 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
 323 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
 324 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
 325 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
 326 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
 327 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
 328 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
 329
 330 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
 331 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
 332
 333 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 334
 335 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
 336 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
 337 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
 338 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
 339
 340 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 341 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 342
 343 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
 344 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
 345 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
 346 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
 347 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
 348 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
 349 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
 350
 351 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
 352 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
 353 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
 354 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
 355 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
 356 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
 357 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
 358 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
 359 </div>
 360       <div class="tags">
 361
 362
 363         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>.
 364
 365
 366       </div>
 367     </div>
 368     <div class="padding"></div>
 369
 370     <div class="entry">
 371       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html">Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012</a></div>
 372       <div class="date">13th April 2012</div>
 373       <div class="body"><p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go
 374 Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april.
 375 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut
 376 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri
 377 programvare i Norge</a> der i år.  Kommer du?</p>
 378 </div>
 379       <div class="tags">
 380
 381
 382         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
 383
 384
 385       </div>
 386     </div>
 387     <div class="padding"></div>
 388
 389     <div class="entry">
 390       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a></div>
 391       <div class="date"> 8th April 2012</div>
 392       <div class="body"><p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
 393 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
 394 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
 395 contributor to the
 396 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
 397 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
 398
 399 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 400
 401 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
 402 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
 403
 404 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 405 project?</strong></p>
 406
 407 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
 408 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
 409 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
 410 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
 411 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
 412 "localisation".</p>
 413
 414 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 415 Edu?</strong></p>
 416
 417 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 418 Edu?</strong></p>
 419
 420 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
 421 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
 422 education system.</p>
 423
 424 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
 425 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
 426 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
 427 money on the latest hardware.</p>
 428
 429 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 430
 431 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
 432 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
 433 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
 434
 435 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 436 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 437
 438 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
 439 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
 440 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
 441 </div>
 442       <div class="tags">
 443
 444
 445         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>.
 446
 447
 448       </div>
 449     </div>
 450     <div class="padding"></div>
 451
 452     <div class="entry">
 453       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a></div>
 454       <div class="date"> 6th April 2012</div>
 455       <div class="body"><p>Recently I have spent time with
 456 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
 457 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
 458 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
 459 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
 460 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
 461 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
 462 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
 463 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
 464
 465 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
 466 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
 467 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
 468 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
 469 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
 470 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
 471 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
 472 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
 473
 474 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
 475 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
 476 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
 477 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
 478 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
 479 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
 480 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
 481 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
 482
 483 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
 484 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
 485 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
 486 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
 487 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
 488 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
 489 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
 490 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
 491 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
 492 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
 493
 494 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
 495 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
 496 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
 497 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
 498
 499 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
 500 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
 501 </div>
 502       <div class="tags">
 503
 504
 505         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>.
 506
 507
 508       </div>
 509     </div>
 510     <div class="padding"></div>
 511
 512     <div class="entry">
 513       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a></div>
 514       <div class="date"> 5th April 2012</div>
 515       <div class="body"><p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
 516 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
 517 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
 518 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
 519 for schools.  Check out his article
 520 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
 521 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
 522 </div>
 523       <div class="tags">
 524
 525
 526         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>.
 527
 528
 529       </div>
 530     </div>
 531     <div class="padding"></div>
 532
 533     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="index.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
 534     <div id="sidebar">
 535
 536
 537
 538 <h2>Archive</h2>
 539 <ul>
 540
 541 <li>2012
 542 <ul>
 543
 544 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 545
 546 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 547
 548 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 549
 550 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (11)</a></li>
 551
 552 </ul></li>
 553
 554 <li>2011
 555 <ul>
 556
 557 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 558
 559 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 560
 561 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 562
 563 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 564
 565 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 566
 567 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 568
 569 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 570
 571 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 572
 573 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 574
 575 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 576
 577 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 578
 579 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 580
 581 </ul></li>
 582
 583 <li>2010
 584 <ul>
 585
 586 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 587
 588 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 589
 590 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 591
 592 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 593
 594 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 595
 596 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 597
 598 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 599
 600 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 601
 602 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 603
 604 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 605
 606 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 607
 608 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 609
 610 </ul></li>
 611
 612 <li>2009
 613 <ul>
 614
 615 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 616
 617 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 618
 619 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 620
 621 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 622
 623 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 624
 625 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 626
 627 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 628
 629 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 630
 631 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 632
 633 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 634
 635 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 636
 637 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 638
 639 </ul></li>
 640
 641 <li>2008
 642 <ul>
 643
 644 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 645
 646 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 647
 648 </ul></li>
 649
 650 </ul>
 651
 652
 653
 654 <h2>Tags</h2>
 655 <ul>
 656
 657  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 658
 659  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 660
 661  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 662
 663  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
 664
 665  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
 666
 667  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 668
 669  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (54)</a></li>
 670
 671  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (99)</a></li>
 672
 673  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (8)</a></li>
 674
 675  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (124)</a></li>
 676
 677  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (15)</a></li>
 678
 679  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 680
 681  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (23)</a></li>
 682
 683  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (15)</a></li>
 684
 685  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 686
 687  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
 688
 689  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 690
 691  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (16)</a></li>
 692
 693  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (160)</a></li>
 694
 695  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (124)</a></li>
 696
 697  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 698
 699  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (24)</a></li>
 700
 701  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (47)</a></li>
 702
 703  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 704
 705  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 706
 707  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 708
 709  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
 710
 711  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 712
 713  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 714
 715  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
 716
 717  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 718
 719  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (27)</a></li>
 720
 721  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
 722
 723  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
 724
 725  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (9)</a></li>
 726
 727  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (6)</a></li>
 728
 729  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (25)</a></li>
 730
 731  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
 732
 733  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (19)</a></li>
 734
 735 </ul>
 736
 737
 738     </div>
 739     <p style="text-align: right">
 740  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
 741 </p>
 742
 743   </body>
 744 </html>