blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Klaus_Knopper.html

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   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper</title>
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  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper</div>
  24       <div class="date">12th November 2013</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview,
  26 but my plans to let my readers hear from the people behind the
  27 <ahref="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  28 project</a> are not dead.
  29
  30 </p>
  31
  32 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  33
  34 <p>I am Klaus Knopper.  I have a master degree in electrical
  35 engineering, and is currently professor in information management at
  36 the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and
  37 freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.</p>
  38
  39 <p>All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart
  40 from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental
  41 projects like the <ahref="www.knoppix.org">Knoppix GNU/Linux live
  42 system</a> (Debian-based like Skolelinux),
  43 <ahref="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html">ADRIANE</a>
  44 (a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
  45 <ahref="http://www.knopper.net/linbo/index-en.html">LINBO</a>
  46 (Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair
  47 system supporting various operating systems).</p>
  48
  49 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  50 project?</strong></p>
  51
  52 <p>The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German
  53 coordinator for Skolelinux.  We were looking for an all-in-one open
  54 source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt
  55 introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.</p>
  56
  57 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  58 Edu?</strong></p>
  59
  60 <ul>
  61   <li>Quick installation,</li>
  62   <li>works (almost) out of the box,</li>
  63   <li>contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,</li>
  64   <li>is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a
  65     single company,</li>
  66   <li>has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their
  67     experience and problem solutions.</li>
  68 </ul>
  69
  70 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  71 Edu?</strong></p>
  72
  73 <ul>
  74   <li>Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to
  75   the next version.  Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to
  76   a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it
  77   working again reliably.
  78
  79   <li>Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a
  80   little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or
  81   similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing
  82   as their base.
  83
  84   <li>Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default
  85   configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is
  86   not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network
  87   configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux
  88   and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their
  89   network configuration to make it "Skolelinux-compatible".
  90
  91   <li>Some proposed extensions, which were made available as
  92   contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material
  93   distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline
  94   Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the
  95   future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update
  96   schemes.</li>
  97
  98   <li>Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers
  99   compared to Debian.</li>
 100
 101 </ul>
 102
 103 <p>For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now
 104 rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until
 105 Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes
 106 upgradeable without reinstallation.</p>
 107
 108 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 109
 110 <p>GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and
 111 programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence,
 112 occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various
 113 programming languages for teaching.</p>
 114
 115 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 116 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 117
 118 <p>Strong arguments are
 119
 120 <ul>
 121
 122   <li>Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
 123     teaching and learning.</li>
 124
 125   <li>Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
 126     home, and at their working place without running into license or
 127     conversion problems.</li>
 128
 129   <li>Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
 130     than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind
 131     customers to certain products.  But teachers need to teach
 132     science, not products.</li>
 133
 134   <li>If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what
 135     would you need proprietary software for?</li>
 136
 137 </ul>
 138 </div>
 139
 140       <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>
 141
 142
 143     </div>
 144
 145
 146
 147
 148     <div id="sidebar">
 149
 150
 151
 152 <h2>Archive</h2>
 153 <ul>
 154
 155 <li>2013
 156 <ul>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 161
 162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 167
 168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 169
 170 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 171
 172 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 173
 174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 175
 176 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 177
 178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 179
 180 </ul></li>
 181
 182 <li>2012
 183 <ul>
 184
 185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 186
 187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 188
 189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 190
 191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 196
 197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 198
 199 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 200
 201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 202
 203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 204
 205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 206
 207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 208
 209 </ul></li>
 210
 211 <li>2011
 212 <ul>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 215
 216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 217
 218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 219
 220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 225
 226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 227
 228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 229
 230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 231
 232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 233
 234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 235
 236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 237
 238 </ul></li>
 239
 240 <li>2010
 241 <ul>
 242
 243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 244
 245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 246
 247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 248
 249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 250
 251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 254
 255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 256
 257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 258
 259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 260
 261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 262
 263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 264
 265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 266
 267 </ul></li>
 268
 269 <li>2009
 270 <ul>
 271
 272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 273
 274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 275
 276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 277
 278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 279
 280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 283
 284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 285
 286 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 287
 288 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 289
 290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 291
 292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 293
 294 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 295
 296 </ul></li>
 297
 298 <li>2008
 299 <ul>
 300
 301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 302
 303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 304
 305 </ul></li>
 306
 307 </ul>
 308
 309
 310
 311 <h2>Tags</h2>
 312 <ul>
 313
 314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 315
 316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 317
 318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 319
 320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 321
 322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
 323
 324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (13)</a></li>
 325
 326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 327
 328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (90)</a></li>
 329
 330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (143)</a></li>
 331
 332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 333
 334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
 335
 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 337
 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (226)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 343
 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
 345
 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (5)</a></li>
 347
 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
 349
 350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (38)</a></li>
 351
 352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
 353
 354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
 355
 356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 357
 358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
 359
 360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 361
 362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (3)</a></li>
 363
 364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
 365
 366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (236)</a></li>
 367
 368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (156)</a></li>
 369
 370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
 371
 372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 373
 374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (45)</a></li>
 375
 376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (67)</a></li>
 377
 378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 379
 380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 381
 382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 383
 384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (8)</a></li>
 385
 386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 387
 388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 389
 390  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 391
 392  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (32)</a></li>
 393
 394  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 395
 396  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 397
 398  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
 399
 400  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 401
 402  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
 403
 404  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (20)</a></li>
 405
 406  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
 407
 408  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 409
 410  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (39)</a></li>
 411
 412  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 413
 414  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (28)</a></li>
 415
 416 </ul>
 417
 418
 419     </div>
 420     <p style="text-align: right">
 421  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
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